Tag: Circuit of the Americas

NASCAR reviewing COTA track limit policies

NASCAR’s Elton Sawyer doesn’t want officiating to be the story at Circuit of the Americas and said they are reviewing their procedures for the facility. “COTA is very challenging,” Sawyer said Tuesday morning on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “I would …

NASCAR’s Elton Sawyer doesn’t want officiating to be the story at Circuit of the Americas and said they are reviewing their procedures for the facility.

“COTA is very challenging,” Sawyer said Tuesday morning on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “I would rather go to Daytona, Talladega, Atlanta every day of the week from an officiating standpoint. We’re calling balls and strikes on every lap and that’s not really where we want to be.

“I commend our team in the tower. I thought they did a good job, but it’s way too much about us and not enough about the athletes and our teams and our pit stops and strategy and things of that nature. So, (there is) some work to be done.”

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There were 20 penalties in the Craftsman Truck series race for drivers short-cutting the course through the esses. The same call was made 16 times in the Xfinity series race and four times in the Cup race.

“Not sure … if we will or will not be going back to COTA in (2025), but we’re preparing today, have been since basically the start of the weekend, on what we can do going forward with the facility and then how we would officiate it and what the deterrent looks like,” Sawyer said. “Obviously, being out of bounds there and it being a drive-through penalty that’s significant.

“So, a lot of things for us to digest before we get to back to COTA because, all in all, at the end of the day, it needs to be about, again, our athletes, our fans watching at home, or sitting there at the facility watching, and it doesn’t need to be about the officiating.”

NASCAR only enforces track limits in the esses at COTA and not the rest of the course. Sawyer said it comes down to where drivers can make gains throughout a lap. If they didn’t keep drivers on the track through the esses, which is Turns 3-5, they wouldn’t make the same left and right maneuvers because they would try to straighten it out. (Denny Hamlin admitted as much on his podcast Actions Detrimental after Sunday’s race).

“If you look at the other road courses that we go to … there is significant boundaries that are already built into those facilities that you’re not going to go out of bounds,” Sawyer said. “You’re going to be in the grass, or you’re going to be up against a barrier of some kind. COTA is not built that way; there’s a lot of extra asphalt there where our competitors, if there is lap time to be gained, they are going to find that asphalt.

“It puts a premium on the officiating and the lap time there. Although it’s a 3.41-mile course, there is a lot of lap time to be gained through the esses.”

Sawyer said there not being a gain in lap time is why NASCAR doesn’t police Turn 1. The tight left-hander at the top of the 133-foot hill can see drivers go three, four, or five-wide and drivers going far out to the right off the racing surface. But he also reasoned that some incidents result from drivers getting pushed out wide.

Chase Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports team tried a similar argument of it not being intentional when their driver was called for cutting the course. Elliott got loose and missed one of the turns in the esses, but NASCAR still called the penalty. Sawyer compared it to a foul being called in NCAA basketball when, most of the time, the defender isn’t trying to foul their opponent, but the call is made.

“I would say in our situation this past weekend, the drivers are not trying to commit a foul, but the foul was committed,” Sawyer said. “So, from an officiating standpoint, you have to call that and that’s why the 9 was called. They kept coming up saying he had wheel hopped, he had got loose, whatever that may be, and that’s fair. I do believe that.

“But on the flip side, you still have to make the call or every driver, every team is going to be calling up saying, look, he got loose, he wheel hopped, so forth and so on.”

Elliott’s penalty was another reason why Sawyer said NASCAR needs to reevaluate how it officiates at COTA.

“We don’t want to over-officiate,” he said. “That’s not what we want to do. Again, we don’t need 20, 30 penalties in a race. We don’t need that. So, all of those things will be taken into consideration.

“Again, I feel the calls made on Saturday and Sunday were the correct calls based on the information we’ve given the teams, the facility and how we need to officiate it. That doesn’t mean we’re not going back today and working extremely hard in all areas, so that’s not a focal point going forward.”

Why COTA is going for better, not bigger

If there was a headline to come out of last year’s United States Grand Prix, it was the enormous crowd that Circuit of The Americas was able to attract across the race weekend. While venues don’t report individual numbers, but rather the cumulative …

If there was a headline to come out of last year’s United States Grand Prix, it was the enormous crowd that Circuit of The Americas was able to attract across the race weekend.

While venues don’t report individual numbers, but rather the cumulative over the four days that fans are allowed into the track, COTA welcomed 440,000 people and set the record for the 2022 season.

For a race that was struggling at times to find the right funding and to pull in capacity crowds, recent events have seen the number growing year-on-year and more grandstands or general admission areas being created to ensure demand is met. But the focus on beating last year’s figure has changed in 2023, even if it’s just a slight pause on that front as attention shifts slightly.

“Actually, not bigger this time,” COTA chairman Bobby Epstein tells RACER. “This is better. Which in terms for us, putting on an event, since we have nothing to do with what goes on on the track; it’s how to get people in and out. How do you provide better food, better service, higher quality, more entertainment? and so that’s been our focus and continues to be.

“We weren’t trying to set an attendance record this year, and if we had… I think we first want to continue to focus so much on the transportation and getting people in and out. So we added another 15 loading stations for buses, which equates to 6,000 people an hour.

“If we can prove out some of the things we’re trying this year then in the future, we can go for an attendance record and beat our own attendance record.”

The landmark figure of half a million became a talking point during and after last year’s race, but even at that stage there was concern about the way the drivers’ championship had already been wrapped up less than one year after the intense interest around the 2021 battle. A similar scenario has unfolded this season with Red Bull and Max Verstappen even more dominant than 12 months ago and both titles already confirmed, but it’s not an aspect that Epstein feels has a major impact on the way COTA might look to increase capacity or sell tickets.

“Most of our tickets are sold well before the competition on the track. So it doesn’t affect much. Maybe there’s some last-minute buyers that wait for that, but most of the tickets are sold out well in advance of anyone knowing when the championship is going to be decided. It’s a nice bonus to have, but it doesn’t really affect ticket sales. It probably affects TV viewership more than it affects ticket sales.”

Another reason for the lack of dissent at the on-track fight is the focus on everything but that from the race organizers. Whether an amazing championship battle is raging or the title winner was known months ago, individual venues can do nothing about that. Instead, they can only focus on providing a fan experience that is enjoyable regardless of the show F1 itself is putting on.

“We have felt this way for years which is we have to transition to give the fans more value for their money, which means more entertainment, more to do, more hours of programming, so that if the track entertainment and the track competition isn’t great, people still want to come.

Max Verstappen’s early title triumph hasn’t put off ticket buyers. Sam Bloxham/Motorsport Images

“What we’ve learned has worked, and we have to rely on that. So people know that if they buy a ticket here, it’s still that that represents great value. And I think when you look at the very passionate race fan who cares about one through 20 – every position down the grid – and appreciates the sort of the ferociousness of the competition, all the way through the grid, then they’re going to get their money’s worth.

“They know that at this track. This track is made for the competition and passing and it makes for great racing. And so the true racing fan that says ‘I care about all the competition’ and they’re not just looking at first place, they’re gonna love it.”

COTA has leaned into being the traditional American race, the venue that rekindled interest in F1 long before Drive to Survive hit the screens and Miami and Las Vegas were added to the schedule. But even though he feels it has an impact on COTA being slightly slower to sell out than a year ago, the latter is seen as a positive for Epstein because very different price points and audiences are being targeted, that can even amplify what Austin provides as it looks to hit those record attendance figures in future.

“I think that’s a result of Vegas coming on, and the first year phenomenon. I think there’s always the novelty of the first year and check it out, and appreciate and learn the differences.

“As with any product, you want to sell your product, and I think that competition means the fan will be the beneficiary of that.”

While Austin didn’t look to increase capacity this year, that has allowed Epstein to make a more clear-cut comparison with last year’s race regarding what does and doesn’t work. But he points out that it would be wrong to put COTA’s success down to F1 alone, as the influence of other major racing series throughout the year helps the whole circuit find a rhythm to hosting big weekends and improve what’s on offer to fans.

“Am I amazed at how much it’s grown? I think I’m relieved at the fact it’s gotten so much easier! And by virtue of having MotoGP and NASCAR throughout the year and have those big events, it’s made our team stronger. It makes it much easier for us to put on an event. If we were just doing one a year, it would be much harder than doing three in a year.

“It’s sort of re-energized some of us here, in that as it gets easier, you can add more things and that’s fun. And when you enjoy what you get to do it does give you the energy and enthusiasm.

“I’m proud that we got to this point, to where we can have fun coming to work and enjoy that, being with each other and kind of all rolling together. So that’s really the outcome of it. It just makes it rewarding and it makes you more excited for next year’s event.”

And who knows? Maybe next year’s event will be the biggest in terms of fan numbers that F1 has ever seen…

Haas to introduce new car concept at USGP

Haas is planning to change the concept of its car at the United States Grand Prix next month as it looks to turnaround its frustrating race pace form. Qualifying has often seen Haas enjoying competitive sessions in the midfield, with Nico Hulkenberg …

Haas is planning to change the concept of its car at the United States Grand Prix next month as it looks to turnaround its frustrating race pace form.

Qualifying has often seen Haas enjoying competitive sessions in the midfield, with Nico Hulkenberg making multiple Q3 appearances this season. But the team has not scored a point since Kevin Magnussen’s 10th place in Miami, and team principal Guenther Steiner says the decision has been made to follow the now widely adopted Red Bull design direction, which will result in the car changing “quite a bit,”

“The concept of the car will change, going in that direction,” Steiner said. “You know you’re limited with the chassis and a few other things, but we’re trying to go to that common downwash shape like everybody else has got.

“The radiators and stuff like this, we cannot change them now — just haven’t got time. Your chassis you can change, but it wouldn’t work out. I don’t think it’s down to Ferrari — their electronic boxes are there, but I wouldn’t blame Ferrari for that one.

“Some of the stuff obviously we need to go close to them (Red Bull) — we could have put it somewhere else if we wanted, but we put it very similar. That concept we are running now asked for the side impact structure to be where it is. I think we got out whatever we could to go to a downwash options — we cannot push it any further.”

Steiner says the decision to make the change was made in July, and driven by the fact the team was struggling to find other gains with its existing car.

“That was our biggest problem with the concept we have now: we couldn’t find any more performance. We developed the whole year and there was nothing there anymore and at some stage you need to decide, ‘We need to do something different here, we cannot keep banging our head against the wall.’

“McLaren changed the system like this and they found something. At some stage you need to say, ‘Hey, we need to change concept, we need to face reality.’”

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The new car won’t be ready until the USGP at Austin’s Circuit of The Americas in October, but Steiner says that the information Haas will get can still then inform next year’s design.

“We’ll always be careful and we cannot be sure as our development time was not long, but you have to take risks,” he said. “Looking to ’24, that is worthwhile to take a risk, and say, ‘Hey, we should have kept it in the wind tunnel to develop it’ (but) let’s do it, find out what it gives, and then at least next year we’re in a better place.”

Daniel Suarez deleted a Twitter joke in response to his $50K NASCAR fine

This joke was pretty good, even if he deleted it.

Daniel Suárez is down $50,000 now, but at least he’s a sense of humor about it.

Following Sunday’s road-course race at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, NASCAR on Wednesday dropped a hefty behavioral penalty against the No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet driver, fining Suárez $50,000 for violating the rule book. He did not, however, lose any points in the standings.

Specifically, NASCAR penalized Suárez for running into the backs of Ross Chastain’s and Alex Bowman’s respective cars on pit road after the cool-down lap following Tyler Reddick’s victory. As they entered pit road, Suárez bumped Trackhouse teammate Chastain out of the way before rear-ending Bowman multiple times.

It was a dangerous sequence of events, and thankfully, Suárez didn’t injure anyone.

NASCAR isn’t a huge fan of intentional contact. But it really isn’t going to tolerate intentional and repeated contact on pit road after the race has ended. So although Suárez was not happy, particularly with Bowman, NASCAR wasn’t pleased with the dangerous way he expressed his frustration.

And following the news of Suárez’s fine, the Trackhouse driver responded with a joke in a now-deleted tweet:

A perfect response to being docked $50,000 — even if he (or others) didn’t think so.

But hopefully this means he’ll be less inclined to make intentional contact on pit road after a race.

So what prompted this post-race move from Suárez? It goes back to a late restart during the COTA race when Chastain got into Bowman and then Bowman into Suárez.

More via NASCAR.com:

Suárez’s frustration seemed to stem from a double-overtime restart that saw him go from inside the top five down to a 27th-place finish after contact in the braking zone entering Turn 1. Chastain bumped Bowman into Suárez, sending the seventh-year veteran into 2017 Cup champion Martin Truex Jr., spinning Truex and flattening Suárez’s right-front tire. Bowman and Chastain continued on to finish in third and fourth place, respectively.

Winning NASCAR driver’s truck caught fire after his gnarly burnout

Zane Smith literally burned it down after his Circuit of The Americas win.

NASCAR Truck Series driver Zane Smith put on a show Saturday at Circuit of The Americas after winning his second consecutive Truck race at the Austin road course. And it was a fiery one, literally.

The reigning Truck champion won the 42-lap race on the 3.426-mile circuit, holding off two-time Cup Series champ Kyle Busch, who finished second.

Afterward, Smith celebrated his victory in a very conventional NASCAR way with a stellar burnout. But he may have taken the “burn it down” celebration a little too seriously because by the time he climbed out of his No. 38 Ford truck, his left rear and right rear wheels were engulfed in some pretty intense flames.

Now, it’s unclear if the flames were from his fierce burnout, from a burnout done wrong, something mechanical and entirely unrelated or, as the FOX Sports broadcast speculated, from the mud flaps behind the tire.

But since he safely made it out of the car, the appearance of him literally burning it down is hilarious.

And safety crews at the track seemed to extinguish the fire relatively quickly.

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Ross Chastain smashed a watermelon from a 251-foot tower for the anniversary of his first NASCAR win

The Melon Man did the ultimate watermelon smash at Circuit of The Americas.

By now, you probably know the name Ross Chastain. And if you don’t know him by name, chances are you still recall his masterful theatrics at Bristol Motor Speedway last year when he slingshot his car around the 0.526-mile track to pass five cars in just a few seconds to secure his spot in the championship race.

But before Chastain had the world in awe with his daring move, he won his first NASCAR Cup Series race earlier in 2022 at Circuit of The Americas, an Austin road course.

And Friday, the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet driver celebrated the one-year anniversary of that win in the most quintessential Ross Chastain way: A watermelon smash.

When Chastain wins a race, his signature celebratory move is to smash a watermelon, often from the top of his race car. A nod to his watermelon-farming roots, he did this before he made it to the Cup Series and continued his smashing for his first two victories (so far) at NASCAR’s highest level.

So ahead of the Cup Series’ return COTA for Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix, Chastain smashed another watermelon to commemorate his first Cup win. Only this time, he smashed the watermelon by dropping it from the top of the track’s 251-foot observation tower.

If you’re asking: Why a watermelon? The answer is simple.

Now nicknamed the “Melon Man,” Chastain is an eighth-generation watermelon farmer — or he was, until his racing career began to take off. But watermelon farming is still the family business in Florida, and watermelon-smashing has long been part of his race-winning celebrations as a nod to his roots. (It also means he has a watermelon on-hand at races just in case.)

About his signature celebration, Chastain told For The Win in 2019:

“I always wanted to bring watermelons with me, and they are a big part of why I’m here, no doubt about it. I knew companies, and I went to them and said, ‘I want to be the farmer in NASCAR,’ and they liked it.

“So then from there, we just wanted to do something, and I just held [a watermelon] at Vegas in my first NASCAR win. And then we were talking about it in the media center, and I was like, ‘I’ve gotta do something with this watermelon! I’ve gotta go smash it.’ I just want people to remember it and think of [agriculture] and watermelons when they see me.”

Here’s another look at his COTA watermelon smash:

@jeffgluck

Stand clear of rhe Melon Man’s splat zone! 🍉 💥

♬ It’s Called: Freefall (Sped Up) – Rainbow Kitten Surprise

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F1’s Daniel Ricciardo had so much fun driving Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s 1984 Chevrolet Monte Carlo at COTA

A once-in-a-lifetime ride.

Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo went for the ride of a lifetime Saturday at Circuit of the Americas, the Austin track which will host the United States Grand Prix on Sunday.

The 32-year-old McLaren driver from Australia was already having a great time embracing all things Texas this week, including busting out his southern accent impression. But this definitely has to be a major highlight of Ricciardo’s trip to the U.S.

He got behind the wheel of the 1984 Wrangler Chevrolet Monte Carlo once driven by the late Dale Earnhardt Sr., a hero of Ricciardo’s, and hit the track. With a massive smile on his face, Ricciardo rode around in the vintage car and even did a burnout on the track with it.

And Dale Earnhardt Jr. loved it too and tweeted: “I’m happy for Daniel. I’m also appreciative for how he celebrates my father. That makes a lot of dads family members and fans smile.”

Ricciardo’s unique ride around COTA all started as a bet between him and the head of McLaren Racing, Zak Brown, who owns the car as part of his personal collection. As Jalopnik previously noted, when Ricciardo joined his new F1 team, he and Brown wagered that if he could get a podium finish this season, he’d get to drive a car from Brown’s collection.

Then Ricciardo ended up winning the Italian Grand Prix in September, and a deal is a deal.

Going with the weekend’s theme, Ricciardo also has a Dale Earnhardt Sr.-inspired helmet:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CVVWcKIobbX/

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F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo busted out his southern accent for U.S. Grand Prix weekend in Austin

Daniel Ricciardo went all out for the Formula 1 race in Texas.

Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo loves Austin, he loves the Longhorns and he loves Circuit of the Americas, the track where the biggest racing series in the world will compete this weekend in the United States Grand Prix.

He’s happy to be back for the first time in two years, and he’s going all-out for this Texas weekend.

All-out for the 32-year-old McLaren driver from Australia includes doing some interviews with a southern accent. Or, at least attempting to imitate one because Ricciardo’s impression of a southern accent is coming out a little more like a cross between a NASCAR TV broadcaster, like Darrell Waltrip, or Talladega Night‘s Ricky Bobby and Foghorn Leghorn.

And it’s hilarious. He’s even (almost) got Waltrip’s signature catchphrase “boogity, boogity, boogity” down.

Ricciardo ditched his attempted Texas/southern/Foghorn Leghorn accent midway through answering this question about why he loves being at COTA — though he was so distracted by his impression, Red Bull driver Max Verstappen’s apparent laughter off camera or both that he briefly forgot the question.

But that wasn’t the only time he did this accent impression. He also did an entire interview in a southern accent, as he spoke about his excitement about getting to drive Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s 1984 Wrangler Chevrolet Monte Carlo at the track this weekend.

In addition to being a NASCAR legend, the late Earnhardt Sr. is a hero of Ricciardo’s. And Ricciardo will drive the Monte Carlo after winning a bet with the head of McLaren Racing, Zak Brown, who has the car in his personal collection, per Jalopnik.

And of course, going all-in for the U.S. Grand Prix meant dressing the part, including showing up to the track in a cowboy hat and a bolo tie.

Clearly, regardless of how Ricciardo performs this weekend, he’s having the most fun at COTA.

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Kevin Harvick slams NASCAR for ‘unsafe’ COTA track conditions after racing in the rain

“It’s the most unsafe thing I’ve ever done in a race car by a lot,” Kevin Harvick said about racing in the rain at COTA.

Racing in the rain can be fun, but only up to a certain point because the track conditions can become very dangerous.

NASCAR had several scary moments in the first half of Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Texas Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas, leading Kevin Harvick to slam NASCAR for what he called the most “unsafe” situation of his career.

It was raining in the beginning the Cup Series’ inaugural race at the Austin road course, so teams were racing with their rain tires. But that doesn’t do much for visibility — which was a huge and menacing problem for several drivers, including Harvick — and the windshield wipers can only help so much when there’s an abundance of standing water on the track.

Early in the second stage of the 68-lap race around the 3.41-mile long course, 20-turn course, Harvick’s No. 4 Ford suffered significant damage after getting rear-ended amid the low visibility, and he was unable to continue racing after 19 laps.

Per FOX Sports’ Jeff Gordon, Harvick’s spotter told him to slow down because of an incident ahead of him — Christopher Bell rear-ended a slower Ryan Blaney — and then Bubba Wallace rear-ended Harvick.

Judging by Harvick’s in-car video, it looked impossible to see more than a foot or two down the track, and that’s understandably frightening. So when Harvick’s day was done after the crash, he candidly shared his perspective with NBC Sports’ Dustin Long.

Harvick said:

“We don’t have any business being out in the rain, period. So, you know, all I can say is this is the worst decision that we’ve ever made in our sport that I’ve been a part of, and I’ve never felt more unsafe in my whole racing career. Period. …

“It’s the most unsafe thing I’ve ever done in a race car by a lot. You can’t see anything down the straightaways. These cars were not built to run in the rain, and when you can’t see, my spotter said, ‘Check up, check up,’ because he thought he saw two cars wrecking.

“I let off, and the guy behind me hit me wide-open because he never saw me. So it’s unbelievable that we’re out there doing what we’re doing because we’re in race cars that aren’t meant to do this, and if you can’t see going down the straightaway, it’s absolutely not safe, not even close.”

And Harvick wasn’t the only driver to complain about the visibility — though he appeared to be the most furious about it.

On Lap 24, Martin Truex Jr. slammed into the back of Michael McDowell’s car, and a few seconds later, Cole Custer then rear-ended Truex, sending the No. 19 Toyota in the air while Custer’s No. 41 Ford smashed into the track barrier. The incident triggered a red flag on Lap 26.

Thankfully, both Truex and Custer are OK, but they were obviously unable to continue racing.

Speaking with FOX Sports’ Jamie Little afterward, they both aired their grievances about the dangers of not being able to see in front of them on the track.

Custer told FOX Sports:

“It didn’t hurt as much as I thought it was going to be but it’s just you can’t see anything. It’s pretty bad. You can’t see a foot in front of your car. I was just rolling down the backstretch … [and] you can’t see anything by the time I got to [Truex]. Yeah, it just sucks. I’m just so frustrated about having our day end like this.”

And then Truex echoed Custer’s frustrations. When asked to describe what happened from his perspective, Truex said:

“The only way to describe it is you can’t see anything, so you’re just mashing the gas and going through the gears on the backstretch praying that nobody’s gonna be there. And all of a sudden, I seen the taillight flash, and I was already in through him. So it happens that fast, going that fast.

“And then my first thought was once I hit [McDowell], just stay on the gas and try to keep going because I knew they were coming from behind. And literally, next thing I know, I get drilled. There’s just nothing you can do in those situations. … Man, it’s dangerous.”

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Matthew McConaughey delivered NASCAR’s ‘start your engines’ command like only he could

“Alright, alright, alright…”

Matthew McConaughey served as the Grand Marshal for the NASCAR Cup Series first ever race at Circuit of The Americas on Sunday, and it was a perfectly quintessential Matthew McConaughey moment.

Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Texas Grand Prix is a big race for the sport at COTA, the Austin road course which is known for hosting Formula 1’s United States Grand Prix. So it was fitting that the actor, Texas native and diehard Longhorns fan gave the command for drivers to start their engines — even if he did it virtually.

Of course, McConaughey opened with his catchphrase, “Alright, alright, alright,” before reciting a few poetic lines about NASCAR taking on the 3.41-mile long course, 20-turn course.

The Oscar-winning actor said:

“Alright, alright, alright. Yes, sir, yes, ma’am, this you already know: That’s three green lights — one, two, three in a row. You know, you’re ready, you know you want to go. Good thing the rubber is already on the road. Drivers, start your engines!”

This artistic command was actually the second time McConaughey’s been a Grand Marshal for NASCAR. He also gave the command at the 2005 Daytona 500.

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