Updated

Other Speedweeks 2013 Notebooks

TUESDAY, FEB. 19

MONDAY, FEB. 18

SUNDAY, FEB. 17

SATURDAY, FEB. 16

FRIDAY, FEB. 15

THURSDAY, FEB. 14

INTO THE HOMESTRETCH – The final – and biggest – segment of stock-car Speedweeks at Daytona International Speedway begins today with two rounds of practice for Thursday's 150-mile qualifying races and Sunday's Daytona 500. After two wild nights for lesser divisions on the makeshift .4-mile short track on the DIS backstretch, focus today returns to the 2.5-mile oval, with NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practices scheduled at noon and 2:30 p.m. Weather is expected to be pleasant, with partly cloudy skies and almost no chance of rain. In fact, the the weather forecast for the rest of Daytona 500 week is very good, with highs on race day expected to be in the mid-70s.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 31 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.