A New Season Brings a Fresh Start. Since it first hit the racetrack in 2017, the No. 62 Chevrolet of Beard Motorsports has been a fixture on the entry list for the NASCAR Cup Series season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. This year marks the 10th attempt by the small, family-owned team based in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, to qualify for the Great American Race. If successful, it would be Beard\u2019s seventh Daytona 500 start. Retired veteran Brendan Gaughan delivered the team\u2019s previous best finish of seventh in the 2020 event at the 2.5-mile superspeedway oval. Beard Motorsports has contested 34 Cup Series races at the hands of seven different drivers since its inception. Thirteen of those have come at Daytona and 15 at its sister track, the 2.66-mile Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway oval.<\/p>\n
\u25cf Alfredo Back in the Driver\u2019s Seat. Driver Anthony Alfredo continues his recent run of Cup Series outings with Beard Chevrolet this week at Daytona. The 26-year-old from Ridgefield, Connecticut, has been behind the wheel of the No. 62 Chevrolet in five of the team\u2019s previous eight races. He debuted with the team in the 2024 Daytona 500 and promptly secured a spot for Sunday\u2019s featured event by laying down the fastest lap among the six \u201copen\u201d (non-chartered) teams during Wednesday-night, single-car qualifying. From his 39th starting position, Alfredo drove to a 27th-place finish in the Daytona 500. A year ago this week, the NASCAR NEXT alumnus saw his bid to make the Daytona 500 field for the second time in a row dashed when he was caught up in a late-race, multicar accident during Thursday night\u2019s Duel qualifying races.<\/p>\n
\u25cf Excelling at the Superspeedways. Like the Beard team, Alfredo has shown his proficiency at the superspeedway events over his 43 career Cup Series starts dating back to his full-season run with Front Row Motorsports in 2021. His second race in the Beard Chevrolet netted a sixth-place finish in the April 2024 event at Talladega, the team\u2019s best-ever finish at the track. Following last year\u2019s Daytona disappointment, Alfredo returned to the No. 62 Chevrolet for April and October Talladega races, leading laps at both \u2013 including 19 in the April event \u2013 en route to finishes of 28th and 21st, respectively. Elsewhere in his career, Alfredo has made 151 starts in the NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series (formerly Xfinity), including full seasons each of the last four years, in 2022, 2023 and 2024, totaling five top-fives and 23 top-10s. His NASCAR career began with a 13-race Craftsman Truck Series campaign in 2019.<\/p>\n
\u25cf Third Time\u2019s a Charm. DUDE Wipes returns to partner with Beard Motorsports and Alfredo at Daytona for the third time, the first two coming in the April 2024 and October 2025 races at Talladega. The brand has partnered with Alfredo since he began racing in the O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series in 2020. DUDE Wipes is the flagship product of DUDE Products, a men\u2019s hygiene company that was founded in 2012 by lifelong friends in Chicago. The U.S.-based company introduced DUDE Wipes as the first flushable wipe for adults, marketed as a better hygiene solution to dry toilet paper. The brand is available online and in 20,000 stores nationwide, including Walmart, Target and Amazon.<\/p>\n
\u25cf Previously at Daytona. When last seen on the Daytona oval for the Coke Zero Sugar 400 in August 2024, the Beard Motorsports Chevrolet recorded its second consecutive top-10 finish when then 21-year-old Parker Retzlaff took the checkered flag seventh. It was the team\u2019s fifth Daytona top-10, best of which was the fifth-place result by driver Noah Gragson in the 2022 Coke Zero Sugar 400. Gaughan\u2019s seventh-place finish for the team in the 2020 Daytona 500 and eighth-place finish in that year\u2019s Coke Zero Sugar 400 was preceded his seventh-place finish in the 2017 Coke Zero 400.<\/p>\n
\u25cf Family Passion for Racing Lives On. Owned and operated by the Beard family and operating out of Mooresville, North Carolina, Beard Motorsports goes into 2026 under the leadership and guidance of Linda Beard, her daughter Amie Beard-Deja, son Mark Beard Jr., and crew chief Darren Shaw. What started out as a passion project for the late Mark Beard Sr., has remained a tribute to the family\u2019s patriarch since making its Cup Series debut in the 2017 Daytona 500 with Gaughan behind the wheel of its No. 62 Chevrolet. The family has remained committed to the vision laid out by its patriarch and has done so with notable success. Today, the No. 62 NASCAR Cup Series team is just one of its family-owned entities. Beard Oil Distributing is the foundation of the Beard family-owned business portfolio and is recognized as a women-owned certified organization through the Women Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC).<\/p>\n
\u25cf Dependable Power Under the Hood. Since making its debut in the 2017 Daytona 500, the No. 62 Beard Motorsports team has been powered by an ECR-built engine and the team has leveraged the power of those engines to post solid finishes, including Gragson\u2019s top-five and seven top-10s in 34 Cup Series starts.<\/p>\n
\u25cf New-Look Chevrolet. The No. 62 Beard entry joins its fellow Chevrolet competitors in debuting an all-new, updated car body at Daytona for 2026 season. The subtle updates take styling cues from a performance accessories kit that Chevrolet recently released for the car\u2019s road-going counterpart. The updates feature a larger hood dome, revisions to the front grille, and redefined rocker panels.<\/p>\n
Anthony Alfredo, Driver of the No. 62 DUDE Wipes Chevrolet Camaro<\/p>\n
You\u2019re back at Daytona for your third consecutive Speedweek with Beard Motorsports, and you\u2019ll be looking to make your sixth Cup Series start with the team. What\u2019s your mindset and that of the team as you head to track this week?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are as focused as ever on making the Daytona 500 this year. Honestly, I have a lot of confidence because, back in 2024, not only did we time our way into race in qualifying, we were the fastest open car overall. Everybody at Beard Motorsports has been putting in the effort they always do and, honestly, missing the Daytona 500 last year was obviously a huge disappointment, but I think it motivated us to excel at the two Talladega races we did, where we led a lot of laps, making our rocket ship a lot faster and giving us something to build on as we go back to Daytona this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
You and Beard Motorsports have shown strong speed at the superspeedways together. What is it about this team and these tracks that seem to suit you so well?<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, getting my career started in the national series with smaller organizations has led me to put an emphasis on these races because it\u2019s the most level playing field you get. At this level of competition, there\u2019s certainly a lot a driver can do to put himself in position to win or finish well. So I\u2019ve studied some of the best at it and, through trial and error of my own doing, I feel like I\u2019ve learned what it takes to execute in these kinds of races. It\u2019s still difficult when you\u2019re a single-car team, but having plenty other Chevrolets to work with, and then ECR engines under the hood and those cars, it certainly allows me to have some friends out there and put ourselves in position at the end of the race, most importantly. But in the past few races, we\u2019ve had track position early, led a lot of laps and had good finishes, so I\u2019m excited to build on that. This will be my third year with Beard Motorsports. We have a lot to build on and I feel like we\u2019ve just gotten better every time. But even me as a speedway racer, these are some of my favorite types of races because I know what I need to do to execute and I look forward to going to them and having a shot to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
What would you consider a successful outcome for this week, beyond just the finishing position in the race?<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, first off, we\u2019ve definitely got to execute well Wednesday night and make the show on speed. The Duel is your last chance if you\u2019re not able to do that on Wednesday night. But when it comes to the 500 itself, it\u2019s kind of one step at a time. I\u2019d say making the race is priority number one, but once we do, 500 miles is a long race and a lot of guys make mistakes early and, if for whatever reason it\u2019s calm in the front half of the race, there\u2019s usually some chaos toward the end, so you\u2019ve got to be there to have a shot at it. And there\u2019s a lot of ways that you could screw it up, so you\u2019re executing on pit road and restarts and maintaining track position since it\u2019s kind of weird with this Gen 7 car. It\u2019s really a track-position race now. It\u2019s not as easy to just drive from the back to the front like it is in an O\u2019Reilly Series car.\u201d<\/p>\n
You had the opportunity to lead laps in the two races last year at Talladega. How much does that reinforce the belief that this group can contend for a win on the biggest stage at Daytona?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe certainly can contend for a win. I mean, we\u2019ve proven that we could run inside the top-10 and finish there, so I would be thrilled with a top-10 finish in the Daytona 500. But to be quite honest, there\u2019s no reason that we couldn\u2019t win this race. I\u2019m more focused on that than anything else. You don\u2019t know when your next opportunity is going to be, certainly not in the NASCAR Cup Series or in the Daytona 500. I\u2019m going to do everything in my power to find victory lane for Beard Motorsports, our sponsors, and my family \u2013 everybody who supports me. Honestly, I couldn\u2019t even put into words what it would mean to win the Daytona 500, other than it being a dream come true. That\u2019s where I first saw my first race as a 10-year-old. That first race I ever saw was the 2010 Daytona 500. Just having an opportunity to race in it is a blessing. To win it would be the ultimate accomplishment because you become a legend.\u201d<\/p>\n
DUDE Wipes has been a longtime supporter during your career. How meaningful is it to have that continuity with a partner as you take on a marquee event like the Daytona 500?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m thrilled that they\u2019re making the Daytona 500 possible for us because they\u2019ve been with me since the start of my career in the national series and are my biggest partner. They\u2019re the flagship sponsor of my O\u2019Reilly Series car, and having that relationship with a partner is really special. We\u2019ve just grown so much together over the years, so to tackle the Great American Race together is honestly a dream come true.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a new Chevrolet body introduced for this season. Knowing that Daytona and the other superspeedway races are all about aerodynamics, do you have an idea what it will be like, where it can be an improvement, based on your experience in the simulator?<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the Chevrolet body is going to be better everywhere. It seems like we\u2019re still honing in the details and correlations since it obviously hasn\u2019t been on the real track a whole bunch. We\u2019ve have limited data to go off of from the few tests they\u2019ve had to correlate and ultimately make it better. But I think as we progress through the year, it\u2019ll just get more and more realistic. On paper, it should certainly be a lot better everywhere. I\u2019m really looking forward to seeing that for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beard Motorsports PR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A New Season Brings a Fresh Start. Since it first hit the racetrack in 2017, the No. 62…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,718,925,13157,77,634,17819,582,721,1704,722,82],"class_list":["post-458401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-craftsman-truck-series","tag-daytona","tag-group","tag-international","tag-nascar","tag-nationwide","tag-racing","tag-series","tag-speed","tag-speedway","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}