NASCAR: 2 cars that could still join the Daytona 500

There are still multiple cars that could be added to the Daytona 500 entry list before the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season gets underway.

The 64th annual Daytona 500 is scheduled to get the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season underway three weeks from today on Sunday, February 20, but there are still not 40 cars on the entry list.

Of course, the 36 chartered cars are locked into the field for this 200-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked oval in Daytona Beach, Florida.

But there are only three other entries that are set to attempt to qualify for the race via the single-car qualifying session and the Bluegreen Vacations Duels, including the #27 Team Hezeberg powered by Reaume Brothers Racing Ford for Jacques Villeneuve, the #62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet for Noah Gragson, and the #66 MBM Motorsports Ford for Timmy Hill.

For reference, last year, there were eight, which meant that four locked into the race and four went home.

These three cars bring this year’s entry total to 39, and no Daytona 500 has ever had fewer than 40 cars.

In fact, no race at the Daytona International Speedway oval has had fewer than 40 cars since July 1968.

After Fox Sports’ Bob Pockrass reported that Gaunt Brothers Racing are not expected to attempt to qualify for the Daytona 500, something that they have done in each of the last five years, that leaves two cars as the frontrunners to potentially fill the field for this year’s running of the “Great American Race”.

Those two entries are the #44 NY Racing Team Chevrolet and the #50 The Money Team Racing Chevrolet.

NY Racing Team teased a return last year, and nothing came of it. They did so again earlier this year; will the result be the same for the team that hasn’t competed in a Cup Series race since 2018 and hasn’t competed in a Daytona 500 since 2015?

Interestingly, there have reportedly been sightings of Greg Biffle getting his seat fitted for the #44 Chevrolet at Richard Childress Racing. Could this be the sign of a partnership?

As for The Money Team Racing, they have been rumored to be on the verge of making their Cup Series debut for several years now, and it still hasn’t even panned out.

Now the Floyd Mayweather-owned team have indicated that they plan to enter their first Daytona 500 — and their first Cup Series race — this February.

Reports suggest that they have already secured a car and sponsorship and that Kaz Grala is set to drive it. The belief is that their car is the Gen 7 car that formerly belonged to the now defunct StarCom Racing team.

Grala happened to test this car in October at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, and StarCom Racing recently revealed that some kind of an announcement is on the way. Could this finally be it?

Fox Sports 1 is set to broadcast the Bluegreen Vacations Duels live from Daytona International Speedway beginning at 7:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, February 17, and Fox is set to broadcast the Daytona 500 itself beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, February 20.