22nd Annual DAYTONA 500

Today will mark as the start of the 22nd Season of the Sony Cup Series as the series embarks on a new year with familiar faces in different places along with new faces taking the series by storm! This is DAYTONA 500 speedweeks and all 57 teams here for Daytona have been working months trying to prepare a race car fast enough to win the Daytona 500. Practice for the Great American Race begins today along with practice for the Sony Shootout. You'll see teams today in practice for the 500 practicing single car runs trying to get a good enough lap for Pole Day to sit on the Front Row!


It all begins now! The race to crowning a DAYTONA 500 begins with every team grinding every day from this day onward in the garages of Daytona Beach Florida to find a way to win the biggest race of them all.

HYPE

Dodd: "New team, new number, new pretty much new everything for me. I have no idea what this season is going to hold. But I do know this; I'm excited, and I'm ready to do everything I can to make these guys at Martin Motorsports proud. Let's get the 2018 Season started!!!"

Andreas:"Here we go, my final Daytona 500 as a driver is upon me. I want to go out as a winner in the race I won in my first start, but if that can't happen, I just wanna finish it. I don't think i have finished a single 500 since my return. I just wanna see that checkered flag after those 500 miles. Also I am looking forward to how AFRT will do this year. It has been an absolute thrill for me to work with Jeffery so far to get these cars where we need them to be along with our mechanics. This year will be huge for us, along with Ryan coming back. I can't wait to get started."

22nd Annual DAYTONA 500 Practice 1

1. #8 Dylan Schwallenberg 46.966
2. #25 Eric Demax 47.050
3. #28 James Silverfox 47.069
4. #99 Matthew Rodriguez 47.136
5. #88 Dillon Young 47.189
6. #95 Eric Burton 47.238
7. #93 Richard Johnson 47.243
8. #44 Jeffery Lynn 47.247
9. #24 Charles Sandfer 47.260
10. #27 Carson Scott 47.283
11. #26 Josh Crash 47.289
12. #3 PJ Williams 47.323
13. #10 Cody Llamas 47.326
14. #07 James Shelly 47.338
15. #4 Luis Hernandez 47.346
16. #1 Steven Jenkins 47.421
17. #81 Bradley Bishop Jr. 47.424
18. #34 Luke Martin 47.492
19. #94 Caleb Hoffman 47.515
20. #77 Casey Lester 47.547
21. #45 Ryan Acosta 47.558
22. #52 Jeff James 47.584
23. #13 Nick Pericles 47.587
24. #38 Dajon Weeks 47.596
25. #78 Sean Perkins 47.617
26. #46 Charlie Smith 47.637
27. #2 Jordan Fisher 47.639
28. #5 Jordan Davis 47.716
29. #48 Nick Mace 47.729
30. #11 Ryan Griffin 47.733
31. #31 Sean Harple 47.755
32. #97 Jake Baskinger 47.759
33. #96 Garrett Sydnor 47.797
34. #15 Chris Dodd 47.824
35. #6 Dom Caps 47.849
36. #17 Jesse Turner 47.890
37. #55 Levi Pascoe 47.898
38. #92 Jeffery Finguy 47.947
39. #19 D.J. Kurtis 47.966
40. #76 William Brock 47.966
41. #43 Andreas Allen 48.066
42. #22 Zachary Fitzwater 48.073
43. #41 Kyle Collins 48.167
44. #90 Kyle Basaglia 48.206
45. #0 John Arndt 48.372
46. #21 Zaedin Davidson 48.733
47. #9 Hayden Kline 48.837
48. #98 Bobby Jones 48.918
49. #32 Stephen Pollard III 49.059
50. #36 Jonny Gardner 49.175
51. #00 Angel Navarro 49.181
52. #74 Milton Cambell 49.187
53. #37 Cole Deaver 49.413
54. #61 Matt Daleo 49.440
55. #64 Ember Ross 49.461
56. #85 Doug Lockrow 49.577
57. #53 Jon Bunnell 49.669

Jordan Fisher: Glad to be back for Daytona Speedweeks. Ran a few laps and the car definitely feels better and more stable than last year. Can't wait to trade some paint

Starting Grid for 2018 Sony Shootout

1. #44 Jeffery Lynn
2. #52 Jeff James
3. #22 Zachary Fitzwater
4. #43 Andreas Allen
5. #76 William Brock
6. #31 Sean Harple
7. #2 Jacob Hart
8. #1 Steven Jenkins
9. #48 Nick Mace
10. #46 Charlie Smith
11. #97 Jake Baskinger
12. #41 Kyle Collins
13. #34 Luke Martin
14. #24 Charles Sandfer
15. #19 D.J. Kurtis
16. #38 Dajon Weeks
17. #17 Jesse Turner
18. #10 Cody Llamas
19. #28 James Silverfox

HYPE

#22n2thefront

The Twin 125's will be the deciding factor of who makes this years DAYTONA 500! Who will race in and who will be sent to the house?

Perkins: It was nice to be in the duel with people that actually had common sense. Duel #1 had the better drivers, and it showed. Figures that Johnson would cause a massive crash a handful of laps into his duel. With his lack of talent, it honestly did not surprise me.

Perkins: And before anyone says anything about him starting on the front row, it doesn't take that much talent to put your foot to the floor and turn left.

Made it in the 500 both Fisher Motorsports Cars made it in the show

Bobby: Holy crap! We made the Daytona 500! This is the greatest day of my life! Can't thank the guys enough at Hero Motorsports for making this happen.


Bobby: I don't know what are you talking about, Perkins, but that wreck was all on Ryan Griffin.

D. Kurtis: "We pretty much ran our own race within the main pack after avoiding the big wreck, a solid finish and a solid starting spot compared to what we originally would've had."

J. Kurtis: "SON OF A BITCH! I'm conflicted. So happy that Schwallenberg made it to the race itself, but I'm very frustrated in what transpired in Duel 2. Idiots on the race track getting to aggressive so early, and it took out Hernandez early on, costing us a car that could've potentially made the 500. It's really frustrating to see such an avoidable wreck occur. We work our tails off for a reason and stupid things like these happen, costing us as a startup cup team in a hole. It's part of the sport, so its normal. Just frustrated. Let's just see how Schwal fares out at Daytona."

Perkins: Duel #2 was so pathetic that Doug Lockrow, and Angel Navarro almost made the race. That just goes to show how uneven the duels were this year. Lockrow seems cool enough, would have been cool to see him in the race.

Perkins: The HZG team has fantastic equipment for race pace. I am quite glad that we developed a setup that suits a race rather than single lap speed. But to be fair, I was expected to qualify. Anything less would be an utter-travesty. The Daytona 500 needs Sean Perkins in it.

Joseph after the interview: "We'll keep our hopes up, we have plenty of races left. We do have an HNS race to focus on as well."

Joseph Kurtis and Sam Kurtis after the Duels:

Finguy: Happy to get these cars in on speed... Crash, Shelly, and I getting into the field knocks off another accomplishment for FPM. Getting all the cars into the 500 in just three short years and all that... Makes you think how far we've come... We'll just do our best to win this show.

Dodd: "Gotta apologize to the entire #15 Oreo's Ford team, just got caught in a really bad spot and had nowhere's to go. I am proud of the effort to keep the car out there, just really unfortunate that we didn't get to run very long under full strength. We'll work on the car and get it ready for the 500."

"I also feel bad for (Richard) Johnson, getting blamed for something he couldn't prevent. There was literally nothing he could have done in that situation, and I'm sure if a certain someone else was in that same situation, it would have turned a heck of a lot worse."

Andreas: "......... Well, that was unfortunate. I was going down pit road and got overzealous with speed... and it made me miss my last 500 attempt as a driver. It just shows you that one mistake can cost you a chance at the biggest race of the year. But at least I can say all of our other cars on FPM as well are in the show, I get to watch my niece Hannah in the race on Saturday,, and I get to watch the 500 from the 45 or 44 pit boxes and watch all of these cars fight for a win. and open a beer on a Sunday in March for the first time in a long time. And not have to replace a car in a wreck in the 500."

Perkins: Sean Perkins wouldn't get himself in those situations. He is a master of predicting when everyone else is going to do something rather stupid.

Perkins: I have been too hard on Richard Johnson lately. He by far isn't the worst driver in the field. Who the heck was that rolling chicane known as Ember Ross. She was damn near dangerous all weekend.

Griffin: I'm happy I made the race, but I feel terrible in how the race played out. Car just shot out from me going into 3 and I hate it for everyone that was affected. Not the way I wanted to start the racing portion of Speedweeks.

18th damn gremlins ruined my chance at Victory