NASCAR Cup Series

Erik Jones topped the chart in first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Daytona International Speedway. The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was the fastest with a time of 45.058 and a speed of 199.743 mph.

Ryan Blaney topped the chart in final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice for the Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona International Speedway. The driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford was the fastest with a time of 45.090 and a speed of 199.601 mph.

Camrys in the Clash… Four Camry drivers are eligible to compete in the Clash at Daytona International Speedway Sunday afternoon – Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Erik Jones and Martin Truex Jr. Toyota drivers have won four of the last six exhibition races, with two triumphs by Hamlin (2014 and 2016) and one by former Camry driver Matt Kenseth (2015). Busch won the pre-season event with the Camry in 2012 and was the highest-finishing Toyota driver in the event in 2017 with a runner-up result.

Clash at Daytona: Hamlin starts his unofficial 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series campaign this Sunday with the 75-lap Advanced Auto Parts Clash at Daytona International Speedway. He’s a three-time winner of the event and is only one of six drivers to win both the Clash and DAYTONA 500 during the same Speedweeks. Hamlin led a race-high 48 laps during last year’s feature – and appeared to be in route to his fourth Clash win – until a last-lap crash relegated him to a 13th-place finish in the non-points event. This year’s race will again be 75 laps and separated into two segments with a competition caution on lap 25 separating the segments.

As veteran driver Paul Menard makes his final preparations before leaving for Daytona International Speedway, where his first drive in the No. 21 Omnicraft Ford Fusion will also be his 400th career Cup start, his goals for the opening weekend are pretty simple.

Chase Elliott, William Byron, Jimmie Johnson and Alex Bowman will be available to members of the media during Daytona 500 Media Day at Daytona International Speedway. The event is scheduled from 12 to 8 p.m. local time on Wednesday, Feb. 14.

The new pre-season opens this Sunday, as those who made last season’s Playoffs or claimed a pole, who has ever claimed a Daytona 500 pole, or who has ever won this event in the past dust off the cobwebs and rev the engines. Now, you may be asking yourself how could this be a “Hot 20" column with only 17 drivers competing? Well, you have to improvise.

Eight Clash Wins for Richard Childress Racing ... RCR has earned eight checkered flags in the Advance Auto Parts Clash (1986, 1988, 1991, 1993 and 1995 with driver Dale Earnhardt and 2009, 2010 and 2013 with Kevin Harvick).

Leavine Family Racing (LFR) will compete in the Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona International Speedway for the first time with veteran driver, Kasey Kahne.

AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER CLICKLIST CAMARO ZL1 - TEAM KROGER CLICKLIST RACING: “We’ve got a lot of great partners but to have Kroger on the hood every race, we’re one of the only teams in the garage to have that,” Allmendinger said. "We’re very fortunate to have great people over at Kroger who support the racing program and believe in Chris and me as drivers. It means a lot to have them unite us as one team right now and make an investment to make both of our race cars a lot faster. You want to be cautiously optimistic, but with everything that’s been done in the off-season, I think we’re going to be a lot stronger, and we can thank Kroger ClickList for giving us the opportunity to do so.”