DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.— With just 11 laps complete, the rains began to fall at Daytona International Speedway during the Coca-Cola Firecracker 250 for the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

NASCAR tried their best efforts to dry the track, but the rain was no match. With 11 laps complete, Blake Koch is the current race leader. Ben Kennedy is second, Brennan Poole is third, Matt Tifft is fourth, and Daniel Hemric rounds out the top-five.

The Coca-Cola Firecracker 250 will be run on Saturday at 12:00 p.m EDT on CNBC.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.— Brennan Poole will start from the pole in today’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Coca-Cola Firecracker 250 from Daytona International Speedway.

In the first round of qualifying, Ben Kennedy was fastest at 182.593 mph. Blake Koch was second fastest at 182..460 mph. Joey Logano was third fastest at 182.234 mph. William Byron was fourth fastest at 182.205 mph. Matt Tifft rounded out the top-five at 182.190 mph. Notable drivers who did not advance to the second round were Erik Jones (P14), Ty Dillon (P15), Cole Custer (P19), and Justin Allgaier (P25).

In the final round of qualifying, Poole posted a lap fast enough for the pole at 182.949 mph. Kennedy will start second with his speed of 182.793 mph. Byron will start third with his speed of 182.626 mph. Koch will start fourth with his speed of 182.508 mph. Daniel Hemric will start fifth with his speed of 182.474 mph.

The Coca-Cola Firecracker 250 from Daytona will be broadcasted on NBCSN and Motor Racing Network at 7:30 p.m. EDT.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.— The NASCAR Xfinity Series heads to Daytona International Speedway for the second time of 2017 for the Coca-Cola Firecracker 250. Stages for the race will be 30, 30, and 40. Defending race winner is Aric Almirola. Almirola was scheduled to race  in the event this weekend, but due to his injury sustained at Kansas Speedway, Casey Mears will be driving the car.

40 drivers are on the entry list. All drivers will make the field for Friday night. Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers in the field include Erik Jones, Joey Logano, and Daniel Suarez.

Like Cup, the Xfinity Series will be running a new tire compound at Daytona that provides more grip to increase stability. Teams will have six sets of tires to utilize throughout the weekend.

Drivers are excited about returning to Daytona.

"I'm excited to be back behind the wheel with Fresh From Florida and Biagi DenBeste Racing this weekend in Daytona," Mears said. "I know they won this race last year, as well as Talladega in May, with Aric Almirola, so I'm excited to be getting in a competitive car. We're looking to have a strong run and put the #98 Fresh From Florida Ford Mustang at the front of the field. Our thoughts continue to be with Aric as heals up and we're looking forward to having back in the car,” said Mears.

“I am excited to get back to Daytona. I think we had some good luck there in my first start earlier this year and hopefully we can carry that over and keep being aggressive. I think the best place to be on the superspeedways is up front. Hopefully we can stay up front and really use our teammates to help stay up there, be aggressive and get a good finish,” said last week’s winner, William Byron.

“Daytona is a pretty unique place. There’s not a lot as a driver that you can do to make a difference. I’ve tried to study up on drafting as much as I could to try to become a better superspeedway racer. In both the Cup and XFINITY race in February we were in the wrong place at the wrong time and didn’t end up with good finishes. I know we’ll have fast cars again this weekend in both series and if we can put ourselves in the right places at the right time and stay out of trouble, we should be able to be around at the end to see how things play out,” said E. Jones

Teams will have two practice sessions on Thursday at 2:00 p.m. EDT and 4:00 p.m. EDT on NBCSN. Qualifying will be held on Friday at 2:00 p.m. EDT on NBCSN. The Coca-Cola Firecracker 250 will be broadcasted on NBCSN and Motor Racing Network at 7:30 p.m. EDT on Friday.

After coming up short at Michigan International Speedway last weekend, William Byron was able to score the victory in the American Ethanol E15 250 from Iowa Speedway.

“It feels awesome. Thank you Mr. H (Hendrick) for giving me this opportunity. Everything has come full circle for me. I think we had a first or second place car. Really proud of these guys,” said Byron to Fox Sports 1 in victory lane.

This is Byron’s first career victory. Byron becomes the second driver to score their first victory at Iowa Speedway. The win by Byron gives JR Motorsports five consecutive season with multiple wins. Byron scored his eighth top-10 finish of 2017.

Byron was able to grab score the victory by playing the game correctly on pit road. As the field was undergoing green flag pit stops in the final stages of the race, the caution flag flew leaving many of the top-contenders one lap down. Byron and his team had yet to make a pit stop. Because Dylan Lupton stayed out on old tires, he trapped the dominant cars one lap down. With the restart on lap 230, Byron was able to grab the lead and set course for his first career victory.

After holding off Tyler Reddick in the closing laps, Ryan Siege was able to score a second place finish at Iowa for his best career finish.

“It was crazy. I just can’t thank everybody enough. It’s amazing. It was crazy when I was driving around, I cant believe we are second. It’s really awesome. It was a lot of fun racing with tyler there, racing for the win. I just can’t thank everybody enough,” said Sieg post race to Fox Sports 1.

Although he scored his career best finish, Reddick was disappointed in a third place finish.

“Well, we had a car that could really roll the center good, but couldn’t get back to the throttle. Unfortunately, that is where I was getting ate up most of the night. It was really cool to be able to race here at Iowa under the lights. I just feel like we should’ve came away with the victory there. I just couldn’t get anything going on the bottom. Feel like we gave one away here. It’s going to be a tough one to swallow,” said Reddick post-race.

Ross Chastain, Dakoda Armstrong,Michael Annett, Jeremy Clements, Elliott Sadler, Justin Allgaier, and Garrett Smithley rounded out the top-10.

There were 11 lead changes among six drivers. Christopher Bell led the most laps at 152. The race was slowed nine times for 55 laps.

Next up for the NASCAR Xfinity Series is the final restrictor plate event of the season, the Coca-Cola Firecracker 250 from Daytona International Speedway. NBCSN and Motor Racing Network will have the call on Friday, June 30th at 7:30 p.m. EDT.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series heads to Iowa Speedway for the first time of 2017 for the American Ethanol E15 250. The race will consist of three stages with two stages of 60 laps and a final stage of 130 laps.

40 drivers have made their way to Iowa. There are no full time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers in the field.

Teams will have only six sets of Goodyear race tires for the entire event.

Elliott Sadler will be making his 800th career NASCAR start this weekend at Iowa Speedway. Sadler will become the 25th driver in NASCAR national history to make 800 or more starts.

“Iowa Speedway has been a great track for me. It’s just a fun race track with great character over the tunnel. As a driver, you have multiple grooves that you can run—which can make the racing fun and challenging. My Chevrolet Accessories Camaro team has come so close to getting our first win of the season a few different times and think we have a good shot at going to Victory Lane this weekend,” said Sadler.

Ty Majesty will be making his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series start this weekend at Iowa. Majeski is a member of the 2017-18 NASCAR Next Class.

“I’m really looking forward to getting on track this weekend in Iowa,” said Majeski.  “I feel like it has been such a long time since we made the announcement, and I’m just eager to get going.  Roush Fenway obviously has a lot of success at Iowa Speedway, so I feel confident that we will have a car capable of running up front.  I’ve been logging a lot of time on Ford’s simulator and definitely been working on getting familiar with Iowa Speedway using iRacing.  I’m hoping all of the preparation pays off with a solid run this Saturday,” said Majeski.

Drivers will have two opportunities on Friday, June 23rd at 2:00 p.m. EDT and 5:00 p.m. EDT to dial in their vehicles for qualifying and the race. Fox Sports 1 will have qualifying on tape delay beginning at 7:00 p.m. EDT, while the race will be at 8:30 p.m. EDT. Motor Racing Network will also have race coverage from Iowa.