NASCAR at the Daytona road course: How to watch, predictions and starting lineup

Kurt Busch is one of a handful of drivers who has raced the Daytona road course, which is replacing NASCAR’s traditional event at Watkins Glen International on the schedule due to the coronavirus pandemic. The advice Busch is heeding this weekend, though, is to keep it simple.

“It’s going to be a good challenge,” Busch said. “There’s probably only going to be two pit stops and there’s not going to be much that you’re gonna change on the car, so you just gotta keep all four tires on the asphalt.”

Busch has twice competed in the Rolex 24 on the same course, as have other Cup drivers such as Busch’s brother Kyle this year, as well as Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick, Brendan Gaughan, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth and a few other. But no driver will have a clear advantage without practice or qualifying rounds before Sunday’s race, the Go Bowling 235.

There will be a newly added chicane on the frontstretch at the exit of Turn 4, making the course 14 turns and 3.61-miles long, according to NASCAR. Teams will also be using a high downforce 750 horsepower engine package, in addition to the chicane, in order to provide the best combination of “vehicle performance and safety,” NASCAR’s senior vice president of racing innovation John Probst said last month.

Last weekend’s back-to-back race winner and this weekend’s pole-sitter Harvick said he has “no freaking clue” where he’s going heading into Turn 1. That seems to be the sentiment of the entire field.

“From a crew chief standpoint, I have anxiety,” former Hendrick crew chief and “NASCAR on NBC” analyst Steve Letarte told The Observer this week. “We’ve seen the ROVAL, which is a combination of slow areas and fast areas, but that’s on a whole other level, because you go to Daytona and I expect the speeds to be well over 185 or 190 miles an hour. Then the banking at Daytona is so drastically steep that the loads on the car are crazy.”

Letarte said that if he were preparing for the Daytona road course as a crew chief, he would expect his driver to race conservatively early and learn the track, then adjust after the first stage.

“Anybody who thinks they’re going to hit bulls-eye, is going to be mistaken,” Letarte said. “So, more than anything, just keep your car on the track both with the setup and with your strategy.”

Letarte and his “NASCAR on NBC” co-analyst and future hall of famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. conceded that for drivers and teams on the playoff bubble, such as William Byron (26 points above the cutoff), Erik Jones (26 points behind the cutoff), Jimmie Johnson (minus-26) and Tyler Reddick (minus-36), offensive racing is better than playing it safe with only four races remaining before the postseason.

“I think if you’re conservative with the setup and take a car there that’s safe, you might not actually make the points,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “You might just flat get outrun.”

Byron said the setup for the four Hendrick cars will be similar to one another for Sunday’s race. Many drivers, Byron included, have been preparing for the new course on either their simulator rigs and on iRacing’s scanned digital version of the rack. It should give drivers a slight advantage, but Byron said he’s still planning to ease into the race.

“Luckily we have that competition caution early in the race so I’ll probably take it easy to start, try to understand the track,” Byron said. “I think there’s going to be a lot of learning that happens in the first 10 laps.”

WHO WILL WIN AT THE DAYTONA ROAD COURSE?

In addition to teams getting knocked out early, the unknowns of the course could have another effect at the finish: A wild-card win.

That could mean any of those playoff bubble drivers (Byron, Jones, Johnson or Reddick) or possibly one of the three drivers below them in points — Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace and Michael McDowell — sneak out a victory.

And then there are the Busch brothers. Neither driver has a win yet this season but both have plenty of road course racing experience. Kurt has six top-10 finishes in the last eight road course races, while Kyle leads the series with road course wins (two at Sonoma and two at Watkins Glen). Although both drivers sit more than 130 points above the playoff cutoff in points and have experience at Daytona’s road course, it’s another weekend without practice, which the elder Busch said has hurt them this season.

“We miss practice,” Kurt Busch said. “We miss that feel in the car to know this is not the right way to go. This is the right way to go. And we haven’t been able to capitalize on that with no practice, so it’s been tough.”

Like the Busch brothers, Chase Elliott and Martin Truex Jr. have had road course experience and success. Elliott won two of the three road course races last year — at Watkins Glen and the ROVAL at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Truex Jr. has three wins at Sonoma and one at Watkins Glen. Elliott is leading most betting pools, with +400 odds at DraftKings.

WEATHER FORECAST AT DAYTONA BEACH, FL.

It’s not looking pretty in Daytona Beach for any day of NASCAR’s racing-filled weekend. Friday’s ARCA race was put under a lightning delay, and thunderstorms are expected to continue throughout the weekend, potentially impacting races Saturday (Xfinity) and Sunday (Trucks and Cup). There is a 60% chance of precipitation and thunderstorms starting Saturday morning, according to the National Weather Service, which will likely continue into the week.

“We may as well throw rain tires on our cars in 2020 just to say we checked that box,” Kurt Busch said.

HOW TO WATCH NASCAR AT THE DAYTONA ROAD COURSE

• Race: Go Bowling 235

• Distance: 235 miles, 65 laps (stages end on Laps 15, 30, 65)

• When: Sunday, 3 p.m.

• TV: NBC (broadcast starts at 2:30 p.m.)

• Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

• Worth Mentioning: Multiple teams announced new sponsorship deals this week, including the Roush Fenway Racing’s No. 6 team and driver Ryan Newman (Guaranteed Rate), Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 88 team and driver Alex Bowman (Acronis) and Richard Petty Motorsports’ No. 43 team and driver Bubba Wallace (Columbia Sportswear and DoorDash). “Being vocal about what’s going on in the world has created opportunities for partners,” Wallace said about his increased interest from sponsors.

NASCAR AT THE DAYTONA ROAD COURSE LINEUP

Alexandra Andrejev

The Charlotte Observer

NASCAR and Charlotte FC beat reporter Alex Andrejev joined The Observer in January 2020 following an internship at The Washington Post. She is a two-time APSE award winner for her NASCAR beat coverage and National Motorsports Press Association award winner. She is the host of McClatchy’s podcast “Payback” about women’s soccer. Support my work with a digital subscription