SpeedwayMedia.com, New car, new plate, actual racing at Daytona!

This years Daytona 500 was actually a race. No more of the follow the leader or follow around eating a hotdog while waiting on the laps to wind down before you make your move. And best of all, no “Big One”.

I am not a fan or the COT, nor a fan of restrictor plate racing. But as far a restrictor plate racing goes, this was defiantly a new and improved race. At times they were even 4-wide without a lot of problems. If you lost the draft, you were able to get back up to speed with little help from other cars. You can still go from 1^st to 15^th, but you can actually race to keep from dropping back.

I am not one to give NASCAR a lot of credit, but as far as these races go (restrictor plate)…. GOOD JOB. Now let’s work on the rest of the races.

You can reach Pamela at pamela@speedwaymedia.com.

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The 50^th Daytona 500 won’t go down in history as the best ever. But it still was a pretty exciting race, perhaps more exciting than last year. In the beginning of the race we saw a lot of single car lines. This was because the race was still in the early stages and from over. Also the track was hot and slick with temperatures reaching 85 degrees, something we usually see in the July Daytona race.

Even with the cars spread out for the first portion of the race, we still saw some passes for the lead. Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch couldn’t decide on who should lead. Then you add in Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson who also wanted to take the lead away from the two Gibbs Racing Toyotas.

Once the sunset, all heck broke loose. The last 50 laps was filled with great racing in large packs. With 20 laps to go the caution seemed to fly every two laps. But unlike last year, there was no red flag of the race. We saw a great shootout at the end and they didn’t wreck this time. The push that Ryan Newman received from Kurt Busch was eerily similar to the one Kevin Harvick received down the backstretch last year.

All in all it was an exciting race for the new NASCAR racecar. It will be interesting to see if this exciting racing can make it to California Speedway where the racing usually is not as exciting.

You can reach Brett at brettbaldeck@speedwaymedia.com.

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The Daytona 500 was a good race for the first 30 laps and the last 30 laps. The other 140 still held the concept of “follow the leader and wait until go time” strategy. That’s fine with me. When it came down to deciding the race, there was an absolute shootout and almost every driver on the lead lap had some part in setting up an exciting finish.

Drivers were lifting a little, but it wasn’t like lifting off the gas at other tracks. The cars would push in the center of the corner as opposed to going into the corner. Cars that didn’t have to lift as much found the front and those with handling problems fell to the back. Until Daytona is repaved or Goodyear can find a softer tire compound that won’t shred with the “go kart” chassis setups, the racing will be like that until it cools down and they go dancing under the lights.

Speedweeks as a whole was very impressive. The ARCA race was a letdown, but every other event had some excitement to it. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was solid with Hendrick Motor Sports, and the Gibbs Toyotas really showed some muscle in the horsepower department. The 500 was a great kickoff to the season, and a new era of NASCAR with the Car of Tomorrow.

You can reach Jonathan at jlintner@gmail.com