So today is the official start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, or as I like to call it, the Jimmie Johnson Racing League, and like always, it starts with the Daytona 500. I have always been confused by this. The Daytona 500 is definitely the biggest race of the season and has been called “NASCAR’s Super Bowl” yet because its the opening race of the season, other than the chance to say you won the Daytona 500, its arguably the most meaningless race of the season.
Think about it. A driver could wreck on lap one of this race and get no points for competing, but there are still 25 races to go before The Chase begins and all he has to do is get into the top 12 in the standings to qualify for The Chase. Then the points are reset and anyone in that final 12 has a real shot at winning the championship. Each week it becomes more and more important to get as many points as possible to qualify for The Chase. So under that argument, the race in which points are least important is the first race, the Daytona 500.
Don’t get me wrong, every point in every race is important, but you can’t argue with the logic. If you got to pick when you could have your worst race of the season, wouldn’t you pick the first race? That’s the one that leaves you with the most time to recover and earn back the points you lost. You wouldn’t want to do it in the last race before The Chase and possibly miss out on being in the top 12 or even do it in one of The Chase races and eliminate yourself from title contention.
The purpose of The Chase is to make every race meaningful and not have some guy having a great year who has the championship wrapped up with 4 races to go. So ideally the title would still be up for grabs going into the last race. Why not make the Daytona 500 the last race of the season. Then it really means something. NASCAR would be taking its biggest event of the season and, if all goes as planning, turn it into the equivalent of a real championship game. Can you imagine how much buzz that would generate for the sport? Picture a scenario where there are 2 to 4 drivers with a mathematical shot at winning the championship going into the last race of the season at Daytona. That is the kind of stuff that brings fans to a sport and generates money. If that scenario were to play out NASCAR and whatever network would televise the race could sell commercial spots like it was the Super Bowl. How has no one in the NASCAR front office figured this out yet?
Season Preview
I’m about to ruin the entire NASCAR season for you by telling how it will play out in 4 sentences. (1) In the races leading up to The Chase someone like Tony Stewart or Carl Edwards will get a lead of 200 or so points in the standings. (2) Jimmie Johnson will win a race or two but spend most of the “regular season” somewhere between 4th and 9th in the points standings. (3) The Chase will start and Stewart or whoever it is will lose the big lead he had because the points are reset and that’s how The Chase works. (4) Jimmie Johnson will win the first race of The Chase and vault into first place then win at least 3 of the remaining races, and finish in the top 5 in all of them, and win the title in a landslide.
So there you go, no reason to really pay attention this season, I just told you how it will all play out. You’re welcome.
Danica Patrick
So is it wrong of me that I enjoyed a good laugh when I saw that she finished 36th in yesterday’s Nationwide race at Daytona? Seriously, I enjoyed that so much. I am so sick of hearing about this chick and I’m hoping that a few more races like that one and a bad year in the Indy series and maybe she will just go away all to together.
She isn’t famous because of her talent, she’s famous because she has boobs in a sport where no one else has boobs. And she gets all these endorsements and modeling gigs because of it. But have you taken a close look at her lately. Sure she’s good looking for a race car driver, but that’s mostly because I’m a straight man and she’s the only woman, but when compared to some really attractive women, she isn’t anything more than just average.
And as a driver…she’s average at best. A man with equal talent as her would have a hard time getting sponsors to stick around and probably wouldn’t have lasted in the sport as long as she has. She gets a free pass because she is a woman and if by some miracle she has a good race it makes a nice story for the media to force down our throats.
Danica, after reading this you may not care much for me and I understand that, but I’m still going to ask a favor of you…GO AWAY!!!!!
I couldn’t agree more. Until they change the Chase Jimmy will continue to win. Anytime you put someones best tracks in the playoffs they will dominate.
First of all Patrick doesn’t have boobs Ryan!!, Can you say BB’s on a board? Second, you’re right, she’s an average driver at best. One win in Indy car over 5 years doesn’t qualify you for anything but lucky. She’s all hype and no substance like I’ve said numerous times before on this site.
Next, the Daytona 500 was a boring, yaaaawn, race!! While the action was ok with the new rule changes the delays for the track patching repairs was terrible!! 1 hour and 40 minutes to repair a small pot hole in the asphalt???? Give me a break!!! Then 36 laps later they have to do it again??? COME ON!!! I agree with the safety for the drivers but just call the damn race will ya!!! They were 5+ hours into the damn thing, had 160+ laps completed out of 200, CALL IT FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!! This race started at 12:20 pm cst and ran for over 6 hours, BORING!!!!!!
yeah, i’m glad i missed that race. I caught parts of it on the radio as I was running errands and even the radio announcers seemed to be bored with it.
The 500 was lame, but you where right on Fase. JJ was at the back of the pack with another bad finish at Daytona, but I can guarantee it won’t matter a bit come the end of the year.
I for one think the Daytona 500 is a joke now. it was once a big deal to win that race, now its no more than a 500 mile parade lap to show off all the “changes” NASCAR has made. This race should be moved to later in the season and the second race at the track needs to be dropped. The Cup season didn’t always start with Daytona, It started at Riverside International Raceway up until 1981. Which wasn’t a hold it to the floor huge super speedway, it was a 2.62 mile road course! NASCAR needs to start shaking things up. These newer 2 mile track are all the same, which makes for boring racing. It time to take races away, put races back at the smaller , older speedways (Rockingham), there was even talk about a possible changing of the Brickyard 400 to using the road course set up through the infield that the F1 cars use. I am a huge NASCAR fan, but I haven’t watched a full race in 3 years, they need to fix it. As for the Danika thing, I’m all for it, and hope she turns out to be a great Cup driver.