{"id":20058,"date":"2018-07-06T20:15:08","date_gmt":"2018-07-07T01:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=20058"},"modified":"2018-07-06T20:29:55","modified_gmt":"2018-07-07T01:29:55","slug":"nascar-friday-daytona-notebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/06\/nascar-friday-daytona-notebook\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Friday Daytona Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/b><\/p>\n

Kyle Busch: All the racers out there appreciated Chicagoland finish<\/b><\/p>\n

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2013 Former Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver Donnie Allison has never been one to mince words, and his opinion of the final-lap battle between Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson at Chicagoland last Sunday was no exception.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 Interstate Batteries Toyota, practices for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway on July 5, 2018 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Sarah Crabill\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cBest race I\u2019ve seen in five years,\u201d Allison declared during casual conversation with reporters on Thursday at Daytona International Speedway. \u201cThat\u2019s what they\u2019re supposed to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Larson parried with an aggressive charge through Turns 1 and 2, knocking Busch\u2019s Toyota into the outside wall at the exit of Turn 2. After Larson edged ahead, Busch buried his No. 18 Camry into Turn 3 and knocked Larson\u2019s No. 42 Chevrolet sideways.<\/p>\n

Busch\u2019s momentum carried him into the outside wall, but he bounced off, righted his car and sped to the finish line to win the race.<\/p>\n

How hard did Busch drive into the final pair of corners to get back to Larson\u2019s bumper?<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t recall,\u201d Busch quipped on Thursday evening, during Toyota\u2019s announcement of the introduction of the new Supra into NASCAR Xfinity Series competition next year. \u201cIt was pretty far\u2026 I wrecked three times\u2014I wrecked in (Turn) 2, I wrecked in 3 and I wrecked in 1 after the checkered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advised of Allison\u2019s comments, Busch was appreciative.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Kyle Larson, driver of the #42 Credit One Bank Chevrolet, gets into his car during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway on July 5, 2018 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s pretty cool,\u201d he said. \u201cAll the racers out there, all the people that know racing appreciated what that race was. A lot of other folks, casual fans that kind of watch the sport, didn\u2019t appreciate it for what it was, because they said it was just one guy ramming another out of the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, they take that little snidbit of (Turns) 3 and 4 and don\u2019t even look at 1 and 2, and it\u2019s like, they don\u2019t see the eye-for-an-eye-type of thing. You\u2019ve got to know what you\u2019re watching to appreciate it sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The eye-for-an-eye understanding explains why there was no bad blood between the drivers after the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason why Larson and I get along, and the reason why Larson and I can have a relationship and have respect for one another is because, at Bristol, I bumped him with five (laps) to go, and I gave him a chance to come back and get me back,\u201d Busch said. \u201cHe didn\u2019t get there. At Chicago, he bumped me and gave me an opportunity to come back for him, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

But Busch, like Allison, didn\u2019t mince words when it came to his principal rival in the Cup series, Brad Keselowski.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrad and I can\u2019t absolutely stand each other, or hate each other, because every time he runs into me, he (freakin\u2019) wrecks me, and I\u2019m out,\u201d Busch said. \u201cLike Watkins Glen that time (2012), there was not a chance for rebuttal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason why that was a great race to the end between him and (Marcos) Ambrose was because they battled it out. But every time, he just runs over me and wrecks me, so there\u2019s never a chance for that rebuttal. There\u2019s never that camaraderie with racing. It\u2019s just wrecking.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the eight times Busch and Larson have finished 1-2 in a NASCAR race, Busch has been the winner all eight times. It might be relevant to consider what happens to the camaraderie when Larson starts to win his fair share.<\/p>\n

DENNY HAMLIN: STAGE-BASED RACING GIVES ENTIRE SEASON A PLAYOFF FEEL<\/b><\/p>\n

Denny Hamlin is right to be concerned, but he also knows he can cure his anxiety with a couple of trips to Victory Lane.<\/p>\n

Entering Saturday night\u2019s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway (7 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Hamlin is eighth in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series standings, comfortably inside the cutoff for the Playoffs.<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DIS_MENCS_Hamlin_070618.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

But Hamlin has only two Playoff points to his credit, the result of a pair of stage wins, while four drivers\u2014Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr. and Clint Bowyer\u2014already have accumulated double-digit Playoff points, which Busch leading the way with 30.<\/p>\n

To Hamlin, that engenders an urgency to increase his Playoff point total over the next nine races.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, when your competitors are kind of racking up points here and there, it gives you that playoff feel really throughout the entire regular season, and that’s what we aimed for, right?\u201d Hamlin said. \u201cSo I think that it’s overall working.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith just a few guys logging a bunch of points right now, I think it makes more good cars in danger of missing the cut early on one of these cutoff races. You’ve got to be aware of that and make sure you don’t take these early rounds for granted, even though you know, based on speed, you should be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

SHORT STROKES<\/b><\/p>\n

Ryan Preece has run three NASCAR Xfinity Series races this season, but when rain washed out qualifying for Friday night\u2019s Coca-Cola Firecracker 250, Preece got the No. 1 starting spot based on the owner points accumulated by his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota\u2026<\/p>\n

The identity of Friday night\u2019s National Anthem singer was left \u201cTBD\u201d right up until race time\u2014for a good reason. Unbeknownst to NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer Steve O\u2019Donnell, his daughter, Shannon Rose O\u2019Donnell, was scheduled to sing. Steve O\u2019Donnell got the surprise as he was standing in race control. An accomplished singer, Shannon O\u2019Donnell is headed for Belmont University this fall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service   Kyle Busch: All the racers out there appreciated Chicagoland finish DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2013 Former Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver Donnie Allison has never been one to mince words, and his opinion of the final-lap battle between Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson at Chicagoland last Sunday was no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":20060,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[287,16],"class_list":["post-20058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-daytona-international-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/356577.jpg?fit=3930%2C2620&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-5dw","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20058"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20064,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20058\/revisions\/20064"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}