The Daytona 500 is coming up this Sunday, a time for new beginnings and a time for bringing things to an end. After 15 years and over a thousand columns of various incarnations, this edition represents my final regular contribution to this site.
Flying around in aircraft formation inches apart at 200 mph. That would be good enough to force me into the Depends, especially if I were in the passenger seat. It is a track that causes skid marks to appear everywhere.
Let me be clear. Any race format that artificially moves entries from behind to plop them up front is a dumb one. I do not care if it is NASCAR’s All-Star Race or one that allows me to charge ahead of the Kentucky Derby field while wearing sneakers and a propeller hat. Dumb is as dumb does.
The gifts are open, the tree is on borrowed time, and a New Year is almost upon us. Seems like a good time to reflect on the year that was, as we embark on the one that will be.
Family. We often hear how NASCAR is a family sport, where drivers, their wives, and their kids all share in the experience behind the scenes. The family theme has dominated since the sport’s earliest years. I mean, it starts with the France family, as Bill, Bill, Jr., and now grandson Brian have held the reins of the family operation since the very beginning.
With the new high drag package creating some high anxiety, here is what was surprising and not surprising in the Pure Michigan 400 from the speedway nestled in the Irish Hills.
The ByrnesStrong Poll, formerly known as The Century Poll but renamed in honor of Steve Byrnes who just lost his battle to cancer, focused this month on who of the twenty NASCAR Hall of Fame nominees would be voted in for induction in the next class.
“He could do things in a race car I could only dream about,” he said. “Throughout the entire racing world, I don’t know of anybody who would have said he didn’t give 110% from the time they dropped the green flag until the race was over. He was the same way in life, too.”
From the command to start engine from Victory Junction Gang campers to Brad Keselowski manning the tank to rip up the Kansas track after the race ended, here is what was surprising and not surprising in the 2nd Annual STP 400.
