The 2025 Daytona 500 will launch a season of the Nascar Cup Series next Sunday with many scenarios.
Here are five to look:
Summer madness
Nascar aims to arouse interest, create intrigue and serve track owners. Among the changes are a tournament in season, a path to asphalt for drivers accomplished outside the Cup series and a trip south of the border.
A competition of five mid-season races will finally put two drivers in the running for a price of $ 1 million. The tournament begins on June 28 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, followed by travel at Chicago Street Race, Sonoma Raceway and Dover Motor Speedway before the July 27 final at Brickyard 400 from Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The field of 32 cars will be reduced by half each week – to 16 to eight to four and finally two pilots clashed while TNT Sports returns to the NASCAR coverage for the first time since 2014.
Meanwhile, world -class railis outside Nascar will perform, starting with the quadruple Indianapolis champion 500 Helio Castroneves in Daytona International Speedway. The 49 -year -old man will be the first to claim an automatic place using the provisional open exemption to attract big names outside the CUP series.
Another effort to extend the scope of sport is a race on June 15 in Mexico City, marking Nascar’s first international race since 1958 with points at stake.
MJ takes the courts
The 23X teams and the car sports of the first row have fought for their future. For the moment, everyone is able to compete as an approved team.
23xi Racing, owned by the NBA renown temple Michael Jordan and the triple winner of Daytona 500, Denny Hamlin, and the first row Motorsports, owned by entrepreneur Bob Jenkins, continued Nascar for an antitrust complaint. The teams did not like the conditions of the agreement and aimed to go from two to three full -time cars.
A federal judge had to intervene and grant a preliminary injunction in December. Otherwise, 23X and the first row should have competed without the same protections and financial advantages from prices and guaranteed places for approved teams – a potential loss of $ 45 million, according to Jenkins.
Pilot 23xi Tyler Reddick, the regular season champion, had a deactivation clause if the Jordan / Hamlin team had no charter. Nascar’s call was rejected last month.
Reddick’s next step
The title champion of the regular season is a rising star because of his consistency and a sixth sense.
In the past three seasons, Reddick has won eight victories and is one of the four pilots, with Hamlin, Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson, with at least first first season.
“He just has the ability to draw the speed of a car that others cannot,” Hamlin told Orlando Sentinel. “He also has a very good race craft … be able to keep in the game, even when he does not have the best car.”
Reddick is ready for a big week, if not a time of breakthrough for the 29 -year -old. He showed his prowess Superspeedway in 2024, winning one of the two Bluegreen of Duels before the Daytona 500 and won a dramatic victory in April in Talladega Superspeedway while Jordan looked in a final accidental round on the emblematic 2, 66 tri-oval miles.
Not yet done
Martin Truex Jr. retired in pause for another blow to Daytona 500. The popular driver withdrew from the full -time race after the 2024 season, but will try to qualify with Tricon garage in n ° 56 Toyota Sponsored by Bass Pro Shops – long -standing backer of 44 years.
Winner of 34 times, Truex was 0 out of 39 in the two annual races in Daytona International Speedway. The native of New Jersey lost the ultimate Heartbreaker against Hamlin by 0.01 seconds, the closest Daytona 500 of the illustrious history of 66 years of the event.
Meanwhile, the Cup champion seven times, Jimmie Johnson, opts for a cockpit on a retired rocking chair. The 49 -year -old will try to qualify in No. 84 Legacy Motor Club Toyota.
Champion
The champion of the Cup series is the big winner of the season, but rarely the most victorious driver. The success at the end of the season during the 2 -races qualifiers often prevails over the coherence of a season.
Johnson, the 2016 champion, and Truex, who won in 2017, won the most races as well as the end of the season. Since then, the winner of 2021, Kyle Larson, has been the only pilot to win the end -of -season championship and the most races.
Despite six victories in the series in 2024, Larson lost against the quadruple winner Joey Logano, marking the third time that he won a championship without winning the most races. In 2018, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch each won eight races while Logano won only three.
Logano was on the other side of the equation in 2015 when he won a summit of the season six times, but Busch won the championship and five times.
Logano received a good fortune last season when Alex Bowman’s disqualification for his insufficient insufficiency car presented Logano in eight years after being eliminated.
“Now you are talking to the current champion, but I love it,” Logano told Orlando Sentinel. “Regular seasonal races lock you up in the playoffs, but you also get eliminatory points that are very important. And then the playoffs arrive and you are put in do-ou-die scenarios-the great high pressure moments, as in other sports.
“The fact that we have that in our sport now is fun to watch – and it’s stressful to be part.”
