Cup Series rookie Chase Briscoe, who will pilot a Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing in his first Daytona 500 start, tipped that he’ll divide his time between learning the draft and working with teammates before devising a plan of attack when it comes down to crunch time.
“I think it’s a mix of things, for me,” Briscoe noted. “I think I just need to learn the Cup car in general, but I’m definitely going to rely on my teammates as much as I can. Out of all the guys, I feel like Kevin Harvick is certainly the guy I’ve wanted to learn from, so that will be good just being able to hopefully rely on him.
“Ford always does a really good job of trying to work together with the One Ford mentality, but at the same time I have to figure out how to race around other cars no matter what manufacturer they are and get comfortable, so that will be the primary goal, at least for me, going into the race. But you can’t really plan these things too far in advance; it all comes down to who’s around you at the end of 500 miles.”
Chevrolet driver Tyler Reddick was coy when asked his plans by SPEED SPORT, choosing not to reveal his cards too soon but hinting at wanting to team up with the Bowtie Brigade when the chance arises.
“If I talk about it too much it isn’t much of a game, right? We all know the manufacturers and the shared interest, whether it’s Chevrolet or Ford of Toyota, to get to victory lane,” said Reddick. “Obviously, there’s going to be some teamwork there, as there is in other aspects of racing in NASCAR. So, it will come into play. It’s no secret. But it’s all about yourself getting to victory lane and you’re going to do whatever is going to help get you there.
“If that means working with Chevrolets, then yeah, obviously I want to work with them.”
But Reddick’s Chevrolet stablemate Kurt Busch may have summed it up best when he told reporters what to expect Sunday afternoon following his qualifying run Wednesday night.
“You have to have a car that can do a lot of things,” noted Busch, the 2017 winner of The Great American Race. “You have to be able to race hard in the draft, be able to take two tires, or fuel only; you have to adapt to a lot of things at Daytona. It’s not all about just raw speed.
“At the end, guys will try and do whatever it takes, because you’re racing for a win in the Daytona 500.”
That chance to stand in victory lane on stock car racing’s grandest day is something that only comes around one time each year.
Who will earn that honor this time?
Find out when coverage of the 63rd Daytona 500 goes live at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.