2016 PowerShares QQQ 300

2016 PowerShares QQQ 300

Race details
Race 1 of 33 in the 2016 NASCAR Xfinity Series
Date	February 20, 2016
Official name	35th annual PowerShares QQQ 300
Location	Daytona Beach, Florida, Daytona International Speedway
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	2.50 miles (4.02 km)
Distance	120 laps, 300.00 mi (482.803 km)
Scheduled distance	120 laps, 300.00 mi (482.803 km)
Average speed	151.176 miles per hour (243.294 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Ty Dillon	Richard Childress Racing
Time	151.176
Most laps led
Driver	Joey Logano	Team Penske
Laps	40
Winner
No. 88	Chase Elliott	JR Motorsports
Television in the United States
Network	FS1
Announcers	Adam Alexander, Kevin Harvick, Michael Waltrip
Radio in the United States
Radio	Performance Racing Network

The 2016 PowerShares QQQ 300 was the 1st stock car race of the 2016 NASCAR Xfinity Series season and the 35th iteration of the event. The race was held on Saturday, February 20, 2016, in Daytona Beach, Florida, at Daytona International Speedway a 2.5 miles (4.02 km) permanent triangular-shaped superspeedway. The race took the scheduled 120 laps to complete. At race's end, Chase Elliott, driving for JR Motorsports, held off a hard-charging Joey Logano to earn his 5th career NASCAR Xfinity Series win and his first of the season.^[1] To fill out the podium, Logano of Team Penske and Kasey Kahne of JR Motorsports would finish second and third, respectively.

Daytona International Speedway is one of three superspeedways to hold NASCAR races, the other two being Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway.^[2] The standard track at Daytona International Speedway is a four-turn superspeedway that is 2.5 miles (4.0 km) long. The track's turns are banked at 31 degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at 18 degrees.^[3]

• (R) denotes rookie driver.
• (i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.

The first practice session was held on Friday, February 19 at 11:00 AM EST. Ty Dillon of Richard Childress Racing would set the fastest time in the session, with a lap of 46.747 and an average speed of 192.526 mph (309.841 km/h).^[4]

The second practice session was held on Friday, February 19 at 1:00 PM EST. David Starr of TriStar Motorsports would set the fastest time in the session, with a lap of 49.042 and an average speed of 183.516 mph (295.340 km/h).^[5]

The final practice session, sometimes referred to as Happy Hour, was held on Friday, July 14, at 3:00 PM EST. Ty Dillon of Richard Childress Racing would set the fastest time in the session, with a lap of 49.420 and an average speed of 182.113 mph (293.082 km/h).^[6]

Qualifying was held on Saturday, February 20, at 11:00 AM EST. Since Daytona International Speedway is at least 2 miles (3.2 km), the qualifying system was a single car, single lap, two round system where in the first round, everyone would set a time to determine positions 13-40. Then, the fastest 12 qualifiers would move on to the second round to determine positions 1-12.^[7]

Ty Dillon of Richard Childress Racing would win the pole after advancing from the preliminary round and setting the fastest lap in Round 2, with a time of 49.493 and an average speed of 181.844 mph (292.650 km/h).^[8]

Mark Thompson, Mario Gosselin, Harrison Rhodes, Derrike Cope, Chris Fontaine, Derek White, Mike Harmon, and Stanton Barrett failed to qualify.

Laps: 120

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Elliott Sadler 38 2 Bubba Wallace 35 (-3) 3 Brandon Jones 34 (–4) 4 Daniel Suarez 33 (–5) 5 Blake Koch 32 (–6) 5 Brendan Gaughan 32 (-6) 7 Justin Allgaier 29 (-9) 7 Ty Dillon 29 (-9) 9 Dakoda Armstrong 27 (-11) 10 Jeremy Clements 26 (-12) 11 Ryan Reed 25 (-13) 12 David Starr 23 (-15) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 12 positions are included for the driver standings.