Fourth of July heats up in the Firecracker 250 at Daytona

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For the past 239 years, Americans have celebrated their Independence from their oppressors in Great Britain with fireworks, BBQs, and adult beverages galore. For more than fifty years, all of those things have been combined with auto racing to create the ultimate patriotic celebration at the world center of racing. 

On Saturday, July 4, thirty-six of the best drivers and teams in the NASCAR Xfinity Series will battle under the lights to determine who will take home the trophy on Independence Day. It will be a battle not only against other drivers, but against the all powerful forces of Mother Nature herself, as several of the previous summer races at the Daytona International Speedway have been delayed due to weather.

The field will be comprised of a mix of Sprint Cup competitors and Xfinity regulars, with some other teams that only come out to play at the Superspeedways. 

Five NSCS championship-contending drivers are entered to compete this weekend: David Ragan, Joey Logano, Austin Dillon, Kasey Kahne and Aric Almirola.

David Ragan will be one to watch this weekend, as he will be in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota. Ragan has had mediocre success in the NASCAR XFINITY Series at Daytona; in eight starts he has four top 10s. But Ragan has won at Daytona in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (July, 2011).

When it comes to how dominant Joey Logano has been this season, he’s as close to a guaranteed win as anyone has ever been in the series. In his six starts this season, Logano has three victories (Phoenix, Bristol and Talladega), five top fives, six top 10s and an average finish of 2.3. He has also led 54% (629 laps led) of his total laps completed (1,151 laps). Logano has made 10 series starts at Daytona posting one win (July, 2011), seven top 10s and an average finish of 8.2.

Kasey Kahne returns to the series in the No. 88 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports. Kahne is the defending winner of the Subway Firecracker 250. He started 13th and drove to victory with the help of his JR Motorsports teammate Regan Smith pushing him to the lead last season. Kahne has made 19 series starts at Daytona posting one win (2014), three top fives and nine top 10s.

Aric Almirola will be in the No. 98 Ford for Biagi DenBeste Racing. Both are looking for their first series win at Daytona.

One of the on again, off again racers in the series is HScott Motorsports with Chip Ganassi driver Brennan Poole, who returns to the seat of the No. 42 DC Solar Chevrolet Camaro for the XFINITY Series’ final superspeedway race of 2015. Through nine starts this season, Poole has one top-10 and five top-15 finishes, with an average start of 16.8 and average finish of 18.6. Poole will compete in the next three XFINITY Series races (Daytona July 4, Kentucky July 10, and New Hampshire July 18). He has one prior ARCA Racing Series start in Daytona, finishing seventh in 2012. Poole made his XFINITY Series superspeedway debut in May at Talladega Superspeedway, finishing 28th after suffering late-race mechanical problems. 

As the midpoint of the season, Daytona is often where new crew chief combinations and drivers appear in the sport. Starting this weekend at Daytona International Speedway, the crew chiefs for Richard Childress Racing’s No. 3 and 33 cars will look a little different. That’s because they have been switched; a good old fashioned swap. Now Danny Stockman Jr. will lead the No. 33 Chevrolet team with driver Austin Dillon, and Nick Harrison will now serve as crew chief for the No. 3 team with driver Ty Dillon.

“Like many teams this time of year, we are making some mid-season personnel changes to improve the overall performance of our teams this season,” said Richard Childress.

Of course, the favorites for the summer classic have to be Roush Fenway Racing’s Ryan Reed and Chris Buescher finished 1-2 to kick off the 2015 season. Now some 14 races later the Roush Fenway brigade heads back to the sunny sands of Daytona to defend their win and score some records.

Reed has the opportunity to become the fourth driver in series history to win consecutive races at Daytona joining Darrell Waltrip (1983, ‘84), Dale Earnhardt (1990, ’91, ’92, ’93 and ’94) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2003 sweep and season opener of 2004).

Reed can also become just the second driver in series history to sweep both NASCAR XFINITY Series races in the same season joining Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2003 sweep). Daytona started running two series races in 2002.

Reed is currently ninth in the standings, 118 points behind Buescher, who boasts the standings lead. Reed has made three series starts at Daytona posting one win (2015), two top fives and an average finish of 7.7 (his career-best track).

Standings leader Chris Buescher is having a career-defining season. In 14 starts, he has posted two wins and a series-leading eight top-five finishes. He is 29 points ahead of second-place Ty Dillon and 43 points ahead of third-place Chase Elliott.

Unfortunately for Buescher’s competitors, he’s good at Daytona too. In two starts at the 2.5-mile facility Buescher has an average finish of 7.0; including his runner-up finish in the season opener earlier this year.

“We know we have a good superspeedway program at Roush Fenway,” Buescher said. “I just need to try to position myself in a good spot at the end of the race to get a win.”

The race is scheduled to take the green flag at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 4, and for the first time in NASCAR history the NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Daytona International Speedway will be broadcast on the NBC Sports Network. Check your local listings for exact time and channel in your area.

Adam Sinclair
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