DAYTONA
Friday, February 14 — NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, 7:30 p.m. ET (FS1)
Saturday, February 15 — NASCAR Xfinity Series, 5 p.m. ET (CW)
Sunday, February 16 — NASCAR Cup Series, 2:30 p.m. ET (FOX)
The NASCAR season officially gets started this weekend as Daytona International Speedway hosts all three national series. The 67th running of the Daytona 500 highlights the action on Sunday afternoon, but before that the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series kicks things off Friday night with the NASCAR Xfinity Series hitting the track on Saturday.
FORD AND THE 500
Ford has won the Daytona 500 a total of 17 times with the last being three years ago when Austin Cindric captured the race in 2022 in just his second attempt. Tiny Lund registered Ford’s first win in ‘The Great American Race’ when he subbed for Marvin Panch and drove the Wood Brothers to their first 500 win in 1963. Bill Elliott, Dale Jarrett and Matt Kenseth are the only drivers to win the event more than once with Ford, but that could grow by one if either Joey Logano or Cindric find Victory Lane on Sunday.
TEAM PENSKE STARTING CUP TITLE DEFENSE
One of the storylines people will be watching this season is whether Team Penske and Ford can capture a fourth straight NASCAR Cup Series championship. Joey Logano comes into 2025 having won the title twice in the last three years (2022 and 2024) while teammate Ryan Blaney sandwiched his first championship in between in 2023. Overall, Team Penske has won four championships with Ford and five overall.
OLD FACES IN NEW PLACES
There are a few drivers who have changed places during the offseason with some of those being beneficiaries of expansion. Front Row Motorsports and Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing have both gone from two to three teams in 2025, which has resulted in Noah Gragson and Zane Smith going to FRM and Ryan Preece to RFK. Josh Berry will take over behind the wheel for the Wood Brothers, who are beginning their 75th anniversary season, while Cole Custer returns for his second stint in the Cup Series with the newly-branded Haas Factory Team. Another driver making his return to full-time duty is Cody Ware, who is driving the No. 51 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Rick Ware Racing.
STARTING NEW DUEL STREAK
Ford had won at least one of the Duel qualifying races for six straight years before that streak was broken last season. Ford has registered three sweeps (2023, 2022 and 2019) in recent years with Joey Logano leading all active Ford drivers with three victories in that stretch. Brad Keselowski (2022), Chris Buescher (2022) and Ryan Blaney (2018) have one apiece.
CINDRIC KICKS OFF ROOKIE SEASON IN STYLE
Austin Cindric started off his first full-time season in the NASCAR Cup Series with Team Penske with a bang by winning the 2022 Daytona 500 in only his second attempt. Cindric got a push and then had to fend off his teammate, Ryan Blaney, coming to the checkered flag to become the first rookie to win the Great American Race. Blaney made contact with Cindric and hit the outside wall, sealing the No. 2 driver’s fate to claim his first career Cup Series victory. It was a stellar day for Ford overall, claiming four of the top-five and seven of the top-10 finishing positions. Chase Briscoe came home 3rd, Blaney 4th and Aric Almirola 5th to complete the top five.
LOGANO GIVES FORD FIRST SWEEP OF DAYTONA SPEEDWEEKS
Joey Logano survived an intense final 10 laps, including a green-white-checkered finish, to give Ford a sweep of Daytona Speedweeks by winning the 57th running of the Daytona 500 in 2015. The win came on the heels of Tyler Reddick winning the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and Ryan Reed taking the checkered flag for the first time in the NASCAR XFINITY Series event. It also capped an undefeated month of racing at Daytona for Ford, which also won the season-opening Rolex 24 Hours.
TINY LUND COMES UP BIG FOR WOOD BROTHERS
Ford won the Daytona 500 for the first time on Feb. 24, 1963 when Tiny Lund took the Wood Brothers to Victory Lane and completed a script that would have made Hollywood envious. Lund didn’t have a ride for the 500, but was at the track watching Marvin Panch test a Maserati when the car went out of control, flipped upside-down and started on fire. Lund, along with four others, rushed to the scene and eventually pulled Panch to safety. Panch, who was the primary driver for the Wood Brothers, was unable to race in the 500 due to his injuries, so the team tabbed Lund as a substitute. Lund defied the odds by winning the race on one set of tires to give For and the Wood Brothers their first win in “The Great American Race.”
XFINITY SERIES MAKEOVER
Ford has undergone a bit of a makeover in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with a pair of teams completely changing their driver lineups. The Haas Factory Team has signed Sam Mayer and Sheldon Creed to drive their two Ford Mustang Dark Horses in its first year of operation while AM Racing inked Harrison Burton to be their full-time man near the end of the 2024 campaign.
MAJESKI AND THORSPORT LOOKING TO DEFEND
Just like Team Penske in the NASCAR Cup Series, ThorSport Racing finds themselves in the position of being a multi-year defending champion after Ty Majeski followed Ben Rhodes and won last year’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series title. Majeski matched his previous career total with three wins last season, including a dominating performance in the championship event that saw him lead 132-of-150 laps. ThorSport has now won back-to-back titles and six overall (three with Ford).
FRANKIE MUNIZ FULL-TIME NASCAR RACER
Frankie Muniz has traded in his acting skills for a helmet and pair of driving gloves as he makes the transition to full-time NASCAR driver in 2025. Muniz will be embarking on his first season in one of NASCAR’s top touring series as he gets behind the wheel of the No. 33 Reaume Brothers Ford F-150 in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Muniz, who announced his deal late in the 2024 season, made his debut with owner Josh Reaume in the season finale at Phoenix Raceway. Overall, Muniz has four career series starts with all of those coming last season, but he’s still looking for his first top 20 finish. The star of TV’s Malcolm in the Middle competed at Daytona International Speedway last season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, but was involved in an accident after 37 laps and didn’t finish. This weekend will mark his first NCTS start at DIS.
CHANDLER SMITH TEAMING UP WITH LAYNE RIGGS
Front Row Motorsports will be a multi-truck operation in 2025 as Layne Riggs and Chandler Smith will team up for owner Bob Jenkins. This will mark the second season for Riggs, who won consecutive races last year at the Milwaukee Mile and Bristol Motor Speedway and finished 11th in the point standings. Smith is returning to trucks after spending the last two seasons in the NASCAR Xfinity Series where he won three times. Smith, who comes into Daytona with 62 career Truck Series starts and five victories, had his best year in 2023 when he won three times and finished third overall.
FORD’S DAYTONA 500 WINNERS
1963 – Tiny Lund (Wood Brothers)
1965 – Fred Lorenzen (Holman-Moody)
1967 – Mario Andretti (Holman-Moody)
1969 – LeeRoy Yarbrough (Junior Johnson)
1978 – Bobby Allison (Bud Moore)
1985 – Bill Elliott (Harry Melling)
1987 – Bill Elliott (Harry Melling)
1992 – Davey Allison (Robert Yates)
1996 – Dale Jarrett (Robert Yates)
2000 – Dale Jarrett (Robert Yates)
2009 – Matt Kenseth (Jack Roush)
2011 – Trevor Bayne (Wood Brothers)
2012 – Matt Kenseth (Jack Roush)
2015 – Joey Logano (Roger Penske)
2017 – Kurt Busch (Stewart-Haas)
2021 – Michael McDowell (Front Row)
2022 – Austin Cindric (Roger Penske)
FORD’S NASCAR Xfinity Series
DAYTONA WINNERS
1995 – Chad Little (1)
2004 – Mike Wallace (2)
2015 – Ryan Reed (1)
2016 – Aric Almirola (2)
2017 – Ryan Reed (1)
2021 – Austin Cindric (1)
FORD’S NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES
DAYTONA WINNERS
2000 – Mike Wallace
2003 – Rick Crawford
2004 – Carl Edwards
2006 – Mark Martin
2015 – Tyler Reddick
2020 – Grant Enfinger
2022 – Zane Smith
2023 – Zane Smith
