It was looking like there would be seven non-chartered (open) cars battling for the four open spots in the 41-car field for the 68th annual Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, but Front Row Motorsports had other ideas.
The Bob Jenkins-owned team, which fields full-time entries for Noah Gragson, Todd Gilliland, and Zane Smith, have now added the No. 36 Ford to the entry list. Chandler Smith, who has previously failed to qualify for the race twice, is set to drive the car.
Front Row Motorsports have not fielded the No. 36 Ford in any Cup Series race since the 2024 Daytona 500, when Kaz Grala successfully qualified but was taken out in an early accident.
The No. 36 Ford joins a list of open cars that includes Justin Allgaier's No. 40 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, Anthony Alfredo's No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet, Casey Mears' No. 66 Garage 66 Ford, and Corey LaJoie's No. 99 RFK Racing Ford.
With the No. 36 car confirmed as the fifth open entry, someone is now officially guaranteed to miss the 200-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked Daytona Beach, Florida oval.
Expected additions to the entry list still include the No. 44 NY Racing Team Chevrolet, the No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota, and the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet, which are expected to be driven by J.J. Yeley, Corey Heim, and B.J. McLeod, respectively.
Jimmie Johnson's No. 84 Legacy Motor Club Toyota is not included, as despite the fact that it's an open car, it is being treated as a chartered car in terms of being locked into the race, as Johnson has taken the Open Exemption Provisional.
With two open cars still set to lock in via qualifying speeds and two others still set to qualify via their results in the America 250 Florida Duel races, the Daytona 500 field is set to see exactly 41 cars for just the second time since 1993.
And Front Row Motorsports' latest addition could be bad news for the rest of the open teams.
Though Chandler Smith himself is 0-for-2 in his Daytona 500 qualifying attempts, those attempts came with Kaulig Racing and Garage 66, not Front Row Motorsports.
Front Row Motorsports are typically at their best on superspeedways, and when they've added an extra car to their roster as an open entry, they have successfully qualified. Aside from Grala in 2024, David Ragan got into the race in 2021, and Zane Smith got in back in 2023.
Front Row Motorsports, 23XI Racing, and RFK Racing are the three full-time teams set to field one extra car each. While other teams such as JR Motorsports and Beard Motorsports have also shown up with good speed at Daytona in the past, at least one of these five entries will fail to qualify.
And that's without getting into the usual underdogs, including Garage 66, which have experienced six Daytona 500 DNQs since most recently getting into the race back in 2020, NY Racing Team, which haven't made it in since 2022, and Live Fast Motorsports, which haven't gotten in since selling their charter after the 2023 season.
Bottom line, if you thought qualifying was going to be straightforward and the DNQ picks were going to be easy, think again. Front Row Motorsports just threw a wrinkle into everyone else's plans.
Tune in to Fox Sports 1 at 8:15 p.m. ET on Wednesday, February 11 for the live broadcast of the Daytona 500 single-car qualifying session from the "World Center of Racing", and tune in again at 7:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, February 12 for live coverage of the America 250 Florida Duel races. The 68th running of the "Great American Race" itself is set to be shown live on Fox beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, February 15. Start a free trial of FuboTV and don't miss any of the action!