Richard Petty concedes he’s been miffed at the downsizing of his role at the Cup team that bore his name before Jimmie Johnson became a minority owner last year.Petty GMS Racing was renamed Legacy Motor Club for the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, and “The King” has no ownership stake in the organization that includes the No. 43 he made famous.The seven-time Cup series champion remains in a “chief ambassador” role with Legacy Motor Club, but Petty, 85, explained (during a media availability Saturday morning at Daytona International Speedway) that Johnson and his management team are in charge of all major decisions.“Yes, it does,” Petty replied with a laugh when asked if that bothered him. “Because I’ve done things my way, which hasn’t been too good lately, but as time progresses, things change in the world. Then it probably was time for a change.“Jimmie’s looking not necessarily at what’s going to happen this year, but he’s trying to lay a foundation for four or five years where he’s still young enough that he’s going to be around for a long, long time.”When it comes to “sponsorship, appearances and all that stuff, Jimmie’s crowd kind of controls that,” Petty said. “That’s something I’ve never had to put up with, I guess. I still do my own thing. But then I do a lot for our new team.”In an interview Saturday afternoon with Dan Gelston of the Associated Press, Johnson said he was “disappointed to hear and read through the press that his feelings were bruised because he’s not expressed them to me, for starters. But honestly, there are a lot of moving pieces to this. There are business decisions that are taking place between (primary team owner) Mr. (Maury) Gallagher and the Petty family before I ever arrived. Those are details that are just not my place to say.“But a lot of what Richard is speaking to is based on business decisions that he and his family have made, and they aren’t relative to my involvement.”The Petty name has been a part of NASCAR’s premier series virtually since its 1949 inception until this year. Petty Enterprises was founded by Richard’s father, Lee, and it morphed into Richard Petty Motorsports and then Petty GMS in recent years.Petty said his new role has “been strange to me” in part because he and Johnson agree on the team’s direction “about 50 percent” of the time — but “The King” still is adjusting to no longer having the final say.“Most of the time, I run the majority of the show,” Petty said. “Jimmie brought all his people in, and his way of running things (and) my way of running things, are probably a little bit different, OK?”Johnson, 47, returned to NASCAR as a part-time driver and team owner after racing in the NTT IndyCar Series the past two seasons.After locking in a spot via qualifying Wednesday, his start in Sunday’s Daytona 500 will be Johnson’s first NASCAR race since the 2020 Cup season finale in Phoenix. He is planning more Cup starts this season (but only the Chicago street race has been confirmed beyond Daytona).“I think Jimmie’s really looking to the future,” Petty said. “Basically, he’ll wind up running the show in four to five years. He’ll probably be the majority owner of our operation in four to five years. I know that they’re looking at things completely differently.“Jimmie’s very observant. Jimmie controls everything, basically. You’re making postcards and stuff, he has to approve it. He approves everything. He’s a pretty busy man right now.”Legacy Motor Club fields Chevrolets in full-season rides for Erik Jones and rookie Noah Gragson. Petty said he understood why the team rebranded.“That was one of the operations that when Jimmie come in, it was going to be hard to be ‘Petty Johnson GMS,’ ” Petty said. “Here again, Jimmie’s thinking further ahead with this group, and he come up with a new name.“So we got him with seven championships, me with seven championships, (Hall of Fame crew chief) Dale Inman with eight championships. So a pretty legendary operation from the top up or the top down. That’s the reason they wanted a new team. They wanted to do stuff a little bit different, and that’s the reason they come up with (the name).”Johnson was busy with media obligations after final Daytona 500 practice Saturday and said he had yet to talk with “The King.” But Johnson planned to discuss Petty’s displeasure in a future conversation between two of the three seven-time champions in NASCAR history (along with the late Dale Earnhardt).“He’s always been so kind and wonderful to me,” Johnson said. “He’s the last person I fist-pumped before I rolled off pit lane and won my seventh championship.”Petty and Johnson are among nine past NASCAR champions and Daytona 500 winners who will serve as grand marshals for Sunday’s race.
Locked in!! pic.twitter.com/SXBKPMurST
— Jimmie Johnson (@JimmieJohnson) February 16, 2023

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Austin Hill, who looks to win the season-opening Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway a second consecutive year, will start on the pole in Saturday’s race (5 p.m. ET on FS1).Hill won the pole with a lap of 182.563 mph. He will be joined on the front row by Parker Kligerman, who is running the full Xfinity Series for the first time since 2013. Kligerman qualified at 182.441 mph.MORE: Daytona Xfinity starting lineupCole Custer, who is back in the series full-time after spending the past three seasons in Cup, will start third after a lap of 182.319 mph. Sheldon Creed (182.216 mph) qualified fourth. Justin Allgaier (182.208 mph) completed the top five.Cup driver Justin Haley will start 19th after a lap of 180.661 mph.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — A seven-time Cup champion is back. A two-time champion has changed teams. And a former champion makes his last Daytona 500 start Sunday.NASCAR’s 75th anniversary season begins in splendor.Nine former and current drivers, who have won at least one Daytona 500 and a Cup championship, will give the command to start the Daytona 500. Among those will be Jimmie Johnson, who returns to the series after spending the past two years in the IndyCar Series. Also among those will be Kevin Harvick, who is beginning his final Cup season.Two-time Cup champion Kyle Busch seeks his first Daytona 500. He will do so with Richard Childress Racing after spending the past 15 seasons at Joe Gibbs Racing.Hendrick Motorsports will look to Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, William Byron and pole-sitter Alex Bowman to score the organization’s first Daytona 500 win since Dale Earnhardt Jr.‘s victory in 2014.Denny Hamlin seeks his fourth Daytona 500 victory, which would tie him with Cale Yarborough for second on the all-time Daytona 500 wins list. Richard Petty has won this race a record seven times.Details for Sunday’s Daytona 500 (All times Eastern)START: Grand marshals Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, Bill Elliott, Dale Jarrett, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch and Joey Logano will give the command to start engines at 2:58 p.m. … The green flag is scheduled to wave at 3:14 p.m.PRERACE: Cup garage opens at 8 a.m. … Dierks Bentley concert begins at 1:30 p.m. … Drivers meeting at 1:40 p.m. … Driver introductions are at 2:15 p.m. … Invocation given by Chaplain Farzad Nourian at 2:46 p.m. … National Anthem performed by Breland at 2:47 p.m.DISTANCE: The race is 200 laps (500 miles) on the 2.5-mile superspeedway.STAGES: Stage 1 ends at Lap 65. Stage 2 ends at Lap 130.TV/RADIO: FOX will broadcast the race at 2:30 p.m. Pre-race coverage begins at 1 p.m. … Motor Racing Network’s radio coverage begins at 1:30 p.m. and will also stream at MRN.com; SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will carry the MRN broadcast.STREAMING: FOX SportsFORECAST: Weather Underground – Partly cloudy with a high of 74 degrees, and a 15% chance of rain at the start of the raceSTARTING LINEUP: Daytona 500 starting lineupTO THE REAR: Kyle Busch (backup car).LAST YEAR: Austin Cindric held off the field on the final lap to win his first Daytona 500 and first career series victory. Bubba Wallace placed second. Chase Briscoe finished third.CATCH UP ON NBC SPORTS COVERAGE:Jimmie Johnson: Fast on track, faster in airKurt Busch’s recovery continuesDaytona 500 has frustrated many of the most accomplished driversFord, Chevrolet executives say F1 programs won’t hurt NASCAR efforts A mother’s hug caps emotional night for Conor DalyAric Almirola wins Duel 2Joey Logano wins Duel 1Daytona 500 wins is Jimmie Johnson’s focus after making fieldRoss Chastain sign’s contract extension with Trackhouse RacingTrackhouse Racing signs Daniel Suarez to contract extensionDrivers to watch in Daytona 500

The final practice for Sunday’s Daytona 500 is scheduled at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Daytona International Speedway.The 40-car field for NASCAR’s biggest race was set Thursday night in a pair of 150-mile qualifying races. Alex Bowman and Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports will start on Sunday’s front row based on qualifying speeds from Wednesday’s time trial session.MORE: Kurt Busch retains hopes to race again as his recovery continuesThe first race of the Xfinity Series season is scheduled at 5 p.m. ET (FS1) Saturday. The field for the opener will be set in two rounds of qualifying at 11:30 a.m.A 200-mile ARCA race is scheduled at 1:30 p.m.Daytona International Speedway (Cup, Xfinity and Trucks)Weekend weatherSaturday: Partly cloudy. High of 67. Winds 15-25 mph. 13% chance of evening rain.Saturday, Feb. 18(All times Eastern)Garage open
6 a.m. – 10 p.m. — Xfinity Series
8 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. — Cup Series
10 a.m. – 5:15 p.m. — ARCA
Track activity
10:30 – 11:20 a.m. — Cup Series practice (FS1, Motor Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. — Xfinity Series qualifying (FS1)
1:30 p.m. — ARCA race (80 laps, 200 miles; FS1, Motor Racing Network)
5 p.m. — Xfinity Series race (120 laps, 300 miles; FS1, Motor Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Pesky rain finally forced an early end to Friday night’s Craftsman Truck Series race at Daytona International Speedway, and series champion Zane Smith got the win.Weather that put a heavy mist over the speedway plagued the race much of the way, and NASCAR made it official at 11:12 p.m. ET with 21 of the 100 laps remaining. Smith held the lead.Smith also won the series’ Daytona opener last year.MORE: Daytona Truck resultsMORE: Daytona Truck driver points

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