Daytona 500 lineup 2016: Starting grid, drivers and more

NASCAR Sprint Cup season opens with its biggest race of the year, with the Daytona 500 Sunday afternoon from Daytona Beach, Fla.

Jeff Gordon is a three-time winner of the Daytona 500 (1997, 1999 and 2005) and will serve as an analyst this year for FOX, his first official race with the network after retiring at the end of the 2015 season. But even though Gordon is no longer racing, the No. 24 car he helped immortalize will still be on the track for Hendrick Motorsports, with rookie Chase Elliott behind the wheel.

Elliott captured the pole position last Sunday with the top qualifying speed, at 20 years old the youngest pole sitter in Daytona 500 history. Gordon happily recalled his connection with Elliott on Thursday’s FOX conference call.

“Between the team and Chase, I was just so proud of them that I wanted to go down there and tell them what a great job they did,” Gordon recalled. “When the 24 drove out there on Saturday to do the first 500 qualifying practice -- that was a big moment. When they won the pole I was happy for them, but at the same time I’m going, ‘Yeah, wow, it’s sinking in that I’m not going to be driving that car anymore.”

Analyst Darrell Waltrip chimed in.

“[Gordon] turned to me and he looked at me with a really blank look on his face and he said, ‘Well, I guess it wasn’t the driver,’” Waltrip remembered. “I said ‘Welcome to TV brother.’”

Matt Kenseth, himself a two-time winner of the Daytona 500 (2009 and 2012), was second in qualifying and starts in second position Sunday. Can-Am Duel winners Dale Earnhardt Jr. (third) and Kyle Busch (fourth) make up the second row of the starting lineup.

However, Kenseth, following a last-lap crash in the second of the Can-Am Duels -- along with Jimmie Johnson Martin Truex, Jr., AJ Allmendinger and Brian Scott, all now driving backup cars -- will have to drop to the pack ahead of the green flag. Truex shook down the backup in Friday practice, drafting with the drivers of Joe Gibbs Racing.

“We drafted again with the Gibbs cars and felt our backup was real similar to the primary,” Truex said. “It’s really hard to tell until you get into racing conditions. Hopefully the backup will act similar in the big pack as our primary did (Thursday) in the duel race. I was real happy with the primary and felt we had a competitive car.”

The Daytona 500 begins on Fox Sports 1 with NASCAR Raceday at 10:30 a.m. ET, followed by coverage on Fox beginning at noon. The green flag is scheduled to drop at approximately 1:31 p.m.