NASCAR starts at Daytona, Atlanta eats tires, Las Vegas on the horizon (maybe twice?)

Wow! If you weren't a NASCAR fan before Daytona, you sure are now! That was one of the most expensive speedweeks in memory. Crashes are a part of racing, but there seemed to be a plagued of them, or a going out of business fire sale. I honestly got to the point of saying, "holy crap guys, get your heads out of your tails and just freaking race!" Someone did the math on how many cars across all three series were either involved (meaning they received damage) or crashed out, and it was shocking. At least 75% of the 102 (40 Cup, 40 Xfinity, 32 Truck) had damage or were totaled. Mind boggling!

Kurt Busch after winning the 2017 Daytona 500

Even the eventual winner, Kurt Busch, had damage to his car. Remember, "rubbin is racin," an old redneck proverb that proved to be true this year. Here is a highlight of Busch barely getting through the wreck at Daytona below.

Kurt Busch scraps his way through the carnage

There was so much carnage and mayhem that day, and for the entire weekend. The video below is literally 28 minutes of all the crashes from Speedweeks 2017 in Daytona.

                                

Those were some big hits! Let me go ahead and tell you that this was not an average NASCAR race. It felt like the entire week was on steroids. The premier series (Cup) just signed a new title sponsorship with Monster Energy drink (now collectively known as the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series) had re-energized the sport for a younger demographic. I think its a great way to market to the skeptics of the sport. The youth movement in NASCAR is apparent, even with it's drivers.   

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series "Monster Girls"

It's definitely not your Sprint girls, but I can adjust to it. There's a debate going on in the NASCAR world that these leather clad women are "degrading and sexing up" the sport for women. But honestly, have you seen the Supercross Monster girls? Yeah, go ahead and open a tab for them at the top of your browser. Its a lot less clothing, right? I think they are fine, they're not causing any unintentional attention (hell, i had trouble finding them in victory lane this past weekend at Atlanta). If you go to a NASCAR race weekend, your going to see some weird shit. It's gonna happen, and you just have to take it in and go with it.

But for the most part, the fans are the best in the world, absolute diehards!

NASCAR fans are brand loyal, meaning that if one of their favorite drivers is sponsored by a specific brand, then that will be the only brand they buy. For example, Kevin Harvick is sponsored by Jimmy John's & Busch Beer. Brad Keselowski is sponsored by Miller Lite. Both drivers race for Ford (one brand), but both have differing beer sponsors. That's where families and fans become divided and loyal. I like Busch, but not Jimmy John's, so I might pull for the driver thats sponsored by Subway (which is Daniel Suarez). But wait a second, that Subway car is a Toyota! I guess I'll suck it up and eat Jimmy John's if it means that my driver gets to continue to race. See what I mean by loyalty? If I don't like Toyota, then I'll suck it up and eat Jimmy John's.

Moving along the grueling 36 week schedule, NASCAR headed to Atlanta Motor Speedway to play on its 20 year old surface. The track was reconfigured and repaved in 1997, hence she's a hungry beast. She's not hungry for crashed cars, but something that's very important for race cars, their tires. The abrasive nature and age of Atlanta's surface has made this track one of the most exciting and strategy driven races on the schedule. Unfortunately, the big wigs at Speedway Motorsports Inc (SMI) decided this past offseason that 2017 would be the last race for the old surface. The backlash by fans was loud and during the race weekend, the drivers voiced their displeasure as well. They actually signed a driver-backed petition to the owners at SMI to postpone the repave and find an alternative to preserve the worn out surface. Many said that the surface was the only thing that they liked about the track because it gave it character, something that a lot of "cookie cutter" tracks (a 1.5 mile quad oval) are missing due to repaves. I would try to band-aid that track as much as possible, because it is literally the best 1.5 mile track NASCAR goes to all season long! 

Repaving sucks, but it is an evil that chases tracks year after year. Look at Kentucky Motor Speedway for example. It had an original concrete surface from 2000 that had begun to show aging signs in 2010 with the development of a large bump on the frontstretch. The owners, SMI (do you see a trend?), decided that after 2015 a total resurface project would be done.

Kentucky Motor Speedway repave

Also, the modified turns 1 & 2 to be banked steeper and tighter than 3 & 4 by six degrees (going from 14 degrees to 20 degrees). Well, the racing sucked in 2016 after all that AND they had to redo turns 1 & 2 due to an "integrity" problem with the first round of repaving. Oye vey!

The same thing happened at Texas Motor Speedway (you guessed it, another SMI track), except their problem was weepers in the track and dampness. An Indycar race in 2016 was delayed from June until August because of it. It had rained the night of the race in June, which lead to it being run during the day, which had a red flag fro a severe crash and rain only 60 some laps into the event, meaning that said event was rained out and rescheduled to August, all due to the track not being able to breath. 

Indycar drivers inspect one of the damp weepers

The Atlanta race did not disappoint. It was a grueling 500 mile race with very limited cautions, and an insane amount of tire degradation. The race weekend was shadowed by a driver petition and plea to not repave the aging track surface. Before the race started, the SMI big wigs and Atlanta Motor Speedway track president announced that track officials would re-look at the imminent repave to perhaps try and save the old aging wonder. Many hope that it will not get repaved, but I seriously think we'll get maybe another year out of it before it crumbles. Sucks though, but that's asphalt for ya!

Start of the Folds of Honor Quik Trip 500

The race was hard fought throughout the afternoon. The only caution flags to fall were for the end of segments 1 & 2, a blown engine by Gray Gaulding in the #23 Dr. Pepper Toyota ("Lil Sweeeeeeet, blowin up a motor, yeah!") with about 50 laps to go (out of 325). After the restart, Erik Jones and Martin Truex Jr were battling in the top 10 with Clint Bowyer on the high side coming out of turn 2. Martin did not know that they were 3-wide, pinching Jones into Bowyer, subsequently hitting the wall. He managed to keep on driving, but the damage was done and several laps later, Clint was in the wall with a flat tire. That caution meant that there would be one final pit stop for the race, barring any other late race caution.

Kevin Harvick and his pit crew during the final pit stop

Harvick has dominated the entire race, leading at least 200 or so laps, if not more. Pit stops make or break races for teams. All day, Harvick's crew had been fast, almost "freaky fast". Leave it to the driver to go too fast on pit road, meaning that he would start at the end of the lead lap cars. Ouch! Gut punch, knockout blow for Harv & Co. Only a caution would help them now. But that caution never came.

Brad Keselowski celebrating his victory by doing donuts with an American flag. That's straight up badass!

Eventual race winner Brad Keselowski had drama though to capture the win. He got off sequence midway through the race with a tire vibration (at least that's what we think), causing him to play catch-up for a little while. Prior to the Harvick speeding penalty on the caution before, Brad's pit crew had an amazing stop too, which elevated him to first for the restart. But, there was a problem. The left rear tire was loose. Brad had to come down pit road before the restart to fix the tire, putting him deep in the pack to rebound. Give the #2 team credit for a "never down, die hard" mentality. They persevered and came back through the field to take the lead and capture his first victory of the season on the final restart.

Brad and team in victory lane

I like Brad because he is an old school racer. He races you hard and really doesn't give any flying you-know-what's. That's exactly what the sport needs. We need more Brad's in NASCAR!

This weekend we are headed to Las Vegas Motor Speedway! It is one of my favorite's of the cookie cutter variety tracks. The setting is picturesque, the speeds are fast, and the stands are always packed.

However, this year there is added excited and sadness to this race weekend. It was announced on March 8th that track owners SMI had met with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority to discuss and implement a second NASCAR weekend for the 2018 season. The process eliminated the fall race date at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, angering many New Englander race fans. Honestly, this was long coming in my opinion. Vegas has money (literally) and more fan appeal than Loudon, NH. It seems like SMI has been in the racing news a lot this season so far. The addition of the second Vegas date means that the track will be the only double triple header on the schedule for next season (meaning that Trucks, Xfinity, and Cup will race at both race weekends in March and, well, we think it'll be September, but it could change). Personally, I think what should happen is a logistical swap of the SMI tracks that are in the NASCAR playoffs. The former fall New Hampshire race was the last weekend in September, Charlotte the second weekend in October, and Texas the first weekend in November. A simple switch of the now Vegas race from September to November, Texas to October, and Charlotte to September would help. The "penultimate" round of the season is at Phoenix, so wouldn't it make sense to stay out west for 2 weeks instead of crisscrossing the country several times? Just some food for thought I guess. 

This concludes my first edition of Year of Gears. Tune in next week when I review the Vegas race weekend, Formula One winter testing, and the season kickoff of Indycar from St. Petersburg, Florida.