Month: February 2026

Daytona International Speedway (Daytona Beach, Fla.) — Most NASCAR drivers grew up dreaming of winning the Daytona 500. What’s it like for a driver to live out those dreams? Ahead of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, we talked to all the current full-time drivers who have won the Daytona 500 to find out. And we asked several of those who haven’t won the Daytona 500 to see what they would expect it to be like. We’re talking about what makes the Daytona 500 win emotional? Here is what drivers who have won it told me in interviews in the last month: Austin Cindric (2022): “It’s the biggest race of the year, but also so much was going into my rookie season, as far as the car, and working with a new group of people taking over the [No.] 2 car and the [No.] 2 car having never won the race. I feel like there’s a long list of reasons that make that special, but it’s definitely been the best day of my life so far.” Austin Dillon (2018): “I think a lot of things at Daytona, from my family standpoint, probably would be the biggest. It was 20 years between the time that Dale [Earnhardt] won his 500 [and] the night before having dinner with my grandfather. And we came back [to] the track and he said, ‘Hey, if you win tomorrow, you got to slide through the grass.’ And then, lo and behold, it happens. Just being there with my family and Victory Lane was special. Denny Hamlin (2016, 2019, 2020): “The prestige of it. What’s made it special to me is how we won it. Just having the two closest finishes in that race’s history. Also, 10 years ago, when we won it, the racing was so different. You could really make a lot of moves and whatnot. So just the art and the chess of it back then and how you made your moves, and it’s just different now, not better or worse, but just different. And so I really took a lot of pride in what it took to win those races and the moves that we made to make it happen. … The 2016 [win] was more of a shock, and, obviously, the 2019 one certainly was special for the [J.D. Gibbs] family reasons.” Joey Logano (2015): “It’s the Daytona 500. I don’t think you have to put words behind what it means. Everybody knows — if you know, you know. If you’re a NASCAR fan, you grew up watching it, you know that Daytona 500. Even if you’re not a fan, you know that Daytona 500. It’s a race that everybody wants to win so bad that, yeah, it’s an emotional victory. Because it’s The Great American Race. There’s no other race like it. And I don’t think we have to explain that to anyone. I think it’s just known at this point.” William Byron (2024, 2025): “I think it’s just the magnitude of what everyone feels like the race is. It just seems like it has that meaning to it, the magnitude to it. And you just have more of a high from winning it.” Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (2023): “I think winning the Daytona 500, it’s a feeling like no other win you can have, I guess, except maybe, winning the championship in a single race like Phoenix in the old system. You put a lot of effort into it. There’s a lot of people that have gone their whole career trying to win that race 20-plus times and never got it done. And for us, it was a single-car team. And there’s just a lot of things that go into it. And I definitely want to win it again so that I can enjoy it a little bit more. It was such a blur at the moment. I definitely enjoyed it, but I would like to enjoy it just a little bit more.” Michael McDowell (2021): “I think what made it significant and emotional, besides it being the biggest race of your life, is how long it took me to get there and how much grinding and just up and down and different teams and just trying to stay in the sport. It made it super special to get my first win and have it be the Daytona 500. It was just an amazing feeling.” [NASCAR: Daytona 500 Winners by Year] Now it’s time to hear from some of those who haven’t won the Daytona 500 and why they think it would be emotional. Kyle Busch (0-for-20): I don’t know. I remember winning at Las Vegas, my home track, in 2009, and it just being such a big moment for me, being my home track — wanting to win there so hard, and it felt really, really cool to do that. And so I can’t imagine what a Daytona 500 would feel like. So maybe being older nowadays and having a family, you might see a tear. Who knows? Brad Keselowski (0-for-17): When I think of the Daytona 500, the first thing I think of is it’s the last crown jewel for me. And to win all the jewels is just, to me, it’s the NASCAR accomplishment level. Over the years, the championship format has changed, and you win on — It takes a lot to do that, don’t get me wrong — it’s just different now than what it used to be. Winning all the crown jewels is like, ‘Hey, I won the biggest races with the biggest crowds and the biggest purses. That’s pretty cool.’” Kyle Larson (0-for-12): “Well, I think for me, if I was to win the Daytona 500, it would [be emotional] because I’ve not really had much success on superspeedways until here lately. I feel like we can taste a win. So I always feel like that adds excitement once you finally do win. I believe this is like my 13th attempt at the Daytona 500, so it’d be awesome. It’s the final kind of crown jewel left for us and our team to win. So that would also be great. Hopefully we can do it.” AJ Allmendinger (0-for-12): “The fact that I’d probably retire that night, right there. I’m done. Can’t get any better than that. That would be a drop-mic moment? Yeah, probably it’d have to be. Just peace out.” Ryan Blaney (0-for-11): “Obviously the significance of that race. Everyone knows how important it is. But I think for my if I try to dive deeper into the personal side, I remember going down there a lot as a kid to watch my dad compete in it. That was back when they were there for two weeks. We’d have a lot of family time. And I got to see that atmosphere as a young kid, and got to watch my dad go through the competition side of it, and how emotional that is, the ups and downs of that race. My parents always come to the 500, so if we could do it, and my dad and my mom’s there, and my sisters — we grew up going to that race a lot. I think that’d be a pretty neat full-circle moment for me personally. And obviously the team stuff, that’s amazing too. But from a personal side, that’d be really special.” Chase Elliott (0-for-10): “I think just crossing that off the list. It’s a huge thing, I think, for anybody’s career. And there’s been great drivers that have never won it. So I can’t say that it is going to define your career in totality, but I do think it’s a race that everyone, when you look back on this deal, you’re going to want to look back and be able to hang your hat on that event. There’s that aspect of it. For me, Dad [Bill Elliott] having won a 500 or two and it being one of the crown-jewel races — to join him would also be special for me personally. Great event. Would love to have my name on it one day Daniel Suarez (0-for-8): “Every time that you get to February and you go through the tunnel in Daytona, you know that you are going to have a shot to win probably one of the most important races of your life. And for me, coming from Mexico, it will be extremely special, adding my name to the list of drivers, that very short list that have come from a different country, to win this amazing race, it would be like a dream. And I know that I have as good a shot as anyone else out there.” Bubba Wallace (0-for-8): “I think just winning it, having your family there, having your team there, winning the first points race of the year after trying for so long. This will be my ninth Daytona 500. I’ve come close a couple times. So to finally pull through, I think that’s just enough to make a grown man cry right there.”​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

It’s mid-February, which means the NASCAR field is back in action and, this year, it means the return of Ram to the Craftsman Truck Series. During Friday night’s broadcast of the 2026 Fresh From Florida 250 on FS1, UFC CEO Dana White joined Jamie Little, Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano to discuss how he helped Ram return to the Craftsman Truck Series. “Ram, the CEO, Tim [Kuniskis] reached out to me and came out to Las Vegas and talked to me about helping them bring Ram back to NASCAR,” White said about helping bring Ram back to the Truck Series. “He liked a lot of the stuff that we’ve done in building our business. I love challenges, so I decided to do it and here I am at my first Daytona, and I actually have some skin in the game and care who wins the race.” Ram first appeared in the Truck Series at the sport’s 1995 inception, with Bobby Hamilton later winning the 2004 Truck Series championship, the first title for Ram in the Truck Series. Ram left the Truck Series after the brand closed up shop in 2013 but has returned for the 2026 season with five trucks in the series after partnering with Kaulig Racing. White was also the executive producer and provided commentary — along with the aforementioned Kuniskis and Kaulig Racing Team principals Matt Kaulig and Chris Rice — for the show “Race for the Seat,” which was an eight-part show that aired on FOX networks, among other outlets. The series was based on racers battling to be a full-time driver for Kaulig-Ram in the 2026 Truck Series season. That driver turned out to be Timothy “Mini” Tyrrell, who finished the Fresh From Florida 250 in 19th place. Brenden Queen, Justin Haley and Daniel Dye are the other drivers racing for Kaulig-Ram this season, with rotating drivers taking up a fifth car. Friday night was a sensational start to the 2026 Craftsman Truck Series season, as the lead changed hands multiple times on the final lap, highlighted by Chandler Smith rocketing his way to first place and a win in the final seconds after an inside lane opened up. Giovanni Ruggiero finished in second place, followed by Christian Eckes in third. On Saturday, the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season commences with the United Rentals 300. On Sunday, it’s the Daytona 500 (1:30 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app) with “NASCAR RaceDay” going live at 11:30 a.m. ET.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

Daytona International Speedway (Daytona Beach, Fla.) — Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson says his last Cup race will be the 2027 Daytona 500. The NASCAR Hall of Famer has 83 career Cup wins in 700 starts. After retiring from full-time Cup racing following the 2020 season and embarking on a two-year INDYCAR career, 50-year-old Johnson has competed in the Daytona 500 every year since 2023 and is a two-time winner (2006, 2013). Johnson became the majority owner of Legacy Motor Club a couple of years ago, and he said his focus continues to be on the business side of the sport. “I’ve been very fortunate to accomplish more than I ever imagined in this sport,” Johnson said in a news release. “The last six years have given me the freedom to choose where I compete and more importantly, the clarity to understand where I’m needed most. It’s time to focus my energy on building a world class and unrivaled organization.” Johnson has only two Cup starts scheduled for this year — the Daytona 500 and the Cup street race on Naval Base Coronado in San Diego in June, a race near his hometown of El Cajon, California. Last year, Johnson finished third in the Daytona 500. “As a driver that moonlights, the restrictor-plate style of tracks is where you can be the most competitive,” Johnson said in a news conference Saturday morning. “This car is so different than any generation of car I’ve driven before. To show up at Kansas [Speedway] and think that you’re going to have a shot to win, even when I ran a nine-race schedule, it’s just not a truth that can really be seen or realized. … I want to show up and be competitive. To have my last race in an event where I can truly win could be that cool walk-off home run.” Johnson left open competing in other NASCAR divisions and other motorsports events. But he won’t compete in the Cup Series after the 2027 Daytona 500. He also said his INDYCAR career is over, so there is no chance of another Indianapolis 500 run. [JIMMIE JOHNSON: California Racer on Living Abroad] “The commitment it takes to be where I want to be in the field, I just I don’t have that in me anymore, and my focus and interest is truly building this race team,” Johnson said during his news conference. “And when I reflect on who I was as a 25-year-old kid jumping in that [No.] 48 [Hendrick] car, I was up to go to 0-hour 30 with this passion and energy to chase the day and do the best that I could. “I don’t have that passion for that part of life anymore, and that’s been a tough thing to kind of accept. And if I’m honest with myself, maybe the last year or two of driving, I was in that phase, but I had the best seat in the house driving for the best team. I was almost in denial of maybe what was going on. And it’s taken time. It took the two years in INDYCAR and the journey that I’ve been on now to really reflect on that and see it.” [DAYTONA 500: Starting lineup for NASCAR opener] Just how much has Johnson’s life changed? “I had four hours of sleep last night because we were at a sponsor event, and I was up all night doing e-mails. And then I was over at Home Depot this morning buying plants and furniture for our hospitality area in the driver-owner lot,” Johnson said. Legacy will expand from fielding two chartered cars to three next year. Johnson said he would run a fourth car, and the team indicated he will request the Daytona 500 open exemption provisional, which guarantees him a spot in the field as it did for the race Sunday. “As a team owner, I need to be on the sidelines on race day supporting our drivers and crews on the competition side and cultivating relationships that are crucial to the long-term growth of [Legacy],” Johnson said in the news release. “I also want to take the time to celebrate with fans throughout the season to show how grateful I am for their support throughout my career.”​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports