Honda's Merlyn Plumlee has won Daytona three times as a crew member for Freddie Spencer and Scott Russell and now he's been to victory circle at Daytona with Nicky Hayden.

"It was a really good win, especially considering Nicky tipping over in qualifying, knocked himself all up like that," Merlyn said.

"It's hard to really, really go home super happy unless you beat Mat, so for us the race will really start at Fontana. But we'll take this one."

Speaking of Fontana, Merlyn says Hayden will go well there, too. "All the racetracks suit Nicky."