DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – If the Daytona 500 plays out as usual today, with at least one multi-car “big one” wreck, a lot of NASCAR fans may likely go hunting for Larry The Cable Guy – well, at least the product he sponsors (Prilosec OTC for heartburn) – if their favorite driver’s day unexpectedly comes to an end early.
Larry was hanging around with fans outside Turn 4 of Daytona International Speedway prior to Sunday’s race with his Monster Truck and talking NASCAR.
MotorSportsTalk caught up with Larry, who said he isn’t officially picking any driver to win the 500, but is leaning towards Ryan Newman to win his second 500.
“I root for Ryan,” said Larry, who starred in the NASCAR-themed Cars and the sequel Cars2. “I have a lot of guys come to my shows and we tweet each other, and I always hate picking a favorite because I don’t want to (tick) off anybody. But I root for Ryan and I always pull for him every year.”
Larry spent several years living in the Tampa area and really ratcheted up his interest with Daytona less than 100 miles away. He’d come to DIS as a fan long before he became a celebrity.
“I became a NASCAR fan when I was about 14, 15 years old. I went to a couple races when I was that age. … And when I moved to Florida, I really got into it because there was a track everywhere around here. I’ve been a fan many years.”
Has been Grand Marshal at a number of races including Sonoma and Charlotte. He also made a number of appearances at other tracks, including Talladega and Atlanta, and recently had a chance to drove the pace car at Daytona.
“Unbelievable. When I got in there, I told the guy, ‘I’d like to punch it one time around here.’ The guy said, ‘Well, Larry, you’ve got a pretty good groove, go ahead and punch it.’ So I’m hammering it, probably doing 90, that’s about it.
“It was in one of those little Chevy Volt’s or whatever it was. I was scared to death the trunk was going to catch on fire. It was fun. I had a blast.”
A passionate and very knowledgeable NASCAR fan, Larry said his all-time favorite driver was the late Dick Trickle. You’d be amazed at how much Larry knows about Trickle, who dominated short track racing in his native Wisconsin and the Midwest before moving to North Carolina to pursue a NASCAR career.
“He was my all-time favorite driver,” Larry said. “I really liked the guy.”
The focus of the Detroit Monster Energy Supercross round was on the mid-pack battle while Aaron Plessinger pulled away from the field, but when he crashed after hooking his foot in the dirt, the results once more looked like we’ve come to expect, with Chase Sexton, Cooper Webb and Eli Tomac sharing the podium for the fifth time in 10 rounds.Justin Barcia was part of an exciting, four-rider battle in the middle of Detroit’s A-Main. – Feld Motor Sports
For Sexton, Plessinger’s late-race crash was a vindication of sorts. Several times already this season, Sexton has crashed while battling for the lead and the points that has cost him keeps him sporting the red plate. He lost points in Detroit for a different reason, however.
Sexton was allowed to keep the win, but was penalized seven points for jumping in a red cross section of the course. As a result, he dropped four points to Webb and two to Tomac. Sexton is now 17 points behind Webb in the championship hunt.
One week after snatching the red plate from Tomac for the first time in 2023, Webb stretched his advantage by two. With his second-place finish, Webb holds a three-point lead over Tomac, which essentially means both riders control their fate in the coming weeks. Webb continues to have a sweep of the top five this season with his sixth consecutive podium.
Coming off his worst finish of the season, Tomac rebounded to finish third. His eighth-place result last week was partially attributed to a stiff neck that hindered him in traffic and he still suffered some of those same effects in Detroit. Before Plessinger’s crash, he was destined to be the only rider in the three-man title scrum to finish off the podium in Detroit.
It is surprising what one position can do for one’s confidence.
Justin Barcia scored his fourth top-five of the season. He was part of the exciting four-man battle that dominated the middle stages of the race before Sexton and Webb gained a little separation. Finishing less than three seconds behind Tomac, he kept that rider honest for the entire race.
Coming off his first win of the season, Ken Roczen finished fifth. It was his seventh top-five of the season and it elevated him to fifth in the standings.
Hunter Lawrence tied his brother Jett Lawrence with 10 wins each after another dominating ride in the Detroit Supercross race and the results in the points continue to widen. With his fifth win in six rounds and a worst finish of third, Lawrence now has a 35-point advantage over Nate Thrasher with four rounds remaining. Finishes of 14th or better in the final four mains will give him his first 250 championship.
Strong starts have been one of the keys to Hunter Lawrence’s success in 2023. – Feld Motor Sports
Jett will have an opportunity to retake his wins’ lead as Supercross heads west for the next two rounds in Seattle and Glendale, Arizona.
Nate Thrasher earned his third second-place finish of the season with a gap of 7.6 seconds to Lawrence. He won the overall in Arlington earlier this season, but a 15th-place finish in the opening round in Houston and 10th in Daytona hurts his championship chances.
Haiden Deegan scored his second podium and fourth top-five in six rounds of his young career. On his way to that finish, he rode aggressively against his teammate Jordon Smith in the heat race. Fans are getting a glimpse of what his on-track personality might be.
Jeremy Martin continues to be the model of consistency. He has not finished worse than sixth or better than fourth in six rounds now and that has allowed him to close to within two points of third in the 250 East championship standings.
Max Anstie entered the race weekend second in the points, but a hard crash in heavy traffic early in the main forced him to retire after two laps. Earning only one point for the round, he plummeted to fifth in the standings.
The news was worse for Smith, who was dropped out of the top nine in his heat after the altercation with Deegan and failed to advance through the LCQ. In the last chance race, he stalled his engine and had to mount a determined charge. He got only as high as seventh in that race after crashing while attempting to make a pass on fourth-place Jack Chambers.
