Thoughts on the 2019 Daytona 500 by a guy who has never watched the Daytona 500

Forewarning. Not only have I never watched the Daytona 500, but I have never sat down and watched more then two minutes of NASCAR in my life. NASCAR, Formula 1, Monster truck rallies. Anything with cars pretty much I have never taken any interest in and why bother? As a Toronto sports fan, and I think I speak for the majority when I say, we are lucky enough to have enough sports content year-round between Leafs, Raptors, Blue Jays and TFC (Sorry Argos). Hell, I even hit up my first of many Wolfpack games last summer (to be honest, didn’t understand really what was happening half the time). However, with it being NBA all star weekend, Leafs having the night off and at least a few weeks before any meaningful news comes out of spring training. I decided to give NASCAR a try. Let me start by saying my full extent of knowledge about NASCAR comes from random memory flashes of Elementary school with one of my friends wearing a NASCAR hat with the number 24 on it and talking about Jeff Gordon. A quick Google search would tell me that he is now an analyst and is retired. So if you ever wanted an unbiased first opinion of NASCAR to see if you should take an interest in it, but never wanted to give up any of your own time to do so. I’m here for ya.

I am not sure if I have just hung out at the wrong bars or am in the wrong circles of friends, but nobody I really know watches NASCAR. I mean there must be fans somewhere in Canada or else why would TSN dedicate most of its Sunday afternoon slot to it. If you’re like me, you probably never saw the appeal in sitting down for 3-4 hours (I think?) and watching a car do 500 laps EDIT: 200 laps. I am not even sure what to watch out for during a NASCAR race. Are the cars built differently? Does the best driver always win? Are there rivalries between drivers where they try and cut each other off? All these questions probably sound ridiculously stupid, but I actually have no idea. So before I completely write off NASCAR for the rest of my life, I thought I would tune into the season kickoff in Daytona this weekend and give it a fair chance.

PRERACE

Gotta admit, kind of excited for this. Going in with an open mind and really trying to get into the pregame analysis. A little background, there are 40 cars in the race and they all line up in rows of 2. Their starting order from front to back is predetermined in a preliminary trial earlier on in the week in which they compete for pole position. The Daytona 500 has been described as the “Super Bowl of NASCAR” and “its not just a race, it’s a scene, it’s a party”. This became evident to me when they brought out a runway 3x the length of Victoria Secret Fashion Show and had the drivers walk it surrounded by their fans. Thought this was a little over the top, not sure if this happens for every race or just the Daytona 500, but people seemed to enjoy it.

It looks like that their is three main car types that the drivers use. They are either team Toyota, Chrysler or Ford. I always thought NASCAR was an individual sport, but that doesn’t seem to be true. It seems like you try to support your teammates during the race whether it be a quick bump to their car from behind to give them a boost or pull off what Ricky Bobby and Cal Naughton Jr. would refer to as the shake and bake. Side note the NASCAR analysis panel team was made up a guy name Ricky and a guy named Bobby so whenever the commentary team would throw it up to the panel they would always throw it over to Ricky Bobby. Don’t know if they were hired based off their names or if they actually had credentials to be there but it was pretty amusing nonetheless.

RACE BEGINNING

Had a JJ Watt sighting as he did the mandatory “Start your engines” call and Julian Edelman was there to wave the green flag to signal the start of the race. Turns out Daytona 500, the 500 which I always thought was the number of laps they do, is actually the number of miles and its only 200 laps. There’re also these things called stages where if you lead after 60 laps (stage 1) and 120 laps (stage 2) drivers collect points that go towards the standings. Thought that added an interesting element that I didn’t know existed. Drivers often had the decision to just giver to try to win the stage and not go for a pit stop or go for the pit, forget the stage points and set yourself up better for the end of the race… Whether to take a pit stop, what to change on a pit stop or just keep going was a very prominent topic during the broadcast. Getting a new set of wheels on = gamechanger. The broadcast alluded to “within the first couple laps you know what car you have that day”. I am going to guess that has something to do with different adjustments and tune ups to the car the team has done throughout the week.

PIT STOPS

For the most part so far in the race everyone has been driving in 2 single file lines but sounds like this was about to change as cars were going to start to go off for their first pit stops. When the first one happened, I couldn’t believe there were not more crashes or crew members being hit during this process. UPDATE: There were 6 cars involved in a crash on pit road. Makes sense. It’s complete insanity. Crew guys jumping out in front of speeding cars in order to get into the right position to get a quick start on the change, everyone trying to funnel into their correct stall where their team is ready to make changes to the car and when they slam on the gas coming out of the pit and cut each other off to get back on the track. A crash is just bound to happen. This whole process is entertaining. Whether it be the constant threat of a potential crash happening or just seeing how quickly a team can change tires, fuel up and get the car back on its way in 14-16 seconds, its impressive. Kyle Busch takes stage 1.

MID RACE

Think I fell asleep somewhere between laps 80-100. Last night’s trip to the pub was catching up with me along with not much happening race wise. Couple of yellow caution flags came out which is when a minor crash happens and either debris needs to be taken off the track or the cars involved in the crash need to drive off the track and get to the pit to get fixed up. Cars will continue in the race despite being banged up, missing pieces of the body, etc… which is kind of cool. The longer the race goes on I have the feeling this is more of a survival of the fittest mindset rather then an actual race. Cars continue to circle, couple more caution flags, Ryan Blaney wins stage 2.

FINAL 10 LAPS

Holy shit am I glad I didn’t turn it off and stuck with this because this is when the actual fun starts. Most the race cars have just been pacing, small moves here and there towards the end of stages in order to get points, but largely 2 single file lines the entire race. Everything hits the fan in the final 10 laps though and guys really start taking risks and going for the win. One risk, which was the standout of the race is when a car tried to give their teammate a bump, but it ended up causing a 21-car pile up. Just fireworks everywhere. The broadcast then when on to show 6 different car cam views of that crash which was thoroughly entertaining. Once the race resumed a couple more laps went by, another risky manoeuvre, another crash. I think this happened 2-3 more times. I would compare it to the final 2 minutes of a NBA game. Even though it says 2 minutes on the clock, we all know we still could be here for another 20 minutes. When all the dust settled there was a NASCAR overtime. By that point I was 5 hours deep and honestly didn’t even try to understand what an overtime meant. Once the dust settled Danny Hamlin ended up getting the win for Toyota.

MY TAKEAWAYS

5 hours of watching anything is a lot, let alone NASCAR. For me, it did feel like it dragged on a bit there around lap 80 and couldn’t believe there was still another 120 laps go. Although, I feel I have to a newfound respect for the sport in general. I have always agreed with the notion that concentrating for that long a period of time going 200 mph under immense pressure where your next move could result in a dangerous situation for not only yourself but your fellow racers is quite impressive. However, now I understand a little more of the intricacies of it. Like the teammate dynamics between car brands and also the team dynamics between driver, spotter and crew chief of when to make your moves in the race. I can understand why people can get into it. Will I be tuning back in for next week in Atlanta? Probably not, but if I happen to be near a TV when the final 10 laps are happening I would definitely check it out. Who knows, with MLB heading for an inevitable strike in a couple years should nothing change with free agency I may need something to fill the void.