President Ronald Reagan was among the estimated 80,000 race fans at Daytona International Speedway on July 4, 1984, when Richard Petty scored his 200th victory in NASCAR’s premier stock car series. The event is widely recognized as the most significant in the history of American auto racing as Reagan became the first sitting U.S. president to attend a major motorsports event and Petty achieved what turned out to be the final victory of his storied career. President Reagan gave the command to start the engines via phone from Air Force One while en route to the speedway, and all eyes were on…

5 to watch Fresh off a thrilling and wildly popular win at Sonoma, Tony Stewart is set for his final start at Daytona – where he’s a four-time winner of the track’s July race. After sitting out what would have been his final Daytona 500, Stewart won’t be lacking motivation this weekend. Dale Earnhardt Jr. won last July’s race at Daytona in dominant fashion but has failed to impress in two restrictor-plate starts this year. This will be Earnhardt’s first plate race since 2014 without his beloved plate car dubbed “Amelia,” which he crashed at Talladega in May. After winning this year’s…

To get an idea of just how wild Saturday night’s race under the lights at Daytona International Speedway might be, it requires merely looking back on last year’s running of the annual mid-summer classic at The World Center of Racing. One ill-advised move on the final lap sent Austin Dillon’s No. 3 Chevrolet sailing airborne into the frontstretch catchfence and the entire sport holding its collective breath until the moment Dillon climbed out of his battered machine. Thankfully, Dillon walked away with just bruises, but the violent nature of the wreck was a stark reminder of the imminent dangers that accompany restrictor-plate…