Finishing up our first ever Speedweek at Daytona was the NASCAR NextGen Season Opener. This was a race that you DID NOT want to miss. There were only 2 cautions for 6 laps in this 100 race sprint for the first NextGen win of 2022 and it did not disappoint.

Eric Wolfe and the #51 Black Rifle Coffee Toyota led 74 laps of the 100 lap race and was leading coming to the finish when his car sputtered and stalled coming out of turn four leading to the tri-oval. This gave Blake Thomas the opportunity to overtake his Rowdy Energy teammate and win big at Daytona. After the race we spoke to Wolfe and he was quoted saying “We knew we were going to be short going into lap 62.. We just hoped that we would be able to either save a half gallon somewhere or get a late race caution to splash and go.. To be that close to a second win during our Speedweek debut with JRL was just so amazing and to lose it over a miscalculation just absolutely sucks.. I’ve gotta thank the team for getting me a car to even be in that position and my teammates for a hell of a week of racing at Daytona.. I am proud of Blake (Thomas) and I am stoked to see him win here. Now we just look forward and don’t let this set us back.”

Blake Thomas and the #5 car ended up running out of gas shortly after leaving turn two during his celebration burnout and could be heard on his radio laughing at how close he was to being in the same situation.

Moving forward we can certainly expect these two to be battling it out on the track.

The driver who finished in a strong second place, Emilio Moran, was making his oval debut. Moran, traditionally a road racer, found himself in a very close position to win when Wolfe ran out of gas on the last lap. We certainly are excited to see what he can do moving forward in the season with plenty of road racing ahead of him.