By: Robert Craft

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

The Super Bowl is the pinnacle of a long successful season for NFL teams.

In NASCAR, they have the Daytona 500. It’s the first race of the season and also the most prestigious event on the circuit.

The stars of the Cup Series are all set to be in Daytona on February 16 to run in the crown jewel of stock car to open the regular season, including defending Cup champion Joey Logano.

Several stars will be running to earn their first Daytona 500 victory, including Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., JR Motorsports, will attempt to make its’ Cup Series debut in next month’s season-opening Daytona 500, the team announced Wednesday.

JRM is partnering with country singer and songwriter Chris Stapleton to enter a car for driver Justin Allgaier, with Stapleton’s Traveller Whiskey brand sponsoring the effort.

Earnhardt, a two-time Daytona 500 winner (2004, 2014), has publicly spoken many times about how he’d like to see JRM expand into Cup on a full-time basis, though he’s emphasized that any move would have to make financial sense for the company.

Thus far, such a move has proven cost-prohibitive at a time when charters — the NASCAR equivalent of a franchise in other sports — are valued at $20 million plus.

Owning one of 36 charters guarantees a team certain revenue streams not otherwise available, making operating as a full-time “open” not cost-effective over the long term.

Helio Castroneves, four-time Indianapolis 500 winner and one of the more popular drivers of his generation, will make his NASCAR debut in next month’s Cup Series season-opening Daytona 500, Trackhouse Racing announced Monday. Castroneves will drive a car fielded by Trackhouse Racing.

The majority of Castroneves’ 20-year plus career has been spent in IndyCar, winning 31 races and being runner-up to the championship four times. His most notable accomplishment is being part of an exclusive group who’ve won the Indianapolis 500 a record four times, with only A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears and Al Unser Sr. as the other members.

Should Castroneves win the Daytona 500, he would join Foyt and Mario Andretti as the only drivers to win both the Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500.

When two-time Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso failed to qualify for the 2019 Indianapolis 500, it sent a message to the world: This IndyCar stuff isn’t easy.

To just award a 41st starting spot in a field that has been capped at 40 cars for the last decade — just because the driver is famous to international fans — doesn’t align with the true spirit of competition.

Oh, and former NASCAR champions Jimmie Johnson and Martin Truex Jr.? They’ll show up at Daytona to qualify into the 500 with no guarantee they’ll make the field, just like any other driver.

Except the more famous ones, that is. Castroneves has no such concerns and going forward, any other celebrity who fits NASCAR’s definition won’t have to worry, either. This is as much of a marketing event as it is a sporting event, and big names draw big crowds.

Some of the other storylines in the field center around NASCAR’s biggest stars and all-time great drivers who have a stake in both the Daytona 500 and NASCAR history at hand.

Denny Hamlin is looking to become only the third driver in history to win this race more than three times, and a fourth victory would tie him for second all-time with Cale Yarborough.

Seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, who is becoming the first driver to ever make a Cup start after being named to the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

He  can also move out of a tie with Yarborough for sixth in NASCAR’s all-time wins list if he earns his third Daytona 500 win; the 84th of his Cup career overall.

Either accomplishment for Hamlin and Johnson would be a fitting tribute to Yarborough, one of NASCAR’s greatest drivers ever, who passed away this offseason at the age of 84.

Another driver with something at stake is Joey Logano, the 2015 Daytona 500 champion and this year’s polesitter. Should Logano earn his second Daytona 500 win, he would become the first driver to win the 500 from the pole since Dale Jarrett in 2000.

Buckle up NASCAR fans, this Daytona 500 will be a new and exciting event to  kick off the Cup Series.