Previewing the Daytona 500

NASCAR is finally back, and we have a great weekend coming up at Daytona.

All winter, every fan has been looking forward to these 200 laps around the 2.5-mile track that hosts the Great American Race.

The duels are done, and the grid is set for Sunday’s Cup race.

Kyle Busch stunned everyone with a blazing lap to take the pole, with Chase Briscoe starting behind him.

The duels on Thursday night gave us Chase Elliott and Joey Logano as winners, so two champions will line up behind the front row.

Before we get to Sunday’s main event, we have three more series to cover.

The racing will begin on Friday night with the Craftsman Truck Series at 7:30.

This race is littered with big names.

Carson Hocevar is hungry for his first Cup win, but his weekend starts in a truck

He won a truck race at Kansas last year, and he has shown good speed at superspeedways in the past.

His Spire teammate Michael McDowell also joins him in the No. 7, and their former teammate Justin Haley will be in the No. 16.

Other notables include YouTuber by night, stock car racer by day, Cleetus McFarland, 54-year-old Tony Stewart, and former Daytona Cup winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

However, my predicted winner is none of them.

After winning ARCA last year, I am predicting Brenden “Butterbean” Queen to win his first truck race of his career here at Daytona.

The next race is ARCA, taking place at noon on Saturday.

After that, the O’Reilly Autoparts Series (formerly known as XFinity) will take the green flag at 5 p.m.

There is much less Cup Series talent in this race than in the Trucks race, as the only full-time driver we will see race here is Hocevar.

After what happened in the duels, I am going to predict Anthony Alfredo to win this race.

He drove phenomenally well on Thursday but was disqualified due to technical inspection failures.

I expect him to be out with a vengeance on Saturday night and see victory lane.

Finally, the main event.

The Daytona 500 will be run at 2:30 on Sunday.

I predicted Bubba Wallace to win on Tuesday’s episode of the Motorsports Minute, and even with a poor qualifying result, I still see him doing just enough to get it done at Daytona.

He has come close multiple times, and the starting position doesn’t mean much at a superspeedway.

This would be a phenomenal start to Wallace and 23XI Racing’s seasons in a big year for both sides.

For a potential upset pick, I’m going to go with Hocevar.

In the Clash and then the Duel on Thursday, he has driven the wheels off his No. 77 early this year.

He showed good patience not to risk a wreck while trying to hunt down Chase Elliott in the final laps of the Duel, but if that scenario presents itself again on Sunday, expect him to be getting in people’s doors to try to finally earn that well-deserved Cup win.

He will also have plenty of help with him, as his teammates Daniel Suarez and McDowell will both start in the top 15.

Edison Pellumbi is a first-year student studying broadcast journalism. To contact him, email him at ejp5889@psu.edu.