Friday: Five at Five

A couple of exciting finishes last night, XFINITY series on track of the first time, truck racing tonight and the Daytona 500 just two days away. There's a TON going on at the World Center of Racing, but here's five things we have our eye on...

JGR's Got Speed
The Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas of Kenseth, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards have been wicked fast. Hamlin was the only one of the team's cars in the first Duel and he finished a respectable fifth and actually battled Earnhardt for the lead much of the night. In the second Duel, Kenseth and Busch combined to lead all but two laps, with Busch taking the victory (click for more...)

The Replacements
Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Martin Truex Jr, and A.J. Allmendinger were forced into their backup cars this afternoon after last night's crash cost them their primaries. Johnson was the only one of the four who participated in the early practice round, and actually paced the field. All four made it out for the second session. (read more here)

Drivers Show Their Lighter Side
Speedweeks can be a long one! Coming off the Sprint Unlimited there's Media day, five days on track for five days and five races. We all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, so it's good to see when they're able to let their hair down a little bit. Like Bubba Wallace getting all giddy over seeing a certain driver... (click to find out who)

Early Moneys On Logano
The Century Poll, which has 50 NASCAR media members and 50 who work in the garage, predicts that Joey Logano will win the 2016 Sprint Cup Series title. Logano received 30 votes, Kevin Harvick was second with 19 and six-time champion Jimmie Johnson was third with 13. Defending champion Kyle Busch tied for fourth with Carl Edwards at eight votes. Seven of Busch’s votes came from voters in the garage. We took our own poll earlier this week, see how we matched up.

McDowell, Richardson Make the '500'
We saw the new charter system play out last night in the Duels, with Michael McDowell and Robert Richardson Jr locking up two of the four open positions under the new system (which guarantees all 36-charter teams entry in NASCAR Sprint Cup Events). As you can tell from their post-race interviews; they're relieved.

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