NASCAR Cup Series

“Really good. It’s been a nice transition. Toyota is kind of home for me because that’s where I got my start in NASCAR with Toyota. Comfortable, good to be back working with a lot of the same folks there. New crew chief with Mike Wheeler coming over so pretty incredible leadership at the team. It’s all good, all the right people.”

MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 Ford Mustang -- DO YOU FEEL LIKE THIS RACE MIGHT BE YOUR SHOT TO GET A WIN BEFORE THE SPEEDWAY RULES CHANGE? “Last year, as strong as we ran in both the 500 and the July race it gave us a lot of confidence. We led a lot of laps, ran up front. Daytona is our opportunity to try to win a race and there will be more opportunities this year with this rule package, for sure. This plays into our hands well. I hadn’t really thought about the rules changing for the superspeedways as well. This style of racing at Daytona and Talladega has been around for awhile, but this is a great opportunity for us and we need to make sure we capitalize on it.”

MATT TIFFT, No. 36 Ford Mustang -- WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO YOU TO WIN THE DAYTONA 500? “It would be amazing. It would be awesome to be in position at the end of the race and have a shot. That is the first goal, to have a chance at the end. You have to be there to have a shot. I am going to try to be smart all day. It will be my first 500-mile race. We are trying to be strategic and smart with our strategy. You never know what might happen.”

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Ford Mustang -- YOU SPENT THE DAY AT DISNEY YESTERDAY, HOW WAS IT? “It was fun. We did all the parks yesterday. We had a guy walking us around. I like that stuff. We saw the makings of Star Wars Land. I can’t wait for that. We didn’t get to go there but there is Toy Story Land now and one of the rides you can kind of see over the fence into Star Wars Land and it looks amazing. I wanted to jump over the fence. It opens in December of this year. I might stay down there next year. That would be a good off-season vacation. I will have to go back down.”

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, the NASCAR Xfinity Series and the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series head to Daytona International Speedway this weekend to kick off the 2019 season.

Sunday’s Daytona 500 single-car qualifying set only the front row for the “Great American Race” — Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron (Busch Pole Award) and Alex Bowman will lead the field when the green flag drops Feb. 17 (2:30 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

DIBENEDETTO BY THE NUMBERS: In seven Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career starts at Daytona, Matt DiBenedetto has an average start of 31.0 and an average finish of 22.1.

The 61st running of the Daytona 500 is scheduled for Sunday afternoon at Daytona International Speedway (2:30 p.m. Eastern on FOX) and it will feature the points racing debut of the new NASCAR Mustang. Ford has won the Daytona 500 a total of 15 times, including four of the last eight. Team Penske driver Joey Logano is the defending series champion while Ford looks to build off a 2018 season that saw it lead the series with 19 victories and claim the manufacturers’ title.

Wyndham Destinations, the world's largest vacation ownership and exchange company, today celebrated the extension of their sponsorship of Richard Petty Motorsports through 2020. As the longest serving hospitality sponsor of the team, Wyndham Destinations will continue supporting "the King" and driver of the iconic #43 car Darrell "Bubba" Wallace, Jr. for the vacation company's 19th and 20th years as a sponsor, starting with the season opening race the Daytona 500 on February 17.

Newman will make his 35th regular season start at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday, and 18th start in the Daytona 500.