10:14 AM ET Associated Press DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Three-time Grammy Award winner Darius Rucker will perform a pre-race concert before the Daytona 500 in February. It will be Rucker’s fourth appearance at Daytona International Speedway and first at the “Great American Race,” which will again serve as NASCAR’s Cup Series season opener. The 500-mile

5:47 PM ET Associated Press DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR has fined three car owners $50,000 each and penalized their teams for manipulating the season-ending Cup Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway in an alleged scheme to collect a higher bonus payout. Jay Robinson (Premium Motorsports), Rick Ware (Rick Ware Racing) and TJ Puchyr (Spire Motorsports)

6:15 PM ET Associated Press CONCORD, N.C. — Jimmie Johnson handed out mini bottles of Patron at his retirement announcement — so perfectly on brand for the cool Californian who stormed to a record-tying seven NASCAR championships yet somehow bored fans who found him too vanilla for their liking. Nothing about Johnson was ever boring,

1:07 PM ET Jimmie Johnson has announced that 2020 will be his final season as a full-time driver in NASCAR’s Cup Series. Johnson made the announcement Wednesday in a video posted to his Twitter account, saying he is “so thankful for 18 incredible years of racing in NASCAR.” #Chasing8 one final time pic.twitter.com/ZoldabKy9M — Jimmie

1:07 PM ET ESPN News Services CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Jimmie Johnson sat down next to Jeff Gordon at a 2001 driver meeting and asked the champion if he had time to offer any career advice. Gordon was so impressed with the fellow California native that he encouraged Rick Hendrick to start a team built specifically

8:31 PM ET So we’ve reached the end of the line, that is for the three months or so before they go racing at Daytona. But it’s still a cold, dark winter with less NASCAR than we’ve become used to. You could make a good argument that the four strongest drivers this season were the

10:17 PM ET Kenny Bruce Kyle Busch captured his second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship and Joe Gibbs Racing dominated on the racetrack, winning a stunning 19 of 36 points races while becoming the first organization to put three of its four teams in the Championship 4 finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Busch, who captured

5:28 PM ET Associated Press DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. will be the honorary starter for the 2020 Daytona 500, making him part of the pre-race ceremonies for the third consecutive year. Earnhardt made the announcement on his podcast Monday, one day after the NASCAR Cup Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Daytona

10:09 PM ET Until Sunday, Kyle Busch’s career still came with an asterisk. A but. A what-if. Those are gone now, left behind forever in the wake of a slow late autumn cruise around a South Florida racetrack, father and son grinning ear-to-ear in their Toyota Camry, beneath a flag that read “2019 NASCAR Monster

6:44 PM ET Associated Press HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Kyle Busch emerged from the Joe Gibbs Racing juggernaut as NASCAR’s latest champion, winning his second title Sunday after two teammates were slowed by pit-road gaffes. Busch won the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway to snap a 21-race losing streak and beat Gibbs teammates Denny Hamlin and