Daytona 500 Photo Finish and The First Wally of the Season for JFR!

NASCAR

NASCAR Cup Series rookie Austin Cindric beat Bubba Wallace to the finish line by 0.036 seconds in overtime to win Sunday’s 64th running of the Daytona 500. 

In a thrilling run to the finish, Cindric blocked Ryan Blaney’s high-lane advance, forcing Blaney into the wall, then held off Wallace and Chase Briscoe to notch his first Cup victory in his eighth start in the series.  Blaney slid along the wall on his way to finish fourth with Aric Almirola rounding out the top five.  Kyle Busch, Michael McDowell, David Ragan, Keselowski and Chase Elliott completed the top 10.

Martin Truex, Jr won both the first and second stages of the race.  There were 35 lead changes among 13 drivers including Blaney who led the field for 36 laps during the second stage of the race.

See the finish here on NASCAR's Twitter

NHRA

The John Force Racing team started the season strong with Robert Hight powering to his 54th career victory and fifth win at the NHRA Winternationals Sunday afternoon in Pomona, California.  In Top Fuel, Austin Prock finished runner-up in his return to the driver’s seat.  Brittany Force finished the event with a semifinal appearance and John Force after a strong test session struggled in Pomona ending with a first-round exit.

With Jimmy Prock and Chris Cunningham at the helm, Robert Hight was nearly perfect all weekend, qualifying number two coming into race day.  In the opening round, Hight defeated Jason Rupert, then Tony Juardo in the second round.  In the semifinals, Hight took down Funny Car veteran Matt Hagan to set up a matchup with reigning Funny Car world champion Ron Capps.  In the finals, Hight and Capps would have a stellar side-by-side drag race. Hight would edge Capps with a 3.861-second pass at 329.58 mph to Capps’ 3.882 at 333.82.

Austin Prock returned to Top Fuel with a splash, starting race day in the number four position.  In the opening round, Prock would take out Clay Millican, then eight-time world champion Tony Schumacher in the second round. Prock then faced teammate and number one qualifier Brittany Force in the semifinals.  While Force would have a solid 3.700 at 328.06, Prock would lay down his best run of the weekend at 3.687-seconds and 331.36 mph for the win.

In the finals, Prock would face Top Fuel standout in Justin Ashley. Nearly identical off the starting line, Prock would fall short of the win with a 3.713-second pass at 333 mph while Ashley would run 3.694 at 314.53 for the win.

After a stellar pre-season test session, the 16-time Funny Car World Champion, John Force, struggled to make a clean pass down track in Pomona. The BlueDEF PLATINUM Chevy drove into tire smoke almost immediately in his first-round match-up against event runner-up Ron Capps.

Coming Up Next

The John Force Racing team will head back to Arizona for the NHRA Arizona Nationals at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in Chandler, Arizona, February 25-27.