Brad Keselowski’s defense of his 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship doesn’t begin until the green flag falls on the Daytona 500 in a little over a month. But during winter testing at Daytona he was already warming up.
Up next in our 2013 Sprint Cup team previews is the team of JTG Daugherty Racing, a single car operation that fields the No.47 Toyota Camry in the Sprint Cup Series.
With these being the final five hours of testing for the Daytona 500, some teams were getting their final runs in to finish their lists, while other teams had packed up and gone home. In total, 15 teams hit the track.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. is known for being strong on the super speedways and with testing coming to a close in Daytona, everybody knows he will be one to watch in February.
When Matt Kenseth made the switch to Joe Gibbs Racing, there were a lot of questions being asked. Would he be successful? Could he bring Coach Joe Gibbs a championship? So far, he is off to a good start as Kenseth led the Saturday morning test session at Daytona International Speedway. It marks the second session he has led after leading the first session on Thursday.
It hasn’t fazed Matt Kenseth what car or team he’s driving for. The changing of the calendar year, didn’t make him blink either. For Kenseth, he’s still the man atop the scoring tower at Daytona, this time during testing for the upcoming 2013 season.
Anticipation had been building over the course of testing as everyone wanted to see it - everyone wanted to see the pack hit the track with the new Generation 6 cars. Friday afternoon brought forth a pack of 20 cars that let everyone see what they'd expect with drafting. However, it didn't last long as contact between Marcos Ambrose and Dale Earnhardt Jr. would cause a wreck, collecting a total of 10 cars.
Kurt Busch, who was hired by Furniture Row Racing late in 2012 to run the last 6 races of the season and returns in 2013 to pilot the #78 Furniture Row Chevrolet along with crew chief Todd Berrier.
The Richard Childress Racing fleet of cars had one goal for the morning session on Friday - full-out qualifying mode. They would tape the grill right up, bypass the oil cooler and do all those wonderful things they do just for qualifying. As a result, they led the speed charts with the top two speeds.
After trying out some drafting because he will miss the next couple of days, Denny Hamlin topped the afternoon test chart with a speed of 195.986 mph. Hamlin will miss the next two days to be home with his girlfriend Jordan Fish, who is expecting a baby any day now.
The 24-year-old Smith from Talking Rock, Georgia, outdueled teammate Layne Riggs, Ben Rhodes and the field during a 12-lap shootout to win in his penultimate Truck start with Front Row Motorsports in Ridgeway, Virginia.
Chandler Smith led a Ford sweep of the top four positions as he won tonight’s race at Martinsville Speedway. Ben Rhodes was second, Layne Riggs third and Ty Majeski fourth.
Gio Ruggiero (eighth) and William Sawalich (ninth) both recorded top 10 finishes for TRICON Garage to lead Toyota in Friday night’s NASCAR Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway.
The 2021 CARS Super Late Model Tour champion from Mooresville, North Carolina, clocked in a pole-winning lap at 95.371 mph in 19.855 seconds for his third O'Reilly career pole in Ridgeway, Virginia.
The 2026 ARCA Menards Series East champion from Kannapolis, North Carolina, became the youngest pole winner in Truck Series' history at age 16 years, two months and 27 days old.
