The Last Word – NASCAR shows again that it sure knows how to open a new season
[/media-credit]NASCAR does it right, my friends. Begin the season with an exhibition game, featuring all-stars, rookies, even old timers would do. You don’t start your day with the main meal, but breakfast sure hits the spot. The same applies to fans who after the off-season just want a taste of what is to come, a little something to whet the appetite.Granted, NASCAR’s off-season is shorter than most, but it was sure nice to hear those engines roar, to see the cars thundering around the oval in a big pack, to see the bumps and even the spills. ARCA opened things right, with Larry McReynolds’ boy Brandon leading the way coming home before the tank went dry. That left Bobby Gerhart going by for his 8th career win on that track. Then came the Budweiser Shootout, as we again saw close pack racing that replaced the two car tango, giving us a more classical sling shot victory by Kyle Busch over Tony Stewart. Cars could hook up only for so long before they over-heated, and if the drivers bumped wrong or in the wrong place bad things happened. If I wasn’t ready for the season to start before, after watching the action last weekend I sure am biting at the bit to see what will take place this Sunday at Daytona.
Maybe it is time for the NFL to learn a little something from the car jockeys for a change. Football’s all-star game is a dud, few give a damn, and even making it part of the Super Bowl festivities failed to jack up much interest. How about starting the season with all-stars, or incoming rookies, even with modified rules? Those lads who play football in soccer attire Down Under give their fans a season opening month long exhibition tournament. Teams in Australia open play with two shortened games against two opponents on the same day to commence the NAB Cup competition that features all 18 teams. The expansion Sydney Giants unsurprisingly lost both their openers, but were within a single kick of winning either of them to open a few eyes.
Hockey could do more, but their format of having the captains select their own teams like kids having a pick-up game at the local rink has been a great innovation. Not much wrong with baseball’s mid-season classic, as the fan support would indicate, but wouldn’t it be great if they featured a few old-timers getting together for a nine-inning game somewhere to kick off the season? Luke Appling has been gone more than 20 years now, but I still remember back to 1982 when the then 75-year old former White Sox star of the 1930’s and 40’s hit a 250 foot shot off Warren Spahn at old RFK Stadium. What a way that would be to open a season.
NASCAR does not really need a featured old-timers race and it already has a very popular all-star event. However, since 1979 the sport has opened the new season with a race with modified rules featuring primarily pole sitters from the past year or those who had previous success in the contest. It not only puts some cars back on the track in competition, but it also gives fans a preview of what might be expected in the upcoming Daytona 500. If what we saw last Sunday equates into what we can see this Sunday, the Great American Race will be something to behold.
By the way, just in case you don’t realize that we are indeed living in one of NASCAR’s golden eras, keep in mind that of the eight Cup champions who have claimed the title over the past 18 seasons, only Dale Jarrett will not be running in this weekend’s Daytona 500.
Speedweeks: Important Time For Tony Stewart and Danica Patrick
[/media-credit]Last season, Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) had a dream year as they won their first championship with team co-owner Tony Stewart in a tie-breaker over Carl Edwards.Now with Speedweeks 2012 having started, they hope to carry that momentum through this coming week.
While Stewart may now be a three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion, he has yet to find his way to victory lane in the Great American Race. Stewart does know how to race at Daytona as he has won a list of numerous other races, including three Coke Zero 400s, three Bud Shootouts, two Gatorade Duels and an IROC win. Beyond that, his six DRIVE4COPD 300 Nationwide wins, with the last four coming consecutively, are second only to Dale Earnhardt’s seven. The win have him tied for second on the all-time win list with Bobby Allison with 16 wins; Earnhardt holds the most wins at Daytona with 34.
With what Stewart has done, it’s almost a mirror image to what Earnhardt did. For 19 years, Earnhardt won almost everything there was at Daytona – except the Daytona 500. Then finally in 1998, he found his way to Daytona victory lane. Could this be the year for Tony Stewart? It’s very easily possible he could do it in his 13th year as he finished second in the Budweiser Shootout on Saturday night.
While vowing for the 500 win, he will also vow for his fifth Nationwide Daytona win in a row, driving the No. 33 Oreo/Ritz car for Delana Harvick, as he has done in years past. The only difference this year being that the car will be prepared by Richard Childress Racing, versus Kevin Harvick Incorporated.
The Nationwide race will be give him another opportunity to race alongside his employee, Danica Patrick.
Patrick will make her full transition to NASCAR this year as she plans to compete in the full Nationwide schedule this year for JR Motorsports, while running 10 Sprint Cup races for Stewart-Haas.
One of the 10 Cup races she has planned for this year is the Daytona 500, which she is locked in virtue of an owners’ points deal that Stewart made with Tommy Baldwin Racing. So when the green flag is dropped on Sunday, she will be in the starting grid making her first Sprint Cup star. She will also become the third woman to start the Daytona 500. Janet Gutherie started the 500 in 1977 and 1980 while Shawna Robinson competed in 2002.
“I want to be good at Daytona,” she said last Saturday. “I know there’s a lot of tracks on the schedule, but when it comes to choosing this one or another one I’ve been to, I’m coming to Daytona, because I want to be good here.”
If Patrick can finish in the top 10, she will become the highest finishing female in Daytona 500 history. It may seem like a tall order for her, however she does have some experience on her side.
Last February, she was criticized for how she drafted with drivers as they stated that she didn’t know the idea of dragging the brake. However, by the summer Nationwide race in July, she learned what she had to do and led the field working with Tony Stewart, and also worked with teammate Aric Almirola.
She has also continued to improve overall in the races that she has run, getting her highest finish of fourth at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with fuel strategy after running just inside the top 10 all day.
According to her Nationwide Series crew chief Tony Eury Jr., they were really consistant but “the finishes haven’t shown it. It’s really easy for her to run in the top 15. If we can get everything right, we can run in the top 10 with this girl.”
When it comes to the Sprint Cup Series, she’ll be working with veteran crew chief Greg Zippidelli. Eury Jr. will continue to work with her on the Nationwide side.
