What a two week whirlwind tour this has been for drivers and fans!
It all started January 29th with the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona with a few Nascar Sprint Cup Drivers joining the action. For Chip Ganassi, the all familiar Jamie McMurray and Juan Montoya won with the help from other drivers in the two car team. The all familiar Juan Montoya was all but knowing of how to drive the car! By the time they passed the half way point, Juan ran in to Jimmie Johnson and a few other drivers, with no explanation of why the car was so damaged.
The following weekend, February 10th, was the kickoff to the Nascar Season with the Budweiser Shootout Draw. I think everyone in the world was elated when Dale Earnhardt Jr. had picked the Pole Position, with Tony Stewart on the outside! The next day, the newly acclaimed 22 Shell Penzoil driven by Kurt Busch claimed the first Non-Points win of the season and Segment One of the Gatorade Duel’s, becoming the most anticipated driver to pull the weekend Tri-fecta with a win in the Daytona 500.
Then came Qualifying Day Sunday, which is always followed by the Gatorade Duel’s, which was on Thursday. The Gatorade Duel’s are based on position from Qualifying, starting with the Odd Numbered positions in Segment One, followed by the Even Numbered positions in Segment Two. Both Segments were run fairly clean with minimal damage to any of the cars, with the exception of Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Jimmie Johnson, all had damage during Practice and / or the Gatorade Duel’s. With Dale Earnhardt Jr. getting the Pole Position during Qualifying, getting in an accident in practice, had to go to back up car and start dead last.
The next day, it was time to start the engines and embrace the roar of the engines, while inhaling the smell of fumes and rubber with the Nascar Camping World Truck Series to kick off this awesome weekend of what is to be an awesome year! The Pole Position was won by Austin Dillon, which ended up in an accident about 4 laps shy of contending for the win. It was a pretty uneventful race until the end in which Michael Waltrip won on the day Ten Years later Nascar Nation had lost Dale Earnhardt Sr. It was a pretty joyous, but somber win for Michael as Dale had brought Michael in under his wing and got his first Daytona 500 Win the day Dale had passed. Also on this memorable night, our local favorite Female driver, Jennifer Jo Cobb finished her career best, Sixth.
Then on Saturday, the first race with the new noses to run full time in the Nascar Nationwide Series took to the Track. These cars looked as sharp and clean as anything I have ever seen! With the rules being changed this year for all drivers to claim where they wanted their points to go, any Cup drivers that win in the Nationwide Series will claim the win, prize money and owners points, but not points in the standings. This was done to ensure that a Nationwide Series driver wins the Championship, as the same for Camping World Truck Series.
With Ten Sprint Cup drivers driving in the Drive4COPD300, there was a better chance of a Nationwide driver of winning the race. The only thing standing in the way other than the Ten Sprint Cup drivers, was Qualifying. Saturday morning turned out to be Clint Bowyer’s day as he became the Pole Sitter for the race beating out Landon Cassill, which ended up Second. It was a pretty uneventful day, with the two-by-two tandem danced, swapping spots to keep the cars cool to a point to not overheat the engines. The afternoon ended on a high note for Tony Stewart as he won for the Fourth time, Fourth win in a row in the opening Nationwide Series race.
Would this momentum carry over to the Daytona 500 for Tony Stewart, or would Kurt Busch claim the tri-fecta? This year did not seem to be as hyped up as previous years, and lived up to its expectations that fans had long awaited this off-season. Sadly one of my favorites, after being Roasted, Kevin Harvick was out on lap 23 with a blown engine, which was the Third caution of the race. This was a major oddity for Richard Childress as Jeff Burton also lost an engine. Both Kevin and Jeff ended up 42nd and 36th respectively.
The race was pretty fast paced and ran pretty cleanly, but with the new paving laid down, does not make the new cars able to run Three or Four wide with the swapping that had to be done to keep the engines cool. The race to win came down the last Fifteen or so laps as there were drivers you would not expect to be in the race or running up front. These drivers included, David Gilliland, Bobby Labonte, Regan Smith, David Ragan, Robby Gordon, and Dave Blaney. Within the last caution, David Ragan was Black Flagged on the restart for moving down to the inside before the Start/Finish Line and had to go to the back. That put Tony Stewart, Bobby Labonte, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and a few others up front to contend for the win.
Everyone was on the edge of their seat as the Daytona 500 came down to the last few laps and was up in the air as to what first timer was going to win. We honestly thought Tony Stewart or Carl Edwards would have been the one to pull it off, but it came to the one day latter Birthday Boy Trevor Bayne in the Wood Brother’s number 21! This is the first win for the Wood Brother’s since 1976, when the famous 21 was in Victory Lane with David Pearson.
There is nobody that can pull out the what if’s out of the bag and say the race would have been the same had the track not been repaved. This weekend, and last week have been the best two weeks Nascar, Drivers and fans could have asked for. I think the changes in points, the rules for drivers to choose how they want to earn their points and the redesign of the cars will make fans happy and new fans embrace a sport that is, has been, and will be the most stable, fan enjoyable event any one can go to! Thank you to Nascar for a wonderful opening to what will be a wonderful season!
As a last note, take in to thought Trevor’s Car Number, 21(2+1=3), will forever have meaning when it is on the track.
Terry
