(Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
It's finally time for the 2022 NASCAR season to kick off. Two weeks ago the NASCAR Cup series kicked off with the Clash at the LA Coliseum, so we had a brief preview of the new car.
The real kick off to the NASCAR Cup series will begin Sunday, February 20, with the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. This has been the official begin to the Cup series since 1982. In previous years Daytona International Speedway has held a two week event schedule which we have called Speedweeks.
The second practice started at 6:35 PM Eastern and was shown on FS1, so we caught a few minutes of it. The practice started off with mostly single car runs as teams prepare for qualifying tonight. There were a few teams that were making group runs; however, most of the groups seemed to be only three to four cars and I wouldn't expect many big group runs until later practice sessions. The practice #2 finished around 7:30 PM eastern, with Ryan Blaney as the fastest car followed by Joey Logano, Cole Custer, Cody Ware, and Chris Buescher.
As I mentioned, the NASCAR Cup series will hold single car qualifying tonight, February 16, at 8:05 PM Eastern and it will be shown on FS1. This will set the front row for the Sunday's race, and will set the two fields for the Duel races which will be shown tomorrow, February 17 at 7 and 8:45 PM eastern on FS1. Also of note, there are 42 cars entered for the Daytona 500, and there are only 40 spots, so there will be two cars that will go home after the Duel races tomorrow (Daytona 500 entry list). After the Duel races, there will be two more practice sessions on Friday and Saturday for the Cup series.
As for the rest of Speedweeks, the ARCA series will have a one hour practice session Thursday, February 17 at 4:05 PM followed by a single car qualifying session Friday at 1:30 PM. This qualifying session will set the field for the Lucas Oil 200 which will be shown on FS1.
At last count the ARCA series entry list for Daytona contains 37 cars which is below the maximum 40 car field count, so no one will be sent home after qualifying. The field also contains 13 rookies which will make the race an interesting one. There are some familiar names returning to the series this year; however, many of these names are new to me and I am interested to see how things shake out this season.
(Truck Series On Track Schedule)
The truck series will take their first laps at Daytona tomorrow, February 17 at 4:35 for practice followed by a qualifying session on Friday, February 18 at 3 PM Eastern. There are 42 trucks entered for Friday night's race; however, there are only 36 spots for the field, so there will be 6 trucks going home after qualifying (Truck Series Daytona Entry List).
As mentioned earlier, the race will be on FS1 Friday night at 7:30 PM Eastern.
The Xfinity series will be taking their first laps at Daytona on Friday at 4:35 PM for practice, followed by single car qualifying on Saturday at 11:35 AM. There are 47 cars entered for this race, and there is only a 38 car field so there will be nine cars headed home after qualifying. According to Jayski, there will be 33 cars locked in based on speed and the final five spots will fall back on owner points to fill out the field (Xfinity Series Daytona Entry List).
The Beef. It's What's For Dinner 300 from Daytona will be on FS1 Saturday evening at 5 PM Eastern.
The Daytona 500 will wind up Speedweek 2022 on Sunday, February 20 with a 500 mile race that will take the green flag around 3 PM Eastern. The race will be on Fox starting at 2:30 PM Eastern, and streaming on the Fox Sports App.
(All photos used in this article are not the property of Loose Lugs Racing/Pam, all photos are linked to the sources/articles/websites)
