NASCAR Now Must Address Blocking Following Newman Disaster

So the 2020 Daytona 500 will not be remembered for terrific racing.  It will be remembered for Ryan Newman's bad crash.   That Newman as of this late-Monday authorship is stable albeit seriously hurt is a sign he'll pull through, though we seriously doubt he'll ever race again. 

Newman started this entire mess when he swerved to chop off Ryan Blaney and got nailed. 

Steve O'Donnell's statement on Newman's injuries following the 500

On social media there was widespread comparison to Dale Earnhardt's fatal 2001 crash - to which this mess has zero comparison.   The 1995 Jimmy Horton crash where he was T-boned in midair by Ed Dixon is what the Newman crash resembled. 


The epidemic of crashes at the end of the Daytona 500 came a week after melees in the Busch Clash, and both bring to the fore what a problem blocking has become in NASCAR.   The first big melee on the backstretch was a slam draft gone wrong; the irony is the drivers had pretty well policed it following the Clash.   Other wrecks such as the late Turn One mess were caused by blocks; again drivers seemed to have policed it reasonably following the Busch Clash.

It's been an issue for some years now with blocks going wrong, such as Aric Almirola's last lap crash in 2018 and Austin Dillon's disastrous swerve last July in the Firecracker 400 - ironically the first of now-three straight "plate" races that have been delayed or cut into two days by rain.

Correspondent Michael Dickinson makes an interesting analogy to the 2009 Keselowski-Edwards melee, ironically involving Newman, and which also illustrates the issue of blocking.

Contrast this with Grant Enfinger in winning the NextEra 250 on Friday night before the 500.  He held his line and simply raced a challenging Jordan Anderson to the stripe.  The two bounced off each other but none of it was gratuitous, and it made for a terrific finish to what had become a rip-roaring race.  

Another, more historical, contrast is the famous 1974 Firecracker 400 finish where Richard Petty tried to stop David Pearson's pass but left room rather than wreck himself and Pearson.


These wrecks simply shouldn't be happening.   I certainly do not favor adding more officiating to the sport - a sport that like all sports needs to start reducing incidence of officiating.   But NASCAR does need to address the epidemic of blocking, and drivers need to police each other a lot more.   Trying to protect the lead - we get that.   Pushing another car to speed up him and thus yourself - we favor that.  NASCAR needs to discourage the gratuitous blocking that's become a clear problem and drivers need to police it themselves better.   


Terrific racing doesn't need wrecks.   Nose to nose combat first on back is what it needs. UPDATE: Newman was released from the hospital Wednesday afternoon.

Daytona Blockheads Throwbacks And That Black Car Reborn

The 2018 Daytona 500 will go down as a seminal event in NASCAR history as a spectacular race ended in the kind of bizarre fashion that racing often gets and which sparks a lot of reaction.

One theme permeating the week was throwback - Petty 43 vs Ranier 28 in the ARCA race; Elliott 9 vs RCR 3 in the Clash and throughout the Cup portion.   The ultimate throwback then erupted at the finish.

This was one of those races where the official lead changes - 24 - don't quite do justice to the repassing and nose-to-nose combat that permeated over half the race and especially the final ten laps.   NASCAR made numerous changes for this race - a gear change to allow the cars to suck up better in the draft and also lower ride heights.  The way they raced this change seemed to be geared more toward Talladega because it was substantially harder to pass there last season; the effectiveness of the package at Daytona augurs well for the Winston 500 weekend. 

This was a race of contrasts as was Speedweeks in general.   The first 100 laps of the 500 were frantic dicing for the lead, then after the Chase Elliott crash everyone just pounded out laps single file until the William Byron crash set off some of the best racing Daytona has ever seen.

The absurdity of NASCAR's field freeze rule showed again when they let the leaders race to the line after Aric Almirola's crash after not doing so five times in the Powershares 300 while ARCA likewise messed it up in their Lucas Oil 200.

The cynics before qualifying predicted the RCR 3 and Petty 43 of Bubba Wallace would get the front row, and all week promotion for the race noted the 20th anniversary of Dale Earnhardt's 500 win; the upshot is the 3 vs 43 dichotomy didn't happen in qualifying, it happened in the race.  

The other upshot is Austin Dillon's history at Daytona was defined by plowing for the grandstands in 2015's Firecracker Fiasco - another irony is it was Hamlin getting spun out (by Harvick) that exploded that disaster.

In this Speedweeks blocking became a massive problem and it caused several crashes, including the last-lap melee that eliminated Aric Almirola.

The irony is Almirola crashed in all three races he ran in - and still showcased he is far superior to his predecessor Danica Patrick, who ended her NASCAR career the way she personified it - by plowing into a wreck after running in the back all day.

Bubba Wallace's comment ripping the sanctimonious Denny Hamlin caused a stir after the race and is the kind of controversy the sport has long thrived on.   It also served notice that Wallace and Richard Petty's #43 are ready to attack.

He also got hugged in the media center by his mom - which appeared to surprise him and he had to pull himself together - aloud.

Chase Elliott's reputation as a driver who can fight for the lead but not finish  the job continues to grow.


This race finished with some other eye-popping trivia -

Overlooked all week was the Rick Ware Chevrolet of Justin Marks, finishing 12th.   Marks, a native of  Rocklin, CA, won at Mid-Ohio in Chip Ganassi's Busch-Xfinity car in 2016; he also won at Palm Beach in a 2010 ARCA race.

This was the first plate win for Chevrolet since the 2015 Firecracker Fiasco and RCR's first plate win since the 2011 Diehard 500.

After Fords seemed to dominate all day Chevrolets took four of the top ten, including the overlooked Brad Daugherty Chevys of Chris Buescher (fifth) and AJ Allmendinger (10th). 

Richard Petty had a striking day - his present team finished second and two of his former drivers (Allmendinger and Almirola) finished in the top eleven.   It also served a larger storyline of the sport's mixture of old school and new - The Black 3 and Petty's 43 showcased young drivers as youngsters and veterans went at it for the lead all weekend.  

This was RCR's first Daytona win since Kevin Harvick's 2007 win.

Ryan Blaney finished seventh after leading 118 laps - and because of stage points (he earned 18 of those plus one playoff point) he is now the point leader ahead of all six cars who finished ahead of him.   Stage racing was meant to incentivize going for the lead - it's clearly working. 

Despite Keselowski's crash, Penske Racing still had a solid Speedweeks as Joey Logano came back from trouble and finished fourth with Blaney seventh. 

Joe Gibbs Racing salvaged third from Hamlin after his other three Toyotas crashed.   Hendrick Motorsports had it even worse as all four of Slick Rick's Chevrolets wrecked; the upshot is polesitter Alex Bowman acquitted himself superbly after he stunk up the joint in the 150 and got himself some trash talk from Harvick about it.


And the end result is the most exciting Speedweeks since..........irony of ironies, last year.   It goes to show that in racing, when the thrill seems to be gone, it comes back.

Daytona Trucks Along In Two Thrillers

Daytona Speedweeks 2018 began with a bang in the ARCA Lucas Oil 200 and with that it also saw a great exercise in throwback as a Richard Petty #43 (Sean Corr) and a Ranier Racing #28 (Sheldon Creed) make it like 1984 all over.    The Advance Auto Busch Clash and Can-Am Gatorade 150s raised questions going into the 500 and then the features provided answers -

But Speedweeks is not just the Daytona superoval.   Surrounding tracks like New Smyrna Speedway offer delicious competition as well  and following the Busch Clash NASCAR's K&N/Busch East tour squared off at New Smyrna and squared into a Todd Gilliland-Harrison Burton showdown that got physical and ended in a terrific win for Gilliland, slated to drive in the Truck Series for Kyle Busch later this season

 


The Nextera 250 turned into a torridly competitive affair from the opening lap onward.   Unable to run due to not being old enough, Todd Gilliland gave way to dad David in Kyle Busch's Toyota and David squared off in a gigantic sidedraft war for the lead that raged almost all race until a shunt by his Kyle Busch teammate Spencer Davis with seven to go ruined his race.   Given his employment with Kyle Busch's team the nickname of the larger organization can now be The Spencer Davis Group, except it was Maury Gallagher's Chevrolets given some loving with their 1-2 finish.

An eye-popping stat - Maury Gallagher has now won three straight Nextera Truck 250s, giving Chevrolet three straight after going 0-for-lifetime in the race until 2016.    



Another eye-popper was the ejection of two Busch-Xfinity Series crew chiefs - RCR's Nick Harrison plus his car chief Mike Searce, and Robert Scott of Mike Harmon's team - for multiple inspection failures with NASCAR's new laser-based inspection scanner.  

And yet that got forgotten in the wildest Busch-Xfinity 300-miler at Daytona in years.   Kyle Larson in particular became a major issue with blocking and it led to a major crash with two to go on a restart.    Blocking in general has become more and more of an issue in NASCAR the last few years.

Yet another problem refocuses on the folly of NASCAR's insistence on overofficiating.   NASCAR's Green-White-Finish rule has become a fiasco with a preposterous number of restarts because NASCAR won't let the cars race to the flag and thus finish the race, the same problem that ruined the finish of the ARCA Lucas Oil 200.  

And yet the end result was the most amazing finish in recent memory as youngster Tyler Reddick barely edged popular veteran Elliott Sadler in a photo finish, a striking illustration of one of the overlooked sub-themes of 2018 Speedweeks - the synergy of kids battling with longtime veterans.   The investment into young drivers in the sport has angered a striking number of fans, yet the sight of veterans more than holding their own in some of the most furious combat in motorsports is a spectacle that can only benefit racing.  

2018 Daytona 500 Preview

So the Daytona 500 is on the horizon after the Can-Am Gatorade qualifiers, so we offer a view going in   - 

NASCAR's Box Of Chocolates package:  NASCAR mandated a gear change going into pole day and also allowed lower ride heights, leading to the spectacle of the cars resembling lowriders.   The gear change allowed the cars to suck up in the draft better while the cars are strikingly looser, especially in the draft.    The first test of this new package was the Advanced Auto Busch Clash, and the 150s were the next test.

With two such races out of the way, the result is we really don't know what we're getting for the 500.   The cars are looser all around, which led to several wrecks in the 150s.   It also saw bizarre contrasts - dicing for the lead was tight and tense, but the last 30-plus laps of the Clash were a single file line where seemingly everyone was afraid to try to pass; this was repeated in the 150s, with the first 150 less intense than the second.    We expect the 500 to be more intensely contested with segment bonus points being in play; clearly the drivers can pass, and we saw cars get runs past multiple cars in a lap or two.  



Lowriders ride the cushion - The ARCA Lucas Oil 200 saw two lanes of drafts, and when Sean Corr and Sheldon Creed went Petty-vs-Ranier throwback for the win highside sidedraft passing came back in an eye-opener.   It has now extended to the NASCAR side of things as the fields have preferred the highside.   Cars out back kept moving low to pass but seemingly no one wanted to run the bottom.



The Penske Fords, and the Fords in general, are the favorites - Penske Racing swept the Clash and their 150 and the Roush and Wood Brothers Fords also showed real muscle, notably Ricky Stenhouse, stuck striving to pass from the back in his 150 and finally succeeding at the end even as he had to dodge two wrecks.    Brad Keselowski's semi-effortless win in the Clash wasn't replicated in the 150, and in fact his wreck looked a little bit like an Ernie Irvan move, while Ryan Blaney right away established his bona fides in Roger's fleet.   Trevor Bayne and Paul Menard in the second 150 also showed genuine steam, especially a surprisingly feisty Menard in the Wood Brothers #21.   Michael McDowell's Ford also earned respect in his race and the Stewart-Haas Fords were also decent, especially Kevin Harvick, though Aric Almirola caught the Danica jinx in his #10.

A curious fact - Fords have now won eleven of the last fourteen plate races.



The Petty-RCR Chevrolets are the strongest Ford challengers -  Make no mistake; if Bubba Wallace doesn't win in 2018 it will be a serious surprise.   Ryan Newman ran good despite rear fender damage while Austin Dillon struggled in his 150, but it's Darrell Wallace Jr. in Richard Petty's RCR-aligned #43 that stole the show on Thursday night.    When Wallace rocketed from the back to the lead five in last year's Firecracker 400 in Petty's #43 that was the first true sign Wallace can hack it at the Winston Cup level having already established his racing bona fides in the Truck Series and also with respectable effort in the Busch-Xfinity Series.  

Chevrolet goes into the 500 winless in Cup plate races since the disastrous 2 AM Firecracker fiasco of 2015 and with just two wins in the last four seasons.



Chase Elliott won his 150 while Hendrick's other cars are head-scratching - Jimmie Johnson has now wrecked twice this Speedweeks and William Byron's Hendrick debut ended in a wreck.   Alex Bowman won the pole in the ex-Dale Junior #88 but he didn't race anyone and in fact stayed out of the draft altogether - which led to an interesting comment by Kevin Harvick afterward that Bowman thus learned nothing for the 500.   This left it to Chase Elliott to chase a qualifier win in easily the more hotly-contested of the Twins.   The surprise there was he cruised home basically unchallenged.



The Toyotas are also head-scratchers -   Just how good are the Toyotas?   Denny Hamlin rocketed back and forth in his 150 and the JGR Camrys seemed to be able to pass people, while Martin Truex has been curiously quiet this Speedweeks.   Hamlin has won the last two plate races for Toyota - the 2014 Winston 500 and 2016 Daytona 500 - and right now seems the favorite in that class.  



So the 150s are done and the 500 awaits the conclusion of the Truck Series and Busch-Xfinity Series.

Daytona Postscript - Should NASCAR Ask For A New Tire Supplier?

There are more takeaways to draw from Speedweeks 2017

Kyle Busch's criticism of Goodyear makes for an interesting subplot for Goodyear's NASCAR contract expires after 2017 and after years  - decades really - of periodic tire issues and "aggressive setups" buck-passing by Goodyear (Update March 20 - numerous tire failures at Phoenix and to a lesser extent Atlanta and Vegas add to the issue), the question should be - should NASCAR have a different tire supplier after 2017?

I say emphatically Yes.

The blunt reality is Goodyear has had its run but has never been able to hang with competition - when it had to race Firestone in Indycars it was Firestone that won out in the end, and the only reason Goodyear won its two tire competitions with Hoosier despite having more incidence of tire failure than Hoosier was simple numbers, money (being a much bigger company) and attrition.   A lot of NASCAR people are leery of the tire war periods of 1988-89 and 1994, but compared to the Goodyear monopoly period one struggles to make the case that the tire war periods were truly worse.

The most raceable tires Goodyear has fielded in NASCAR the last twenty-five years were the leftover tire-war tire used in 1995-96 and the latter-1999 tire designed to battle Hoosier in Winston West that was used starting in the August Yankee 400 and for several races the rest of that year.   Outside of that, the tire Goodyear has fielded for Cup and also the Busch/Xfinity Series has not been that good, forgiving, or raceable.  And through this period the raceability of the tire has almost always not been adequately addressed - fan Mike Babine notes Goodyear admitted in 2008-09 it didn't design the tire for the present-generation Winston Cup cars - and at this point NASCAR is in need of some new ideas that actually address raceability.   People forget it was Hoosier Race Tire that brought to NASCAR some innovative ideas - races where Hoosier-shod cars ran 500 miles using fewer tires than Goodyear guys for one.

I do not have confidence Goodyear can handle it since they have such a poor record at it - only when it was challenged by Hoosier or it flat stumbled onto something did Goodyear improve raceability.  In that 1995-96 period racing greats Chris Economaki and Dick Berggren noted the tires raced more like bias-plies.

The one caveat to put in is the Truck Series the last five seasons has seen a remarkable increase in passing and side-by-side racing and it seems clear the tire there is more forgiving and raceable.  


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There was also the unusual Brian France comment at the prerace drivers meeting addressing the growing problem of blocking during Speedweeks.   That France actually addressed it was surprising enough; that he in essence said was NASCAR is not going to listen if drivers complain about blocking seems a change of pace for NASCAR - NASCAR basically saying the drivers have the onus of accountability here.    That blocking is now a legitimate issue should not be denied; that adding yet more rules when NASCAR needs to start taking away some rules - regarding blocking, letting the cars push-draft more and letting them pass below the yellow line would certainly cut down on blocking - is foolish. 


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Atlanta now beckons and it will be NASCAR's 2,500th Winston Cup Grand National race.   The track will finally be repaved after this race, something that should have happened many years ago.     So it goes as NASCAR's inaugural Monster Energy season gets going.

Busch And Blaney Bag Bizarre Daytona 500

The 2017 Daytona 500 will go down as the most competitive running since 2014 - 37 official lead changes seems low given how sustained the nose-to-nose battles for the lead were - and one of the more bizarre runnings and one that decidedly didn't go according to anyone's plan.   It was also a humorously fitting debut for Monster Energy Drink's sponsorship of the Winston Cup Grand National series, not only for the intensity of the racing but also for the imaginative nature of some of the promotion - in a clever crossover of sports Patriots tight end/controlled party star Rob Gronkowski was part of the prerace show (adding to the irony the prerace show proceeded amid the Boston Bruins' 6-3 whipping of the Dallas Stars, a nice synergy of racing, football, and hockey) - was won by a car whose primary sponsor is also the series sponsor - a scenario the sport has seen play out from such races as the 1975 Purolator 500 (won by the Purolator Mercury) to the 1981 Mountain Dew 500 (won by the Mountain Dew Buick) and so on.   There is plenty to break down in this one -



The curious case of Joe Gibbs Racing -  NASCAR's new segment format saw the first case of raceteams trying to beat the format with strategy, and the result was farce.   Joe Gibbs Racing put themselves behind the eight ball by short-pitting fifteen laps in, and cost themselves a lap doing it again later.   Stewart-Haas Racing short-pitted and caught a lucky caution courtesy of rookie Corey LaJoie, who committed the dumbest rookie mistake we've seen in a while.    Kevin Harvick cycled into the lead, but it seemed he would have done so without short-pitting - the whole strategy of working pitstop sequencing backwards as if a superspeedway were a road course did nothing but put the teams who kept short-pitting behind the eight ball.   

Kyle Busch wound up winning the first segment and the bonus points resulting, this after some of the best Daytona Cup racing in many years, and after two days of terrific racing from the Truck and Busch/Xfinity Series.  

But Kyle Busch's day ended past halfway after JGR yet again short-pitted and were barely on the lead lap during a lengthy green flag run - and a tire went down (the resulting melee also saw the third red flag in two days of racing).    Kyle Busch's criticism of Goodyear was refreshing given Goodyear's seeming sense of entitlement for being an exclusive tire supplier and also its inconsistent and generally mediocre record with raceable tires - and in an odd coincidence 2017 marks the last year of Goodyear's present contract.

The net result was a confusing series of pit strategies, the likes of which Daytona hasn't really seen since the ill-fated 1991 500 when NASCAR banned tire changes under yellow and teams insisted on strategizing to avoid green flag stops.  



Chase Elliott channeling Ernie Irvan - Chase Elliott won the pole and won his qualifying race, and he showed true aggression fighting to get to the front.   The problem was Elliott at times looked less like his dad and closer to Ernie Irvan, looking out of control at times - before the race NASCAR gave a mild warning about "the consequences" of blocking, which had become more pronounced for the Cup side not just this Speedweeks but last season as well.   Elliott got damage in one of the crashes, but the theme all week was cars getting damaged and roaring back to the lead anyway - "these cars look like they've been running Martinsville" was a phrase Darrell Waltrip first used at Talladega in 1996.

Five years ago this July Kurt Busch was in what amounted to NASCAR exile from his firing from Penske Racing thanks to chronic psychopathic behavior on the track and in his treatment of people around him - he exploded to one of the signature races of the decade in winning the 2012 Firecracker 250.

Five years later Busch's Ford was crunched up and he clawed to steal the win from Kyle Larson.    It is his fifth win for Stewart-Haas Racing and first in a Ford since the Summer 500 at Pocono in 2005 driving for Roush Racing.  


Pearson/Petty reborn plus a whale of a day for darkhorses - Not that Richard Petty qualifies as a darkhorse in the traditional sense, but the struggle for success for Petty's raceteam the last thirty-plus years doesn't require elaboration, and seeing Aric Almirola claw to finish fourth was something to behold.   Even more magical was that Petty's #43 and the Wood Brothers #21 were in the lead draft at the end - though Ryan Blaney raced closer to Tim Richmond than David Pearson en route to a spectacular second and an eye-opening Speedweeks.  

And muscling into the fray was AJ Allmendinger, driving Brad Daugherty's #47 and finishing a solid third.    And the way the finish shook out it was a big payday for team owners Jay Robinson, Archie St. Hilaire, and Mark Beard, whose cars all finished in the top-eleven.



How much more incentive is there to go for the lead?   This much..... -  Kevin Harvick finished 22nd and outpointed all but four other cars - Joey Logano finished sixth and outpointed all but two other cars.   In the Truck race Johnny Sauter finished 15th and is second in Truck points - all because the new bonus points structure rewards going to the front sooner rather than later.    Incentivizing going for the lead - it may be just one race weekend but it's clear there is more incentive to go for the front now - and that is only a good thing for racing.


In all, it was by far the best Speedweeks in years, and a great start for Monster Energy in NASCAR.    It can become even more competitive down the road - and this start gives reason that it will.

The First Eye-Openers Of Speedweeks 2017

We now have the first true eye-openers of Speedweeks 2017.

The first shocker was Chase Elliott storming to the win in the first 150 after such a poor effort in the Busch Clash.   It also broke up the expected dominance of Penske Racing's Fords and Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas; Kyle Busch in particular suffered when the field almost wrecked amid heavy blocking; also waylaid was Paul Menard, who'd quietly stormed into contention.    The other Fords also acquitted themselves - Stewart-Haas was expected to be stout, lesser expectation was applied to the Petty-Roush trio but those Fords ran strong as well; it was actually disappointing Aric Almirola and Trevor Bayne finished out of the top five.   

  

But the bigger shocker came even though Denny Hamlin winning at Daytona doesn't come across as a surprise - the surprise was that he stormed past Dale Earnhardt Jr., returning to NASCAR after sitting out half the season recovering from a concussion.    Junior grabbed the lead early and then got into a spirited sidedraft fight with Denny Hamlin.  After a midrace yellow Ryan Blaney made a hard challenge to Junior; the challenge got very chippy as at one point Blaney faked out Junior and dove to the bottom and inches ahead but got no drafting help.    It thus appeared Junior would cruise to another qualifying race win - except Hamlin got the drafting push and stormed to the win just before the white flag.


So with the 500 field now set, some quick takes -


The upsurge in blocking in plate races nearly caused at least one melee in the 150s, contributed to the Hamlin-Keselowski crash in the Busch Clash, and is becoming a problem for NASCAR between stifling passing - the drivers' on-track goal, naturally - and also the potential for crashes beyond the two-car set-to in the Clash.   Drivers of course also tried to push-draft; it's worth noting when they could do it with authority there wasn't much if any blocking, so it constitutes the ultimate mixed bag for everyone involved.   Even with that there was noticeably more lead changing in the 150s than in the Clash, an encouraging sign for Speedweeks.  
The Hendrick, JGR, and Penske fleets grabbed the Thursday gold, but numerous teams acquitted themselves more than respectably - the Petty-Roush alliance showed drafting fight - Aric Almirola in particular curiously commenting before the race about need for more fight on his part - while the RCR Chevrolets may have been the biggest surprise, as very little was expected here yet Austin Dillon pushed Hamlin to the late lead and finished well in his 150 while teammates Newman and Menard largely unnoticed proved they can surge to the front.   The Ganassi-SABCO Chevrolets also showed fight, especially Jamie McMurray in spots looking like Donnie Allison in the #1.

The SHR Fords as expected were stout; the biggest surprise has been Danica Patrick, who followed up a 4th in the Clash with 7th in her 150.    The return of Clint Bowyer to the front after his miserable lameduck year of 2016 was certainly welcome.

Dark horses were in evidence as well - Cole Whitt, Ty Dillon, former Firecracker 400 and Winston 500 winner David Ragan, the above-mentioned Ryan Blaney, and Ty Dillon mixed it up respectably all night.

Decidedly unimpressive was JGR rookie Daniel Suarez, who'd run second for much of the Clash but looked like a rookie from Jump Street in the 150s.  


And so Speedweeks 2017 has truly kicked off.

More NASCAR Questions

Twenty years ago NASCAR was on the rise and October's Diehard 500 was the most exciting race of that 1997 season with a profligacy of passing to where the official stat of 32 lead changes looks too low

Speedweeks 2017 hopes to see an upset winner of the 500 along the lines of the 2014 Firecracker 400 - though without the rain



The Wall Street Journal authored a widely-read analysis of the decline of NASCAR popularity and racing writer Jeff Gluck adds his own take by noting Brian France's absence from the sanctioning body to where he in essence has no stake in the company and Lesa France Kennedy and Jim France basically are the ones in charge even though Brian ostensibly handles day-to-day operation.

As one respondent, Shane McKinney, notes in the Gluck piece, "It's amazing the actual shareholders.....have no interest in NASCAR except to collect the monies."

It showcases what has been apparent for many years now - the incompetence of the sanctioning body's leadership.    It also raises questions about whether the France family down the road will continue to hold onto NASCAR and its racetrack brethren International Speedway Corporation.   Certainly the fact Monster Energy Drink is paying substantially less in sponsorship money than past sponsors is a disturbing sign the sport's value has faltered badly.  

It shows how much hope a lot of people have put into Monster Energy's involvement - for the sport's history shows it has genuine competitive excellence, excellence it needs to get back.

Clash Serves Up Monster Cup's Mixed Beginning

NASCAR enters a new era, but with the legacy of deterioration still with it.

NASCAR's new series sponsor, Monster Energy Drink, endured a decidedly rough debut weekend as its first event, the Advance Auto Clash - aka the old Busch Clash - was delayed by rain from Saturday night until late Sunday morning, ironically a more preferable time to run the race than on a  Saturday night, which at Daytona has been plagued in recent years with rain delays, none more preposterous than the disastrous 2015 Firecracker 400.

First up was ARCA's Lucas Oil 200, and it was a frustrating race with several vicious crashes with two cars upside down, and the continuing problem for racing that it remains too hard to pass and too hard to push-draft, a problem that plagues NASCAR as well as ARCA.    The rally to the win by Austin Theriault - a Fort Kent, Maine native who was the unsung hero of 2016's Nextera Truck 250 at Daytona - was a welcome result but the frustration with how difficult it is to pass and to push-draft remains a sore spot for Speedweeks, and it showed up in the Advance Auto Busch Clash.

Some of the fight for the lead was good, but for the most part the top three or more either swerved all over and chopped off cars getting a drafting run or stayed on the bottom line and the top line could not advance and seize the lead - blocking has upsurged with the deterrent of push-drafting gone and it helped lead to the last-lap mess.    

Of the teams involved, the biggest losers were Hendrick Motorsports between Jimmie Johnson's sixth straight Busch Clash DNF and decided mediocrity on the part of 500 pole winner Chase Elliott; only Alex Bowman showed anything at the end.   The Chevrolets in general looked once again only able to draft, not take the lead or hold it beyond chopping everyone off.  

The Penske Fords are the obvious favorites while the Stewart-Haas guys looked okay other than Kurt Busch.   Danica Patrick's fourth-place finish was laughable given how the Red Sea parted after she was stuck racing for midpack as usual.   

Of the Gibbs Toyotas - once again prohibitive favorites for the 500 - newcomer Daniel Suarez looked the part of a rookie, he drafted and stayed in line and that was pretty much it.   Denny Hamlin is the obvious alpha dog in the JGR outfit.   Martin Truex in the Gibbs-aligned Vasser #78 had a bad day.


And so Daytona Speedweeks waits for Thursday Night and one wonders if the 150s will serve up something they haven't for years - a surprise.

Hamlin Still Handlin' Daytona 500

It was the least competitive Daytona 500 in years - and it ended with a photo finish.  

Speedweeks 2016 had seen a spirited ARCA 200, a hard-fought Shootout, the wildest Truck race since Talladega in 2013, and the Xfinity cars square off in a race that started with the kind of all-out combat for the lead that permeated the Nextera 250; it was surprising the Powersource 300's ferocity powered down as rapidly as it did after Lap 25 and never really resumed, even with spots of dicing for the lead and a spirited finish, won by Casey Elliott.  



This made the lethargic competition in the 500 all the more damning, even with a huge sidedraft battle for the lead for some ten laps headed by Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson.   And it wound up making Hamlin's photo-finish win over Martin Truex Jr. - this coming after Hamlin got slam-drafted by Kevin Harvick - all the bigger a surprise.  



Denny Hamlin's win brought out a lot to take away -






The paradigm shift for Toyota continues - While one should still think Hendrick Motorsports will win a share of races, they are no longer the team that dictates how the NASCAR season will go; that's Joe Gibbs Racing now, between taking three of the top five and also putting the JGR-allied Barney Vissar team of Martin Truex Jr. into second.   And one has to wonder if finally Toyota, having won fifteen of the last thirty-two races, will win a manufacturers' title, something monopolized by Chevrolet.


Hendrick's humility this time around was hilariously illustrated when Dale Jr. wrecked and the telecast showed a fan lashing out in anger from the grandstands.




Ford MIA - At times the Penske Racing radio traffic put it best - they were the weakest cars on the track.   Ford's complete lack of competitive depth has been obvious for years and it showed again as Joey Logano salvaged sixth and Aric Almirola had a frustrating day racing to 12th.   For while it was a needed trip in time as Petty's #43 and the Wood Brothers #21 were together in the top-ten 40 years after their most famous Daytona showdown.   Outside of that the Ford brigade had nothing again, with Roush-Fenway Racing an outright embarrassment now....and one can be confident if Dodge ever decided to return, a team like Petty's that's clearly improving would abandon Ford, with the same to be said if a manufacturer like Honda ever entered.




The young guns still have no ammo - Kyle Larson, Regan Smith, and Austin Dillon salvaged top-ten finishes, but that's thin gruel for a series that has hyped its young guns and has not gotten anything out of them.   Chase Elliott began the downfall of the Hendrick fleet by losing it and wrecking on Lap 19 while Roush-Fenway Racing has been stuck with two young guns in Trevor Bayne and Ricky Stenhouse who look more and more like drafting busts; Austin Dillon's top-ten doesn't eliminate his eligibility from that dubious list.   For a series without a first-time winner since Aric Almirola's Firecracker win in 2014 it's a worrisome reality.



NASCAR yet again shows it has zero business opposing push-drafting - Autoweek's
Matt Weaver noted the repeat of a rule controversy from the 2014 Firecracker 250 as Joey Logano noted in the Powersource 300  -   he latched onto Chase Elliott and compared the controversy over banning sustained push-drafting or outright tandem drafting to cloud technology.   Ty Dillon noted "We can't have this in-between."


Denny Hamlin won the 500 on a slam-draft from Kevin Harvick; the Powersource 300 had push-drafting, and the Nextera 250 produced the most lead changes for the Truck race since maybe 2002 because of hard push-drafting.   It is the strongest power to pass ever seen.  NASCAR needs to figure out it can't - and shouldn't - police it; instead it needs to mitigate what people don't like about it by incentivizing passing.   If a tandem blasts into the lead, give the second-place vehicle incentive to pass the leader instead of just sitting there pushing him further.   Stock car racing in all its incarnations - cars, Trucks, heck hybrids of both - have proven the benefits of push-drafting and where tracks can have it, they should.




Oops, she did it again - Eleven years ago Danica Patrick debuted in Indycars at Homestead, so she's not a young gun in racing anymore.  In Indycars her forte was crashing; it's been a commonality of her stock car career as well and in the 500 she swerved into Greg Biffle.    When you live by identity politics you ultimately fail; Danica's fantasy career of racing continues to prove itself nothing but a fantasy.



Not-so-super supersub - Brian Vickers had to get a blood clot issue fixed and thus missed almost all of 2015; he was available when Tony Stewart got hurt in the offseason, but it didn't produce much for Stewart's #14.   Vickers' mediocrity and Patrick's ineptitude made for another mixed bag for Stewart-Haas, who put their other two cars in the top ten.





And so wraps the 58th Speedweeks edition and the Atlanta 500 weekend is next.

Daytona's 1999 Sideways Throwback 500

This is the year 2015, but the way the Daytona 500 finished you would think it was a sideways version of 1999.   It began with Jeff Gordon on the 500 pole, and the showdown for this 500 was between Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets and Penske Racing Fords.   Despite pre-race hype, the Joe Gibbs Toyotas really didn't offer that big a challenge even with Denny Hamlin's late-race wildcard bid.

1999 was a 500 with little in the way of competition until the final twenty laps - and in 2015 that scenario played out again, but this time there was a big reversal.   In 1999 the Penske Fords led over half the 500 and were unpassable for the longest time until all hell broke loose in the final laps, specifically a three-abreast storm by Jeff Gordon and Mike Skinner that became an unprecedented triple sidedraft epic for the win until it petered out in the final few laps.  

For 2015 this time the Hendrick Chevrolets all but monopolized the 500, looking unpassable until in the final fifteen laps challengers got the run and suddenly the entire field was three abreast thirty cars deep for the win, and the surviving Penske Ford was the one who stormed to the decisive pass.   Denny Hamlin salvaged a miserable day for Joe Gibbs by storming into this fight and finishing fourth, this after starting 42nd and this after the other JGR Toyotas either crashed or were basically useless as far as challenging for the win went.  

For Joey Logano, the 500 win has accelerated a career surge no one could have imagined after his abysmal efforts with Joe Gibbs.   From JGR reject, Logano has become a bona-fide superstar, this even with the continuing abrasiveness in evidence in him.   That teammate Brad Keselowski and the Penske satellite effort fielded by the Wood Brothers all fell out with engine failures was in its own way a display of who is top dog at Penske Racing's stock car unit.

Among the others whose days ranged from respectable to reprehensible -


~~~~~~~~~~


* Kevin Harvick has become the lone contender for Tony Stewart's team, finishing second as everyone else in that bunch either crashed (Stewart, this as Danica Patrick actually finished despite having nothing to show for that), got tossed from the tracks (Kurt Busch, who keeps losing appeals), or showed little in the way of fight (Regan Smith).   

* Clint Bowyer is not part of a one-car team, but Michael Waltrip's outfit looks more and more like one as Bowyer contended basically without a teammate all week.  

* Speaking of one-car teams, Martin Truex took a gigantic step forward with his wildcard victory bid, a huge improvement after a dismal 2014.

* Remember Roush-Fenway Racing?  You may not after their Cup program spent the 500 just drafting and amid no sign of real life.  Trevor Bayne was compared to Tim Tebow in 2011 - it's a comparison he better not want, while Ricky Stenhouse's only measuring stick as a racer is how he competes against his girlfriend.

* Richard Petty should not be pleased.   Sam Hornish earned respect with a decent run, while Aric Almirola should count himself lucky he salvaged 15th after being unable to do anything pretty much on the Cup side the whole week, especially on restarts and despite some excellent pit work from Trent Owens' group.   We know Petty's bunch can do a lot better.

* Speaking of doing better, RCR's Chevys showed life after being MIA all week, especially Ty Dillon fighting into the lead group.   Austin Dillon salvaged a decent finish, while Paul Menard was - well, Paul Menard again, and Ryan Newman is officially worthless as far as helping that outfit.

* Casey Mears is what he is - a guy who did less when provided more.   That he unnoticed pulled off a spectacular finish is amazing.  

* While Jamie McMurray looked okay, Kyle Larson looked bad, and the recent history of young drivers in Cup has been discouraging in terms of sustaining early promise.  


It all added up to a memorable yet frustrating start to the 2015 NASCAR season.  

Speedweeks 2015 - Reed And Xfinity Number One With A Bang

Sometimes clichés become clichés because they're true - it really isn't how you start, it's how you finish.

What began as a so-so Speedweeks first showed true competitive fire in the first half of the Nextera Truck 250, but then on Saturday the Late Model Sportsman series - a series that was the Busch Series seemingly forever, then had Nationwide on its side - debuted Xfinity sponsorship and it seems the debut could not have been more exciting.   It injected Speedweeks with a massive dose of fire.

Ryan Reed ended a 0-for-lifetime skid at Daytona in all stock car classes for Roush Racing and did so even as crashes so thinned the field that only about eight cars were left to fight for the win.   Aric Almirola, driving a Fred Biagi car (curiously it was reminiscent of Curb Motorsports, a nice unintended reminder of the historic link between Almirola's Cup team in Richard Petty and Curb), stormed into the fight at the end but his role in the last-lap Kyle Larson melee blew out his tire, leaving the fight to Reed gunning down a helpless Brad Keselowski. 

Larson, for his part, once again acquitted himself superbly in a fight, though his role in the nasty Daniel Suarez-Regan Smith trioval contretemps shouldn't be ignored.   Indeed, Larson was but one of many racers who showcased amazing competitive fight in this race.   The opening 40 laps were one gigantic nose-to-nose sidedraft mostly between Darrell "Bubba" Wallace, ex-Joe Gibbs Trucker turned Roush Xfinity combatant, and Ty Dillon, with Kyle Busch and Regan Smith heavily involved, the foursome merely four of over twenty cars battling for the front.

The big picture takeaway from this astonishing race is that the racers seem to finally be figuring out effective push-drafting within the tighter box NASCAR has installed.   They are ostensibly not allowed to push-draft all the way around, but in this race they made push-drafting effective again - not since the 2013 season have we seen push-drafting this effective, and it was reminiscent of both the 2012 Busch Clash that saw a heady mix of push-drafting and conventional pack racing and the Talladega Truck 250 in 2013 that likewise saw that combination, though there the push-draft was far more effective.

It is exactly what NASCAR should want for the 500 and other races down the road.  


*****


Takes on several racers in this 300 -


I was surprised Aric Almirola didn't pull off the upset, as he showed a mixture of Richard Petty strategy and aggressiveness - if he can improve that in the 500 he can pull off that upset.   Unnoticed was his quasi-teammate Dakota Armstrong, who began to show some fight and finished a reasonable 11th in Petty's Sportsman car.

The RCR Chevys were strong as always, and Ty Dillon is clearly the better of the two Dillons as a racer.

The Toyotas had nothing to be ashamed of.  Eric Jones overall acquitted himself well, and there will be discussion of Kyle Busch's bad crash into the infield road course entry area - questions about the lack of SAFER barriers will of course be asked; that it's an area over 200 feet from the racing surface where crashes simply haven't happened is why there wasn't a SAFER there; the SAFERS are supposed to be where the wrecks happen.   The real issue is these cars are not scrubbing off any speed when they slide as Busch's car did - over and over we've seen cars slide through these paved run-off areas and there was no scrub-off of speed at all.

Curiously quiet all day was Dale Earnhardt Jr, who nonetheless finished in the top ten.

Regan Smith's unexpected Speedweeks got off to a wild start with a great fight for the lead ending upside down in the trioval. 

The best sponsor of the race was on Mario Gosselin's Chevrolet - Crash Claims R Us.

I give Danica Patrick grief because she deserves it - also deserving it is John Wes Townley, who seemingly can't run any race without wrecking.


Thus did Xfinity take over the Busch Bash and thus did its debut as series sponsor produce the kind of fireworks that scare people and also amaze them, and showcase the awe that is racing at its best.

Speedweeks 2015 And What You Deserve In Life

Speedweeks 2015 races toward its finale as the NASCAR Sportsman Series - now the Xfinity Series - hits the Big D while the Winston Cup cars go for the 57th Daytona 500 Sunday.   The Truck Series went first Friday night, and it illustrated what has made this year a so-so Speedweeks at best.   The battle for the lead in the first half of the Nextera Truck 250 was by far the best racing of Speedweeks so far, a huge multilap battle headed by Tyler Reddick in a Brad Keselowski Ford and Ty Dillon in an RCR Chevrolet.

But then halfway hit and when a Truck appeared to run flat out of gas, a huge crash in Turn Three erupted; not only did it wipe out multiple Trucks, it took all life out of the race, as the second half was all Tyler Reddick all the time, specifically the final 33 laps.   That no one challenged Reddick illustrated yet again the absurdity of NASCAR's myopia against push-drafting - without it there simply isn't enough passing.

The racing is good, but it deserves to be a lot better (as it would in subsequent days).


******


Not having drivers like Denny Hamlin and Danica Patrick can certainly help the sport become better.   The two were involved in a late set-to in the Qualifying 150s and as usual Patrick went all immature and stalked to Hamlin to remonstrate.  

This is one of those confrontations where neither party deserves anything positive.   Hamlin is a long-time bully on the racetrack and a stuck-up in the garage area, called out as such by ATHLON SPORTS a few years ago, while Danica Patrick remains the gutless soft-porn model who got where she is on her gender - identity entitlement at its worst - as well as with sexually suggestive photo spreads.  

The idea the sport would be better off with either of these two is foolishness.


******


Hamlin and Patrick lead to the larger issue that they say you get what you deserve in life.   When a judge overseeing the dispute between Kurt Busch and his ex-girlfriend issued a restraining order against Busch, making a point that the evidence against Busch was sufficient to warrant the order plus order for him to undergo psychiatric evaluation, NASCAR, which had waited longer than most sports bodies on this issue, suspended Busch indefinitely.  

The suspension has, like the killing of Kevin Ward by Tony Stewart last August, brought out the worst in racing fans, who seem afraid of the idea that a major NASCAR star is objectively guilty of being OJ Simpson to be shunned by larger society.  The defenses of Busch, whose history of bullying and derangement is far too extensive to ignore - to where he was fired from Penske Racing after 2011 - are pathetic and refuse to confront the issue of what evidence is there that he didn't do what got him a restraining order.    There simply is no credibility to think a restraining order would come down without credibility on the part of the accusation.

The attempt by some fans to cite Travis Kvapil in contrast also fails as Kvapil in effect settled his assault accusation out of court.

The sport is not better off with Kurt Busch's participation, period.   You get what you deserve in life and Busch deserves to be shunned the way Tony Stewart deserves to be shunned.  

2015 Daytona Duels Takes

Takeaways from the 2015 Daytona qualifying races -


Same Old Hendrick Stuff - Jeff Gordon won the pole, Dale Junior and Jimmie Johnson won the races, and that was basically it.  


If They Get Competition, It Will Be A Surprise - The Joe Gibbs Toyotas and Penske Fords are the only other teams with any muscle against Hendrick, and in the 150s that challenge was little to nothing.   Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards preferred to race for nothing - i.e. second - instead of challenge Johnson.  Ford meanwhile more and more looks to be easing out of NASCAR, with nothing outside of Penske to show for anything.


Where Did Clint Bowyer Come From? - The only impressive run all night was Clint Bowyer, who is on his third racecar this week.


Stewart-Haas' Mediocre Night - Kurt Busch showed the most fight of the SHR cars and got busted by another ridiculous yellow line penalty.  The other SHR cars were okay, though Harvick seemed MIA all night.


Danica Crashes Again - That she still made the 500 was pathetic.


RCR Racing To Nowhere - Austin Dillon looks worse than he did last year and the rest of the RCR fleet has no fight.


NASCAR's Rules Myopia At Work Again - The leader was almost unpassable all night and the lack of push-drafting yet again made for a forgettable night.   NASCAR at some point needs to figure out that rules myopia is myopia no matter what euphemism is used.  The penalty on Kurt Busch yet again  leads to the question - what purpose exists for this yellow line rule?


What began with a so-so 75-lap shootout now awaits the Truck 250, Sportsman Cars 300, and the 500 as Speedweeks 2015 rolls on, but right now a so-so Speedweeks has been just that.

Sizing Up NASCAR Entering 2015

The Winston Cup Series and its adjuncts, the Busch Series and Truck Series - yes, I know, those aren't the official sponsors, and no, I don't care because it's not relevant to anything despite whatever protest to the contrary exists - hit the Daytona International Speedway this week and already several crashes and numerous bouts of unctuous behavior and griping have already hit. Sizing up the 2015 season looks fairly easy this time around.

The big picture observation to be made from the first weekend of Speedweeks 2015 is that the racing is good but again shows how NASCAR'S rules myopia regarding push-drafting is stifling the quality of the racing. It also shows how little accountability drivers want after the angry griping over crashes during knockout pole qualifying as well as the pathetic effort to game the new system; at least Jimmie Johnson showed something to respect when he stated flat out "It's on us (drivers)."

*****  


The Chevrolets - Hendrick Motorsports is almost the sole Chevrolet outfit out there and is naturally the favorite. True, Stewart-Haas Racing has won two of the last three driver titles and that fact remains a surprise given SHR is a Hendrick satellite outfit; even so, SHR does not look as cohesive as it was and the outfit's bad start at the Clash (aka the Sprint Unlimited) doesn't augur well; it was perhaps inevitable that their celebrity driver, Danica Patrick, crashed yet again, yet somehow finished tenth in the Clash. RCR is the other Chevrolet outfit of note and looks more and more like a lost cause, especially with Austin Dillon, who looks like there isn't anything there. Ryan Newman finished dead last among cars that finished the Clash and was MIA the entire race, while Paul Menard led some laps but otherwise was nowhere yet again. Ganassi's outfit meanwhile offered promise with a spirited effort in the Clash; Kyle Larson is proving his rookie season is no fluke.

 The Toyotas - As with Chevy, Toyota has basically devolved into a one-team effort with Joe Gibbs, and the signing of Carl Edwards appears to have added some life to the outfit, though it appears to be coming at the expense of Kyle Busch and perhaps also Denny Hamlin. The Michael Waltrip outfit has Clint Bowyer but that's it as far as realistic expectation of winning; Brian Vickers has proven far too schizophrenic to be a consistent threat. The BK Racing outfit likewise has not proven to be much.  

The Fords - Penske's Punks, Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski, are head and shoulders above every other Blue Oval, and the dynamic of that partnership proved interesting in 2014; Logano has already gotten into a postrace scrape with his wannabe tough guy act with Kevin Harvick in the Clash. The Roush fleet is also still there, but clearly are not all there as far as on-track muscle, outside of a spirited run by Greg Biffle that ended in another crash; signing Trevor Bayne full-time four years after his stunning 500 win is a risk, so it will be worth observing. Richard Petty's team has shown some spirited muscle so far despite ending in a crash in the Clash; talk about an upset if Petty's #43 steals the thunder at Daytona again.


In all there will be some surprises - there usually are - but as far as the entirety of the season it looks to be another Hendrick vs. Gibbs showdown.

1987 Daytona 500

Looking back at the 1987 Daytona 500. The racing, while not as competitive as earlier (such as 1971, 1974, 1976, and 1983) and later (notably 1993, 1996, 2008, 2010, 2011, and 2014) 500s, nonetheless is pretty good, and the cars for the most part are better looking than today's - Elliott's Thunderbird, Benny Parsons in Tim Richmond's Monte Carlo (renumbered 35 here), and Richard Petty's Pontiac 2+2 are handsomer racecars than today's sedans.

Of particular interest is the segment at 1:47:00 of this package - Dave Despain shows how the draft has largely disappeared from the racing and thus made passing more difficult. The draft had been effective even on intermediate tracks like Charlotte and Atlanta as well as flat big tracks like Pocono, Michigan, and the by-then-shuttered Ontario track. The disappearance of the draft combined with later switchover to radial tires from bias-plies all but eliminated passing - and the effects of both continue to be felt; one need only contrast the 2014 Indianapolis 500 with NASCAR's Pocono 400 held earlier today as this is written. The draft needs to be returned because that's where the most passing happens.

These cars in this 1987 period would have also benefitted from the roof blade NASCAR ran on and off 2000-10 - not only for a stronger draft but also to plant the nose of the cars onto the ground, as they had a problem of pushing.

What Went Right In Speedweeks

As Speedweeks fades into the past, it's worth remembering what went right. For all the justified criticism NASCAR gets, it's worth cherishing when things go right. And Speedweeks 2014 was indeed an exercise in great racing. So what went right?

#######


The track changed with the rain - Until the 500 the racing had been defined by one-line racing - the top line was the line to run for the Cup cars, while the bottom was the fast line for the Busch Series and the Trucks. But with the rain, the track changed - the entire top/bottom dichotomy disappeared as the track got grippier. The result was the leaders could stay side by side and it almost didn't matter which line cars ran.


The Trucks forced the top line to move - The Nextera 250 for the Trucks was the classic tale of two halves - the first half was a single-file parade where the only battle was for 11th; after Lap 51 however all hell broke loose as Kyle Busch and Timothy Peters got to the lead and fought it out heading a 20-plus Truck slugfest ultimately won by Busch.
Some striking trivia from this race - Chevrolet is 0-for-lifetime in Daytona's Truck races.


The racers had no choice but to go for the lead - Drivers in preseason were asked about how hard they're trying and several claimed they were trying as hard as they could. The irony is the rain and threat of its return showed they can try a helluva lot harder; with the drivers racing first for halfway and then for whenever the race might end, the battle for the lead was the most amazing in a Cup race seen in years.


Restrictor plate racing is still superior racing - An overlooked bit of trivia - 2014 was the fourth time in the last seven runnings the Daytona 500 broke 40 official lead changes, and a related fact.........


The best racing is when the draft is more important than handling - This was a Speedweeks where the draft and handling were jostling pretty intensely all week; NASCAR's spoiler changes worked okay here; the bigger spoiler change for the intermediates won't get its first tests until March at Vegas and Fontana; here NASCAR hopes the draft becomes more important.


So it went with Speedweeks 2014.

Daytona 500 Aftermath

What started as a race that looked doomed to Monday resumption instead became the 12 Hours Of The Daytona 500 and one of the more astonishing - and frustrating - races ever seen.   And now the sport will see its aftermath as it packs up and heads to Phoenix.   Some takeaways from Speedweeks 2014 -


Here comes Junior Nation again - Certain fanbases just don't make much sense and don't represent a sport well.   Dale Earnhardt Jr. fans are a fanbase that doesn't do any favors for their sport, let alone the man they adore.   The public controversy they generated over his car number in 2007 remains an embarrassment to racing, and the cheering when he takes the lead - when no particular reaction ever comes when someone else takes the lead - is off-putting.   It certainly isn't Earnhardt Junior's fault, as he doesn't generate much flamboyance; he is what he is, a bit of a quiet individual who interacts well with people.   That he's won again certainly is commendable for him; we just don't need the derangement periodically seen from the fanbase that follows him.


After a promising start, Speedweeks sees the upset that wasn't - It appeared the other marques would push back Chevrolet for a change as Toyotas dominated preliminary events and Fords looked competitive.   But then the form chart came back as Chevrolets won the Busch Series 300 and then the 500, though Regan Smith's photo-finish win counts as an upset for certain.   The 500 became just another Chevrolet show, and worse it was another Rick Hendrick show.   Certain car owners do nothing but drain the life out of a sport, and Rick Hendrick more than anyone has done that over the years in NASCAR.   The sport doesn't need another Rick Hendrick show.


The rookie class' poor start - This is supposed to be the rookie class to actually show something after years of worthless one-year wannabes without any backing.   Instead the sport witnessed rookies who look like rookies - worse, rookies in over their head.   Austin Dillon salvaged ninth but that isn't saying much.   Kyle Larson was abysmal almost from the start.   And there wasn't much positive noise generated by any other rookie in this race. 


Thanks for nothing again - The subplot of the 500 was the media-fed feud between Richard Petty and Danica Patrick.   All Speedweeks had shown was that Petty had been right - yet no one got anything out of it after a pit penalty put Aric Almirola a lap down and then a wreck eliminated him and Patrick.   Patrick hadn't run up front all week and got into a wreck for the second time in eight days; this was supposed to be an upsurge for Almirola with a fresh new crew chief in Trent Owens.   Instead it was another race to nowhere.


Rain helps the aero package - Until the rain, Speedweeks had been defined by one-line racing - either the top line was fast, or the bottom line, never both.   Even with a wild Truck 250 and the photo finish there and in the Busch Series 300, the racing had been defined by one-line running, and NASCAR's ridiculous no-tandem ideology hurt the racing even more.   Then the rain changed the racetrack and made both lanes fast; suddenly between a grippier racetrack and fear that rain would end the race past halfway, the field got the hint and went for the lead - hard.   The result was the best 500 in three years and a huge competitive upsurge over the last two seasons.


The fastest postrace press release during the race - Martin Truex blew up and fell out before the rain, and his postrace press release came while the race hadn't yet been ended. 


And so Speedweeks 2014 is a wrap, Phoenix awaits, and the sport tries to ride momentum - and we hope the upset that wasn't at Daytona finally starts appearing down the season road.

Parker Kligerman Flips Into Fence At Daytona Practice

Joey Logano is at it again.

Daytona: Denny Hamlin's Busch Bash

The Sprint Unlimited - aka the Busch Clash - ran Saturday night and Denny Hamlin made a statement of statements by winning all three segments.   Being the first live-fire competition of the season, it offered numerous angles to digest.  


##########


A bad day for Chevrolet - Several Hendrick Chevys blew engines during pre-race practice and the bulk of the Chevrolet fleet in the race crashed out.   Dale Junior led late but couldn't hang with the Toyotas or the Penske Fords and then wrecked.  


NASCAR's new restrictor plate aero package produces good, albeit mixed, results - A slight increase in spoiler size made the draft noticeably more effective and the lead changed sixteen times - a major improvement over 2013's package in this same race.   It wasn't as competitive as 2012's thriller, which may be the standard to which such races are compared, and matching that caliber of racing should be NASCAR's goal.   Indeed, what was striking about the racing was how inconsistent it was - the lead was a battle, but in lengthy spots the drivers single-filed it.   The cars looked noticeably looser and sidedrafting was perhaps the story of the race.


Danica in the eye of the storm - Nowadays in NASCAR it's Danica, always Danica.   She teased by running in the top ten in the first segment before gagging back to the back, then she crashed in the Matt Kenseth melee - she charged head-long into the scene, saw a hole, then spun out and got clipped hard by her boyfriend Ricky Stenhouse.   It was yet another Danica performance that merely reinforced Richard Petty's point about her low relevance to the racing.


SHR didn't acquit itself, either - Tony Stewart made a great charge early on then got wrecked out with Danica and the curiously quiet Kurt Busch.   Kevin Harvick finished fifth, this like several others after losing the lead draft.    It was an inauspicious start for a team whose internal politics are becoming more of a story amid Gene Haas' moves and statements that seem not to make much sense.


It's obvious who Mister Ford now is - Roger Penske's history is of taking everything from his backer and making sure it's at the expense of others running the same brand, beginning with his McLaren days in road racing and USAC Championship Racing and McLaren's revolutionary M-16 racecar of the 1970s.   When he signed with Ford in 1994 it was to be Ford's designated championship team; curiously it didn't work then, though the race last night indicated right now Penske is the top of the Ford totem pole.   It was also a good rebound for Brad Keselowski following some comments earlier in the week that were quite muted and gave indication he's been muzzled by NASCAR - a bad sign.



And so it went for the Busch Clash of 2014 as the rest of Speedweeks gets cranked up.