NASCAR: One possible Daytona 500 addition ruled out
By Asher Fair
One team that had wanted to compete in the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season-opening Daytona 500 will unfortunately not be doing so.
One of the remaining possible additions to the entry list for next Sunday’s 63rd annual Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway to kick off the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season has been ruled out.
Tommy Baldwin Racing have confirmed that they will not be bringing a car to the Daytona 500, despite initially wanting to compete in the race for what would have been the first time since 2017 with Elliott Salder behind the wheel of the #7 Chevrolet.
The most recently attempted to compete in the race in 2019 with Ryan Truex behind the wheel of the #71 Chevrolet, but he failed to qualify.
Tommy Baldwin won't bring a car to Daytona for the 500. ... So would think the Daytona entry list would be 44-45 cars. Won't know for sure until haulers park/garage opens Tuesday.
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) February 3, 2021
There are 44 confirmed cars on the entry list for this race, so Tommy Baldwin Racing wouldn’t have been locked into the field anyway.
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There are 40 available positions in the starting lineup, but 36 of them will go to the 36 chartered entries, leaving just four open spots for the remaining non-chartered cars to attempt to solidify. As of now, there are eight drivers set to battle for those four spots, although we could still see the entry list grow to 45 cars.
The one remaining reasonably possible addition to the Daytona 500 entry list is the #44 Chevrolet for NY Racing Team. The team had said that the plan to run the full 36-race schedule this season, but they still have not made any official confirmations.
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Single-car qualifying for the Daytona 500 is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, February 10 and be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 beginning at 7:00 p.m. ET. The Bluegreen Vacations Duels are scheduled to take place the following evening and are also set to be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 beginning at 7:00 p.m. ET. The race itself is set to be broadcast live on Fox beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, February 14.