I have to admit that I am one of the race fans who would love to see more NASCAR events at road courses, including those delightful roadway-oval events. And after both Friday night’s ARCA race and Saturday’s Xfinity event, I have to say that the Daytona International Speedway racetrack is perhaps the most enjoyable weekend of the year.
The ARCA race was, well, in ARCA race. There was a chronic “wrong way on the track” problem, several minutes of the broadcast were devoted to analyzing a mechanic pushing rainwater from the top of his pop-up, and lead-lap cars were separated by a full minute, causing some hilarity as the frontrunning cars managed to have a solid battle while waiting for the last car to cross the start line and trigger the yellow flag of the midrace.
But yesterday’s Xfinity event? Hooooo young.
Practice and qualification were eliminated in all NASCAR events for the rest of the season in an attempt to limit exposure to COVID-19, meaning that every driver who took the green flag had no idea what to expect (other than chaos , of course ). As a result, there were a lot of crashes through and cars ran wide through brake zones. Tempers flared after the race. Earl Bamber almost flipped through the middle pothole in the dirt.
It was chaos. Glorious, beautiful chaos.
Team Penske driver Austin Cindric led 22 0f the 52 runs, making him history the first Xfinity driver to win on the Daytona roadway.
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NASCAR Cup veterans Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin have been pretty open about the fact that they absolutely have no idea what to expect.
Today’s cup race begins at 3pm EDT on NBC.
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