Analyzing The UNOH Battle At The Beach at Daytona International Speedway

By Lou Modestino

The NASCAR K&N Pro Series East pulls a quick turnaround from Sunday’s season opener at New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway and heads into Tuesday’s UNOH Battle At The Beach on the short track at Daytona International Speedway – the season’s second points race. Below is a look at the performance of the series and selected drivers at Daytona, as well as, some other statistical trends:

Daytona Race Setup

· After last season’s non-points combination event with the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West, this year’s edition of the UNOH Battle At The Beach is a championship points race for the K&N Pro Series East.

· With a win Sunday night at New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway, Daniel Suárez has six top-three finishes in his last eight series starts dating back to last season.

· Just four drivers – Gray Gaulding, Ryan Gifford, Cameron Hayley and Sergio Peña – on this year’s entry list participated in last season’s inaugural Daytona short-track event.

AT DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY:

History

· Groundbreaking for Daytona International Speedway was Nov. 25, 1957. The soil underneath the banked corners was dug from the infield of the track and the hole filled with water. It is now known as Lake Lloyd.

· The first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Daytona was a 100-mile qualifying race for the Daytona 500 on Feb. 20, 1959 – won by Bob Welborn.

· Lights were installed in the spring of 1998 and the track underwent a repave in 2010. The backstretch skid pad was widened during that repave, allowing for the possibility of a temporary oval that is now utilized for the UNOH Battle At The Beach.

Notebook

· The full 2.5-mile tri-oval at Daytona has played host to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 133 times, the NASCAR Nationwide Series 44 times and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series 14 times.

· The inaugural UNOH Battle At The Beach was held on Feb. 18-19, 2013. Kyle Larson won the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series late model feature, Steve Park was victorious in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race and Cameron Hayley took the checkered flag in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series event. All three were non-points races.

· This is the series’ first standalone event at the Florida facility.

· The UNOH Battle At The Beach will be telecast live by FOX Sports 2 beginning with the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour-Whelen Southern Modified Tour at 7 p.m. ET followed by the K&N East race at approximately 8:45 p.m. FOX Sport 1 will re-air the K&N East event on Wednesday, Feb. 19 at 5:30 p.m. ET.

· Additionally, Motor Racing Network (MRN) will begin its coverage of the UNOH Battle At The Beach at 6:45 p.m. The broadcast will be streamed live at MRN.com and simulcast by SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Ch. 90.

· This is the series’ third standalone race in the state of Florida and 11th overall with eight combination races with the NASCAR Nationwide Series at Daytona from 1988 to 1997.

· The Daytona short track is one of four tracks less than a half-mile on the series schedule with Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C., Langley Speedway in Hampton, Va., and Columbus (Ohio) Motor Speedway being the others.

· This is the only event scheduled on a Tuesday this season.

Daytona Data

Race: #2 of 16 (2/18/14)

Track Layout: .37-mile temporary asphalt oval

Race Length: 150 laps (55.5 miles)

Banking/Corners: No banking

Qualifying/Race Data

2013 Pole Winner*: Greg Purlsey and Derek Thorn won twin qualifying races

2013 Race Winner*: Cameron Hayley

1-Lap Qualifying Record: To be established

150-Lap Race* Record: Cameron Hayley, Ford, 1 hour, 22 minutes, 15 seconds, 45.503 mph, Feb. 19, 2013

* Non-points combination event with NASCAR K&N Pro Series West