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Hailie Deegan, Frankie Muniz, SVG headline Daytona Xfinity Series race | What to watch

ryan pritt, daytona beach news-journal
·6 min read

DAYTONA BEACH — Sure, Sunday at Daytona International Speedway and the festivities surrounding the 66th Daytona 500 promise to be exciting, to say the least. That is, if it happens at all (come on, Mother Nature!).

But wait until you get a load of Saturday's slate!

In terms of racing, Saturday should be the most eventful day of Speedweek with the final Daytona 500 practice looming before Xfinity Series qualifying and then two honest-to-God races, the ARCA Menards Series 200 and the Xfinity opener, the United Rentals 300.

And boy, the storylines abound!

From notable debuts and full-series starts to prerace favorites, there will be a ton to monitor Saturday at Daytona International Speedway and we've narrowed it down for you.

So, here's what to be on the lookout for on an eventful Daytona 500 eve.

Hailie Deegan begins her first full-time Xfinity Series season

Hailie Deegan will make her debut as a full-time Xfinity Series driver at Daytona on Saturday evening. It will mark her second start in the Xfinity Series.
Hailie Deegan will make her debut as a full-time Xfinity Series driver at Daytona on Saturday evening. It will mark her second start in the Xfinity Series.

After three years in the Craftsman Truck Series, Hailie Deegan will begin her full-time career at the Xfinity level Saturday evening at Daytona. She was signed by AM Racing and will drive the No. 15 Ford Mustang.

Deegan, voted the Truck Series' most popular driver in all three of her seasons, struggled to find footing in terms of results — she finished 17th, 21st and 19th in points from 2021-2023. In 69 Truck Series starts, she managed just five top-10 finishes and never finished inside the top five.

She has one Xfinity Series start under her belt and it was an encouraging one as she finished 13th at Las Vegas while driving for SS-Green Light Racing in 2022.

SVG to pull Saturday double duty at Daytona

ARCA driver Shane van Gisbergen waits to go on track during ARCA testing at Daytona International Speedway, Friday, Jan. 12, 2024.
ARCA driver Shane van Gisbergen waits to go on track during ARCA testing at Daytona International Speedway, Friday, Jan. 12, 2024.

While Deegan has at least one Xfinity start to fall back on, New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen will try to make his series debut Saturday evening. That after running in Friday night's ARCA Menards Series race.

Van Gisbergen came away with one of the biggest Cup Series upsets of all time last summer, winning the inaugural Chicago Street Race in a one-off start with Trackhouse Racing.

That victory led to another start with the team at the Indianapolis Road Course, and after another top-10 finish, expressed interest in making NASCAR a full-time thing. The man known as SVG was soon signed to run a full-time Xfinity season in the No. 97 Chevrolet for Kaulig Racing. He will also make at least seven Cup starts, though it is unknown whether those will come with Trackhouse or Kaulig.

Despite 81 wins, three championships and 508 starts in Aussie Supercars across 17 seasons, the 34-year-old has never run a superspeedway race. So, as a precaution, NASCAR mandated van Gisbergen run in the ARCA opener, where he will ran the No. 28 Pinnacle Racing Group Chevrolet.

Frankie Muniz will attempt Xfinity Series debut

Frankie Muniz climbs into his car before the start of the ARCA Menards Series 200 on Saturday afternoon at Daytona International Speedway.
Frankie Muniz climbs into his car before the start of the ARCA Menards Series 200 on Saturday afternoon at Daytona International Speedway.

Also attempting his series debut will be former sitcom star of "Malcolm in the Middle," Frankie Muniz, who ran a full-time ARCA Menards Series season last year, finishing fourth.

Muniz will try to qualify the No. 35 Joey Gase Racing Ford and will run a part-time Xfinity schedule with the team, via announcement last week. The car was split between Gase and Patrick Emerling in 2023.

Muniz finished 11th in the spring Daytona ARCA race last February.

Austin Hill, Cole Custer, Riley Herbst lead list of Daytona favorites

Austin Hill has won two February Daytona Xfinity Series races in a row.
Austin Hill has won two February Daytona Xfinity Series races in a row.

Any talk of possible winners in Saturday night's race has to start with Austin Hill, who will enter having won each of the last two United Rentals 300s in the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Counting Atlanta along with Daytona and Talladega, Hill has won four races at superspeedways in the last two seasons.

After being demoted within Stewart-Haas Racing from the Cup Series to the Xfinity Series prior to last season, Cole Custer answered the bell to say the least, winning three races and his first NASCAR series championship. Custer has never won a race at a superspeedway.

Speaking of Stewart-Haas, no driver in the series finished stronger than Custer's teammate Riley Herbst, who finished in the top four in each of the final five races of the year including his first Xfinity win at Las Vegas. Herbst will also run in Sunday's Daytona 500, making his second consecutive start in the Great American Race. He finished 10th for Rick Ware Racing last year.

Allmendinger, Nemechek, Suarez to run in Xfinity race

AJ Allmendinger will run both the Xfinity race and the Daytona 500 this weekend as well a few other drivers.
AJ Allmendinger will run both the Xfinity race and the Daytona 500 this weekend as well a few other drivers.

Herbst is hardly the only driver slated to appear on Saturday night and in Sunday's Daytona 500.

John Hunter Nemechek and Daniel Suarez, both full-time Cup Series drivers, will also run in the United Rentals 300. Nemechek finished fourth in the Xfinity Series points standings last year before signing on to drive the No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota in the Cup Series this year. He'll pilot the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on Saturday.

Suarez is entering his fourth season in the Cup Series for Trackhouse Racing and made one start in the Xfinity Series in 2023, finishing 10th at Pocono for Kaulig Racing. He'll run the No. 14 SS-Greenlight Chevrolet Saturday night.

One more driver, Anthony Alfredo, will run the Xfinity/Cup Series doubleheader this weekend. Alfredo locked himself into the Daytona 500 field via qualifying on Wednesday, registering the best time among the six open cars in the No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet. He will drive the No. 5 Our Motorsports Chevy full time in the Xfinity series this year.

Final Daytona 500 practice slated for Saturday morning

Did we mention the Cup Series cars will be back on the track one, last time before Sunday's Daytona 500?

Happy Hour ... er, 50 minutes ... is set for a 10:30 a.m. start Saturday morning. Joey Logano will start on the pole Sunday with Michael McDowell rounding out the front row.

Daytona Beach weather forecast still ominous for Saturday

As will be the case throughout the weekend, rain will threaten Daytona International Speedway all day Saturday.

The latest weather reports as of Friday morning listed the chance of rain throughout the day on Saturday at 80% and that bumps up to 90% Saturday night. And Sunday doesn't look much better, with rain percentages at 70%. A total of 1-3, possibly 4 inches of rain is expected fall in Daytona Beach over the weekend.

Daytona 500 schedule of events (Saturday)

  • Cup Series final practice, 10:30-11:20 a.m.

  • Xfinity Series qualifying, 11:30

  • Xfinity Series, United Rentals 300, 5

What channel is the Daytona Xfinity race on?

Saturday's United Rentals 300 is set to air on FS1.

What channel is the Daytona ARCA race on?

Saturday's Daytona ARCA 200 will air on FS1.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Daytona 500: Xfinity Series, ARCA races to feature Muniz, SVG, Deegan