Toyota’s high hopes for Daytona 500 may be dampened by rainy forecast

Flag drop: The Daytona 500 is as captivating as ever.

Denny Hamlin leaned into the window of Christopher Bell’s winning Toyota to congratulate his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate on beating him in a Daytona 500 qualifying race.

Hamlin then gave Bell detailed directions to victory lane.

“Been to victory lane at Daytona a time or three,” Hamlin wrote on social media. “Had to show (Bell) the way.”

After a dismal showing in time trials for Sunday’s season-opening Daytona 500, the Toyota camp roared back and swept the two 150-mile qualifying races that set the field for “The Great American Race.” The wins by Tyler Reddick of 23XI Racing — the team co-owned by Hamlin and Michael Jordan — and Bell marked the first sweep of the Daytona qualifying races for Toyota since 2014.

Toyota heads into the Daytona 500 a perfect 3 for 3 on the season in its new Camry XSE. With all nine Toyota drivers qualified for Sunday’s field, the automaker is hoping to remain undefeated in 2024.

The nine entries are the most Toyota has had in the Daytona 500 since 2011.

Hamlin, who is Toyota’s only Daytona 500 winner with three previous victories, will be going for a fourth Sunday and was initially listed as the race favorite by FanDuel Sportsbook. The odds Friday had tilted slightly toward both Joey Logano, who will start from the pole for Team Penske in a new Ford Dark Horse Mustang, and Kyle Busch, who crashed in the qualifying race and will start 34th in a Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing.

Weather is expected to play a role in Sunday’s race with rain expected to hit Daytona on Saturday. The forecast is so poor that NASCAR on Friday decided to run the ARCA race scheduled for Saturday after Friday night’s Truck Series race.

There’s less chance of the Daytona 500 being altered from its slated Sunday afternoon start time even though NASCAR moved up the Clash by a full a day earlier this month because of heavy rain in Los Angeles. NASCAR is most likely expected to wait it out as long as possible Sunday before deciding if the race needs to be postponed until Monday.

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Published with permission of the Associated Press.