Another season of NASCAR is upon us.
The haulers arrived at Daytona International Speedway on Thursday. The NASCAR Cup Series garage opens Friday. Cars hit the track for the first time on Saturday, and the Busch Clash goes green on Sunday.
And my thoughts are simple: Let’s go racing!
The schedule underwent its biggest shakeup in a decade and NASCAR modified its awful short track/road course package for the 2020 season. How that pans out remains to be seen.
Furthermore, NASCAR would be wise to continue making changes to the schedule for 2021 and beyond.
But until then, let’s go racing.
The Big 3 of the 2019 XFINITY Series — Tyler Reddick, Cole Custer and Christopher Bell — join the ongoing youth revolution in the Cup Series; led by Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson, 2018 Cup Series champion Joey Logano and more.
Meanwhile, the Big 3 of the Cup Series — Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. — look to continue their reign.
One elder statesman, Jimmie Johnson, will retire (from full-time competition) at season’s end.
Will the Big Three dominance continue, will the youth continue to develop and will Johnson go out with a bang?
We’ll have to wait and see. But until then, let’s go racing.
The end of the 2019 season brought an end to NASCAR’s hideous 13-season slide in television ratings and viewership. Whether 2020 brings more eyeballs, only time will tell. Until then, let’s go racing.
There’ll be dud races. There will be some stupid thing(s) NASCAR does, probably around playoff time, that’ll infuriate most of its fans and prompts columns from people like me. There will be plenty of bitching and moaning about what NASCAR does; I don’t exclude myself from that.
On the flip side, however, there will be great races, moments and story lines, that make this genre of auto racing one of the most fun to watch.
It’s been close to 90 days since NASCAR ended its previous season. Come Sunday, all will be right in our corner of the world.
Now, in the words of a certain NASCAR Hall of Famer, “Boogity, boogity, boogity. Let’s go racing, boys!”
