I feel like every time I write about NASCAR I have to start by convincing people that I'm not some kind of racing hipster that hates on NASCAR because it's not "sophisticated" racing like Formula 1. My story (and I'm sticking to it) is that I like NASCAR, but I don't love NASCAR. Regardless of what you think about NASCAR however, the Daytona 500 is the Daytona 500. This race is probably the second most famous race in the United States, and definitely in the top ten most famous races world wide. So, you can imagine that I was excited for the first race of the NASCAR season, and I thought that deserved a write up.
I'll be honest, after watching both the the Xfinity series race, and the Sprint series race, I wasn't sure what there was for me to write about. Yes, there were a couple of big wrecks, including Kyle Busch's broken leg. Surprisingly, I think my favorite moment of the weekend didn't come from the 500 at all, but from the Xfinity race on Saturday when rookie Daniel Suarez, who was two laps down at the time, began leading a third line on the outside of the track, around the leaders. I'm not sure what his plan was, but he definitely wasn't following the usual script, and you knew things weren't going to end well. Of course, the three wide racing for the last sixteen laps of the 500 was a thing of beauty to watch. I get nervous in rush hour traffic like this, and these guys were doing it at 200 MPH. You kept asking yourself if how long could they keep this up before one guy took out half the field. Answer? A lot longer then I thought, but it still ended in a pile of twisted sheet metal and ruined cars.
As I sit back and reflect on the racing at Daytona, the quality of racing last weekend was actually better then I originally gave it credit for. I do have one complaint about the Daytona 500, and this is really more of a problem with restrictor plate racing as opposed to just a Daytona problem. Drafting plays an important role in all NASCAR racing, but at the restrictor plate races, the importance of drafting is elevated to a stupid level. As a result, it sometimes feels like the winner of the race isn't the most skilled racer, but the guy whose at the right place in line when the checkered flag waves.
That being said, it often seems like the fast cars are at the front of the pack, while the slow cars are at the back, which is as things should be. Racing always has a little bit of randomness to it, which is also as things should be, so I probably shouldn't complain too much just because one guy has a good drafting partner and another guy doesn't. If I had unlimited power over NASCAR though (and was smart enough to figure out how to do this), I'd like to see the cars at the restrictor plate tracks a little less aero dependent and be a little more engine dependent. That way, guys are better able to drive around each other with less drafting help. Of course, if NASCAR ever did this I would probably complain that the bigger teams can afford to develop stronger engines which ruins the quality of the racing.
You know what NASCAR, just keeping doing what your doing, you're fine as is.
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