Adavance Auto Parts Clash

Daytona International Speedway

Welcome back everyone!

We are kicking off the 2017 season of NASCAR with an exhibition race at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday. Since this is an exhibition race, a few things are different from the normal in-season Cup races that will begin with the Daytona 500 on February 26th.

Daytona is the birthplace of NASCAR. Races were run on Daytona Beach, instead of asphalt, back in the infantile days of stock car racing. Nowadays the season starts anew there each year as the roaring engines serve to warm most of the country from their cool winter air.

The Clash, as it’s known, is a 75-lap, two segment non-Cup-points race that involves the previous year’s pole winners, previous 500 pole winners, and any remaining Chase drivers from the past season. There is typically a field of 20 drivers, however this year there are a slim 17 to choose from this go around. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (concussion), Greg Biffle (no ride), Carl Edwards (retired), and Tony Stewart (retired) won’t be driving in it, however Daniel Suarez, a rookie, will replace Edwards in the number-19 ride. Both the laps run and the size of the field make it substantially smaller than a standard race and turn it into more a sprint competition than a marathon.

As you may have heard, there have been some rules changes to the sport during the offseason, the main one being the races are now segmented all the way through. Each race will be broken down into three segments with competition cautions providing the breaks. In addition if a car needs to go behind the pit wall, a.k.a to the garage area, for repairs after a crash, the car is out of the race for good. These changes can have effects on how the rosters are constructed, especially with the addition of lineups for the NASCAR Fantasy Live game to the Draft Kings lineups this season, but I will talk about that in the following weeks.

This week there will not be a standard track breakdown for data, as there usually is each week, as with the exhibition race the numbers simply don’t carry weight like they do for full tilt races. The track data section will return for the Daytona 500 next week.

 

Drivers to watch this week:

Brad Keselowski: Brad, along with teammate Joey Logano, have had very fast cars at restrictor-plate tracks the last couple of years and Daytona is no different. He is one of the top plate racers on the top circuit and comes in as the highest salary ($10,100) this week in the 17-car field. He will likely be a highly owned driver.

Kevin Harvick: Harvick was blazing fast for much of the year last year, leading the second most laps (1,384) only behind Martin Truex Jr. and had the highest average finish at 9.9 for the year. He has also won The Clash three different times in his career and is poised to do it again in 2017, though this time it will be in a Ford, if he does it.

Denny Hamlin: Denny won the exhibition race last year and followed it up with the closest win in NASCAR history at the Dayton 500 a week later. Like Kevin Harvick, he is also a three-time winner of this event. The JGR Toyotas were incredibly fast a year ago, allowing Denny to finish in the top-nine in laps led and top-five in average finish. An $8.600 price tag is pretty moderate for such a small-field race.

Kyle Busch: Kyle comes in having won the race back in 2012 but more so as a member of the dominant JGR team that showed very well at Daytona Speedweeks last year. Busch placed third in both average finish and laps led for the full season last year and should be considered a threat to do both again in 2017, starting it off at The Clash on Saturday.

Martin Truex Jr.: As mentioned above, Truex Jr. had a dominant season in 2016 and nearly kicked if off with a win in the Daytona 500, had it not been for six inches of Denny Hamlin’s car. He is back in his Furniture Row Racing Toyota, though he will have a teammate this season in the full races, rather than being a single-car team. He comes in at $8,000 and should be a very heavily own driver, but a near must play.