DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Denny Hamlin has a plan for improving racing at Daytona International Speedway, and it involves going faster.
He already has spoken to NASCAR executives about it, too.
Hamlin shared his idea for fixing the Daytona 500, which has become a fuel-mileage event since the debut of the Next Gen car in 2022, with everyone else after celebrating his first victory as a team owner in “The Great American Race.”
“There’s a way, but we’re going to have to increase the speeds by a lot,” said Hamlin, who finished 31st in the 500 on Sunday but made it to victory lane with Tyler Reddick at 23XI Racing. “You’re going to make it where handling matters. That’s going to spread the field, that’s going to make it to where … it’ll look a little more like racing from the past.”
The latest iteration of NASCAR’s stock car is a safer version of anything previously seen in the series. But it also delivers slower laps at superspeedways like Daytona and Talladega and leaves cars bunched up like never before.
“As long as (NASCAR’s) insurance company is OK with it, you’re going to have to speed up the cars because right now we’re so planted in the racetrack that we could just run in this really tight pack,” Hamlin said.
Hamlin met with NASCAR earlier this week and discussed letting teams devise a racing package they could test during the exhibition Clash if it returns to Daytona next year. If it works, the tweaks could potentially be rolled out before 2028.
“You won’t see any fuel saving,” Hamlin said. “You’re just going to see people hanging on. That would be the only fix.”
Reddick’s crew chief, Billy Scott, was less confident that the fuel-mileage strategy would be altered.
“I doubt there’s a fix to it because we’re just going to figure out the next way to exploit it, and I don’t know that it needs to be fixed,” Scott said. “It would be like asking if you need to change how chess is played.”
With the evolution of the Cup Series car creating little chance of manipulating parts and pieces, teams now rely more on making up spots on pit road on race day. They put new tires on less often and try to save fuel by running less-than-full throttle. The end result is a scenario that takes less time to fill gas tanks during stops.
But it also can create lulls in the early and middle parts of race stages.
“On one hand, it’s good because our strategy worked out perfectly,” said 2023 Daytona 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who finished second Sunday. “We stuck to it. It was brutal riding around there for a while. Not sure what the Toyotas were doing, but I think that made the race pretty boring there for a while for the fans. It was chaos after they pitted.”
Hamlin’s idea could work. It’s at least worth considering.
“Everybody is trying to react off each other and figure out a way to get in the front at the right time, and that depends on whether cautions fly,” Scott said. “… To me, from where we stand, that’s a very enjoyable part of it.”
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
Riley Herbst, (35), Justin Allgaier, (40), Todd Gilliland, (34), John Hunter Nemechek, (42) and Ryan Blaney, (12) collide during the NASCAR Daytona 500 auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Cars crash on the checkered flag during the NASCAR Daytona 500 auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Denny Hamlin, (11), Bubba Wallace, (23) and Chase Briscoe, (19) run during the NASCAR Daytona 500 auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
CAIRO (AP) — Gulf states reported new missile and drone attacks Sunday after Tehran threatened to widen its campaign as the war in the Middle East entered its third week.
Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates warned people that they were working to intercept incoming projectiles, a day after Iran called for the evacuations of three major UAE ports, threatening for the first time a neighboring country’s non-U.S. assets.
Iran earlier accused the United States of using “ports, docks and hideouts” in the UAE to launch strikes on Kharg Island, home to the main terminal handling Iran’s oil exports, without providing evidence. The UAE and other Gulf countries that host U.S. bases have denied allowing their land or airspace to be used for military operations against Iran.
Iranian strikes have killed at least a dozen civilians in Gulf states, most of them migrant workers. In Iran, the International Committee for the Red Cross said more than 1,300 people have been killed so far, while in Israel, 12 people were reported dead by Iranian missile fire, according to the national rescue service Magen David Adom.
At least 13 members of the U.S. military have been killed since the war began, including seven in combat and six who died in a plane crash over Iraq last week.
U.S. President Donald Trump said he hoped allies would send warships to secure the Strait of Hormuz.
Meanwhile, Lebanon’s humanitarian crisis deepened, with over 820 people killed, according to the Ministry of Health, and 850,000 displaced as Israel launched waves of strikes and sent additional troops into southern Lebanon.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said the U.S. attacked Kharg Island and Abu Musa Island from two locations in the UAE, Ras Al Khaimah and a place “very close to Dubai,” calling that dangerous and saying Iran “will try to be careful not to attack any populated area” there.
U.S. Central Command said it had no response to Iran’s claim. A diplomatic adviser to the UAE’s president, Anwar Gargash, rejected accusations that the U.S. used its land or air as a base for its attacks on Kharg Island.
Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Arab Gulf neighbors during the war, but it has said it was targeting U.S. assets, even as hits or attempts were reported on civilian ones such as airports and oil fields.
Araghchi said the Strait of Hormuz was closed only to “those who are attacking us and their allies.”
As global anxiety soars over oil prices and supplies, Trump said Saturday that he hopes China, France, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom and others send warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz “open and safe.” Britain, in response, said it was discussing with allies a “range of options” to secure shipping.
Araghchi, in a social media post, urged neighbors to “expel foreign aggressors” and described Trump’s call as “begging.”
Iran’s joint military command has reiterated its threat to attack U.S.-linked “oil, economic and energy infrastructures” in the region if the Islamic Republic’s oil infrastructure is hit.
The U.S. Department of Defense on Saturday identified six service members who died when the military refueling aircraft they were aboard crashed Thursday while supporting operations against Iran.
The service members were Maj. John A. Klinner, 33; Capt. Ariana G. Savino, 31; Tech. Sgt. Ashley B. Pruitt, 34; Capt. Seth R. Koval, 38; Capt. Curtis J. Angst, 30; and Tech. Sgt. Tyler H. Simmons, 28, according to U.S. officials.
The crash in western Iraq followed an unspecified incident involving two aircraft in “friendly airspace,” according to U.S. Central Command. The other plane landed safely.
A missile struck a helipad inside the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad late Saturday. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. The embassy complex, one of the largest U.S. diplomatic facilities in the world, has been repeatedly targeted by rockets and drones fired by Iran-aligned militias.
The State Department again warned citizens in Iraq to leave “now,” and by land since commercial flights were not available. It noted that Iran and Iran-aligned militia groups “may continue to target” U.S. citizens, interests and infrastructure.
Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank, and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writers Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem; Sally Abou AlJoud, Kareem Chehayeb and Bassem Mroue in Beirut; and Tia Goldenberg in Washington contributed to this report.
Israeli air defense system fires to intercept missiles during an Iranian attack over Tel Aviv, Israel, early Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Smoke rises from the U.S. embassy building in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ali Jabar)
Mourners react during the funeral ceremony for Gen. Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran's Defense Council and a senior adviser to the Supreme Leader who was killed in a strike, at the courtyard of the Imamzadeh Saleh shrine in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Two men ride their motorbike past a billboard of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei in downtown Tehran, Iran, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Fire and plumes of smoke rise from an oil facility in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
A man chants slogan while the body of Gen. Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran's Defense Council and a senior adviser to the Supreme Leader who was killed in a strike, is being buried at the courtyard of the Imamzadeh Saleh shrine in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
