February 17, 2023 | By Lee Spencer

Wreckers for checkers? Aggression is the name of the game at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.—If there were a surefire method to winning the Daytona 500, every driver would approach the race with the same strategy.

But when the green flag falls on the 65th running of the Great American Race, only six of the 40 competitors in Sunday’s race have experienced the feeling of winning NASCAR’s most prestigious race. And only three of the eight Cup champions in the field have a Harley J. Earl trophy in their collections.

For the third time in his Cup career, Alex Bowman will lead the field to green on Sunday. However, winning the pole is hardly an advantage on the 2.5-mile high-banked speedway. In the last 35 years, only Jeff Gordon (1999) and Dale Jarrett (2000) have won the Daytona 500 from the pole.

Bowman has started on the front row in the last five 500s. He’s only finished on the lead lap once. The last time the No. 48 Chevy won the pole for the Daytona 500, in 2021, Bowman lasted just 13 laps.

So what does he need to do to complete the race—let alone win?

“If I knew the answer to that question we would have finished already,” Bowman said. “So I’m going to do my best to make it happen and hopefully we can. It’s been tough. We’ve had a lot of really fast race cars down here and hopefully, we can put ourselves in a better position to finish the job on Sunday.

“Some guys have been able to figure out how to be really good at speedway racing and consistently be there at the end, so obviously there is something to it. Just have to figure that out on my end as well.”

The previous driver of the No. 48 Chevy—Jimmie Johnson—returned to Daytona this week following a two-year absence. After qualifying on Wednesday and advancing to the feature on time after finishing 14th in the first Duel on Thursday, the two-time Daytona 500 winner noticed a distinct difference in the race dynamic.

“I think the blocking is probably one of the biggest issues, and it’s also one of the most important things to get right to maintain track position,” Johnson said. “I think that’s what’s changed the most from the years that I’ve been a Cup driver is the late blocks and the aggression of the blocks.

“We’ve had variations of pushing and being able to slam draft, bump draft, whatever it might be. The cars still don’t really like that. I was able to do some of that tonight and get a feel for it.”

Johnson topped the speed chart in the first Daytona Cup practice on Friday with a lap of 194.225 mph. After racing in a pack with the Next Gen for 60 laps on Thursday, he witnessed the nuances of the new car firsthand.

“It drives like a stock car,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t drive like an INDYCAR, thank god… we know how that went (laughs).”

He also witnessed how quickly things can go wrong on superspeedways when Daniel Suarez clipped Kyle Busch in the second Duel shipping the No. 8 Chevy into the backstretch grass. Not only did the incident knock Busch out of the lead and the race, but the Richard Childress Racing team was also forced to pull out a backup car.

“You still need a pretty delicate touch to pull it off,” Johnson said of drafting with the new car. “I think that’s what happened last night with the No. 8 car and the No. 99. Just too much energy and just gets the car toggling from side-to-side and around it goes.

“I don’t think it’s intentional. I don’t think the crashes at the end of these races are that you’re not trying to crash someone. You’re trying to win, right? So you’re trying to block to protect; you’re trying to shove somebody to make your lane go. It comes from a good place, but sadly it tears up a lot of race cars.”

Brad Keselowski was one turn away from potentially winning the 500 in 2021 when Michael McDowell hooked him entering Turn 4 on the last lap.

“Daytona has its own set of rules that everyone plays by,” Keselowski said. “That’s what makes the race so special. I look at the end of the race at Daytona, and you have to ask yourself, ‘What am I willing to do to win this race?’

“More often than not—especially over the last three years—it’s taken wrecking the leader to win the 500. The reality is if you go back the last three years, maybe four of the last six years, you’ve had to wreck the leader to win the race. It’s just a different set of rules.”

Keselowski has six wins at Talladega but just one at Daytona in the 2016 summer contest.

“It just feels like Daytona is a harder race to win… or a harder race for me to win,” Keselowski said. “You need to be willing to make bolder moves here at Daytona. I think drivers are willing to do more for the 500 than anywhere else. That tends to lead to a lot of accidents you can’t control.

“I’ve had some good races and bad races on plate tracks–and everything in-between. I’m just really hungry to bring this one home.”