NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Daytona: Coke Zero 400 at a glance

This week’s race

Coke Zero 400

What: 160 laps (400 miles)

Where: Daytona International Speedway, a 2.5-mile banked oval in Daytona Beach, Fla.

When: 7:45 p.m. Sunday

TV: NBC

Radio: Motor Racing Network

Last year’s winner: Aric Almirola

Also this week: Subway Firecracker 250, Xfinity Series, Daytona International Speedway, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, NBCSN.

Worth mentioning: The official debut of the “Daytona Rising” track redesign is in February so there will be some visible signs of construction. The main grandstands will include about 50,000 of the new seats in the areas of Turn 1 and Turn 4. The middle of the stands is virtually empty now with another 50,000 seats yet to be put in place.

Who’s Hot/Who’s Not

HOT

Kyle Busch: The hard part is over. Now begins the slightly less-hard part of getting in the top 30 in points.

Clint Bowyer: Close generally doesn’t mean much in racing, but Bowyer did earn Michael Waltrip Racing its first top-five finish of the season.

Jimmie Johnson: Had a chance to win a road-course race – something he has done only once in his incredible career.

Sam Hornish Jr.: Just his second top-10 finish of the season.

David Mayhew: Led the first two and last two laps in his K&N Pro Series West win at Sonoma.

NOT

AJ Allmendinger: Sonoma’s pole winner sounded particularly frustrated with his car’s performance in the race.

Jeff Gordon: Gordon’s team swapped setups in the middle of the race – you don’t see that every day.

Martin Truex Jr.: Wrecked and finished 42nd. His first really bad race of the year.

Confederate flag: Hopefully, its appearance at NASCAR races soon will be a thing of the past.

Jim Utter

This story was originally published July 2, 2015 at 6:23 PM with the headline "NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Daytona: Coke Zero 400 at a glance."