A new season has dawned, the engines roared back to life, and the Clash delivered a...well...a modicum of excitement. If you are a Brad Keselowski fan, it was one hell of a race. If you like Jamie McMurray, it kind of sucked. If you were looking for diving and dashing for the opening, Chase Elliott gave us one or two moments. If you wanted to sit on the edge of your seat, share the chair. This was not one for the ages, I am afraid.
NASCAR can really tick me off, and the use of “tick” was not my first choice. Yet, every year I seem to get that itch, one that I had already scratched raw the year before, and every year I return. Why? Well, there seems to be a few things about NASCAR that I really, really like as well.
The cream rose to the top, as the top four accumulated half of the wins between them this season. Four drivers, 18 wins, and now four shared championships.
Given the current landscape of sports in the United States, there are two questions that remain unanswered. One, will there be an NFL team that finally signs Colin Kaepernick? And two, will there be a NASCAR team that finally gives Bubba Wallace a chance to be a regular in the Monster Series?
Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. made his NASCAR Cup Series debut at Pocono Raceway Sunday in the historic No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford. There were a few bumps along the way but he characterized it as “a wonderful day for me, a wonderful day for the sport.”
Bubba Wallace, driver of the No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford Mustang, looks at his second full-time NASCAR XFINITY Series season as one of growth and maturity after a successful rookie campaign in 2015.
"This is a confidence booster for all of my guys," Wallace said. "We just have to clean up ourselves on pit road. That's been a struggle for us these last couple races, but we've been able to manage a couple spots on restarts and come away with our first top-five in the series.”
