An immaculate qualifying time by Johnny Reed Foley and Ryan Heuser puts them two-tenths ahead of the field on speed! Behind them, Jeremy Hebel, Trae Larkin, Steve Inkman, Rod Weston, Molemar Diggs, Joe Polson, Doug Spark, Tony Long, Dalton Lucas, Petey J. Zehler and Nigel Ramasawmy fight for the top-5 spots in their group to make the Daytona 500. The overall winner earns $2,000,000, enough to dominate the KFC kitchen.
The lead swapped several times early in the go. Johnny Reed Foley led one lap. Ryan Heuser then led two. Tony Pizzaro took the "Fenway Frank" ford up for a tour at the front. When Dakota Wilkins took the lead on lap 5, time stood still. He dominated the early portion of the event, leading through lap 13 before Heuser grappled it back.
Heuser and Johnny Reed Foley dominated from laps 15 through 30, re-certifying themselves as the top-class of the field. Heuser won the halfway bacon bonus on lap 30, with Tony Pizzaro taking the charge just before green flag pit stops. Ryan Heuser would blow his engine just prior to coming in, taking out the favorite! Donald Stewart and Scott Jackson came in first, signaling crews to wave their signs in severe euphoria after the dominant car fell out!
Euphora was not to be! A disastrous accident out of the pits saw Rod Weston and Johnny Reed Foley smack the outside wall, sending the #56 sliding down the race track. Dakota Wilkins pile-drove the NAPA Dodge nose-first, getting clobbered by Tony Long on the driver-side door and into a series of sidewinders. Wilkins, Weston and Joe Polson all violently flew into the air, with all three cars coming to a stop tires-first onto the turn-3 apron. Wilkins was flown to the Halifax Medical Center with undisclosed injuries. His status for the Daytona 500 is yet to be determined. Weston, Polson and Long are okay, but each failed to make the 2024 Daytona 500.
Tony Pizzaro led the field to the green with 13 laps remaining. Teammate Ken Pettit showed the speed of his near Championship run in 2023, flying from 10th to 1st in three laps while he, Pizzaro, Craig Lee and Markell Murphy battled it out to the finish. The #101 NOS Energy Chevrolet took the top-spot with seven laps remaining, but an Cindarella effort from Steve Inkman pushed the #8 back around Lee with five laps remaining.
Contact from Dalton Lucas sent Matt Raboin fying into the outside wall with four laps to go, taking Dan Johnston and Zakk Miller with him in a shower of sparks! This turn-3 accident brought out the caution flag, ending the race with Ken Pettit atop the heap! Miller, Raboin and Johnston would all come out okay in relative hopes of repairing their cars to full song for the 500.
The "Rastaman" crew celebrates in sheer euphoria while watching their car cross the finish-line at highway speed from the pits! Ken Pettit will start outside row to Dave Miller when the 45-car field takes the green flag next Friday. Congrats to Pettit, crew chief Slim Horton and the entire Race-2-Win team for an excellent victory! Also congrats to Steve Inkman, Trae Larkin, Dalton Lucas, Molemar Diggs and Jeremy Hebel for earning their spot in the 2024 Daytona 500 field!
Ten drivers fight for five starting spots in the 2024 Daytona 500! David Butterworth, Mike Carroll, Scott Drake, David Courtney, Kevin Corbat, Tony Gunk, Mark Heron, Ken Joynt, Philip Parker and Ziggy Moonglow fight for outright supremacy! The overall winner will earn $2,000,000 and a front row starting spot for the Daytona 500 grid!
The #4 Green Bay Packers Chevrolet blew a left-front tire coming to the green flag, forcing him to pit early and drop a lap. Up front, Timothy McDonnell dominated the early stages, leading the first 15 circuits before a hard-charge from John Battista, Alan Nesfeder and Logan Sheets. The #58 Quaker State dodge won the three-wide battle.
Devastation in turn-3 proved hard luck for the #02 Coca-Cola Chevrolet. Ziggy Moonglow's comeback story ends in agony after spinning across the racetrack, slamming the outside wall and into the top-lane of traffic. John Battista nailed him in the rear end, sending the #39 into the garage with Ziggy meandering outside the pack for the remainder of the night.
A miraculous pit stop by Alex Crapser's crew put him back on top, hoping to sweep Speedweeks after his victory in the Big Bud Shootout! It wouldn't last, with Sheets re-taking the top-spot and cruising to the halfway bacon bonus. Alan Nesfeder, Kevin Corbat and pole-sitter McDonnell all swapped the top-spot.
McDonnell, Dave Miller and Jimmie Stevens looked to be the three cars to beat closing on the final stages. The #90 Marlboro machine took the lead on lap 34, towing the field into a single-car line before McDonnell re-passed Miller with 16 laps remaining. Alan Nesfeder was on top of the heap three-laps later with the rest of the field ready to pounce.
Nesfeder, Miller and Logan Sheets all swapped the top-position multiple times while David Butterworth, Ken Joynt and David Courtney fought desperately for the final transfer spot around 17th place. Nesfeder would win the battle up front with draft help from McDonnell. Miller's cigarette mobile flew by the #22 in grand style, directly behind the #78 coming to the white flag.
"Marlboro Man" flew by Nesfeder on the frontstretch, leaving no time for anybody to get a run with only two-miles to go. The #90 would cross under the checkered flag a winner after a devastating 2023 campaign, re-earning his 2022 Championship glory! Congrats to Dave Miller, crew chief Sonny Sundae and the entire Quick-Silver Motorsports team for an excellent victory! Also congrats to Kevin Corbat, Scott Drake, David Butterworth, David Courtney and Mark Heron for earning their spot in the 2024 Daytona 500 field!
Timothy McDonnell
John Tharp
Zach Michael
Ben Geer
John Battista
Adam Crapser
Jimmie Stevens
Rob Scarberry
Alan Nesfeder
Matthew Dominique
Logan Sheets
Chauncey Redmond Jr.
Dave Miller David Butterworth Alex Crapser
Cristian Torres Mike Carroll Michael Henson
Rick Jackson Scott Drake David Courtney
Kevin Corbat
Tony Gunk
Mark Heron
Ken Joynt Jonathan Skrabacz Philip Parker Ziggy Moonglow
*yellowindicates drivers racing their way in. Top-5 will make the race.
Johnny Reed Foley
Ryan Heuser
William Perry
Donald Stewart Jeremy Hebel Bill Werkheiser
Scott Jackson Trae Larkin Tony Pizzaro
Craig Lee Steve Inkman Markell Murphy Rod Weston
Molemar Diggs Dakota Wilkins
Steven Spears Joe Polson Ken Pettit
Dan Johnston
Zakk Miller Doug Spark
Tony Long Matt Raboin Dalton Lucas
Petey J. Zehler Bink Lucas
Geno Sphere Nigel Ramasawmy
*yellowindicates drivers racing their way in. Top-5 will make the race.
Nineteen drivers attempt infinite glory! The 2024 Big Bud Shootout stands as the hurdle to the big Daytona 500 race, with 19 of 2023's pole-sitters battling triumphantly for the "Big Bud" grand prize. Lucas Racing duo Alex Crapser and John Battista sit on the front row in an attempt to win the $2,000,000!
The Lucas Racing brigade stay atop the heap for less than a lap. Crapser earned his entry with a pole at Watkins Glen, with Battista at the Superspeedway in Alabama. The Race-2-Win duo of Rick Jackson and Tony Pizzaro triumphantly slip-streamed through to lead the initial lap. Between them and Ken Pettit, the team earned eight pole positions in 2023. The lead swapped between Ryan Heuser, Tony Pizzaro and Alan Nesfeder afterwards as the early stages broke through. Heuser earned his entry by winning a league-leading five pole positions, with Nesfeder capturing the hot laps at Kansas and Bristol. The #78 would dominate early, leading from lap 6 to lap 15.
Matthew Dominique and Ryan Heuser battled for supremacy through the lap-20 mark. The #25 earned pole-position at Homestead and Pocono, restitution for a winless 2023 campaign. Bill Werkheiser, Johnny Reed Foley, Scott Jackson and Ziggy Moonglow also enter The Shootout winless the previous year.
Race-2-Win's Rick Jackson and Ken Pettit tag-team back to the front on lap 21. The #44 would maintain his dominant status for three laps before John Battista took back the pack. He would lead 2024's first Halfway Bacon Bonus for $100,000.
A desolating accident on lap 24 takes out two of the contenders! Donald Stewart and Matthew Dominique made contact entering turn-3, elevating the #25 up the banking and into Bink Lucas. Bink annihilated the outside wall head-on, but withdrew from his racecar without any injuries. Dominique also failed to continue with a dismantled spoiler.
A 22-lap shootout to the finish for $2,000,000. John Battista dominated the early go, leading the initial ten before Ryan Heuser made his move. A fitting position for the leading pole-getter. Heuser took the top-spot and maintained it through the seven-to-go mark.
The #39 Wendy's Chevrolet re-passed the #138, swapping the top-spot again with Heuser on top of the heap and teammate Craig Lee to follow. The two were now side-by-side, manufacturing immaculate momentum for Alex Crapser, steamrolling past the Quick-Silver Motorsports duo to capture the lead! The #04 was strong enough to spread out the field and distance himself from a hard-charge from behind. This was Crapser's race to lose.
The immaculate Lucas Racing domination at Superspeedway's continues, with the Pennzoil #04 crossing the line in first for $2,000,000 to go with Battista's Halfway Bacon Bonus money. Crapser also won the pole, earning an extra $100,000 himself with Lucas Racing seemingly taking all the cash available! Congrats to Alex, crew chief Cheato Jacobsen and the entire Lucas Racing organization for an excellent victory!
Nineteen drivers fight for 50 laps! One pit stop or a caution flag will spread out the field, with the final contenders battling defiantly with ten circuits to go. Two million dollars will go to the winner. Top-10 drivers earn at least $100,000 with the final half of the field coming away with absolutely nothing! Ryan Heuser arrives in 2024 after leading the league in qualifying-time for a third-straight season. Counterpart Zach Michael was the last to earn the most poles in 2020, entering Daytona as the reigning winner of the event. Nobody has ever won two-in-a-row since the races inception in 1982, one of the most impressive streaks in Extravaganza Series history! Bill Werkheiser and Ziggy Moonglow hope to steal the show away for the top-dog crowd. Here are the winners from the previous five Big Bud Shootouts:
2019: Scott Jackson 2020: Tony Pizzaro 2021: Johnny Reed Foley 2022: Dave Miller 2023: Zach Michael
Four teams battle it out for the Extravaganza Series Rookie of the Year crown. Short-track ace Steve Inkman #57 and Tony Gunk #59 will drive the two Solomon-Tark entries for the Daytona 500. Their Greensboro, North Carolina race shop is deep within stock car country, attempting to field four total race cars for the top-2 premier series. The two favorites heading in are Bonanza Series Champion Molemar Diggs #41 and Jeremy Hebel #1. Diggs will field Lucas Racing engines for the second-year Wizards of Speed organization out of Sudbury, Massachusetts (Where Babe Ruth dropped his piano). Bonzai Series runner-up Hebel takes over the second Blazin' Pedals Racing ride, with CFM engines from Grand Rapids, Michigan. The team itself moved from Denver, Colorado to Two Rivers, Wisconsin in ferry-ride distance from their horsepower supplier. All four teams will have to qualify for the first six events, imperative for determining the outcome of the 2024 Rookie of the Year title!
W.A.S.P. Motorsports: Bill Werkheiser will call it quits after the 2024 season. He will be in new colors this year, hoping to take the Piper Archer #6 to victory lane one final time after recieving Randy Dobbins's Ford factory support. Teammate Scott Jackson struggled with speed all season long, free-wheeling from an average starting-spot of 26th and miraculously finishing inside the top-20 in points. W.A.S.P. Motorsports as a whole hasn't been to victory lane since Scott won the Sharipe 500 in 2021. With Geno Sphere in the fold and new sponsorship from Kingsford, this three-car team has hope for the future.
Donald Stewart enters the season elated after a huge victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway to cap off 2023. Last year started off with similar success, earning five-straight top-5 finishes to begin, third in points entering the Russ Charneski 500. Five finishes 41st or worse halted the #55's chances of a chase birth, finishing 18th in the standings with ten top-5 finishes. A new look for Clorox may propel them to the stratosphere, with teammate Ben Geer earning a top-35 provisional spot after David Butterworth left High Octane Racing. With Allstate dropping their sponsorship to the #121 only, the #81 owner points no longer exist, bumping Ben Geer into the Daytona 500 and the first six races. If Stewart can earn a chase birth and Geer finishes top-30 in points, they will render the 2024 season a success!
Jeremy Hebel finished 2nd in the ARCA Bonzai Series Championship last season, losing to Jim Gunk in a head-to-head battle for the title! With the success, Alex Crapser's former crew chief has left the Lucas Racing ladder to join Blazin' Pedals Racing's second Extravaganza ride. The #1 Milwaukee Brewers Chevrolet will compete for Rookie of the Year against Molemar Diggs, Steve Inkman and Bonzai Champion Jim Gunk's brother Tony. Teammate Dakota Wilkins's 2023 Cinderella victory at Auto Club sets the team standard for 2024. They've switched to CFM Motorsports engines in 2024 after Lucas Racing's full commitment to Wizards of Speed's newfound two car organization. If they can get over that hurdle, expect one of these guys to finish top-20 in points and earn another victory!
The glory days with Johnny Reed Foley have yet to replicate for Shake N' Bake Racing. The #18 team is officially defunct, with Cristiano De Sa out of a ride for the Daytona 500. The Budweiser #15 endured an enormous blow after Tony Long's accident at Chicagoland, dropping out of the top-35 in points despite help from Jared Mogard. Long will have to qualify for his Daytona 500 spot, and for an entry in the first six events. Michael Henson's #144 will hold down the fort, hoping to finally eclipse a top-20 result in the standings. A victory for either team would be popular in the Extravaganza Series garage.
Old Farts Racing is back to a two car organization, bringing on David Butterwoth after he lost his Allstate sponsorship with High Octane Racing. Ironically, the sponsor forfeited just before Butterworth railroaded his way into the top-35 in points, earning four top-10 finishes in the final fourteen races. With that car defunct, he will now have to race his way into the Daytona 500 with Coor's Light as his new primary sponsor. Teammate Rob Scarberry maintains his popular standing with STP, looking to improve on his 26th place average finish in 2023. A victory would be nice, but a few top-5's with both cars finishing inside the top-30 in points will be the goal.
Ziggy Moonglow is back! His mortifying Sonoma pit-wall accident last June desecrated his abdomen and broke several ribs, but the doctors render him ready to go for 2024. Coca-Cola will remain the full time sponsor for the #02 after subsidiary Dr. Pepper pulled from the #18 Shake N' Bake Racing ride. Both he and teammate Trae Larkin need to qualify for the Daytona 500, hoping to use Ziggy's experience in the Big Bud Shootout to dominate the Daytona Duels. Delta Sim Racing's goal is for the #00 and #02 to finish the year top-35 in points.
Solomon-Tark Motorsports: Nobody expects anything from Solomon-Tark Motorsports. This two-car organization finished 22nd and 36th in the Bonanza Series standings, without a victory for either Steven Inkman or Tony Gunk. Still, relative sponsorship from Kelpo and Bran Flakes was enough to propel their move to full-time Extravaganza. Both drivers will compete for Rookie of the Year, with Inkman as the short-track ace and Gunk as the horsepower man. Making the Daytona 500 is the goal, with a week-to-week basis mentality for the oncoming races.
Dan Johnston and Rod Weston join the seven-car crowd of independent organizations running full time in 2024. Alan Nesfeder was finally able to top John Tharp for the highest points finisher of a one car team, earning 11th in the standings to Tharp's 13th. Tharp looks for his third Daytona 500 victory, hoping to partner with #26 Cristian Torres during the race as the only two full time Toyota's in the field. Hot Header Racing with Jonathan Skrabacz lost Boeing as a sponsor during the offseason, joining forces with Castrol G
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Alex Crapser's devastating frontstretch accident at Michigan didn't stop this team from earning immaculate glory! He and John Battista finished third and fourth in the 2023 standings, walloping the field with eight combined victories. Seven of them went to John Battista, capitalizing at Rockingham, Richmond, Martinsville, Talladega, Daytona, Watkins Glen and Bristol. Alex earned his at Chicagoland, with Adam Crapser nearly winning both Richmond events. If they can get Dalton Lucas into the Daytona 500 and qualify for the first six races, they will have their usual four-car arsenal for the 2024 season. If not, The #4 team will have to improve on their Speedway program to make up the difference. Expect the #39 and #04 to be Championship favorites.
Zakk Miller stepped up his game in 2023, earning a chase birth with two victories at Texas and New Hampshire. He will be the lone representative for Team Danger Zone in the 2024 Big Bud Shootout due to the teams focus on race setups, something they look to improve upon for the oncoming year. Zach Michael's consistency propelled him to a chase birth as well, dominating the mid-summer stretch with six top-6 finishes between Chicagoland and Watkins Glen. His back-to-back victories at the Brickyard 400 and a 46th-to-1st domination at Michigan were the highlights of the #20's Coca-Cola season. Teammate Markell Murphy raced inside the hornets nest from 15th to 25th all year long, looking to find more speed in 2024. With Steven Spears inside the top-35 in points, Team Danger Zone comes in as the only team with four guaranteed full-time entries. Look for Zach Michael and Zakk Miller to contend for the Championship.
Ryan Heuser finally earned his fourth Exravaganza Series Championship, dominating the show all year long in immaculate style! His victories at Atlanta, Darlington, Talladega and Rockingham combined well with his consistent finishes at short tracks, as well as his lack of engine failures. The #138 team was the saving grace, watching teammates Craig Lee and Dave Miller struggle early in the season. Both were outside the top-19 in points after the Brickyard 400, with Craig Lee and new crew chief Pokey Reese capturing victories at Pocono, Las Vegas and Martinsville to return to form. Hopefully, the #90 Marlboro team can do the same. Quicksilver Motorsports looks to earn their third-straight Championship crown in 2024!
All three drivers made the chase in 2023 for the first time in Race-2-Win Motorsports history. A blown camshaft at Rockingham destroyed Ken Pettit's Championship bid, though an vast improvement from 2022's 20th-place point performance earns a record-high morale for the team. Combining Pettit's Southern 500 victory was Rick Jackson's win at the Coke 600, and Tony Pizzaro's victory in the Daytona 500. Zach Michael's win at the Brickyard cost them the Extravaganza Grand-Slam, but their $143,815,000 in earnings for winning three Crown Jewel events may help the team in the furure. Expect more of the same results in 2024.
Matt Raboin pulled off a miracle run to earn Quantum racing's only 2023 chase birth! A second place finish at Lime Rock, a third at Watkins Glen and a victory at Richmond narrowly beat out Jimmie Stevens and teammate Matthew Dominique for the final spot for a run at the Championship. Unfortunately, the team would struggle for the remaining ten races, with Logan Sheets' second-place finish at Talladega as their only high point. Sheets and the #58 team earned eight top-5 finishes along with three second places, hoping to give new sponsor Quaker State their first career victory. Matthew Dominique and the #25 crew haven't won a race since Talladega in 2020. All three teams have the potential to reach victory lane in 2024, with Matt Raboin a factor at short tracks, Dominique's consistency, and Sheets eventually capitalizing on his second-place efforts.
Four drivers will enter the 2024 Daytona 500 for CFM Motorsports, including Kevin Corbat's #46 and Doug Spark's #03. Corbat has never qualified for the Great American Race after six years of trying, while Spark attempts his first qualification. The two full time drivers Timothy McDonnell and Johnny Reed Foley both come in as immaculate Championship contenders, with Timothy McDonnell first in points after 26 races in 2023. The #22 team earned ten-straight top-10 finishes between Talladega and Chicagoland, with five-straight top-3 finishes between Kansas and Sonoma. He earned victories at Kansas, Pocono, Lime Rock and a huge hometown victory at Extravaganza's second ever race at Gateway. Teammate Johnny Reed Foley saw himself up front early in races, earning 660 laps led but failing to close the deal. Former crew chief Ronnie Pressley joined the Molemar Diggs team, handing three-time Extravaganza Champion Rene Arnoux as the new crew chief for Foley. Look for both drivers to be Championship contenders in 2024.
Bink Lucas's victory at Phoenix propelled Lifesaver Racing to immaculate heights! It ended a winless drought beginning with Bink's victory at the Eddie Money Classic in 2022, slumping his way through the first half of 2023. By the halfway point, the #5 team earned zero top-5 finishes, with teammate Jimmie Stevens 8th in points and on the brink of a chase birth. By the end of the year, the #2 team slumped while Bink led 374 laps, dominating Martinsville and Rockingham and stealing the win away at Phoenix. Team Danger Zone continues to supply engines for the team. If Jimmie Stevens' reliability coagulates with Bink Lucas's late-season domination, both of these drivers may clinch a chase birth in 2024!
Rookie of the Year winner Chauncey Redmond Jr. was bliss or miss for the entirety of the 2023 season. His second place finish at Rockingham pushed him through a horrifying start to the campaign, finishing 35th or worse in the first three events. Slowly their results improved, finishing 2nd to Zach Michael in the Brickyard 400, and leading laps at the short tracks on speed. The team brings in Bonanza Series Champion Molemar Diggs into the fold, graduating from the same Lucas Racing #40 that Redmond drove the previous season. He will drove the #41 Pittsburgh Steelers Chevrolet. Lucas Racing continues to supply engines to the team, hoping to capitalize by earning Wizards of Sp
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February 2nd, 2024:Big Bud Shootout* February 9th, 2024: Daytona Duel #1* February 9th, 2024: Daytona Duel #2* February 16th, 2024: Daytona February 23rd, 2024: California March 1st, 2024: Homestead March 8th, 2024: Rockingham March 15th, 2024: Atlanta March 22nd, 2024: Texas March 29th, 2024: Richmond April 5th, 2024: Bristol April 12th, 2024: Martinsville April 29th, 2024: Talladega May 3rd, 2024: Darlington May 10th, 2024: Kansas May 17th, 2024: Pocono May 24th, 2024: All-Star Open #1* May 24th, 2024: All-Star Open #2* May 24th, 2024: All-Star Race* May 31st, 2024: Charlotte June 7th, 2024: Gateway June 14th, 2024: Sonoma June 21st, 2024: Nashville Heat #1* June 21st, 2024: Nashville Heat #2* June 21st, 2024: Nashville Heat #3* ... Read more »
