Plenty of fireworks are anticipated during the annual Independence Day week trip to Daytona International Speedway. The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series gears up for Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 (7:30 p.m. ET on NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Daytona International Speedway is a 2. Five-mile tri-oval with 31 levels of banking in the turns and 18 tiers of banking at the start-finish line.
RULES PACKAGE
Teams will use the 2019 rules package with new tweaks specifically tailored for superspeedway racing at Daytona — the first time used on the music following restrictor-plate utilization on the Daytona 500. The package includes a 0.922-inch tapered spacer (changing the restrictor plate), a 9-inch rear spoiler, a 1-inch bolt-on the right track bar mount, a tapered radiator pan, an inch splitter overhang, and aero ducts. As at Talladega in April, groups will use a 1-inch wicker extension positioned on top of the nine-inch spoiler.
Cup Series groups will also participate with a brand new left-side tire compound for the Goodyear Eagle superspeedway radial, a construction update that will debut this weekend. The replacement became recommended after a day of checks at Daytona in February. Teams will be provided with units of tires for practice, one set for qualifying, and seven seats for Saturday’s race — six race sets plus one set transferred from qualifying or practice.
“The intention become to incorporate the fundamental factors of the 2019 rules package into the aerodynamic configuration for the superspeedways of Daytona and Talladega, so they’re now not precise in that attitude,” stated Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s racing director. “With that alignment established early inside the test, the same technique was used on the tires. The result became a tire mixture with the identical buildings we run at the intermediate tracks, married with the tread compounds run at Daytona in February.”
STATS
• Only five drivers have won the Daytona 500 and Coke Zero Sugar 400 in the same season. The last to do so was Jimmie Johnson in 2013. As a reminder, Denny Hamlin won this season’s Daytona 500.
• Three of the final four races at Daytona have been won by drivers under 30, including Erik Jones’s closing season (22 years, 1 month, 7 days) and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in 2017 (29 years, 8 months, 29 days).
• Michael McDowell has had seven pinnacle-10 finishes within the Monster Energy Series, six of which have come at Daytona.
• Hendrick Motorsports is the winningest superspeedway crew, with 27 wins at Daytona and Talladega. Richard Childress Racing is a distant second, with 18 wins.
Stats courtesy of Racing Insights
LIVE COVERAGE
The Coke Zero Sugar 400 will air on NBC, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, July 6. Fans can also follow alongside the live leaderboard on NASCAR.Com, get in-car audio on Raceview, and watch in-automobile cameras on NASCAR Drive. Be certain to set your Fantasy Live lineup and sub to your garage select (if needed) earlier than the end of Stage 2 while rosters lock for proper.
2018 RACE WINNER
Erik Jones led one lap of the 2018 Coke Zero Sugar four hundred — the final one. Jones exceeded Martin Truex Jr. At the very last lap and won using. One hundred twenty-five seconds — fighting lower back from harm sustained in a multi-automobile ruin in advance inside the race. The simplest 20 of the forty automobiles that began the race had been strolling at the end, thanks to a few extensive wrecks.
