If you missed the action from Las Vegas, allow me to bring you up to date. If you read my column from last week regarding Atlanta, consider yourself fully informed. Enjoy your day.
The 60th edition of the Great American Race was run Sunday under sunny skies in Daytona Beach, Florida. From the start, shortly after 3:00 p.m., it was nearly four hours of chaos. At the end, there were only a few competitive cars left to race.
Forty drivers, 40 spots. Still, despite the lack of interest and resources for additional teams to attempt to enter the iconic competition, we have some high-quality contenders to watch out for. Alex Bowman and Denny Hamlin are locked into the front row, as long as their cars last. The rest of the top 20 qualifiers went into Thursday trying to protect their positions from all challengers in the two 20 car heats.
The new pre-season opens this Sunday, as those who made last season’s Playoffs or claimed a pole, who has ever claimed a Daytona 500 pole, or who has ever won this event in the past dust off the cobwebs and rev the engines. Now, you may be asking yourself how could this be a “Hot 20" column with only 17 drivers competing? Well, you have to improvise.
Kasey Kahne discussed his new role as an underdog on Wednesday at the 36th annual NASCAR Media Tour. Kahne has experienced the highs and lows of Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series racing in a career approaching its 15th season.
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.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. is right when he says NASCAR needs more Martinsville-like dramas to play out every week. What they need is “drama and exciting finishes — the fans sitting there in the grandstands cheering like crazy, and booing, and cheering and booing after every interview, for 15 minutes after the race — we need that every weekend.” Damn right.
Martinsville, where eight boys were trying to lock themselves into the final field of four contenders for the championship in Homestead. At the same time, 31 boys and a girl were doing their utmost to spoil the party for someone by winning the thing themselves.
Thirty-six races. A few are great venues that produce very entertaining television events. A lot more are not. Some tracks have two events, and you wonder why. Some have two and you wonder...why not three?
This Sunday, NASCAR action takes us to Kansas. We just can not get enough of Kansas, which is why we find ourselves watching the action from there for a second time this season. If not Kansas, I guess there is always Kentucky, Chicago, Dover, Fontana, or Pocono , but allow me to calm down my beating heart.
