That Time between Christmas and Daytona

 

I bid you welcome gentle readers, and a cordial New Year’s greeting to our assigned reader of all things NASCAR. I do hope each of you enjoyed an amazing Christmas Holiday this year. It was wonderful at my house, with the kids all here and little JoJo, my “Blue Merle Girl” was the star of the show. After the first one, she quickly caught on that some of those presents contained the things a small dog’s dreams are made of… and wanted to open ALL of them. Then she proceeded to pile all her new treasures right by my chair… for safekeeping, I guess. It was a wonderful day, full of love, laughter and good food… too much food, but very good!

Yes, this is a racing article, but as we know all too well, there is little to be had. There is an affair in Tulsa this Thursday through Sunday, the Lucas Oil Tulsa Shootout. Information for streaming and filmed coverage to be shown later can be found here:
https://www.tulsashootout.com/

Likewise, the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals coming up January 8-13

https://www.chilibowl.com/
I can tell you that the same site mentioned for the Shootout will also be streaming this one. It’s all PPV. For poor folks like this old lady on a fixed income, my guess is that someone or maybe several someones will be posting on Twitter as the races progress. Look for it! Might even be on the “Trending” list.

Take heart race fans! On the first full weekend of January, there is action at Daytona. The IMSA Sports cars will take to the track for “The Roar before the Rolex-24” and at least one race, you can watch for free. They list 3 days of track activity, but the only broadcast listed is on Saturday, January 6, from 1:15 – 3:10 EST.

This can be seen on IMSA’s own website, which is a pretty good site for live stream. I’ve watched it many times and quite frankly, it’s better than the Cup coverage we get these days.

Just go to https://www.imsa.com/ and the rest is easy. They have a link at the top called “How to Watch.” They also have live timing and scoring, which this scribe uses a lot… when their event coincides with another I might want to watch. I can watch one and follow the action on the other at the same time.

Then, on January 13-21, we have the 47th annual Barrett-Jackson Auction at Scottsdale AZ. This always gets “some” TV coverage, if one is fortunate enough to have an ISP that carries Velocity, and they usually toss a bone to the poor folks by putting 2 hours of it on Discovery on Saturday. I prefer to watch on-line, which is easily done from the Barrett-Jackson site. You are required to “sign in”, but that’s a small price to pay for hours of automotive beauty for your eyes to feast upon. You can watch a version from the stage, with some interruptions much like the old FOX version, or you can watch the auction itself, live as it progresses. I much prefer that one. Cars, and nothing but the cars. Yeah!

http://www.barrett-jackson.com

This auction is really about ready to roll now. The site is abuzz with pictures and videos of the wondrous things that will cross the block in mid-January. You might want to check it out. Never know… you might find something you’d like to bid on and you have to be registered to do that. Lord, they even have a Merry-go-round up for auction this year!

Then on January 25-28, we have the real deal at Daytona, the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. FOX Networks have spotty coverage of most of the action, scattered across a potpourri of stations… FOX, FS1, FS2 and FoxGo. www.imsa.com has it all and it’s free, unlike FoxGo. The WeatherTech sponsored series is the one most folks are familiar with and includes Prototypes and GT classes from both the Grand-Am Series and the American Le Mans Series. You can access the entire broadcast schedule here:
https://sportscarchampionship.imsa.com/events/2018-rolex-24-daytona

Then, with a week off, I suspect for some football game, though I don’t know that for sure, NASCAR will venture back onto your TV screen starting with Daytona 500 qualifying on February 11, the beginning of that mystifying system of arriving at who will run in the Daytona 500. Once they finish that complete qualifying session, we will know only who will be on the front row. (More to come on that subject) Then, following qualifying, we’ll have the Advanced Auto Parts Clash, the non-points race for last year’s pole winners and anyone else NASCAR cares to invite. That one shows a start time of 3:00. Sorry, but there is no start time yet posted for the Qualifying round. Clash will air on FS1. I’d “assume” that qualifying will as well, but again, nothing is posted for that. Thanks FOX.

Moving along to Thursday night of that week, the Dual Duels or Twin 150s or whatever, will run circa 7:00 and 9:00 on FS1. Now your scribe has something to say. Charters and poor attendance have shrunken the field to a point where it is completely senseless to run these races, sustain severe damage to many cars in the field and accomplish what? Whether once good drivers such as Derrike Cope and/or Morgan Shepherd can make the field? Face it gentle readers… there are only 4 spots in the race that are not already guaranteed to those teams holding a charter. This was Big Bill France’s method of qualifying, back in the day when there were 50 or 60 drivers aspiring to run in the Daytona 500. Come February, we’ll be lucky if the field fills. WHY are we still running these races? I’d seriously love an answer that makes sense!

I’m not going to try for the complete weekend schedule built around and culminating in the Daytona 500 on February 18. Just writing that as the date of the 500 gives this scribe a most uneasy sense of deja-vu. Camping World Trucks and Xfinity will both run, on Friday and Saturday respectively. All the way from preceding the Qualifying and through much of the following week, there will be practice sessions for assorted events… qualifying, Clash, Twin 150s, Trucks, Xfinity and Daytona 500. Soak it up and enjoy! The following week, we’ll be in Atlanta and there’ll be almost nothing. Such is the nature of today’s broadcasting.

Time now for our Classic Country Closeout, and today I’ve selected an offering from another series that we’ll enjoy some of before someone buys it out to sell on TV as happened to the one we were enjoying through the fall. This one brings us the talents of Don Gibson, Conny Van Dyke and Marty Robbins.

Be well gentle readers, and remember to keep smiling. It looks so good on you!

~PattyKay