Ron Thornton

What is 3100 pounds yet weighs in at under a ton? It appears Logano did not just have the winning ride at Daytona...he had a magic car.

Speeds over 200 mph. Three wide racing to the end. Dale Earnhardt Jr. had time at the front. So did Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. Excellent announcing on FOX. Nice weather. What was there not to love about the Daytona 500?

We have just gotten the season underway, and already we got guys torqued. I mean, some got downright ornery.

A new season, new hopes, new drivers, old drivers with new teams, and a whole lot of things I want to see come out of 2015.

The countdown has begun to the start of a new season, with less than ten days to go before the Sprint Unlimited exhibition race at Daytona. A new campaign, some new teams and some new expectations.

Jeff Gordon appears to be one who is prepared to take his final bow while he is not just a legend in his sport, but also a contender. At the age of 43, Gordon has four championships to his credit, 92 victories and an amazing 320 Top Fives in 761 starts.

Recently, a story by Chad Robb listed the top ten organizations in Cup. Not surprisingly, those ten organizations represented all but one of last season’s top 28 teams. Hendrick, Penske, Gibbs, Stewart-Haas, Ganassi, Childress, Roush-Fenway, Waltrip, and Petty were all there.

A new season, with a new defending champion, will be soon upon us. Kevin Harvick and the rest of the boys, and girl, will be in Daytona in less than a month to kick things off.

There were those who put on the fire suits, got to be among the big boys, but when it came time to go they might have been best suited to go down the road instead of the track. Instead of being competitors, they were lucky to be participants, saddled in entries that had no hope of being anywhere near the front.

Over the course of the season, Jeff Gordon was the top driver of 2014. However, NASCAR has not determined its champion using the results of the entire campaign for more than a decade. They want excitement, drama, unpredictability. They want what the other big boy sports have, and when they waved the flag to start the season finale, four drivers had an even shot to claim the prize. Unfortunately, 39 we knew who would not, also were out there.