Atlanta Event Info:
Date: Sunday, Feb. 25
Time: 2:30 p.m. ET
Series: NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Location: Hampton, Georgia
Format: 200 Laps, Stages: 60-100-100
TV: FOX
Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90)

Weekend Schedule:
Saturday: 11:30 a.m. ET, Qualifying (FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Sunday: 3 p.m. ET, Race (FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

Pace Laps:

• Atlanta Motor Speedway hosts race No. 2 on the NASCAR Cup Series season this weekend, marking two-straight Speedway races to kick off the 2024 campaign.
• Jack Roush has 13 wins all-time in Atlanta including six in the Cup Series.
• Both RFK drivers in Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher led laps in both Atlanta races a season ago, with Keselowski finishing a close second in the spring event in 2023.

6 Team Info:
Crew Chief: Matt McCall
Partner: King’s Hawaiian

17 Team Info:
Crew Chief: Scott Graves
Partner: BuildSubmarines.com

Keselowski at Atlanta Motor Speedway
Starts: 18
Wins: 2 (2017, 2019)
Top-10s: 11
Poles: —

• Keselowski makes his 19th Cup start at Atlanta this weekend where he is a two-time winner with an average finish of 13.9.
• Keselowski won at the now Superspeedway first in 2017 after starting fifth and again in 2019.
• Most recently, he led laps in each of the Atlanta races a season ago – a combined 66 laps – finishing second last spring after starting fourth. Last fall he finished sixth in a race shortened by rain.
• Overall he’s led laps in 10 different Atlanta races and finished top-10 11 times.
• He carries an average starting position of 14.9 into the weekend with a career-best effort of P2 in 2014. Overall he has six top-10 starts, including a P4 starting spot last spring.
• He also made eight Xfinity Series starts with six top-10s including two P2 finishes. He also made four Truck starts.

Buescher at Atlanta Motor Speedway
Starts: 11
Wins: —
Top-10s: 3
Poles: —

• Buescher makes his 12th Cup start in Atlanta where he has three top-10s and a best finish of seventh (twice – 2021, 2022). He also finished ninth in 2019.
• Last season he was leading laps in the spring and was caught up in an incident under 100 laps shy of the finish. He finished 15th in the fall race after also leading 39 laps.
• Buescher has an average qualifying position of 18.9 with a career-best effort of seventh last spring.
• He also finish fourth in the Xfinity Series in 2015.

RFK Historically at Atlanta
Cup Wins: 6 (Mark Martin, 1991, 1994; Kurt Busch, 2002; Carl Edwards, 2005, 2005, 2008)

• RFK at Atlanta: RFK has 277 starts at AMS in NASCAR’s three major touring series totaling 13 wins, 60 top fives, 114 top-10s and nine poles while leading 3,264 laps and turning over 106,000 miles.
• AMS/RFK History: RFK competed in its first NASCAR event at AMS on March 20, 1988, finishing 31st after getting involved in an early crash. Just three years later the organization claimed its first win there in the fall of ‘91 with the No. 6 Ford. RFK won its first of seven NXS races at the track in the spring of ’97. The team’s top outing at AMS came in the fall of 2005, when the organization placed four cars inside the top seven, with three cars finishing in the top five including race winner Carl Edwards. Altogether, in the two races at AMS in 2005, RFK posted six top-five finishes and two wins.
• Spring Forward: All but one of RFK’s Cup wins at AMS came in the fall, with the only spring win coming in 2005. Three of RFK’s seven NXS wins came in the fall.

RFK Atlanta Wins

1991-2 Martin Cup

1994-2 Martin Cup

1997-1 Martin NXS

1998-2 Martin NXS

2000-1 Martin NXS

2002-2 Busch Cup

2005-1 Edwards Cup

2005-1 Edwards NXS

2005-2 Edwards Cup

2008-1 Kenseth NXS

2008-2 Edwards Cup

2011 Edwards NXS

2012 Stenhouse NXS

Last Time Out & Where They Stand
Daytona: All three of RFK Fords were unfortunately caught up in incidents in the Monday running of the Daytona 500. Buescher led the group with a 18th-place finish, with David Ragan finishing 20th in the No. 60 Ford, and Keselowski 33rd.

Points Standings (17: 21st, 6: 31st): Buescher sits 21st through the first race in the points season, with Keselowski in 31st.

By the Numbers at Atlanta

Race Win T5 T10 Pole Laps Led AvSt AvFn Miles
196 6 39 75 4 57683 2193 17.7 17.8 86524.5
56 7 19 31 5 10362 961 10.8 11.3 15543
25 0 2 8 0 2988 110 12.6 17.3 4482
277 13 60 114 9 71033 3264 15.7 16.2 106549.5

RYAN PREECE
Atlanta Advance
No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: Ambetter Health 400 (Round 2 of 36)
● Time/Date: 3 p.m. EST on Sunday, Feb. 25
● Location: Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia
● Layout: 1.54-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 260 laps/400 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 60 laps / Stage 2: 100 laps / Final Stage: 100 laps
● TV/Radio: FOX / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Ryan Preece finished 23rd in the season-opening Daytona 500, held Monday after persistent rain postponed The Great American Race to the President’s Day holiday. Preece overcame adversity early when on lap six he was tagged by another car in the left-rear quarter panel, turning Preece across the frontstretch grass and toward pit road. Preece deftly kept his No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang from hitting the wall, and after a trip to pit road for four fresh Goodyear tires, Preece returned to the race.

● Despite his Daytona 500 result, Preece still left Daytona a winner. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver won on Tuesday night prior to the Daytona 500, taking the checkered flag at New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway in the 50-lap Tour-type Modified feature at the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing. Preece took the lead on lap 16 from Craig Lutz and maintained the top spot the rest of the way, even as Ron Silk, winner of the prior two Tour-type Modified races at New Smyrna, closed in during the waning laps. The victory was Preece’s 13th World Series win.

● Atlanta Motor Speedway has been around since 1960, but the Atlanta track Preece and his NASCAR Cup Series brethren will compete on this Sunday is only two years old. The 1.54-mile oval was reconfigured after the final race of the 2021 season. The banking was increased from 24 degrees to 28 degrees and the track was narrowed from 55-feet wide to 40-feet wide, and it was all covered in fresh asphalt. The goal of the reconstruction was to recreate the kind of pack-style racing seen at the behemoth, 2.5-mile Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway and the even bigger 2.66-mile Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. Drivers competed on the new layout for the first time in March 2022 and the Ambetter Health 400 will be the fifth Cup Series race on the revamped track.

● The Ambetter Health 400 will mark Preece’s seventh NASCAR Cup Series start at Atlanta, the last two of which came last year. His first four starts came on the old configuration, where his best finish was 25th, earned twice – March 2021 and July 2021. Preece logged his best Atlanta result in his most recent start at the track – 24th last July.

● Outside of the NASCAR Cup Series, Preece has three other Atlanta starts. He ran two NASCAR Xfinity Series races at the track, each on the old layout, with his best result being seventh in February 2019. Last March, Preece competed in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Atlanta, where he also finished seventh.

● Back with Preece and the No. 41 Ford Mustang at Daytona for the second weekend in a row is HaasTooling.com, the cutting tool division of Haas Automation. HaasTooling.com allows CNC machinists to purchase high-quality cutting tools at great prices. Haas cutting tools are sold exclusively online at HaasTooling.com and shipped directly to end users. Haas Automation, founded in 1983, is America’s leading builder of CNC machine tools. The company manufactures a complete line of vertical and horizontal machining centers, turning centers, rotaries and indexers, and automation solutions.

Ryan Preece, Driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang

How much does the racing at Atlanta emulate the racing you just experienced at Daytona?

“I would say Atlanta versus Daytona, they’re the same but they’re different. They’re different because Atlanta is still a mile-and-a-half, so we’re restricted on horsepower, we’re wide open like a superspeedway, but the runs happen twice as fast. Handling is, by far, way more important than it would be at Daytona. Not only that, it’s a lot tighter of a corner, so when you’re going into turn three and you’re three-wide and four-wide, it gets tight really quick.”

Did Daytona provide some understanding of how you think the racing will be at Atlanta?

“Right now, it’s about trying to understand where your aero balance is and how much the body has changed and what you need to do to adapt to that. I feel like Daytona has given us a good idea that our tools are really close, but it’s about trying to have an understanding of what you need to change going into Atlanta and how much different your car is going to be.”

Single-car qualifying is all the track time you’ll have at Atlanta prior to Sunday’s race. How do you prepare for the race when you know so little about how your car will perform?

“You go into it completely blind. There’s nothing like showing up at a racetrack and going green and not really having an understanding of where you’re going to be. I guess that really just emphasizes how close the tools you’re using are as far as making sure your car drives well. But, yeah, we’re going to be completely blind.”

Is competing at Atlanta mentally taxing?

“Well, it’s different than it used to be, for sure. It’s not like the old Atlanta where you had balanced shifts and you were trying to take care of your tires. Now, it’s about positioning yourself in the right lane, and potentially you can see handling becoming an issue and people trying to hang onto the draft. It’s going to be very mentally taxing, so hopefully our cars are really fast. That fixes everything.”

What do you need in your racecar to be fast at Atlanta?

“You need downforce, you need horsepower, really you need everything. Ultimately, if someone asks me that question, I’d say you need the total package. If you don’t have a lot of horsepower, or a really good-handling racecar because it has plenty of horsepower but a lot of drag, you could potentially struggle.”

Daytona and Talladega races are known to be a crapshoot, where there are so many things out of your control. Is that also the case at Atlanta, or are you still able to make a little bit of your own luck at Atlanta?

“I feel like at Atlanta you can control your destiny a little more. Yeah, you’re going to have to have track position, but if you have a really good-handling racecar at Atlanta, you’re going to have a good day. At Daytona, sometimes it’s just luck of the draw.”

How much has changed for you and Stewart-Haas this year compared to previous years now that Kevin Harvick has moved to the FOX broadcast booth and is no longer your teammate?

“We have four drivers with four completely different personalities. I’m different from Chase (Briscoe) and Noah (Gragson) and Josh (Berry), as they are different from me, so I feel like there are certain traits that I have that push them, as well as certain traits they have that push me. So, I feel like it complements each other as well. At Stewart Haas, we hear everybody, and as you heard Tony (Stewart) say, mediocrity isn’t acceptable. I’m a racecar driver. I’m somebody who’s very passionate about what I do. And I do it outside the Cup Series and I don’t accept mediocrity. I know, within our 41 team, we didn’t have the year we wanted, but we set some of the foundation that we needed going into this year, and now we’re going to go do what we need to do. As a racecar driver, to have a long-lasting career, you need to win races, and I’m sick of talking about not winning.”

No. 41 HaasTooling.com Team Roster

Primary Team Members

Driver: Ryan Preece

Hometown: Berlin, Connecticut

Crew Chief: Chad Johnston

Hometown: Cayuga, Indiana

Car Chief: Jeremy West

Hometown: Gardena, California

Engineer: Marc Hendricksen

Hometown: Clinton, New Jersey

Spotter: Tony Raines

Hometown: LaPorte, Indiana

Over-The-Wall Members

Front Tire Changer: Devin Lester

Hometown: Bluefield, West Virginia

Rear Tire Changer: Kevin Teaf

Hometown: Tallahassee, Florida

Tire Carrier: Chad Emmons

Hometown: Tyler, Texas

Jack Man: Kapil Fletcher

Hometown: Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

Fuel Man: Dwayne Moore

Hometown: Griffin, Georgia

Road Crew Members

Front End Mechanic: Joe Zanolini

Hometown: Sybertsville, Pennsylvania

Interior Mechanic: Robert Dalby

Hometown: Anaheim, California

Tire Specialist: Matt Ridgeway

Hometown: Carrollton, Georgia

Engine Tuner: Jimmy Fife

Hometown: Orange County, California

Transporter Co-Driver: David Rodrigues

Hometown: Santa Clarita, California

Transporter Co-Driver: Charlie Schleyer

Hometown: Youngsville, Pennsylvania

NOAH GRAGSON
Atlanta Advance
No. 10 Black Rifle Coffee/Ranger Boats Ford Mustang

Event Overview

● Event: Ambetter Health 400 (Round 2 of 36)
● Time/Date: 3 p.m. EST on Sunday, Feb. 25
● Location: Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia
● Layout: 1.54-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 260 laps/400 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 60 laps / Stage 2: 100 laps / Final Stage: 100 laps
● TV/Radio: FOX / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Even though Noah Gragson is still new to Stewart-Haas Racing and the Ambetter Health 400 NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway marks just his third race with the team, he brings a dose of familiarity to the Georgia track. Gragson’s No. 10 Ford Mustang carries a similar paint scheme to the one he ran for the majority of his NASCAR Xfinity Series career, where he was a 13-time race winner and perennial championship contender. Black Rifle Coffee, Ranger Boats, TrueTimber and Winchester Repeating Arms adorn Gragson’s car for the second straight race after debuting with him in the Daytona 500, where Gragson led five laps on the way to a ninth-place finish.

● Atlanta Motor Speedway has been around since 1960, but the Atlanta track Gragson and his NASCAR Cup Series brethren will compete on this Sunday is only two years old. The 1.54-mile oval was reconfigured after the final race of the 2021 season. The banking was increased from 24 degrees to 28 degrees and the track was narrowed from 55-feet wide to 40-feet wide, and it was all covered in fresh asphalt. The goal of the reconstruction was to recreate the kind of pack-style racing seen at the behemoth, 2.5-mile Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway and the even bigger 2.66-mile Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. Drivers competed on the new layout for the first time in March 2022 and the Ambetter Health 400 will be the fifth Cup Series race on the revamped track.

● The Ambetter Health 400 will mark Gragson’s fifth NASCAR Cup Series start at Atlanta, with all of his prior starts coming on the updated configuration. The driver of the No. 10 Black Rifle Coffee/Ranger Boats Ford Mustang earned his best Atlanta finish in his third Atlanta start – 12th in March 2023.

● Gragson has experience on the old and new versions of Atlanta. He has six NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at the track, the last two of which came in 2022, the first year of the reconfiguration. He finished among the top-10 in all but one of his Xfinity Series starts at Atlanta and his best finish was a second-place drive in June 2020.

● Gragson also has two Atlanta starts in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. He finished 14th in his first Truck Series start at the track in 2017 and then earned a second-place finish when he returned to Atlanta in 2018, leading the first 43 laps.

Noah Gragson, Driver of the No. 10 Black Rifle Coffee/Ranger Boats Ford Mustang

How much does racing at Atlanta emulate what you just experienced at Daytona?

“It’s hard to tell what we’re going to have at Atlanta. Handling definitely comes into play more so than at Daytona. Still, at Daytona, you have handling issues if you get held on the bottom. It just seems like everything happens a little bit faster at Atlanta. The straightaways are shorter, so you don’t have the time to mount your runs. It’s different than the superspeedways. There’s a lot more pushing on the straightaways at Daytona and Talladega. At Atlanta, you can’t really get locked up for the whole straightaway and get away. Everybody’s super tight together. It’s a mix between an intermediate track and Daytona and Talladega. It’s a little bit of a different form of racing.”

Is competing at Atlanta mentally taxing?

“Atlanta is mentally taxing. You’re still having the same thought processes that you do with superspeedway racing, but it’s just faster. You’re mentally drained after Atlanta.”

Single-car qualifying is all the track time you’ll have at Atlanta prior to Sunday’s race. How do you prepare for the race when you know so little about how your car will perform?

“I think qualifying at Atlanta is a lot more sketchy than at Daytona and Talladega. It’s the same format where you don’t have any practice time. It’s way more sketchy to go out there and hold it wide open, and the track seems like it’s always a little bit dirty during those qualifying sessions. It bit some guys last year in the first Atlanta race, running the top on their out lap, they get loose or what-not. Drew (Blickensderfer, crew chief) and the team say that it’s going to be really secure during qualifying and probably a little more sketchy during the race, for whatever the reason. That’s kind of the opposite of what I’ve had in the past. I feel like it’s really sketchy during qualifying and it drives better in the race. Stewart-Haas sat on the pole there last year. They always bring fast Ford Mustangs for these superspeedway qualifying efforts, so I’m excited for it.”

Are you wide open every lap at Atlanta?

“You’re wide open in qualifying. In the race, you’re working the throttle more. At Daytona and Talladega, you’re more pacing the throttle to save fuel, where at Atlanta, you’re lifting out of the gas because you’ll get tight or loose behind guys and you have to really play with the timing on your throttle for when you get runs up to guys. You’re playing with the throttle because of handling.”

What do you need in your racecar to be fast at Atlanta?

“You’ve got to be fast and you can’t be too draggy. It’s bitten me in the past where we started the race tight and I couldn’t make any passes, and then we kept on freeing the car up, loosening it up, and probably got past the neutral point in the balance and got too loose and I ended up wrecking. But the freer we got it, the faster I went. So it’s a fine line of what’s enough, and that’s what I’m trying to figure out, what’s too much, what’s enough, but you definitely have to be handling good to be able to tug on the wheel and keep the thing wide open.”

Daytona and Talladega races are known to be a crapshoot, where there are so many things out of your control. Is that also the case at Atlanta, or are you still able to make a little bit of your own luck at Atlanta?

“It’s probably the same as far as making your own luck and getting to the front. You can work your way up to the front, you just really don’t want to get stuck in the back. With green-flag pit stops, the commitment line starts early and they start taking pit-road speed into turn three and you run the apron all the way through (turns) three and four during green-flag pit stops. That makes it a little bit different and it bites some guys, but for me, I take the same mindset going into Atlanta as I do Daytona and Talladega.”

Stewart-Haas Racing had an off year in 2023 and the organization is expecting a turnaround in 2024. Do you feel added pressure to perform?

“We use it as motivation. We all want to be leaders. We all want to be the best teammates possible, and we all want to work together to be a part of this deal. It takes everyone’s effort, and if we can be better than we were yesterday, that’s how we’re going to be successful in the long run.”

What are your expectations for this year?

“This is an incredible opportunity. At the same time, you know there’s going to be challenges along the way. There’s going be adversity. There’s going be good runs and bad runs, but it’s how you react to it and how you keep on moving forward each and every race. It’s easy when you’re winning, and I’ve kind of learned that over the past couple of years. When we were in the Xfinity Series, we literally could do no wrong, but the flip side of winning all those races was that I kind of lost my grounding in a sense of, ‘Hey, I’ve got to keep on working at this.’ It’s not always going to come as easy as it did in my final year in Xfinity. It was somewhat of a rude awakening in 2023. Obviously, we didn’t unload with race-winning speed, ever, so that was a big challenge. I’ve done a lot of self-reflecting and soul searching over the past handful of months and trying to become the best leader possible. I think that’s what in 20 years when I look back I feel like, man, if I was the best leader for my team and the best piece of the puzzle for my team and did the best job, I’ll be satisfied with myself.”

You’re still able to connect with partners, and that’s on display again this week with Black Rifle Coffee, Ranger Boats, TrueTimber and Winchester Repeating Arms on your racecar. How important as these partnerships?

“We have a lot of great support. It’s just relationships and being able to bring value to a partner and say, ‘Hey, what’s our plan here? How do we achieve it and go above and beyond?’ I can confidently say that we do go above and beyond and we’ve got a lot of great partners that allow us to do this. It’s great to be back with Black Rifle Coffee and TrueTimber and to also start a relationship with Ranger Boats and Winchester. It’s really special to be able to introduce them on a familiar scheme that we’ve had over the past handful of years in the Xfinity Series.”

No. 10 Black Rifle Coffee/Ranger Boats Team Roster

Primary Team Members

Driver: Noah Gragson

Hometown: Las Vegas

Crew Chief: Drew Blickensderfer

Hometown: Decatur, Illinois

Car Chief: Jerry Cook

Hometown: Toledo, Ohio

Engineer: James Kimbrough

Hometown: Pensacola, Florida

Spotter: Andy Houston

Hometown: Hickory, North Carolina

Over-The-Wall Members

Front Tire Changer: Ryan Mulder

Hometown: Sioux Center, Iowa

Rear Tire Changer: Trevor White

Hometown: Arlington, Texas

Tire Carrier: Tyler Bullard

Hometown: King, North Carolina

Jack Man: Sean Cotten

Hometown: Mooresville, North Carolina

Fuel Man: James “Ace” Keener

Hometown: Fortuna, California

Road Crew Members

Mechanic: Chris Trickett

Hometown: Grafton, West Virginia

Mechanic: Beau Whitley

Hometown: Carmel, Indiana

Tire Specialist: Jacob Cooksey

Hometown: Westbrookville, New York

Engine Tuner: Matt Moeller

Hometown: Monroe, New York

Transporter Co-Driver: John Casper

Hometown: Salisbury, North Carolina

Transporter Co-Driver: Matt Murphy

Hometown: Augusta, Georgia

DAYTONA 500
Daytona Beach, Florida – February 19, 2024
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY – NASCAR 101

AUSTIN CINDRIC No. 2 DISCOUNT TIRE FORD MUSTANG

START: 6TH STAGE ONE: 15TH STAGE TWO: 2ND FINISH: 22ND POINTS: 11TH

RACE RUNDOWN: Austin Cindric, driver of the No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang, was in contention to etch his name in DAYTONA 500 history as a two-time champion in the closing laps of Sunday’s 66th running of the Great American Race until chaos struck on the final lap. Cindric, the 2022 DAYTONA 500 winner, rolled off the grid from the sixth position and remained a force throughout the opening 65-lap segment alongside his Team Penske teammates Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano, but as varying pit sequences played out, Cindric finished Stage 1 in the 15th position. Under the Stage break, Cindric headed to pit road for four fresh tires and fuel in advance of the Lap 71 restart. As the field went three-wide early in second segment and the momentum of the lanes fluctuated, the No. 2 shuffled positions, rejoining the top 10 just 20 laps into Stage 2. The 25-year-old racer returned to pit road for a swift fuel-only pit stop before ultimately taking the race lead on Lap 118. Cindric, in a side-by-side battle with Kyle Busch for the sprint to the Stage end, finished the segment second to teammate Blaney after the hard-charging driver powered around the No. 2 Ford Mustang on the final lap. Pleased with the handling of the car, Cindric visited the Discount Tire pit crew once again for new tires and fuel ahead of the restart. Cindric maneuvered his way back to the front of the pack as the action intensified, vying for the race lead until getting collected in a last-lap accident that relegated the Team Penske driver to a 22nd-place finish.

CINDRIC’S THOUGHTS: “A really unfortunate end. We had a shot to win the DAYTONA 500 in the No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang. We were really in great position with the outside lane breaking up and kind of one-on-one with the 24 with the whole pack behind, so you can’t really ask for anything else other than that out of myself and the team. It just sucks a little bit.”

RYAN BLANEY No. 12 MENARDS/PEAK FORD MUSTANG

START: 32ND STAGE ONE: 32ND STAGE TWO: 1ST FINISH: 30TH POINTS: 23RD

RACE RUNDOWN: Despite starting at the tail end of the field for the 66th running of the DAYTONA 500, Ryan Blaney and the No. 12 Menards/PEAK team were in contention for the race win until a multi-car incident with eight laps to go dashed their hopes Monday night. After crew chief Jonathan Hassler’s strategy call to not pit following the first caution of the day on lap five, Blaney took the ensuing green flag from the inside of row one as he and the No. 20 – who also stayed out during the caution – controlled the pace of the field while trying to conserve fuel during the first long, green flag run of Stage 1. The Team Penske Fords all hit pit road together under green on lap 40 for fuel but were not able to keep pace with the lead pack as Blaney was scored 32nd at the conclusion of the opening stage. Following a four-tire stop prior to the start of Stage 2, Blaney charged to the front of the field using the third lane on the outside and was scored sixth in the running order by lap 75. A fuel-only stop on lap 115 under green saw Blaney cycle back to third before cutting to the inside of the No. 2 in turn four on the final lap of Stage 2 to pick up his first stage win of the season. Blaney took the green flag for the final stage from the outside of row two but faded to the tail end of the lead pack during the initial run. With 20 laps to go, Blaney and a host of Ford teammates hit pit road for fuel only as the Menards/PEAK Mustang cycled back to ninth in the running order with 16 laps remaining. Blaney and teammate Joey Logano led a hard-charging third lane with under 10 to go as the field was committed to running three-wide, but contact in the middle lane sent the No. 6 up the track and set off a multi-car incident in turn three, collecting Blaney and ending his night eight laps short of the checkered flag in Daytona.

BLANEY’S THOUGHTS: “You’re kind of always watching when you’re in there and especially if you’re on [the top lane] you can kind of watch and see how well their pushes are and it just looked like the 48 kind of got the 24 out of shape and just happened to get the 6 in the right-rear and unfortunately we were in the top lane. It’s an early end to our night, but we were up there in it and just wasn’t our weekend.”

JOEY LOGANO No. 22 SHELL-PENNZOIL FORD MUSTANG

START: 1ST STAGE ONE: 11TH STAGE TWO: 21ST FINISH: 32ND POINTS: 30TH

RACE RUNDOWN: After claiming Team Penske’s first-ever DAYTONA 500 pole award Wednesday night, Joey Logano and the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Mustang led the field to green in Monday afternoon’s 66th running of The Great American Race. Logano led his first of a race-high – and DAYTONA 500 career-best – 45 laps prior to a green flag pit stop for fuel only on lap 40 that saw the No. 22 battle back through the field for an 11th-place finish in Stage 1. Following a four-tire stop and a round of adjustments at the stage break, Logano lined up to restart 11th before forming a third lane on the outside that worked its way to the front of the field. Logano was one of several cars to hit pit road under green on lap 111 for fuel only and led the group off pit road from the first pit stall. After cycling back to seventh in the running order after green flag stops were complete, Logano was shuffled out of the lead pack and ultimately settled for a 21st-place finish in Stage 2. Logano lined up 13th to begin the final stage and worked all three lanes as momentum shifted constantly, allowing him to move back into the top-10 with 50 laps to go. The Shell-Pennzoil Mustang was back out front with 38 to go before the Fords hit pit road for their final fuel stops of the night as Logano found himself battling for the lead in the outside lane with under 20 laps remaining. With teammate Ryan Blaney pushing Logano to the front with eight laps to go, contact in the lane below the pair of teammates sent the No. 6 up the track and into the left rear of Logano, setting off a multi-car incident in turn three that brought an end to Logano’s bid for a second DAYTONA 500 title.

LOGANO’S THOUGHTS: “That’s very much how speedway racing is. It’s part of it. You’re pushing and shoving there at the end. We had the cars that could take it and were doing really well. I had Blaney behind me. I thought, ‘Man, if I could pick one, that’s the one I want. I’m in a great position here’ and just had to find the right opportunity to slip the 1 again because the 6 wasn’t working with us, so I felt if I could keep the 12 with me I’m going to be in a decent spot, but it just didn’t work out. The car was so fast. The car was the fastest car on the track. I could lead a line. Whenever we weren’t saving fuel she was a rocket ship. It’s just how this game works. The wreck always starts in the front and you hope you’re in front of it. Second place isn’t far enough ahead.”

The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway for the Ambetter Health 400 on Sunday, February 25. Coverage begins at 3:00 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.