While there is a chance for rain Sunday in Daytona, NASCAR hopes the 2.5-mile track will be dry when Dale Earnhardt Jr. starts on the pole.
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Earnhardt grabbed the pole based on having the fastest practice time Friday. It’s Earnhardt’s second pole at Daytona, where he has three wins, 12 top fives and 18 top-10 finishes during his career. The fan favorite will attempt to win his second consecutive restrictor-plate race after taking the checkered flag at Talladega on May 3. The No. 88 driver seeks his fourth Daytona win, which would move him into 29th on the all-time career wins list with 25 victories. If Earnhardt can lead 46 laps, he will also become the 23rd driver in series history to lead 8,000 or more career laps.
Austin Dillon will start in the second position while Clint Bowyer will begin on the inside of Row 3 as he looks for his fourth top 10 at Daytona in his past five starts. Jimmie Johnson, who also seeks his fourth career victory at Daytona, will start 12th.
Relying on a backup car after a big wreck in the first practice Friday, Kyle Busch will start in the 13th position in his first race at Daytona since breaking his leg at the track in Febrary. Busch needs to post an average finish around 14.0 the rest of the regular season to make the Chase, and has a good shot at doing so Sunday. The No. 18 driver boasts a series-best driver rating of 96.2 and owns the highest average running position of 12.8.
Last year’s winner, Aric Almirola, will start 37th on Sunday.
Daniel Suarez grabbed the pole for the 40-car XFinity Series field in Saturday night’s Subway Firecracker 250 powered by Coca-Cola.
Starting lineup for the Coke Zero 400
- Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2. Austin Dillon 3. Clint Bowyer 4. Paul Menard 5. Trevor Bayne 6. David Gilliland 7. AJ Allmendinger 8. David Ragan 9. Jamie McMurray 10. Kasey Kahne 11. Sam Hornish Jr. 12. Jimmie Johnson 13. Kyle Busch 14. Brett Moffitt 15. Casey Mears 16. Kyle Larson 17. Ryan Newman 18. Michael Annett 19. Matt Kenseth 20. Martin Truex Jr. 21. Justin Allgaier 22. Landon Cassill 23. Jeff Gordon 24. Carl Edwards 25. Greg Biffle 26. Brian Scott 27. Danica Patrick 28. Kurt Busch 29. Cole Whitt 30. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 31. Tony Stewart 32. Brad Keselowski 33. Joey Lagano 34. Kevin Harvick 35. Denny Hamlin 36. Aric Almirola 37. Alex Bowman 38. Bobby Labonte 39. Josh Wise 40. JJ Yeley 41. Jeb Burton 42. Matt DiBenedetto 43. Brendan Gaughan
Michael McDowell and Ryan Blaney failed to qualify for the race.
Perform Media’s Joe Rodgers contributed to this report.
