Iconic Event to Showcase NASCAR’s New ‘Next Gen’ Car, New Team Combinations

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Feb. 18, 2022) – Already riding a wave of positive momentum and international attention Sunday’s 63rd Annual DAYTONA 500 (2:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) is again shaping up to be one of the most high-profile, highly-competitive events as it ushers in the 2022 season.

Reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson will start his No. 5 Chevrolet from the pole position alongside Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman’s No. 48 Chevrolet – leading a field of 40 cars that includes six past Daytona 500 winners, eight former series champions and even a past Formula One world champion in NASCAR’s newest generation of race cars.

The Chevrolets, Fords and Toyotas – aptly referred to as the Next Gen cars – will feature different technical modifications and aesthetic enhancements – from the sequential shifter and 670 horsepower to single center-lock wheel nuts, rearview camera mirror and car numbers now placed behind the front wheels.

The response for the new cars and the sport in general has already benefitted from a successful debut at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum two weeks ago. The non-points Busch Light Clash was a nearly sold-out show with some estimates that 70 percent of the crowd were first-time NASCAR race attendees.

The diehards and first-timers paying attention this week at the sold-out annual season-opener at Daytona are expected to be treated to a highly competitive race.

Although Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets have won the pole position in seven of the last eight Daytona races, the multi-championship organization hasn’t won a Daytona 500 since Jimmie Johnson did so in 2014.

The last time a DAYTONA 500 polesitter won the race was 22 years ago when Dale Jarrett won the 2000 edition. The team’s former champion driver-turned-team executive Jeff Gordon won from pole in 1999.

More often, this race has come down to the final thrilling laps. That was certainly the case last February when Front Row Motorsports driver Michael McDowell earned his career first NASCAR win taking the checkered flag by inches – credited with leading only the last lap. That scenario has played out frequently in recent years with race winners Austin Dillon (2018) and veteran Kurt Busch (2017) also capturing the win leading only the final lap.

There is only one multi-time winner in Sunday’s race – three-time Daytona 500 champion Denny Hamlin, who drives the No. 11 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Adding to the drama in 2022 are several new team/driver combinations. Busch is now driving a second car for the second-year 23XI Racing Toyota team owned by Hamlin and NBA legend Michael Jordan. His former teammate at Chip Ganassi Racing, Ross Chastain has similarly joined a new team. He’ll team with Daniel Suarez in the No. 1 Chevrolet fielded by TrackHouse Racing, which is co-owned by former driver Justin Marks and musical superstar Pitbull.

Former series champion Brad Keselowski has expanded his presence in the sport and now co-owns the Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing two-car team. His involvement with the RFK team – as owner and driver of the No. 6 Ford – has already resulted in two trophies. Keselowski (Duel 1) and Chris Buescher (Duel 2) helped RFK Racing to a sweep of Thursday’s Daytona qualifying races the first time a team accomplished the feat since 2015.

Kaulig Racing added to its championship-caliber NASCAR Xfinity Series program with a fulltime NASCAR Cup Series car driven by Justin Haley in 2022 and a second car that will be shared by three drivers. Erik Jones – a former summer race winner at Daytona – will team with Ty Dillon in the newly formed Petty GMS Motorsports organization.

And first-year NASCAR Cup Series drivers – former NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Austin Cindric (Team Penske) and second-generation NASCAR drivers Harrison Burton (Wood Brothers Racing) and Todd Gilliland (Front Row Motorsports) will compete for top rookie honors.

Cindric has the top starting position (fifth) among rookies. The defending Daytona 500 winner McDowell will start sixth after an impressive run in Thursday’s qualifying race. And the 2015 Daytona 500 winner Logano will start last in the field after having to go to a back-up No. 22 Team Penske Ford after an accident in his Duel 150 qualifying race.

Former Formula One champion and 1995 Indy 500 champion Jacques Villeneuve, 50, and current Xfinity Series title contender Noah Gragson raced their way into the Daytona 500 starting field in qualifying. It will be the first start in this race for both.

Kaz Grala qualified for the Daytona 500 starting field with a dramatic last lap pass to claim an “open” position available to non-chartered teams based on their Duel race result. Greg Biffle, 52, a former NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and Xfinity Series champion and perennial Cup Series title contender from 2003 -2016, earned the other 500 position with his finish in the second Duel.

Overall, the qualifying races were run with rave reviews. And the car manufacturers said they have high expectations for Sunday’s race.

As is customary just prior to the season-opening Daytona 500, executives from all three NASCAR manufacturers – Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota – spoke to the media on Friday. All reported being greatly satisfied with the racing to date at Daytona, yet cautioning there is a lot to be learned about the cars and the way they race. Inventory counts remain conservative but all three makes expect that to be changing in the upcoming months.

“For the next few weeks we’ll have to be mindful and make good decisions,” Toyota Racing Development’s David Wilson said. “What we can’t do is ask a driver once he pulls that visor down to mitigate his performance based on concerns about parts. That’s not racing.”

They also pointed to pit strategy as playing a greater role in the race. That was certainly the case in the qualifying races with the Ford contingent taking only two tires on its pit stop to get back out on track in front of the Chevrolets, which all serviced four tires on their pit stop.

“On the surface, I don’t envision 40 cars lined up three by three heading to the finish line. I just don’t think that’s going to happen,” Wilson said. “There’s the potential for more cars to go a lap down or two, but strategy, communication, teamwork are going to be absolutely critical to whomever wins that race on Sunday afternoon.”

There were 34 cars that participated in Friday evening’s hour-long practice with defending Daytona 500 winner McDowell turning in the fastest lap (192.678 mph) in the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford. Stewart-Haas Racing’s Aric Almirola ran the most laps of the session (33).

Eight of the 10 fastest cars were Fords. Bubba Wallace was the fastest Toyota in the No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota car and Noah Gragson was the fastest Chevrolet with a 10th-best lap.

Final Daytona 500 practice is Saturday at 10:30 a.m. ET. While the DAYTONA 500 is sold out, there are still plenty of exciting ways to experience the pageantry of Speedweeks Presented By AdventHeath with an exciting doubleheader Saturday. For ticket information, log onto www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com or call 1-800-PITSHOP.

Saturday, Feb. 19: Lucas Oil 200 Driven By General Tire ARCA Menards race (1:30 p.m. ET) and Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series event (5:00 p.m. ET); NASCAR Cup Series final practice (10:30 a.m. ET); NASCAR Xfinity Series qualifying (11:35 a.m. ET).
Sunday, Feb. 20: DAYTONA 500, The Great American Race (2:30 p.m. ET).
** Schedule subject to change

Fans can stay connected with Daytona International Speedway on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, as well as the all-new NASCAR Tracks App, for the latest speedway news.

About Daytona International Speedway
Daytona International Speedway is a state-of-the-art motorsports facility and was awarded the SportsBusiness Journal’s prestigious Sports Business Award for Sports Facility of the Year in 2016. Daytona International Speedway is the home of The Great American Race – the DAYTONA 500. Though the season-opening NASCAR Cup Series event garners most of the attention – as well as the largest audience in motorsports – the approximately 500-acre motorsports complex, also known as the World Center of Racing, boasts the most diverse schedule of racing on the globe. In addition to at least nine major event weekends, the Speedway grounds are also used extensively for events that include concerts, civic and social gatherings, car shows, photo shoots, production vehicle testing and police motorcycle training. The iconic venue will be the site of a host of motorsports events early in 2022, beginning with AHRMA Classic Motofest and the Rolex 24 At DAYTONA in January, and the 64th DAYTONA 500, which will debut the first points race for NASCAR’s ‘Next Gen’ car as part of Speedweeks Presented by AdventHealth in February. The tradition-rich 81st Annual Bike Week At DAYTONA returns in March, featuring DAYTONA Supercross and the DAYTONA 200, and in May with the Heroes Honor Festival. Later in the summer during Independence Day weekend, the track, in association with Torneos, will host Soccer Fest before the NASCAR Cup Series returns for the final race of the regular season with the Coke Zero Sugar 400 on Aug. 27.

Toyota Racing – Denny Hamlin
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes

DAYTONA BEACH (February 18, 2022) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin was made available to media prior to the Daytona 500 this Friday:

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota Camry TRD, Joe Gibbs Racing

What do you have to do on Sunday to win your fourth Daytona 500?

“I think it’s just execution and just being strategic with your moves and how you manage the race. Really, a lot of it is going to boil down to is just not making mistakes and if you do make mistakes make sure they’re early where you can recover because I think it will be a little bit difficult to recover if it happens late.”

How selfish does a driver have to be on the last lap of the Daytona 500?

“I don’t know if they’re too nice, but you have to be selfish obviously. You can’t win if you’re content on just helping someone else. If I help someone else there are selfish reasons behind it. It might look like I’m trying to help someone – I’m trying to help myself. It’s just kind of the way it is. In this world of manufacturer alliances and all that stuff that has really been a prominent part of our racing, the bottom line is I’ve made a career at superspeedways the last 10 years just counting on other people being selfish. Then, when the rubber hits the road at the end of the race, the guy in eighth place pushing seven of the same manufacturers in front of him eventually is going to get tired of waiting and know that his time has run out and he has to make a move and that’s typically when I capitalize. That’s typically how it’s worked in the past and drivers will always be selfish, especially at the end of the 500.”

What were your impressions of the draft with the new car and was it easier to get dropped from the draft?

“It is and there’s a lot of factors that goes into cars losing the draft. I tried my best. I lined up and did everything I was supposed to do. I was at the tail end – this is once I got lapped by the Toyotas because I was trying to push them forward and I couldn’t hang on. There’s nothing I could’ve done short of telling the person in front of me where to run on the race track to allow me to stay in there, but you can’t do it. These cars lose so much engine power behind others. It’s tough. It looks like four is the number. You can stay in the tail end of the four-car (draft), but once it gets to five the speeds kick up where that last car is really in trouble. I think that while we can say that the race can look like this or that or there’s only half the field. I do think a lot of the elements that you saw last night will happen on the Sunday where the field gets strung out pretty wide.”

When do you think the inventory issues will be sorted out for the new car?

“Everything we do now affects five races down the road and certainly we don’t have cars enough to race three right now. A lot of these cars right now for a while are just going to be parts cars. I was looking at the protocols that we had last night – okay, if one JGR car wrecks here is the protocol. If there’s one JGR and one 23XI here’s the protocol here. There’s two and one, here’s the protocol. We had it all mapped out of what we’re going to do if we crash because it’s a major issue. I think the hopes that you had heard from NASCAR that we were all going to have five cars to start the year, was unfortunately not met. We have what we have. We have two and a half right now at a stretch. And you think you need one car per week to race, well that’s fantastic. Unfortunately, these shop guys that are working are working ridiculous hours right now. The smaller amount of cars that you have, the more hours they have to work because we’re preparing weeks in advance. We can’t just leave Daytona and then Monday think about, ‘We’re going to go and race California so let’s go get those cars put together, setup and go.’ We create the timeline, and we have the need for cars because you can’t have shop guys or girls working 24 hours a day. We won’t keep any of our employees that way.”

How different is the side draft and with the softer bumpers how much does it affect the ability to bump draft?

“Every manufacturer is different. A lot of it is shapes of cars. As you know the sides of these cars, the bumpers of these cars look a lot different for each manufacturer. So, all of them will be able to bump draft or push draft or whatever differently. I don’t know that you could really throw a blanket statement over all of the cars because they are so different, but certainly some bodies lend themselves better to this type of racing than others. Side drafting is still part of our racing. It always has been since Dale Earnhardt kind of showed us that. It’s still a big part of what we do today.”

Is it more effective on the inside lane than on the high lane?

“Sure. Every car is different. I know what it is on my car, but I’m not going to spill it through this microphone.”

Did it surprise you that NASCAR confiscated wheels from two teams?

“I have not heard, but uh oh!”

How do you know when it’s time to go at the end of the Daytona 500 and not go too soon or too late?

“A lot of it is situational and the people that are up front and how many laps are to go. Gosh, there’s just a lot of different things. I do think things happen a little bit slower in this car. I know that’s hard to believe after last night with the late block. The runs are produced a little bit slower. You have to be methodical with how you produce that run and when you pull out you’ve got to figure out how am I going to clear because there’s just not as much momentum and energy built up as what we had. I can’t say that I have the answer to it because I don’t. I haven’t been in a situation where it’s been okay, I’ve been 10th place and I was still able to win inside five laps to go. Talladega last year – or a few years ago – we were 29th on the first green-white checkered and we won. Who knows? There’s so much energy in the pack. Now this, I think this will be a little bit different. Just to caution everyone, the racing could look a little different from what we’ve had in the past. It doesn’t mean it that it won’t be a great race. I think we’ve seen last lap or second to last lap pass for both Duels so you can build some energy and get some exciting finishes. It just might look differently to get to that point.”

What were you seeing during the Duel last night that made you get nervous about being in the pack last night?

“Just from my perspective there were a couple people that have historically crashed making aggressive moves and we don’t know enough about how to maneuver our cars right now and I didn’t feel comfortable being in the middle of it. I was with all of my Toyota teammates, and I was worried about if there was a crash if it was going to wipe all of our cars out, which trust me the protocol for five cars being wiped out for Toyota was going to be a really, really bad scenario. So, I was looking to get out to at least try to preserve mine if there was a crash.”

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About Toyota

Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in North America for more than 60 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our more than 1,800 dealerships.

Toyota directly employs more than 48,000 people in North America who have contributed to the design, engineering, and assembly of nearly 43 million cars and trucks at our 13 manufacturing plants. By 2025, Toyota’s 14th plant in North Carolina will begin to manufacture automotive batteries for electrified vehicles. With the more electrified vehicles on the road than any other automaker, more than a quarter of the company’s 2021 North American sales were electrified.

Through the Start Your Impossible campaign, Toyota highlights the way it partners with community, civic, academic and governmental organizations to address our society’s most pressing mobility challenges. We believe that when people are free to move, anything is possible. For more information about Toyota, visit www.ToyotaNewsroom.com.

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (February 18, 2022): Live Fast Motorsports (LFM) and Malco Products, Inc. announced today that Malco Automotive Products is now titled the “Official Detailing Products of Live Fast Motorsports.” The two companies hope their strategic partnership will illustrate the crucial relationship of admiration and proper care that is required for the longevity of automotive vehicles.

The agreement combines professional stock car racing and quality automotive and specialty cleaning products. Malco Products, Inc. was founded in 1953 in Barberton, Ohio by Murray Glauberman. Today, the company has grown into a global manufacturing company while still being owned and operated by the same family. The company has three world-class production facilities in northeast Ohio, producing multiple lines of specialty chemical products for the automotive, marine, recreational vehicle, and consumer products markets and serving over 70 countries.

“Malco is excited to enter their second year of partnership with Live Fast Motorsports,” said Corporate Communications Manager, Lauren Osina. “We are thrilled to continue to work with Live Fast Motorsports showcasing the great value and outstanding performance that our cleaning and detailing products offer. We are flattered that this professional NASCAR Cup team trusts our products to carry their prized car to the finish line all-season long.”

The Malco Automotive brand of professional-grade automotive detailing, paint correction, and auto service solutions is a leading brand for professional detailers and has recently expanded into the enthusiast automotive aftermarket. Live Fast Motorsport fans will be provided with tutorials, before-and-after demonstrations, testimonials, and giveaways of Malco Automotive Products.

“I have had the honor of working with Malco Products since 2008,” said co-founder of Live Fast Motorsports, Matt Tifft. “Malco’s products, employees and brand have always displayed great value over the years. When it comes to racing, it’s imperative to have a high quality and reliable partner- that’s why Malco Automotive Products have been the perfect sponsor fit for our brand.”

Live Fast Motorsports and Malco Products, Inc. are excited to see where this second-year partnership leads and eager to better serve their fans and customers.

For more information about Malco Products, Inc. please visit https://www.malcopro.com

About Malco Products, Inc.…

Malco Products, Inc. is a global manufacturer of professional-grade finishing and detailing products for the automotive, marine, and commercial vehicle markets. Malco is also a supplier of consumer specialty cleaning products that families have trusted for generations. For more than 65 years, Malco Products has been providing high-quality products to customers around the globe. Headquartered in Barberton, Ohio, the company services customers in more than 70 countries through a network of local distribution partners and e-commerce sales platforms. Malco operates three manufacturing facilities and has more than 350 employees.

About Live Fast Motorsports…

Live Fast Motorsports is a single-car Ford Mustang team based in Mooresville, NC., competing in the NASCAR Cup Series under the No. 78. The team is co-owned by B.J. McLeod and Matt Tifft. McLeod also serves as the team’s driver. B.J.’s wife, Jessica McLeod, is named the company’s CEO.