NASCAR avoids disappointment, two streaks set to continue
By Asher Fair
With a full field for the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, two streaks are set to continue.
The concerns about the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season-opening Daytona 500 not reaching a full 40-car field are no more, following two recent confirmations.
MBM Motorsports are set to field two cars as opposed to only the initially expected one, and The Money Team Racing are finally set to enter the Cup Series after several years of rumors.
These confirmations brought the entry total from 39 to 41. Before this, there were just three confirmed non-chartered entries to go along with the 36 chartered cars.
There could still be a 42nd entry as well, with NY Racing Team rumored to field the #44 Chevrolet for Greg Biffle.
But whether that entry gets confirmed or not, NASCAR is no longer in a position to see what could have been the first ever Daytona 500 without 40 cars.
Never in the first 63 years of the “Great American Race” has the 200-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked Daytona International Speedway oval in Daytona Beach, Florida featured fewer than 40 cars.
In fact, the most recent Cup Series race at the oval not to feature at least 40 cars came more than a half-century ago in July 1968. The Firecracker 400 featured just 37 cars that month.
So this year’s Daytona 500 is set to be the 64th straight — out of 64 — to feature at least 40 cars (it is set to feature exactly 40 with the field capped at 40), and it is set to be the 107th straight race at Daytona International Speedway to feature at least 40 cars as well.
Will the second streak extend to 108 when the Coke Zero Sugar 400 rolls around on Saturday, August 27?
Don’t miss the Bluegreen Vacations Duels on Thursday, February 17 (7:00 p.m. ET, Fox Sports 1) and the Daytona 500 itself on Sunday, February 20 (2:30 p.m. ET, Fox), and be sure to start your free trial of FuboTV in time!