Daytona in July isn’t Daytona in February.

Daytona in July isn’t Daytona in February.

 

The 2.5 miles of asphalt has less grip; heat and humidity test both car and driver and the race distance is 100 miles shorter. The Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca Cola (7:30 p.m. EDT TNT, MRN RADIO, SIRIUSXM RADIO) is run under the lights instead of in the afternoon’s early hours.

 

Active drivers who have won both races – but not in the same season – are Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Jamie McMurray and Michael Waltrip. The last competitor to sweep both Daytona events was NASCAR Hall of Fame member Bobby Allison in 1982.

 

Three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart remains without a Daytona 500 victory. But Smoke, the defending winner of the Coke Zero 400, counts four July victories in the past eight seasons.

 

Conversely, Jimmie Johnson – February’s Daytona 500 winner and a five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion – has yet to record a victory at Daytona in July.

 

Also winless in July is 2003 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion and Daytona 500 winner Matt Kenseth, who recorded a season-high fourth victory on Sunday at Kentucky Speedway. Kenseth, third in last year’s Coke Zero 400, posted a phenomenal 2.0 average finish in last year’s four restrictor-plate races.

 

Danica Patrick became the Daytona 500’s first female Coors Light Pole Award winner in February and finished eighth in the race. Unshakable throughout Speedweeks, Patrick looks forward to similar success this week.

 

Friday night’s Subway Firecracker 250 Powered by Coca-Cola (7:30 p.m. ESPN, MRN, SIRIUSXM) is the first leg of the NASCAR Nationwide Series Dash 4 Cash in which the highest finishing of four eligible drivers - Austin Dillon, Kyle Larson, Elliott Sadler and Brian Vickers – will claim a $100,000 bonus.

 

Standings leader Regan Smith has seen a 58-point cushion shrink to just eight markers over two races. The top-five ranked drivers are separated by 20 points entering the season’s 16^th of 33 races.

 

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series teams take the week off to prepare for the July 13 American Ethanol 200 Presented by Enogen at Iowa Speedway.