DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — From Jimmie Johnson’s NASCAR return to Kevin Harvick’s farewell. From defending Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric, who had to break into his father’s RV because he locked the keys inside, to Kyle Busch sharing a ride with his longtime nemesis.
These were just some of the stories from Wednesday’s Daytona 500 Media Day.
The all-day affair is when the NASCAR Cup Series drivers meet the media before the on-track action at Daytona International Speedway begins.
As if that wasn’t enough, the one-lap time trials for the Daytona 500 were scheduled to begin at 8:15 p.m. Eastern Time.
The important things first.
Johnson back in a stock car
After two years in the NTT IndyCar Series driving the #48 Carvana Honda with Chip Ganassi Racing, seven-time NASCAR Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson has returned to cars with roofs and fenders.
The two-time Daytona 500 winner returns to Legacy Motor Club as the owner/driver of the #84 Carvana Chevrolet.
When asked if getting into a production car was like riding, Johnson quipped, “We’ll find out. With all this practice, I feel right at home to go straight into qualifying.”
What makes Daytona 500 pole qualifying so unique is that every driver registered for the race must set their fastest timed lap without practice. It’s the first “official” track activity of the NASCAR Cup Series ahead of the biggest race on the schedule.
It’s also Johnson’s first race in the next-gen car.
“There are nerves,” Johnson said. “I know how much effort the team put into all three cars. I feel really good about it. But there’s a level of anxiety because you’re not getting practice rounds.
“I really hope we have a strong qualifying performance tonight to make tomorrow’s night less stressful.”
The intricate qualifying format for the Daytona 500, which also includes Thursday night’s two 150-mile qualifying races and speeds shot in Thursday night’s single lap session, as well as the top 36 cars on participant points for which charters have guaranteed starting positions.
Since Johnson hasn’t raced full-time in NASCAR since 2020, he must either be fast in single lap runs or finish high enough in his Thursday night qualifying race.
On Friday, Johnson gets the chance to fly with the United States Air Force’s famous Thunderbirds.
“I’ve been putting this off for decades,” Johnson admitted. “I’ve had this opportunity for a while. I don’t know if I’ll ever be asked again. I was always afraid that I would throw up and now I will not eat much so that there is not much to throw up and I will go and have a blast.
“I’m really looking forward to being scared, I get motion sickness so easily. i will puke I know it will happen.”
Harvick’s swan song
Kevin Harvick’s incredible NASCAR Cup Series career comes to an end this season. These include a victory at the 2007 Daytona 500, Cup Series wins at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2003, 2019 and 2020, and the 2014 NASCAR Cup Series Championship.
With 60 wins in 22 seasons, Harvick is one of NASCAR’s all-time greats.
Kevin Harvick after his win at Richmond (Va.) Raceway last season. (HHP/Andrew Copley)
He outlined his approach to his final season before joining FOX Sports as one of the analysts for NASCAR on FOX.
“Dale Jr. summed it up for me by saying it’s my NFG tour,” Harvick said, and you can imagine what “NFG” means. “If we have bills to pay, we will pay them immediately. We’re not waiting until next week.
“If it rolls, we’ll settle it.”
Many of those scores settled during his career were with his nemesis, Kyle Busch.
Both drivers have their young sons in racing, including Harvick’s son Keelan and Busch’s son Brexton.
“Kevin actually drove me here from the short course this morning,” Busch said as her sons competed at Citrus County Speedway south of Ocala, Fla. “We drove together and it’s kind of weird, isn’t it? Almost like ‘Days of Thunder’ where we should have gotten our own rental cars. It would have been a Ford versus a Chevy, and that would have been fun.
“He’s got Keelan and I’ve got Brexton and we’ve got things off the track and different things in life that you focus on and what it’s going to teach you has meant a lot to both of us, how we can relate to that and work together.”
Cindric’s RV fiasco
Defending Daytona 500 champion Austin Cindric was locked out of his RV on Tuesday night and needed the support of fellow driver Harrison Burton of The Wood Brothers.
He explained the process on Wednesday.
“The danger of what we were doing didn’t come until a little later, but I’ll address that,” Cindric said. “To be clear, the Airstream does not belong to me, it belongs to my parents. My dad brought it here for the Rolex and organized it with the track for us to keep here so we don’t have to go back and forth. There are only two or three weeks between them.
“So there’s really only one full key phrase between the misunderstandings, and that full key phrase was intentionally included in the tag. I didn’t know that at 8:30 in the morning. I had a part kit but it only does the latch and a few other things.
“The door was locked, so I was trying to find out where the keys are. Nobody knows where the keys are so the bunk bed is at the front of the caravan and I know it’s on a hinge because last year I had to find fuses under it.
“I thought, ‘Okay, if I can crawl in there and have enough leverage to push myself up onto the bed, I should be able to crawl. out of.’
“So I called Harrison Burton.
“Harrison comes over and I’m trying to figure out how to get in without breaking the latch and all that stuff because my dad would kill me. I had Harrison lift my legs up and push me in, and from there I realized I didn’t have nearly enough leverage to lift a bed because the hinge has a gap of about a foot here and there that I could reach if I raise the bed all the way up.
“I did more to accommodate all of the other structures around me than the actual bed, so that was an issue.”
The NASCAR duo had to come up with a creative solution to solve this unexpected problem.
“We decided it was a good idea to take the divider off the bed, so we removed about 20 wood screws that wouldn’t work because they were stuck on something else,” Cindric continued. “About that time, enough people on the team and Pops (Team Penske president Tim Cindric) had called me and said, ‘Look, the keys are inside, so whatever you’re doing to break in, just keep going.’
“Well, all the necessary means.
“Confirmed.
“So I tried to lift the panel but I couldn’t, so we tried lifting the whole thing to see what was preventing the panel from coming loose and when I lifted some of the panels locked moved and moved pushed the bed forward and there was a small hole.
“I’m like, ‘Okay, Harrison, is there enough room for you to crawl in if I keep lifting myself?’ So I stretch out my arms and Harrison slides through the hole in the side of the bed and the rest is history.
“Harrison pulled out the keys. The bed is still stable. I got it halfway back into position, had to take some stuff off to make sure it didn’t move, but that’s how Speedweeks started.”
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