Jason Lucas has been named the director of marketing and communications at Michigan International Speedway.

Lucas joins MIS after serving as the director of consumer marketing at Daytona International Speedway since 2016. In that role he was responsible for the promotion and strategies for the speedway. He developed and implemented marketing plans across all media channels to promote the diverse schedule at the “World Center of Racing.”

“We are excited to have Jason join us as the director of marketing and communications,” MIS President Rick Brenner said. “He brings a wealth of knowledge to the speedway and is well positioned to lead the department.”

Daytona International Speedway was recently transformed into the world’s only motorsports stadium with DAYTONA Rising, a $400 million renovation. Thanks to the marketing efforts of Lucas and his team, the stadium was awarded the SportsBusiness Journal’s prestigious Sports Business Award for Sports Facility of the Year.

Erik Jones and Furniture Row Racing’s No. 77 5-hour ENERGY Toyota team look to add to his already impressive track record at Phoenix International Raceway in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Camping World 500. 

The Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate has earned three victories and three pole positions, as well as five top-five and eight top-10 finishes in just nine starts at the flat one-mile oval east of Phoenix. The statistics from eight of those races were achieved in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, where he won the spring race last season, and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series where he earned his first NASCAR victory in 2013 and then repeated the next year.

The ninth race took place in the Cup series (Nov. 15, 2015), when Jones subbed for Matt Kenseth in the No. 20 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing. His strong seventh-place qualifying effort was followed by a very respectable 19^th-place race finish despite it being just his third NASCAR Cup Series start.

Three races into the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and Ryan Blaney rolls into Phoenix International Raceway in sixth place overall, seemingly on the cusp of victory.

Blaney was an ounce or so of American Ethanol shy of victory at Daytona last month and finished second. He was strong again, but snake-bitten, at Atlanta winding up in 18th. Then he spent all of last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the top 10, including the seventh-place finish.

Phoenix, the second leg of NASCAR’s three-race West Coast Swing, is a track that suits Blaney’s driving style. In his first two visits to PIR as a rookie last season, Blaney finished 10^thin the spring and eighth in the fall.

Add those impressive results to his three consecutive Phoenix top 10s (2012-2014) in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and he’s never finished a race there outside of the top 10.

Race details

Race Time: 3:30 p.m. ET

TV: FOX, 3:30 p.m. ET

Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Distance: 312 miles (312 laps); Stage 1 (Ends on lap 75),

Stage 2 (Ends on lap 150), Final Stage (Ends on lap 312)

If there’s one major talking point to come out of this wreck-filled Daytona weekend, it’s all about the race stages … and what people think of them.

As is often the case, anything new is instantly dismissed by a large group of NASCAR fans. Let’s go back to the 1972 rules, many of the don’t-change brigade will say.