NASCAR Cup Series

A.J. Allmendinger is riding an upward trajectory into the new season, hoping to dominate the road courses where he performs best and possibly grab a win at another track along the way. His third place finish in the Daytona 500 is proof of his relevance in 2017.

Reflecting Daytona: “Daytona 500 was a crazy race for sure,” Allmendinger said. “We all saw that. I got to experience it and thankfully had a solid finish (third-place). I just went out there and tried to make the right moves at the right time. The way the race played out on fuel strategy, I just tried to be smart and save as much fuel as possible those last 10 or 12 laps and get the best finish possible and it all worked out. We were very fortunate.”

KAHNE AT ATLANTA: Kasey Kahne will drive the No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet SS this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The Enumclaw, Washington, native has captured three NASCAR Cup Series wins at the Hampton, Georgia, track. He earned his most recent Atlanta win in August 2014, which secured his spot in that season’s playoffs. In March 2006, Kahne completed the weekend sweep by winning the pole award and the 500-mile race in just his fifth start at the 1.54-mile speedway.

Trevor Bayne will make his fourth career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) start at Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend. In three previous starts at the 1.5-Mile oval, Bayne recorded a best finish of 16th in Sept. 2012.

Stenhouse has four career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) starts at Atlanta with an average starting position of 13.0 and average finishing position of 20

Ford Performance will be looking to win the first two Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races of the season for the first time since 2009 when Atlanta Motor Speedway hosts Sunday’s Folds of Honor/QuikTrip 500. That also marks the last time a Ford driver captured the first two races (Matt Kenseth), and it’s something Kurt Busch will try to duplicate after winning Sunday’s Daytona 500.

One lucky winner will drive away with a 2018 Ford Mustang GT plus $5,000 in Ford Performance Parts in the eighth-annual Mustang 5.0 Fever Sweepstakes Presented by Motorcraft.

Now that the dust has cleared and a Daytona 500 Champion has been crowned, it’s time to look back at that race and see where we are with the changes made by NASCAR. First, we must understand that Daytona (and its sister track, Talladega) are different animals than the rest of the tracks that the drivers will visit the rest of the races.

Talladega Superspeedway’s popular “Two for $88” Dale Jr. ticket package is back for the May 7 GEICO 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race in celebration of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s return to the driver’s seat this past week for the Daytona 500.

Undoubtedly, this year's edition of Speedweeks had everything a race fan could ask for. There were Cinderella stories, with Kaz Grala the titular belle of the ball Friday night when he won a wild Camping World Truck Series season opener.