Tickets for the 59th annual Daytona 500, the season-opening race for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, will officially go on sale Monday, June 20 at 9 a.m. EST.

Race fans will have the opportunity to experience the 2017 Daytona 500—scheduled for Sunday, February 26, in the world’s only motorsports stadium—with amenities that include 101,500 new, wider seats, thousands of club seats, 40 escalators and 17 elevators, 60 luxury suites, social neighborhoods and three concourse levels that span the nearly mile-long frontstretch.

The 2016 DAYTONA 500 was a sellout and produced the closest finish in the event’s history, with Denny Hamlin nipping Martin Truex Jr. by .010 seconds at the start/finish line.

Tickets can be purchased by calling 1-800-PITSHOP or visiting www.Daytona500.com.

Hospitality and premium seat packages, including the Rolex 24 Lounge, Harley J’s, Trioval Club and FANZONE/Pre-race wristbands are also available.

In addition to tickets for the Daytona 500, fans can also purchase tickets and multi-day ticket packages for the remaining events during Speedweeks, which kicks off with the 55th Rolex 24 at Daytona for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship on January 28-29.

Also on sale will be tickets for the year’s first official event at Daytona International Speedway, the Roar Before The Rolex 24 and Scout Days on Jan. 6-8, the critical three-day test session for WeatherTech Championship and Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge teams.

The Toyota Hybrid LMP1 team came tantalizingly close to earning the Japanese giant's first overall win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2014, and after a thorough drubbing last year by Porsche and Audi, the squad has pinned its hopes on an all-new challenger to restore its status as a serious contender.

Inside the all-new TS050 chassis, the former naturally-aspired V8 engine has been replaced by a stout twin-turbo V6 powerplant, and after extracting the full potential from its 6 megajoules super capacitor-based energy recovery system, it has been swapped for a battery-based 8 MJ unit.

A fresh approach to aerodynamics is also visible with the TS050, and the car carries the full weight of Toyota's long-held ambition to conquer Le Mans.

"The car felt pretty good straight away when we hit the track," said Anthony Davidson, who shares the No. 5 TS050 with Sebastien Buemi and Kaz Nakajima. "The Le Mans package felt comfortable straight away. And all the drivers were fairly happy. And it is great when that happens; it allows you to work on a details, the set up and tuning, and choosing which downforce level you think is going to be for the race.

"The car is performing well in the braking and we had no traction problems, so it was a nice comfortable car to take into the 24-hour race, I'd would say. In terms of the engine package, after last year, it's certainly nice to drive a quieter engine around the track. So much of it is done at full throttle, it can be quite deafening experience. Back in the day for the V8 engines ... obviously you want some sound from an engine but last year's was pretty raucous."

The No. 5 Toyota was fifth fastest overall in Wednesday's practice, just one notch below the No. 6 driven by Stephane Sarrazin. But toward the end of the session, Sarrazin clouted the barrier, damaging the bodywork on the front of his LMP1 Hybrid machine. Prior to his crash, Sarrazin posted the fourth-fastest time (3m23.158s).

The 5 car was the fastest of the brand's two entries during the test day, but with a gap of 1.8 seconds to the leading Audi R18, there's more development work to do, and speed to be found, before it can plan to blow past its rivals.

Along with the TS050, Audi's latest R18 is a clean-sheet design, barring its familiar turbodiesel engine, and Porsche made a last-minute decision to revert to its 2015 ERS battery, which raises the question of reliability for all three LMP1 Hybrid manufacturers. Le Mans is relentless, and loves to break cars that show even the slightest hint of weakness.

Bridging that 1.8s gap between the test and the race is unrealistic, but with all three teams facing the possibility of spending time in the garage making repairs, Davidson sees reliability as a potential equalizer this year.

"I think the teams can't be 100 percent confident this year of reliability," he said. "I think even Porsche, that most tried and tested package of all of us, it has to revert back to the 2015 battery – because nobody's safe. We are all pushing each other harder than ever before and we're all reaching the peak of that pyramid of performance more and more all the time. That means there's very little scope of anymore bigger gains to find. By doing that, it means you have to take risks in terms of fragility and reliability."

And there's one more factor to consider when it comes to the questionable reliability of the LMP1 Hybrid field. With almost a 50 percent reduction in cars from 2015, each manufacturer has a smaller margin of error to maintain. With three Audis and three Porsches vying for last year's win, losing a car or two—at least by the number—left each brand with a solid backup plan to fight for victory.

Audi and Porsche have only brought two cars apiece in 2016, and with the two Toyota TS050s completing the six-car LMP1 Hybrid grid, poor reliability could wipe out one manufacturer while helping another.

"I think if you haven't got the fastest car, like we're not going to have this year, it does certainly become less of a disadvantage when there are other faster cars out there, that have the same amount of [cars] that you do," Davidson surmised. "If you're going into the race with the slowest car and you are trying to beat six or seven cars that are faster than you, you're going to be praying for all of those cars to break down.

"Whereas this year, with four other cars out there that our team is trying to beat, it means that the odds are better. The chance of four cars breaking down is much higher than all six cars breaking down last year. The best solution is having the fastest and most reliable car and staying out of trouble."

Come 3 p.m. Sunday in France, the best solution, whatever it is—one that might not be the fastest or most dominant—will be celebrating in France.

The British Touring Car Championship will retain its 10 events in the same order for a sixth consecutive season in 2017.

The season will once again start on the Brands Hatch Indy layout on the first weekend in April and end on the Kent circuit's Grand Prix loop at the start of October.

The only adjustments compared to 2016 are the Oulton Park event being brought forward two weeks to May 20-21, and the subsequent Croft meeting taking place one week earlier on June 10-11.

That stretches the summer break that follows from six to seven weeks.

Series chief Alan Gow said releasing the calendar after just four rounds of the current campaign was an attempt to minimize the number of date clashes with other events.

"We have defined our 2017 calendar as early as possible with this unprecedented mid-June announcement to help other UK motorsport events in reducing the amount of clashes that can inevitably occur," he said.

2017 BTCC CALENDAR

April 1-2: Brands Hatch (Indy)

April 15-16: Donington Park

May 6-7: Thruxton

May 20-21: Oulton Park

June 10-11: Croft

July 29-30: Snetterton

August 12-13: Knockhill

August 26-27: Rockingham

September 16-17: Silverstone

September 30-October 1: Brands Hatch (Grand Prix)

Porsche's Neel Jani set the bar with a lap of 3m22.011s to pace the 60-car field during Wednesday's opening practice session. The Swiss driver was one of many to lead the four-hour outing as intermittent rain affected the outright pace for most of the session, but with the final hour mostly dry, Jani's No. 2 Porsche 919 Hybrid was able to displace the Audis and Toyotas. The sister 919 was second (3m22.550s) and Audi held third (3m22.985s).

The session ended under a red flag for the No. 28 Pegasus Racing P2 entry that found the barriers near the Indianapolis corner, and the problem was compounded when the No. 6 Toyota TS050 driven by Stephane Sarrazin also clouted the barrier, damaging the bodywork on the front of his LMP1 Hybrid machine. Prior to his crash, Sarrazin posted the fourth-fastest time (3m23.158s).

In LMP2, KCMG, which won the class last year, led the 22-car field with a 3m39.133s. The team's ORECA 05-Nissan was well clear of the Alpine-badged ORECA 05-Nissan entered by the Signatech team (3m39.721s). Third went to the Ligier JS P2-Nissan entered by Panis Barthez Competition (3m40.308s).

The hard-fought battle among manufacturers in GTE-Pro ended as most outside of the Ferrari camp predicted. The twin-turbo V8 488s from AF Corse (3m53.833s) and Risi Competizione (3m54.180s) were in a class of their own as the closest car, a Ford GT, was more than a second behind (3m54.893s). The best Porsche and Corvette could manage was eighth and ninth, respectively.

Ferrari's older model was also the class of its category as Clearwater Racing's chrome F458 topped GTE-Am by an even wider margin. Its 3m57.543s-lap led Scuderia Corsa's 458 (3m59.103s) and AF Corse's 458 (3m59.294s).

The only major incident of the session belonged to the Bykolles Racing Team. Driver Pierre Kaffer climbed from the CLM P1/01 LMP1 with the rear fully alight. Speaking after returning to the garage, the German felt confident the car could be repaired in time to race.

US team owner Bobby Rahal is working on plans to compete at the Le Mans 24 Hours in the LMP2 category.

Rahal, whose team runs BMW's GT Le Mans program in the IMSA SportsCar Championship, is visiting the French enduro this week on what he described as a "busman's holiday" with a view to exploring opportunities for next year.

"I would love to come to Le Mans as a team owner but it is all about finding the money to do it," he said. "BMW has said that they are not coming, so that is not an option, but we would like to do something in P2. Maybe we could do a joint venture with an existing team, which might make sense logistically and operationally.

"I'm really here on a busman's holiday, but there are a few people I want to meet to start talking about next year."

Rahal revealed that his team could launch a secondary IMSA campaign with a LMP2 in the four enduros at Daytona, Sebring, Watkins Glen and Road Atlanta that make up the North American Endurance Cup.

"Our first obligation is to BMW and anything we did couldn't have an impact on that, but competing in the four big enduros might work," he explained.

Rahal said that he hoped son Graham, who races for the family team in the IndyCar Series, would be part of any Le Mans program.

"It's a race I think he wants to do and I'd certainly like him to do it," he said.

Rahal has run BMW's North American sportscar program for the past eight years following a season fielding a Porsche in the American Le Mans Series in 2007.

Engine company Mecachrome and prototype constructor ADESS are part of a group bidding to win the tender for the Formula E chassis supply contract.

TEOS Powertrain Engineering has lodged a bid to the FIA to be the electric single-seater championship's control chassis supplier from the 2018/19 season.

The French company has established a consortium comprising Mecachrome, ADESS and composite companies CDK Technologies and ECM.

Mecachrome has a long history in Formula 1, preparing Renault's supply to independent teams in the 1980s and then taking on the customer program for the ex-Renault engines for squads including Williams during the gap between the end of the firm's 1990s works deals and its return with a factory team.

It retains an assembly role in Renault's F1 engine program, and supplies the engines for the GP2 and GP3 categories.

Chassis designer ADESS - Advanced Design and Engineering Systems Solutions ­- built the Lotus-badged T128 LMP2 car, and also produced an LMP3 design that has run in the Asian Le Mans Series.

The TEOS Formula E bid features a Red Bull Aeroscreen-esque canopy to improve driver protection, aggressive bodywork and a very low rear wing.

Its bodywork has narrow sidepods enclosed by C-shaped winglets and large covered wheel arches that are connected to both wings in place of conventional endplates.

It is the second project to have released a concept for the future of the Formula E car, although the previous Pininfarina-designed Mahindra offering was not part of a firm bid to win the tender.

The FIA is currently reviewing all bids and plans to announce the successful tenders at the next meeting of its World Motor Sports Council in Turin on June 24.

NHRA has announced that Protect The Harvest, a group founded in 2011 to assist in the fight for the rights of America’s farmers, ranchers, animal owners and sportsmen/sportswomen, has signed an agreement to become the title rights sponsor of the upcoming NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event at Pacific Raceways in Washington.

The 29th annual Protect The Harvest NHRA Northwest Nationals presented by Lucas Oil will be held August 5–7, 2016, which is part of the traditional three-race NHRA Western Swing.

The grueling Western Swing, where NHRA race teams travel more than 5300 miles in three consecutive weekends from their Brownsburg, Indiana-based shops to Denver, Sonoma and Seattle, is a pivotal part of the Mello Yello Series regular season.

The Protect The Harvest NHRA Northwest Nationals presented by Lucas Oil will be the final stop in the three-race adventure and in many years drivers have arrived at the event in position to complete a rare sweep of the Western Swing. Only seven drivers have done it in NHRA history, including most recently Antron Brown in 2009. Last season Funny Car driver Jack Beckman just missed out on adding his name to that impressive list, which also includes Joe Amato, John Force, Tony Schumacher, Larry Dixon and Greg Anderson, among others.

“Forrest and Charlotte Lucas have been tremendous supporters of the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series over the years and once again they have stepped forward to provide title sponsorship of the event at Pacific Raceways through their Protect The Harvest group,” said Brad Gerber, NHRA vice president and chief development officer. “We appreciate their long term dedication and commitment to the sport and we look forward to working with them and Protect The Harvest during the final stop of the famed NHRA Western Swing.”

This is the first NHRA event entitlement for Protect The Harvest. The group has provided primary team sponsorship for Morgan Lucas, Hector Arana and Richie Crampton and several sportsman racing teams.

“We look forward to raising the profile of Protect The Harvest through its association with the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series and this great event at Pacific Raceways,” said Forrest Lucas, founder and chair of Protect The Harvest. “The Seattle area is beautiful and we are anticipating a very exciting event to conclude the NHRA Western Swing.”

Nearly 50 drivers on the entry list for the 24 Hours of Le Mans have close ties to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship or the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge, making IMSA a leading contributor to the field for the most prestigious sports car endurance race in the world.

Certainly that’s always been true, but this year, adding substantially to the number is the entry of four new Ford GTs in the LM GTE Pro class, which is very similar to IMSA’s GT Le Mans class. Piloting the No. 68 Ford is Joey Hand, Dirk Müller and Sébastien Bourdais, with Ryan Briscoe, Richard Westbrook and Scott Dixon in the No. 69, with both cars from the Ford Chip Ganassi Team USA that competes full-time in the WeatherTech Championship.

The two other Ford GTs are from Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK, and one of the drivers of the No. 66 is Continental Tire Challenge regular Billy Johnson.

Ford is, of course, making this major push to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the company’s overall win in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966. But they’ll have to beat the defending champions in the LM GTE Pro class, the Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs. Corvette No. 63 is driven by regulars Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia, and in No. 64, Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner.

Helping out are brothers Jordan Taylor (No. 64) and Ricky Taylor (No. 63), fresh from their Prototype victory in the most recent WeatherTech Championship race at Belle Isle in Detroit, driving the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Konica Minolta Corvette Daytona Prototype.

The Ford-Chevrolet battle should be the most watched contest in the race, possibly overshadowing the LM P1 fight for overall supremacy.

“It’s always good to have new manufacturers in, and having one like Ford is good for us,” said Corvette driver Garcia. “We have seen them in America already, and there is a very strong lineup of cars from IMSA. Ford is a big competitor for us because people will look to see how we compare to each other.

“The main thing is that no matter the other manufacturers, you need to win. So I’m good with whoever comes second. I’m confident. We won the first two big races of the year – Daytona and Sebring. So I’m hoping to repeat what we did last year and win at Le Mans.”

Of course, Ford and Chevrolet will have to beat a very strong contingent from Porsche, Ferrari and Aston Martin.

That includes the No. 91 Porsche Motorsport 911 RSR of Patrick Pilet, Nick Tandy and Kevin Estre, and the No. 92 sister car of Frédéric Makowiecki, Earl Bamber and Jörg Bergmeister. Tandy and Bamber, of course, won Le Mans outright in 2015 in the Porsche 919 Hybrid, so having them remain in the GT car they race regularly in IMSA points up the importance of a victory this year in that class.

Another likely contender in LM GTE Pro is the No. 82 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE, with a lineup familiar to IMSA fans: Giancarlo Fisichella, Toni Vilander and Matteo Malucelli.

The LM P2 class is also well-represented with IMSA regulars, perhaps most notably the Extreme Speed team that won overall at both the Rolex 24 At Daytona and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring: Scott Sharp, Ed Brown and Johannes van Overbeek will drive the No. 30 Nissan-powered Ligier, and in the No. 31 sister car, it’s Pipo Derani, Chris Cumming and Ryan Dalziel, who also competes full-time in the WeatherTech Championship in the No. 90 Visit Florida Racing Corvette DP.

Michael Shank Racing, winner at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, is fielding the same Honda-powered Ligier that the ESM team won Daytona and Sebring with for co-drivers John Pew, Ozz Negri and Laurens Vanthoor. Also in a Nissan-powered Ligier is Krohn Racing’s Tracy Krohn, Nic Jonsson and, on loan from the No. 5 Action Express Corvette DP, Joao Barbosa.

The GT Daytona winner at the most recent race at Belle Isle in Detroit, Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen, are trading their Dodge Viper for an LM P2 Nissan-powered ORECA, with Marc Goossens visiting from the No. 90 Corvette DP he shares with Dalziel.

In LM GTE Am, current WeatherTech Championship GT Daytona class point co-leader Christina Nielsen is part of the No. 60 Formula Racing Ferrari 458 Italia team. She is joined in the class by 2015 WeatherTech Championship GT Daytona champs Bill Sweedler and Townsend Bell, who again are teaming with Jeff Segal to drive the No. 62 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia.

Another all-American driver lineup can be found in the WeatherTech-sponsored No. 89 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR with Cooper MacNeil and Leh Keen – regular co-drivers of the No. 22 WeatherTech Porsche 911 GT3 R – being joined by frequent Continental Tire Challenge competitor Marc Miller.

Scattered through the field are plenty of other names familiar to IMSA fans, including former GRAND-AM Daytona Prototype champion Memo Rojas, endurance specialist Filipe Albuquerque, Olivier Pla, Patrick Long, David Heinemeier Hanson, Petit Le Mans winner Wolf Henzler, Pedro Lamy, Johnny O’Connell, Mark Patterson and Paul Dalla Lana.

Andretti Autosport has completed the first on-track running of its 2016-2017 Formula E powertrain.

After scrapping its first attempt at its own FE technology ahead of the current campaign, the American team has completed three days of testing so far with its new ATEC-02. Andretti co-team principal Roger Griffiths says the team had successfully run at both qualifying and race power levels over the tests, the most recent of which was at Snetterton last week.

"We've now completed several hundreds of kilometers on the car," he said. "So far the reliability of the car is very good—we completed a season's worth of mileage on the dyno before we even ran the car on track, so the powertrain has proven to be robust.

"We're much further ahead than we anticipated at this point—we could probably show up in London and it wouldn't embarrass us."

The abandoned ATEC-01 powertrain completed minimal running last year before hitting trouble in the public tests at Donington Park. Griffiths said the positive start to the current testing program, which began with a shakedown in May, highlighted just how underprepared the team was before.

"The shakedown was very successful, we got through much more than we expected," he said. "That was a testament to the preparation we put in and how we approached this development.
"We were much more confident and much more ready. It shows we were a long way off going to Beijing with our own powertrain last year."

Griffiths said the design of the motor in the original powertrain suffered mechanical issues that had an adverse effect on the cooling system, and admitted the team underestimating the amount of software required to control the self-built motor.

Andretti opted to contest the 2015-2016 FE campaign using the season-one Spark SRT_01E instead, while at the same time working on what Griffiths describes as a "fairly major redesign" for its 2016-'17 powertrain, having split with former partner Houston Mechatronics.

Griffiths would not reveal the specification of the new powertrain but said the package worked with the planned rear-end design for season two.

Current race driver Robin Frijns conducted one day with the new powertrain, running in a special testing livery dedicated to team partner TE Connectivity. Griffiths would not comment on the remainder of the testing line-up or the team's season three driver pairing.

Andretti has been linked to current Team Aguri ace and factory BMW driver Antonio Felix da Costa as part of a team tie-up with the German manufacturer.

Turn 14 Distribution, a performance automotive parts distributor, has enhanced its product assortment with the addition of parts manufacturer BBK Performance to its line card.

“BBK Performance is well-known within the enthusiast community as a manufacturer of quality performance parts to fit many makes and models, and we’re happy to have them on board with Turn 14 Distribution,” said Kyle Shelley, Turn 14 Distribution’s Director of Sales.

“The company’s research and development efforts allow them to offer products that fit properly, work correctly the first time, and maintain OE-level quality and reliability in the process.”

BBK Performance, founded in 1988 by Brian and Ken Murphy to develop parts and pieces for the modern muscle car, has grown immensely over the years and now occupies nearly 200,000 square feet of space between their design, manufacturing, and distribution facilities located in California and Florida.

With three dyno cells on-site and a team of employees who has one goal—bringing the best parts to their customers—BBK Performance builds a wide range of components. They manufacture cold air intakes, throttle bodies, exhaust components, intake manifolds, and more for Acura, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, Ford, GMC, Honda, Hummer, Jeep, Lincoln, Mercury, Mitsubishi, and Pontiac.