The 2021 NASCAR season starts this week

[theguru]

From NBC Sports:

Action begins 7pm Tuesday night with the Busch Clash on the Daytona road course (the starting lineup will be set up by a draw Monday night).  The Clash is on FS1.

There are events, qualifying, practice, the Truck Race, Xfinity, the Duals and of course the Daytona 500 all happening this week and there is something every day/night.

What are you looking forward to this year?

A few randoms for me. I am interested to see how Bubba Wallace performs in a top car thanks in part to Michael Jordan.  I also want to see how Chris Bell (my favorite Xfinity driver of the past) performs for Joe Gibbs Racing.  Ross Chastain is another driver I have my eye on and he is in the 42 fulltime this year for Chip Ganassi Racing.  Chastain almost always performs well in Xfinity and Truck Racing and having a full time ride in a fast car will be interesting. Finally Daniel Suárez is driving for Trackhouse Racing with Pitbull as a co-owner.

Additionally, Mr. Worldwide will serve as Grand Marshal for 63rd Annual Daytona 500.  Kyle Busch is still with JGR but will have a whole new team which makes me wonder what is going on.  Also, I was drinking some Busch Light recently and telling people it is a sign of things to come for Kevin Harvick this year, lol.  

I also got some of my information from this cool NASCAR site:

https://www.jayski.com/

In short, I am way more excited about NASCAR starting than anything to do with the NFL this past year outside of Joe Burrow and the Bengals.

Are you looking forward to NASCAR this year?

[nkypete]

I personally lost a lot of interest in NASCAR when Jeff Gordon retired (he was my favorite driver when I was much younger).  Since then, I would occasionally watch parts of races.  I never took the time to understand the stages, the playoffs, the points, etc.  Now that KY Speedway is toast, that makes it worse for me to still follow the sport.

[TheDeuce]

I always look forward to the Daytona 500, it's on my sports bucket list. 

[theguru]

6 minutes ago, nkypete said:

I personally lost a lot of interest in NASCAR when Jeff Gordon retired (he was my favorite driver when I was much younger).  Since then, I would occasionally watch parts of races.  I never took the time to understand the stages, the playoffs, the points, etc.  Now that KY Speedway is toast, that makes it worse for me to still follow the sport.

I understand on a favorite driver leaving but he still does commentary and is very good.  Additionally, all the stages/points/playoffs don't really matter in the big picture, the more you win, the more you move on. 

[nkypete]

3 minutes ago, theguru said:

I understand on a favorite driver leaving but he still does commentary and is very good.  Additionally, all the stages/points/playoffs don't really matter in the big picture, the more you win, the more you move on. 

I had forgotten that he does commentary.  I still have a "24" ballcap.

[theguru]

Just now, nkypete said:

I had forgotten that he does commentary.  I still have a "24" ballcap.

You should be able to tune in and hear him (unless there is a change I don't know about) this week for a bunch of races. 

[theguru]

Kyle Busch won the Clash after Blaney and Elliott got into each other on the last lap.

Mostly business as usual last night but I will say the Toyotas looked really strong. 

[theguru]

Our very own Ben Rhodes (Louisville Holy Cross) won the Truck Race last night at Daytona!

Congrats Ben!

[theguru]

Photo from NASCAR on NBC on Facebook:

Michael McDowell won the 2021 Daytona 500 after a massive crash at the front of the pack on the last lap. 

McDowell was quoted on NASCAR.com after the race:

“I can‘t believe it,” McDowell said. “I‘ve got to thank God. So many years of just grinding it out, hoping for an opportunity like this. I‘ve got to thank (team owner) Bob Jenkins for giving me this opportunity. I‘m so thankful. 

[Randy Parker]

McDowell led just one lap of the race.  He also caused the bad wreck on the final lap.  But that's racing.

[TheDeuce]

4 hours ago, Randy Parker said:

McDowell led just one lap of the race.  He also caused the bad wreck on the final lap.  But that's racing.

Yup. Caused it then got lucky getting through. 

[theguru]

I watched the wreck about then times and listened to Jamie McMurray break it down on Race Hub and Keselowski used the bump to make a move with Logano blocking before the second bump and in short it was definitely racing but I would stop a bit short of saying he alone caused the wreck.  Either way, none of the drivers blamed McDowell and they all seem to think very highly of him. 

[4 Quarters]

Logano, Keselowski, or McDowell started the crash and my vote goes to McDowell.

[Purple88]

Am looking forward to the new Nashville race.  May even consider going.

IMO, NASCAR needs more small tracks and less MotorSpeedways.  For the large field of cars they have now, you would have to split the field up and hold heat races and then a final race to end it, but wouldn't that be pretty cool!  Instead of every week watching a long boring super-speedway race where only the last 50 laps or so really matter.  

I guess they go twice to some places because they get more fans there.  But sure hate that they cancelled the Sparta race.  Kinda cuts off fans in this area IMO.

I'm not a huge fan, but I appreciate it.  And appreciate I can say the drivers names pretty easily.  Not always the case with racing.