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.
Ryan Blaney topped the chart in final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice for the Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona International Speedway. The driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford was the fastest with a time of 45.090 and a speed of 199.601 mph.
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.
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.
CHARLOTTE, NC - Ryan Blaney, new driver of the No. 12 Menards Ford has had a great two seasons with Wood Brothers Racing. He not only made the Playoffs in his second season with the team, he won his first race at Pocono last year. He is one of the youngsters to watch in 2018, having moved over to the Team Penske stable.
It’s only a short time until the annual Media Tour at the Hall of Fame in Charlotte. We will learn a lot there, but a couple things are obvious. There will be 24 major teams running next year (10 Fords, nine Chevrolets, and five Toyotas).
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.
Ryan Blaney will lead the field to the green flag on Sunday after winning the pole for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Can-Am 500 at Phoenix Raceway.
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.
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?
