I’ve often wondered about the first race of the season. It’s called Speedweeks for a reason. Of course, it really lasts only 11 days. I guess they count the 24 Hours of Daytona in that, and that’s alright.
Sunday afternoon most of us waited for one thing and one thing only and it wasn't about winning the pole for the Daytona 500. We waited with bated breath for the one thing fans have argued about for a while, the return of the No. 3.
The warm Floridian sun illuminated the Daytona International Speedway as cars were on track to complete the only single-car qualifying round of the season. Then there was Jimmie Johnson, once again struggling to get his car through inspection.
The long season, well it might have been just three months, of our winter discontent has come to a close. The engines are running, our hopes and dreams have been renewed, and NASCAR keeps trying its damndest to drive us to watching something else.
With all the rule changes, driver swaps, and format modifications, this has been one of the most hectic off-seasons in recent memory. But, a fresh season of NASCAR awaits as the Daytona 500 draws nearer. Plenty of questions are still buzzing around the head of many fans.
In what came as a shock to almost nobody, Austin Dillon drove his Earnhardt-Childress Racing powered No. 3 Chevrolet to the top of the leaderboard in qualifying. Dillon was very fast in both testing and practice for the Daytona 500, so him winning the pole was no surprise.
