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NASCAR ready to rumble at Daytona after chicane mods

Nigel Kinrade/Motorsport Images
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emailBy Kelly Crandall | February 19, 2021 9:15 AM

NASCAR has added rumble strips to the backstretch chicane of the Daytona road course after issues in last week’s Busch Clash.

They are the same rumble strips as used on the frontstretch chicane. The rumble strip to the driver’s right is approximately 36 feet long, and the one to the driver’s left is approximately 30 feet long. They will be in place for all three NASCAR national series races this weekend.

As a result, drivers should now avoid getting into the grass and dirtying the track. In the Clash, grass and mud in the backstretch chicane led to cars overheating and windshield visibility issues.

“It looked like a good fix to me in short order,” said Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Alan Gustafson. “Should be good. I don’t really have any issues with guys straightening that bus stop. That’s their job. That’s what they’re supposed to do. Just the dirt was a problem.”

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Gustafson and driver Chase Elliott are looking for their second consecutive win on the Daytona road course. Elliott has also won the last four road course races in the Cup Series.

Several drivers approached NASCAR about addressing the issue after the Clash last Tuesday night. Martin Truex Jr. said the course is a blast to drive, but with so many drivers closely following the one in front of them, it leads to cutting the chicane and covering the track in debris.

But Ryan Preece said it wouldn’t have bothered him if NASCAR left the course as is.

“Because if we hit the dirt, it’s our own fault,” said Preece. “So, it’s going to be the same track regardless. Now we just have a little bit more runoff, and I guess they added some turtles, so that’s just another thing to worry about.”

Chicane, Daytona, Cup Series, NASCAR

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Oh yeah?

You think those guys are going to be forgiving of last week at the 500, where the top

two drivers were taken out of the race on the last 1/2 lap?
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Those guys are going to be driving like it's the last race of the season....
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Ty Gibbs wins on Daytona road course in Xfinity Series debut

Lesley Ann Miller / Motorsport Images
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emailBy Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service | February 20, 2021 6:21 PM

Ty Gibbs turned in a historic NASCAR Xfinity Series debut Saturday night, the 18-year-old winning in his first series start, holding off reigning champion Austin Cindric in a second overtime on the Daytona International Speedway road course.

Gibbs took the lead on a restart in double overtime and held off the field by a comfortable 1.726s at the finish line, dropping to his knees to reflect after climbing out of his No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota – a car owned by his grandfather, NASCAR Hall of Famer Joe Gibbs.

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With his win in the Super Start Batteries 188 at Daytona Presented by O’Reilly, Gibbs becomes only the sixth driver to win in his first series start, matching a feat achieved by NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt in 1982 and, most recently, by Kurt Busch, 15 years ago.

Gibbs becomes the youngest driver to win an Xfinity Series road course event: At 18 years, four months, 16 days, he breaks the record held — ironically – by Cindric (20 years old).

By all measures, it was an emotional victory following an intense, exciting race on the 14-turn, 3.61-mile road course. Cindric led the most laps 29 of the 56 – but could not catch Gibbs in the end.


“I just cannot thank everybody right now. Really this is like a dream come true for me; it’s just awesome,” said an emotional Gibbs, who turned his first ever laps in the car and made his first career pit stop Saturday evening.

“I really didn’t think I had it there,” he said of the intense racing at the end. “I fought back and we won.”


Gibbs teammates Daniel Hemric and Brandon Jones finished third and fourth, followed by Jeb Burton and another of the JGR family, Harrison Burton. Miguel Paludo, Brandon Brown, Justin Haley, and Jeremy Clements rounded out the top 10.

A victory for Cindric would have been his second in as many races in 2021, and he turned in an inspired drive back to the front to contend for the win. He and A.J. Allmendinger — another road course racing star — collided while running first and second heading to the Stage 1 checkered flag. Allmendinger’s car was badly damaged and he ran laps down the remainder of the race.

Cindric’s No. 22 Team Penske Ford was damaged as well, but the team made repairs and Cindric went to work. He returned to the race after multiple pit stops in 33rd place, but still on the lead lap. His road racing skills and the team’s strategy calls ultimately put him in position to contend for the win.

“Obviously I don’t want to be racing to a stage that aggressively. I’d love to see a replay and hopefully we can avoid something like that because obviously A.J. and I were going to be fighting for a win later,” Cindric said.

“I hated having that much damage to our PPG Ford Mustang that early. Just seemed like he was trying to block there; don’t know if he knew I was there or not. Sucks it’s over with (but) we salvaged a good finish. Congratulations to Ty.”

Gibbs grandfather, who owns the team, climbed down from the pit box and stood behind it to watch the final moments of the race. Clearly the win was an emotional achievement for the entire family.


During a late-race pit stop, teenager Ty was asking his team for peanut butter crackers. An hour later, he was hoisting the biggest trophy of his young career.

“I don’t even know how to feel,” the winner said. “This is really hard for me to explain. After my uncle [JGR President JD Gibbs] passed away, it’s been hard for me. It’s just a dream come true. I’m just rambling. I’m excited. Mixed emotions for sure. This is just awesome.”

Of his tight-knit family, Gibbs again wiped tears.

“The family is everything to me, they do so much for me,” Gibbs said. “I just can’t thank them enough, this is just amazing; this is a dream come true. It’s all the man above, I’m sorry I’m a wreck I didn’t think this was going to happen at all. This is awesome, I can’t thank everybody enough watching and last week I had a terrible interview. I want to apologize for everybody, I just can’t thank everybody enough. This is just amazing.”

Following the second race of the season, Team Penske’s Austin Cindric holds the points lead by 24 markers over Joe Gibbs Racing’s Harrison Burton in second.

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OPINION: Are we already seeing NASCAR road course fatigue? Or is it an inability to figure something out for car setup really quick.......... compared to setting up just for left turns?

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | February 23, 2021 9:13 AM

Denny Hamlin first offered a deadpan answer about the number of road courses on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule.

“More road courses, for sure,” Hamlin said.

Then he gave a tight smile. When the follow-up question came about whether that was sarcastic, he laughed and said, “I don’t know, is it?”. Then Hamlin laughed again.

“More,” he said. “More of everything.”

Daytona was the first of seven road course events this year. The original 2021 schedule consisted of six road course races, but Daytona became a fallback when it was decided early on that Fontana was out of the question. Still, it was a healthy increase from the traditional three road course races that had been on the schedule.

And so, seven it is: seven opportunities for chaos and unpredictability. Or perhaps you find entertainment in stock cars trying to do what they aren’t meant to do (i.e., race on a road course).

Hamlin left his comments open for interpretation. Here’s one: it certainly seemed like after running both the Busch Clash and a points-paying event on the Daytona road course, Hamlin already has left and right fatigue.
When another reporter pointed out it would be three months before the next road course race on May 23 in Austin, Texas, it was clear Hamlin was faking his disappointment when saying, “shoot.”

If Hamlin isn’t fatigued now, he most likely will be by the time the season is over. And he probably won’t be the only one.

An increase in road courses forces drivers and teams to become much more versatile. Six of the seven road races are in the regular season, so getting to the playoffs will require a serious effort at those facilities. Then the Charlotte Roval awaits in the postseason, ready to make a driver earn a spot in the next round. Ask Clint Bowyer how it felt to battle the last 30 laps of the 2020 race without power steering, or Kyle Busch about needing a Roval miracle to keep his title defense alive.

Intermediate tracks have long been the bread and butter of the NASCAR schedule, but everyone in the garage now admits that just as much effort and emphasis need to go toward road courses. A team cannot afford to toss those races aside like they could when there were so few of them.

“We listen to the fans,” Joey Logano said. “The fans said they wanted more road course racing, boom, you got it. Hope you like it, because we got a lot of it.”
Logano supports NASCAR’s embrace of road courses this year, but not everyone shares his enthusiasm. Thacker/Motorsport Images

Variety is the spice of life, right? Or so the saying goes. NASCAR did one hell of a job giving its schedule more variety. It has long needed to break away from the monotony of intermediate after intermediate after intermediate with a short track and road course thrown in. But it was a surprise that NASCAR chose to shake things up with so much of different form of racing.

Logano is OK with it and said it’s the right thing for the sport. He argues that the Daytona course puts on a good show and brings strategy into play. Sunday afternoon, Logano and his No. 22 team used that to great effect and almost manufactured a win, but finished second after being caught and passed by Christopher Bell with two laps to go.

“That’s the fun part about it, is that you’re never really out of it,” Logano said. “I think this track is great. I’m interested to see what COTA is going to be like. We know Watkins Glen puts on great races. We’ve seen Sonoma be great. We’ve seen the Roval be entertaining on the last lap.

“It’s fun. I like it as a driver because I’m not doing the same thing every week. I like that. I think that’s a pretty big challenge for me. But I think it’s attractive for the best drivers in America to want to race in the NASCAR Cup Series because you have to be good at everything, including dirt racing.”

Dirt is another story, so let us not lose focus on all the road courses. Logano wasn’t wrong in saying that NASCAR has seen some great races at Sonoma and Watkins Glen over the years, which helped the cause for those calling for more road courses. Then came something different with the Roval.

Perhaps this is a classic case of being careful what you wish for because you just might get it. NASCAR’s road course fun is just getting started, and time will tell if others join Hamlin in putting on a brave face knowing there are still more to come.

Insights & Analysis, NASCAR

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Elliott has the speed but not the luck to keep road course win streak going

Matthew Thacker/Motorsport Images
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emailBy Kelly Crandall | February 21, 2021 5:18 PM

Chase Elliott remains the benchmark for road course racers in the NASCAR Cup Series, but his winning streak came to an end Sunday afternoon.

Although he didn’t have the track position he did for most of the afternoon, Elliott was in contention for his fifth consecutive road course win late in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 253 at Daytona. Then he spun in Turn 6 with six laps to go when trying to squeeze between Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin.

It was a disappointing and surprising ending after Elliott once again dominated the Daytona road course. He led a race-high 44 laps, won the first stage, and appeared headed to a victory before a caution for rain with 15 laps to go changed things. Elliott’s No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports team was one of those that elected to get fresh tires, which buried him mid-pack.

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“When you have those late-race cautions like that, and you have a mixed bag of who stays and who goes, it’s a bit of a gamble, either way, I felt like,” Elliott said after finishing 21st. “I thought tires was the right move. Tires won the race, so I think it was the right move.

“You get back in traffic, and it just gets to be so chaotic. Then just depending on who gets through and who doesn’t kind of determines how it’s going to shake out.”

Elliott’s road course win streak spanned from Watkins Glen in 2019 to Daytona in the summer of 2020. His last win was in the inaugural race on the Daytona road course last August.

It was a chaotic turn of events for Elliott after the caution for rain. Once back in traffic, Elliott was pushed off the track in Turn 4 by Corey LaJoie off a restart with 12 laps to go. It resulted in Elliott falling to 14th before a caution flew again.

On the ensuing restart, Elliott got into LaJoie in Turn 5, which brought out another caution. Now sitting 10th, Elliott was working his way through the field when he spun and ended his chances at contending for the victory.


“I hate it,” Elliott said. “I made too many mistakes. We went off track, and it was just a bad deal. We had a fast NAPA Chevy, and I appreciate the effort. I hate it for Corey; he ran me off there, so I thought he was going to take the lane again, so I went to cross him over, and I think that time he was actually going to give me the lane. So, go figure. But we’ll try again next week.”

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Bell overcomes Logano for first Cup win in wild Daytona road race

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | February 21, 2021 4:28 PM

Christopher Bell powered past Joey Logano with two laps to go at the Daytona road course and then drove away to his first win in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Bell finished 2.1 seconds ahead of Logano and 5.8 seconds ahead of teammate Denny Hamlin in third. Bell led the final two laps. It is his first win in 38 starts and his first in the No. 20 Toyota for Joe Gibbs.