Matt DiBenedetto and the No. 21 Menards/Dutch Boy head to Daytona International Speedway with a Playoff berth on the line in Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400.

DiBenedetto is 15th in the Playoff standings with just a nine-point cushion on the cutoff line for being one of the 16 drivers who will start the 10-race, season-ending run for the 2020 Cup Series championship.

Races at Daytona and its sister track, Talladega Superspeedway, often are affected by “Big One” multi-car crashes, and surprise winners aren’t really that surprising given the uncertainties that come with racing in large packs at high speeds.

DiBenedetto said that given the Playoff implications, this Saturday night’s 400-miler likely will be even more of a crap shoot than usual.

“If I was a guessing man I would say probably quite a bit more chaotic and a whole lot of desperation because this is the last attempt or opportunity for a whole lot of people to make the Playoffs,” he said. “A lot of people can win at Daytona, so I would assume it might be quite chaotic.”

In his only start on the superspeedway at Daytona in the No. 21 Mustang, DiBenedetto showed that he and the team are capable of doing what he needs to do to earn a Playoff berth.

For 185 of the scheduled 200 laps of this year’s Daytona 500, he ran in the top five at times, then backed off when the bumping and blocking got especially aggressive.

But before he could make it to the checkered flag, he was swept up in a 19-car crash on the backstretch. He was able to return to the race and salvage a 19th-place finish, but that’s the kind of outcome he’s hoping to avoid this time around.

“We will have to go to Daytona and do the best job we can,” he said, adding that he will be relying on his fellow Mustang drivers to work with him in the draft. “We have really good teammates, and the Fords are fast.”

Avoiding the expected chaos will be the challenge, and sometimes that is more a matter of matter of luck than skill at tracks like Daytona and Talladega.

“Sometimes it doesn’t really matter how smart you race and what you do and all the things you do right, even if you are running first or second,” DiBenedetto said. “A lot that is out of your hands at those places.”

There will be no practice or qualifying prior to the start of Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400, which is set to get the green flag just after 7:30 p.m., with TV coverage on NBC.

Menards

A family owned company started in 1958, Menards is headquartered in Eau Claire, WI. Menards has more than 300 retail stores located throughout the Midwest in the states of IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MI, MN, MO, NE, ND, OH, SD, WI and WY. Menards is known throughout the home improvement industry as the low price leader. It’s famous slogan “Save Big Money at Menards” is widely known and easy to remember. For more information, visit Menards.com, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest.

Wood Brothers Racing

Wood Brothers Racing was formed in 1950 in Stuart, Va., by Hall of Famer Glen Wood. Wood Brothers Racing is the oldest active team and one of the winningest teams in NASCAR history. Since its founding, the team won 99 races (including at least one race in every decade for the last seven decades) and 120 poles in NASCAR’s top-tier series. Fielding only Ford products for its entire history, the Wood Brothers own the longest association of any motorsports team with a single manufacturer. Glen’s brother, Leonard, is known for inventing the modern pit stop. The team currently runs the Ford Mustang driven by Matt DiBenedetto in the famous No. 21 racer.

FORD PERFORMANCE NASCAR: DAYTONA ADVANCE

NASCAR heads to Daytona International Speedway for the second time in three weeks, but this time the NASCAR Cup and NASCAR XFINITY drivers will be on the traditional oval as opposed to the road course they maneuvered previously.  It will be the final regular season event for the Cup Series with three playoff spots still up for grabs.  Here’s a look at some Ford notes going into the weekend.

FORD IN THE NASCAR CUP SERIES AT DAYTONA

·         Ford has 37 all-time series wins at Daytona.

·         The Wood Brothers are tied for the most wins among car owners at Daytona with 15.

·         Ford’s first win at Daytona was by Tiny Lund in the 1963 Daytona 500.

FORD IN THE NASCAR XFINITY SERIES AT DAYTONA

·         Ford has 6 series wins at Daytona.

·         Ryan Reed has two of those wins (2015 and 2017).

·         Austin Cindric captured the inaugural road course race two weeks ago.

FORD IN THE NASCAR GANDER RV & OUTDOORS TRUCK SERIES AT WWT

·         Ford has 2 series wins at WWT Raceway.

·         Greg Biffle (1999) and Terry Cook (2001) have those victories.

·         Grant Enfinger has one series pole at the track (2018).

SIX FORD CUP DRIVERS IN PLAYOFFS

As the series heads to Daytona for the final race of the regular season, Ford has six drivers that have clinched positions in the field of 16.  Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Cole Custer and Aric Almirola are in while Clint Bowyer has a 57-point cushion for one of the last three spots.  Matt DiBenedetto is also battling to advance and goes into Saturday night’s race holding the next-to-last position.  He’s four points ahead of William Byron and nine points in front of Jimmie Johnson, who is currently the first driver on the outside looking in.

HARVICK WINS REGULAR SEASON CUP CHAMPIONSHIP

Kevin Harvick’s series-best seventh win of the year didn’t only give Ford its 700^th all-time NASCAR Cup Series victory, but also clinched the regular season championship.  As a result, Harvick will get 15 bonus points toward his playoff total.  Harvick is now tied with Kyle Busch for ninth on the all-time NASCAR Cup win list with 56 victories and has posted 21 Ford triumphs in less than four years since joining the manufacturer with Stewart-Haas Racing for the 2017 campaign.

FORD STILL ON FIRE

Sunday’s Dover sweep in the NASCAR Cup and NASCAR XFINITY Series continued a torrid stretch of winning for Ford since the sport returned to action on May 17 at Darlington Raceway.  Since then, Ford has won 12 of the 21 Cup points races (57%) and 10 of the 17 XFINITY events (59%).  Overall, Ford leads each series in total wins (14 in Cup and 11 in XFINITY), and also tops both in the manufacturers’ standings.

FORD HIGHLIGHTS

ALMIROLA TAKES THE KING BACK TO VICTORY LANE

The first victory of Aric Almirola’s NASCAR Cup Series career came in the 2014 Coke Zero 400 at Daytona.  The win, which came after rain forced a halt to the event after 112 laps, came 30 years after his car owner, Richard Petty, won his record 200^th series race in the same event.  Almirola had held the lead for seven laps and 14 of the previous 15 circuits when the rain began falling.  NASCAR waited 56 minutes before calling the race official.  The win marked the first for the famous No. 43 since 1999 and the first time it had been to victory lane with Ford since The King’s only season with the manufacturer in 1969 when he won nine times.

RAGAN RECOVERS FROM 500 SETBACK

Only five months after suffering heartbreak in the 2011 Daytona 500, David Ragan bounced back to win his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race in the July event at Daytona International Speedway.  Ragan, who was leading the 500 on a green-white-checker restart, was assessed a penalty by NASCAR after getting ahead of Trevor Bayne and then changing lanes before the start-finish line.  The penalty cost him a chance at victory, but he made up for that in July as he passed Ryan Newman with eight laps to go and held off Matt Kenseth on the final lap to win for car owner Jack Roush.

A FIRST FOR THE BIFF

Greg Biffle made his rookie season a memorable one when he registered his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory in the July race at Daytona International Speedway in 2003.  Making only his 23^rd career start, Biffle played the fuel-mileage game to perfection while his closest pursuer, Bobby Labonte, ran out on the final lap.  In a race that saw the last 81 laps go green, Biffle assumed the lead on lap 140 and held it for the final 21 laps.  Jeff Burton finished second and Ricky Rudd third as Ford swept the top three spots.

FIRECRACKER GOES TO FIREBALL

When Daytona International Speedway hosted the very first Firecracker 400 in 1963, the first man across the finsh line was Fireball Roberts, who led a Ford Motor Co. sweep of the top five spots.  Roberts passed Fred Lorenzen on the final lap to win the race with Marvin Panch third.  All three of those drivers were in Fords while fourth-place finisher Darel Dieringer was in a Mercury.  Ned Jarrett rounded out the top five in his Ford.  This marked the fifth overall event in July for the speedway, which opened in 1959, but the first four were 250-mile features.  The fans got their money’s worth on this day as the race featured 39 lead changes between six drivers, but the best was saved for the end as Roberts and Lorenzen waged a major battle that saw them exchange the lead four times in the final five laps before Roberts earned his third July win at Daytona.

JUNIOR AND CALE DOUBLE DOWN

Junior Johnson and Cale Yarborough hold the distinction of being the only two men who have won at Daytona International Speedway in a Ford as both driver AND owner.  Johnson won a qualifying race at the speedway in 1965, but had on his owner’s hat when Lee Roy Yarbrough won twice in 1969 and Jimmy Spencer in 1994.  Yarborough won the Firecracker 400 in 1967 as a driver and watched John Andretti take his Ford to victory lane in 1997.

FORD NASCAR CUP SERIES SUMMER RACE WINNERS AT DAYTONA

1963 – Fireball Roberts

1965 – A.J. Foyt

1967 – Cale Yarborough

1969 – LeeRoy Yarbrough

1970 – Donnie Allison

1983 – Buddy Baker

1988 – Bill Elliott

1989 – Davey Allison

1991 – Bill Elliott

1994 – Jimmy Spencer

1997 – John Andretti

1999 – Dale Jarrett

2000 – Jeff Burton

2003 – Greg Biffle

2007 – Jamie McMurray

2011 – David Ragan

2014 – Aric Almirola

2016 – Brad Keselowski

2017 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

FORD NASCAR XFINITY SERIES WINNERS AT DAYTONA

1995 – Chad Little

2004 – Mike Wallace (2)

2015 – Ryan Reed (1)

2016 – Aric Almirola (2)

2017 – Ryan Reed (1)

FORD NASCAR GANDER RV & OUTDOORS SERIES WINNERS AT WWT RACEWAY

1999 – Greg Biffle

2002 – Terry Cook

Team: No. 17 Fifth Third Bank Ford Mustang
Crew Chief: Luke Lambert

Twitter: @17RoushTeam, @RoushFenway and @Chris_Buescher
Race Format: 400 miles, 160 laps, Stage Lengths: 50-50-60

Coke Zero Sugar 400 – Saturday, Aug. 29 at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN, SiriusXM Channel 90

ADVANCE NOTES

Dramatic Daytona Set to Cap Regular Season Saturday Night

· For the first time in the sport’s current playoff format, the NASCAR Cup Series’ regular season will culminate Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway, which is expected to be a high drama event as drivers have one last chance to lock themselves into the 2020 Playoffs.

· This marks the second trip to Daytona in as many weeks, as the series visited the Road Course Aug. 16. With 10 drivers with at least one win in 2020, three additional drivers have locked themselves into the playoff grid. A win by a non-locked in driver would punch their ticket into the 10-race playoffs, which begin Labor Day Weekend at Darlington.

· NASCAR will continue to use three competition-based performance metrics to determine the starting lineup and pit selection order for each race, replacing the random draw procedure.

· NASCAR will reward both season-long and single-race performance to determine the lineup and pit selection, using owner points position, the finish and fastest lap from the most recently completed race. Beginning with the NASCAR Playoffs at Darlington, playoff cars will fill the top starting positions starting from the Round of 16, all the way through to the Championship 4.

· Four weeks of NASCAR action were initially completed prior to the COVID-19 hiatus with races at Atlanta, Homestead, Texas, Bristol, Richmond, Talladega, Dover and Martinsville postponed before the schedule later picked back up in mid-May.

Buescher Historically at Daytona

· Buescher makes his 10th Cup start at Daytona on Saturday, where he has four top-10s and three top fives.

· Most recently, Buescher finished third in February’s Daytona 500, his best finish on the Oval in his Cup career. Looking back at the Daytona summer races, Buescher has a best finish of fifth, which came in 2018, the same year he also finished fifth in the 500.

· Going back to 2015, Buescher finished second in the season kickoff race in the Xfinity Series, and followed that with a 12th-place run in the summer.

Luke Lambert Historically at Daytona

· Lambert will call his 16th Cup race atop the box Saturday at the Daytona Oval, where he has five top-10s and two top five results. Most recently, he led Buescher to a third-place run in the 2020 Daytona 500.

· Three of Lambert’s four top-10s all came in the Daytona summer events, where he led Ryan Newman to and eighth-place run in 2015. He went on to finish fifth in 2017, and eighth again a season later.

· Lambert also called two Xfinity events with Elliott Sadler in Daytona in 2012, finishing third and sixth.

QUOTE WORTHY
Buescher on racing at Daytona:
“Saturday is obviously going to be crazy, possibly one of the wildest Superspeedway races to date, with so many guys going for a playoff spot. We feel confident in our Superspeedway cars that Jimmy Fennig and everyone at Roush work so hard on, and I think we’ve shown that recently at Daytona and Talladega. As everyone always says, it’s about being in the right place at the right time, so we’ll look to keep the fenders clear as much as we can early, and be there at the end.”

Last Time Out
Buescher finished 16th in the first of two races in Dover last weekend, and backed that up with a 14th-place result a day later.

Where They Rank
Buescher is 21st in driver standings through 25 events.

On the Car
Fifth Third Bank returns to Buescher’s No. 17 machine this weekend in Daytona. Smart AutoCare, a Texas-based vehicle service contract company, will also appear on the decklid of the No. 17 Ford Mustang as a participant in the Fueled by Fifth Third program.

About Fifth Third Bank
Fifth Third Bancorp is a diversified financial services company headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio and the indirect parent company of Fifth Third Bank, National Association, a federally chartered institution. As of June 30, 2020, Fifth Third had $203 billion in assets and operated 1,122 full-service banking centers and 2,456 ATMs with Fifth Third branding in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Florida, Tennessee, West Virginia, Georgia and North Carolina. In total, Fifth Third provides its customers with access to approximately 53,000 fee-free ATMs across the United States. Fifth Third operates four main businesses: Commercial Banking, Branch Banking, Consumer Lending and Wealth & Asset Management. Fifth Third is among the largest money managers in the Midwest and, as of June 30, 2020, had $405 billion in assets under care, of which it managed $49 billion for individuals, corporations and not-for-profit organizations through its Trust and Registered Investment Advisory businesses. Investor information and press releases can be viewed at www.53.com. Fifth Third’s common stock is traded on the Nasdaq® Global Select Market under the symbol “FITB.” Fifth Third Bank was established in 1858. Deposit and Credit products are offered by Fifth Third Bank, National Association. Member FDIC.

Team: No. 6 Guaranteed Rate Ford Mustang

Crew Chief: Scott Graves

Twitter: @Roush6Team, @RoushFenway and @RyanJNewman
Race Format: 400 miles, 160 laps, Stage Lengths: 50-50-60

Coke Zero Sugar 400 – Saturday, Aug. 29 at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN, SiriusXM Channel 90

ADVANCE NOTES

Dramatic Daytona Set to Cap Regular Season Saturday Night

· For the first time in the sport’s current playoff format, the NASCAR Cup Series’ regular season will culminate Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway, which is expected to be a high drama event as drivers have one last chance to lock themselves into the 2020 Playoffs.

· This marks the second trip to Daytona in as many weeks, as the series visited the Road Course Aug. 16. With 10 drivers with at least one win in 2020, three additional drivers have locked themselves into the playoff grid. A win by a non-locked in driver would punch their ticket into the 10-race playoffs, which begin Labor Day Weekend at Darlington.

· NASCAR will continue to use three competition-based performance metrics to determine the starting lineup and pit selection order for each race, replacing the random draw procedure.

· NASCAR will reward both season-long and single-race performance to determine the lineup and pit selection, using owner points position, the finish and fastest lap from the most recently completed race. Beginning with the NASCAR Playoffs at Darlington, playoff cars will fill the top starting positions starting from the Round of 16, all the way through to the Championship 4.

· Four weeks of NASCAR action were initially completed prior to the COVID-19 hiatus with races at Atlanta, Homestead, Texas, Bristol, Richmond, Talladega, Dover and Martinsville postponed before the schedule later picked back up in mid-May.

Newman Historically at Daytona

· Newman returns to the oval at the ‘World Center of Racing,’ where in February he led coming to the checkered flag in the Daytona 500, before experiencing a horrific crash, which kept him out of the car for three races. After a quick recovery and successful test at Darlington in March, Newman was cleared to return to racing, and did so when the sport went back racing in May.

· Newman was credited with a ninth-place finish in the 500 after leading 15 laps, while teammate Chris Buescher finished third. Dating back to last season’s Daytona 500, Newman has finished no worse than 14th at Daytona, and crossed the line fifth in this race in 2019.

· Overall at the 2.5-mile tri-oval, Newman has 37 starts, one win (2008 Daytona 500), six top five finishes and 12 top-10s. Despite an average finish of 18.2, Newman has finished ninth or better in five of the last six Daytona races, including results of fifth, eighth and fifth in the past three summer events.

· Looking at Newman’s results at the circuit’s other Superspeedway – Talladega – he came within inches of winning there last fall, and finished top-10 in both events there a season ago.

· Newman also made one start in the Xfinity Series in Daytona, finished eighth back in 2010.

Scott Graves Historically at Daytona

· Graves will call his ninth Cup event at Daytona on Saturday, where he has an average finish of 17.5. He led Newman to the fifth-place finish a summer ago at DIS, and was atop the box for the dramatic, last-lap ending in this season’s Daytona 500.

· Graves has a runner-up finish at Daytona in Xfinity action, leading Buescher to a second-place result back in 2015 at the season kickoff event. He also finished eighth with Daniel Suarez in 2016.

QUOTE WORTHY
Newman on racing at Daytona:
“I’m just thankful for the opportunity to continue on and hit the reset button, so to speak. Thankful for everyone’s prayers, texts, thoughts, calls, cards and all the support that came after February, and even outreach that has continued to this day. This weekend has the potential to be super sweet for somebody, and nothing would be more special after what happened in February than for us to be that team. Daytona is Daytona, and we will do our thing when the time comes and hopefully have some fun doing it.”

Last Time Out
Newman finished 19th and 24th in last weekend’s doubleheader at Dover.

Where They Rank
Newman is 25th in driver points after 22 points races in his 2020 campaign. In owners’ points, the No. 6 is 24th.

On the Car
Guaranteed Rate returns to Newman’s Ford this weekend in Daytona, as part of the overall 12-race schedule for the brand to close out the 2020 slate.

About Guaranteed Rate

Guaranteed Rate is one of the largest retail mortgage lenders in the United States. Headquartered in Chicago, the Company has more than 5,000 employees in nearly 350 offices across the U.S., and is licensed in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Since its founding in 2000, Guaranteed Rate has helped hundreds of thousands of homeowners with home purchase loans and refinances and funded more than $30 billion in loans in 2019 alone. The Company has cemented itself as Positively Different by introducing innovative technology, such as the world’s first Digital Mortgage, by offering low rates and by delivering unparalleled customer service. Honors and awards include: Top Lender for Online Service for 2018 by U.S. News & World Report; No. 3 ranking in Scotsman Guide’s Top Retail Mortgage Lenders 2019; Top Lender 2016, 2017 and 2018 by Chicago Agent magazine; Chicago Tribune’s Top Workplaces list for seven consecutive years; and Best Online Mortgage Lender, Best Mortgage Lender for VA loans and Best Conventional Mortgage Lender by NerdWallet in 2019. Visit rate.com for more information.