Daytona Has Come and Gone - Part 1
|
|
Note:
My articles are based solely on my thoughts and observations. Normally I do not
offer statistics, although at times I may reference what different broadcasters,
among others, have said or alluded to.
Since
the last race at Homestead on November 19, 2017 NASCAR fans have been waiting
for racing to resume at Daytona. When February 2018 finally arrived, we were
anxious and had our schedule all set so we would not miss anything. First came
the Rolex 24, then the Clash, after that the Can-Am Duels, the Camping World
Truck Race, the Xfinity race and finally the Daytona 500. While we watched, we
anticipated, smiled, frowned, and sat on the edge of our seats at times because
of the action we were finally seeing. For some of us, the restrictor plate
tracks seem to make us nervous so we watch with caution and sometimes we even
hold our breath or pace the floor. But, NASCAR racing was back so we were once
again in our element of being a fan.
Although
the Rolex 24 was not a NASCAR race, it had several NASCAR drivers in it. Road
racing is one of my favorite forms of auto racing and this one did not
disappoint. When the checkers finally fell after the cars had been on the track
for 24 hours, there was a Cadillac in Victory Lane. The winning car had
traveled 808 laps for a total of 2876 miles around the road course at the
track. The number 5 car was co-driven by Joao Barbosa, Filipe Albuquerque and
Christian Fittipaldi. I enjoyed the broadcast crew as they were focused on
broadcasting the race, rather than bringing their own desires and agendas into
it.
Even
though there were only 17 cars in the Clash, it was an interesting race. There
were new ride height rules as well as pit and pit crew rules. For the 7th
consecutive year, Jimmie Johnson did not complete the Clash as he crashed out
on the last lap when he was hit from behind by another driver. We saw what we thought were cars which were
out of control a lot. Overall, it was a fairly good race even though it kept a
lot of us on pins and needles because of the way the cars were moving around
more than they normally do on that track.
Next
came the Can-Am Duels consisting of 20 cars in each of the two races. The front
row positions for the 500 are determined by the winner of each duel. Duel 1 was rather a good, fun race to watch.
Something of interest in this race was the fact that there was only one (1)
Toyota, driven by Daniel Suarez, in it. It also seemed the cars were still just
as out of control as they were in the Clash. Duel 2 seemed to be a bit more
hectic with drivers trying a bit harder to figure out how the rule changes
affected their cars. Side drafting created several accidents as one particular
driver seemed to be using it to remove some of his competition. Once again,
Jimmie Johnson crashed out, due to a cut tire, without completing his race.
When both duels were over, the surprise was that 2 younger drivers had won both.
About that, I like to say: "The youngsters put it to the oldsters!"
The
truck race was the next night. The first caution came on lap 3 due to engine
problems for the #50 truck. Although the first 20 or so cars stayed bunched up in
the first stage, the side drafting seemed to be moving the trucks around quite
a bit. The stage 1 winner was the #4 truck driven by David Gilliland. In stage
2, the trucks ran single-file more and Johnny Sauter, driving the 21 truck, won
that stage. With 45 laps to go, there was a caution when the #98 got loose,
therefore causing a chain reaction. Jennifer Jo Cobb hit the inside wall and we
were relieved to know she was okay after hitting so very hard. Another caution
came with 36 laps to go when the 75 had a tire blow out. With 18 to go, several
trucks were involved in a crash and some of those were out of the race after
that. They red flagged the race for this one. With 9 laps to go, Johnny Sauter
in #21 took the lead and went on to take the checkers and celebrate in Victory
Lane.
The
Xfinity race was a very mixed up race. There were 6 Cup drivers in this race
and they dominated the majority of the race. A Cup driver won both stage 1 and
stage 2. A lot of us do not like the
higher series drivers invading the lower series. For most of the race, they
raced side by side, but with 21 laps to go, there was a major crash. Although
multi cars were involved, it was not what they normally call the "big
one". Just prior to the crash, two
drivers were called to pit road for the penalty of locking on to push. Another
driver was black flagged for forcing another driver below the yellow line which
is not allowed at Daytona or Talladega. NASCAR reserves the right to make these
calls under their discretionary rules. Shortly after that, 2 more cautions came
out for incidents. They restarted the race with 6 to go and wound up having
another caution, which put the race into overtime rules. Once again, another
caution took them into a second overtime. This one took out several Cup drivers
and damaged 13 cars. After a third overtime attempt to finish the race, another
caution came out. On the restart, the green came out, but a car had problems on
backstretch so they had to throw the caution flag again which put them into fifth
overtime. Many fans were feeling that NASCAR was trying very hard to manipulate
the finish when this caution came out just before the leader crossed the
start/finish line. Finally, the race finished and a regular Xfinity driver,
Tyler Reddick, a young man from Corning, CA won. It was a well-deserved win.
Thank
you for reading and commenting here.
Your thoughts, ideas on the subject and opinions are very welcome. I
remind you to keep them clean and no bashing, please. You may also email
comments to me.