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Articles
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Chris Buescher Begins Sunday Ninth At Daytona
Chris Buescher has always been pretty solid at tracks like Daytona. The RFK Racing driver starts Sunday next to Brad Keselowski for the Daytona 500. He has enjoyed a few top-five runs on the 2.5-mile track. Last year, he started outside of Row 2 but ended up 16th. There was that close call in 2020 […]
Chris Wassel 2 years ago
Daniel Suarez Starts Next To Ross Chastain On Sunday
Down around Row 12, Daniel Suarez will begin the Daytona 500 with a familiar face, err car, next to him. The Trackhouse Racing driver gets to start his engines next to Ross Chastain. Suarez has never finished on the lead lap in any Daytona race. That includes five 500's, where the No. 99 car ended […]
Chris Wassel 2 years ago
Ross Chastain Begins From Middle Of The Pack Sunday
Ross Chastain ended last season second in the NASCAR Championship to Joey Logano. This season, the TrackHouse Racing driver enters Daytona from the 23rd starting position for Sunday's race. He started off his career with some promising results on the 2.5-mile superspeedway. Unfortunately, the past three efforts have all ended prematurely (two crashes, one engine […]
Chris Wassel 2 years ago
Kevin Harvick Loving Life Ahead Of Final Daytona 500
Kevin Harvick is enjoying the week leading up to the Daytona 500. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver starts Sunday from the 13th position. Harvick carried okay speed but was still 0.58 seconds behind Alex Bowman in qualifying. In practices, he appeared to have some long-run grip. Also, there were a few sub 50-second laps mixed in. […]
Chris Wassel 2 years ago
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. May Struggle This Time At Daytona
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. endured a rough qualifying session and even tougher Duel in the No. 47 Chevy. The JTG Daugherty Racing driver will begin Daytona 31st on Sunday as his car just never got moving. It began with those 50.5 second laps in qualifying and seemingly got worse when it came to racing. Laps got […]
Chris Wassel 2 years ago
Bubba Wallace Can Move Up The Field At Daytona
Bubba Wallace has a little work to do on Sunday. He begins the Daytona 500 from the 15th position for 23XI Racing. The No. 23 car did qualify 11th but his Duel result was an okay for his standards 7th. Wallace has three top-five results in his previous six races at Daytona including the second […]
Chris Wassel 2 years ago
Brad Keselowski In Good Position At Daytona 500
Quietly, Brad Keselowski managed his way into a top-10 starting position for the Daytona 500 on Sunday. His RFK Racing teammate Chris Buescher is right there at ninth. Keselowski even finished fourth in Duel 2. This was after an 18th-place qualifying effort on Wednesday. It did seem the No. 6 Ford gained more grip and […]
Chris Wassel 2 years ago
Michael McDowell Steady Again At Daytona
Michael McDowell begins his quest Sunday for another Daytona 500 from the 11th position. The Front Row Motorsports driver qualified 24th and placed in the top five at the Duels. Gradually, his speed improved throughout every interval of the 60-lap Duel race on Thursday night. The No.34 car has finished in the top-15 every single […]
Chris Wassel 2 years ago
Ryan Blaney Tries Again For Win At Daytona
Ryan Blaney did everything right but win in 2022. At the Daytona 500, the Team Penske driver arguably was too unselfish. He helped teammate Austin Cindric to a win when Blaney probably could have won. Blaney qualified seventh on Wednesday and will start seventh on Sunday thanks to his result at the Duels. The No. […]
Chris Wassel 2 years ago
Can Austin Cindric Possibly Repeat At Daytona?
Austin Cindric held his own in the Duel race on Thursday night. As a result, Cindric starts sixth for Sunday afternoon's Daytona 500. The Team Penske driver ended up second in Duel 2 and qualified 0.46 seconds behind Alex Bowman. Cindric's No. 2 car looked quite fast and got a big push toward the end […]
Chris Wassel 2 years ago
Christopher Bell Not Scared By Ford Cars At Daytona
Christopher Bell enjoys racing at Daytona. During a stacked Duel 1, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver nearly got past Joey Logano. Bell came up 0.018 seconds short but showed the push needed to compete at the Daytona 500. Two years ago, Bell led 32 laps before fading late and finishing 16th. The past three races […]
Chris Wassel 2 years ago
Martin Truex Jr. Starts Daytona From 16th Position
Martin Truex Jr. showed well enough during Duel 2 on Thursday night. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver combined that with a decent qualifying run. As a result, Truex Jr. starts the Daytona 500 16th on Sunday. His No. 19 car routinely turned in laps right around 50 seconds in practice and qualifying. Truex Jr. settled […]
Chris Wassel 2 years ago
Chase Elliott Seems To Sneak Up At Daytona
Chase Elliott does not qualify very fast at Daytona. He was almost a half second off Alex Bowman and Kyle Larson on Wednesday night. However, the Hendrick Motorsports Racing driver inched his way up the field in the Bluegreen Vacations Duel on Thursday night. Duel 2 was not as stacked as Duel 1. Despite that, […]
Chris Wassel 2 years ago
Aric Almirola Begins Fourth At Daytona Sunday
Aric Almirola almost walked away from full-time NASCAR racing at the end of the season. It's a good thing he did not. Almirola and his Stewart-Haas Racing Ford led 17 laps in all which included the final two laps. The No. 10 driver held off Austin Cindric and Chase Elliott by a mere 0.122 seconds […]
Chris Wassel 2 years ago
Joey Logano Starts Inside Row 2 For Daytona 500
Joey Logano had quite a ride in the first Bluegreen Vacations Duel on Thursday night. The Team Penske driver led 25 laps including the one that counted. Logano held off Christopher Bell by a mere 0.018 seconds. Those Ford cars were fast all night. The No. 22 car did qualify fifth on Wednesday night. With […]
Chris Wassel 2 years ago
Kyle Larson Starts Next To Alex Bowman For Daytona 500
Kyle Larson qualified second on Wednesday night, locking him into the field for the Daytona 500. Larson had won the pole three previous times in a row at Daytona International Speedway. The Hendrick Motorsports Racing driver has an interesting history on the 2.5-mile track. Larson, since driving the No. 5 Chevy, has one top-10 result. […]
Chris Wassel 2 years ago
Tom Kim Up And Down Coming Into This Week
Tom Kim has had an eventful four tournaments so far this year. The South Korean golfer has a fifth and sixth which is good. Kim missed the cut though at the Sony and then finished tied for 50th last week at Phoenix. What does one make of the golfer heading to this week? Kim comes […]
Chris Wassel 2 years ago
Sungjae Im Steady Again Heading To Genesis
Sungjae Im did not play spectacular last week but the South Korean golfer was effective. That resulted in another top-ten at 11-under par. Im shot 67-69 on the weekend to end up tied for sixth. His metrics with scrambling and sand saves ranks in the top 25 and Im is in the top 50 in […]
Chris Wassel 2 years ago
Sam Burns Keeps Raising Play As Genesis Looms
Sam Burns bounced back the past two weeks in a solid way. The American golfer capped his week off in Phoenix with a final round 68 to keep him tied for sixth. It was his second consecutive top 15 result and he shot an identical 64-68 to boot. Burns putts like few golfers when his […]
Chris Wassel 2 years ago
Tony Finau Figures Into Genesis Mix This Week
Tony Finau keeps knocking on the door but on Sunday, no one let him in at Phoenix. His final round 71 knocked him just outside the top ten. Still a tied for 14th is not bad for the American golfer. He did lose a playoff a few years ago to Max Homa at the Genesis. […]
Chris Wassel 2 years ago
Can Scottie Scheffler Do It Again At The Genesis?
Scottie Scheffler was expected to contend last week, but the new world No. 1 fired off a 65 to win the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Scheffler fended off Nick Taylor by two strokes and Jon Rahm by five. The key for Scheffler involved a small tweak to his driving technique, which has added at least […]
Chris Wassel 2 years ago
Rickie Fowler Has Good History At WM Phoenix Open
Rickie Fowler has seen many ups and downs in his professional career. Is right now one of those up waves? Fowler finished tied for 11th at the Farmers Insurance Open. This 34-year-old version is not the same swashbuckling player of his younger days. However, Fowler did win the 2019 WM Phoenix Open and lost in […]
Chris Wassel 2 years ago
Sam Burns Looks To Keep Improving At Phoenix
Sam Burns played a lot better at the American Express compared to his 2023 calendar debut in Hawaii. Maybe, Burns just did not like the birdie-centric Hawaiian course. Whatever it was, the American golfer nearly ended up in the top-ten. With all the star power this week at Phoenix, it may be a challenge for […]
Chris Wassel 2 years ago
Scottie Scheffler Could Stay Near The Top At Phoenix
Scottie Scheffler has played five tournaments this season and has finished inside the top 10 three times. That includes a T7 at the Sentry and a near top-10 finish at the American Express. The golfer from the United States has all the tools to win at Phoenix. If a little less star power was in […]
Chris Wassel 2 years ago
Hayden Buckley Poised For Rebound At WM Phoenix Open
Hayden Buckley chalked up the second round at the Farmers Insurance Open to just having one of those bad runs. The American golfer shot an 80 to miss the cut and go home early. For as great as Buckley played at the Sony Open, he looked easily worse a mere couple of weeks later. It […]
Chris Wassel 2 years ago
Matthew NeSmith Still Trying To Find Fall Form
Matthew NeSmith wishes the calendar would go back to the Fall last year. Since then, the American golfer has struggled mightily. Missing three straight cuts was bad enough, but last year NeSmith did not bounce back. He ended up tied for 55th which was some progress. Too many rounds in the 70's and lack of […]
Chris Wassel 2 years ago
Sungjae Im Poised To Keep Rolling In Phoenix
Can Sungjae Im keep things rolling at the WM Phoenix Open? A couple of weeks ago, the South Korean golfer tied for fourth at the Farmers Insurance Open. Other than missing the cut at The Sony Open, Im has shown an ability to stay in round and contend in tournaments. With a stocked field in […]
Chris Wassel 2 years ago
Tom Kim Expects To Contend At Phoenix This Week
Tom Kim figures to be in the mix at the WM Phoenix Open this week. The South Korean golfer is one of the best when it comes to strokes gained overall. He ranks eighth in 16 measured rounds so far in 2023. Kim's only real glaring weakness is some erratic putting. Normally he is above […]
Chris Wassel 2 years ago
Joey Logano Facing Different Reality At Los Angeles
Joey Logano comes into 2023 as the defending NASCAR series champion. Also, Logano won the Busch Light Clash At The Coliseum last year. After Saturday, the Team Penske driver has a little work to do. He spun out in practice and qualifying ended up a so-so 17th. Logano's No. 22 car was not very fast […]
Chris Wassel 2 years ago
Ross Chastain And The Clash On Sunday
Ross Chastain had the 12th fastest car in qualifying on Saturday night. The TrackHouse Racing driver brought his No. 1 car with decent practice results. That may help for the heats where the Coliseum track expects to be 10-15 degrees warmer at a minimum. It will be intriguing to see what happens on the longer […]
Chris Wassel 2 years ago