NASCAR Sprint Cup Race Seventeen Daytona

The NBC portion of the season begins with this race. The Xfinity race last night was a bit chaotic. It came down to NASCAR checking video as to whom was leading when they finally threw the caution. It was strange – there was a big wreck during a green-white-checker and NASCAR delayed throwing the flag. Unfortunately at the moment the caution lights were finally enabled Aric Almirola was ahead of Justin Allgaier. It would’ve been great for an Xfinity series championship contender to get the win. Instead a Sprint Cup driver won an Xfinity series race – again.

Happy 79th Birthday Richard Petty!

Quite a few right rear tire issues during the Xfinity series race last night. KyBu lost a right rear and hit the wall hard during practice Friday so he’s in a backup car.

A competition caution is scheduled for lap 20 this evening.

For some unknowable reason people have been saying Denny Hamlin ”’let”’ Tony Stewart win Sonoma last week. I wonder if those folks have been watching NASCAR long and are familiar with those two drivers. I have to believe neither is the case for them to come up with that theory.

It has been nice to hear the professional, dulcet tones of Ken Squier in pieces prior to the race. At least there’s one person on the broadcast that should be paid as a broadcaster. He’s over-the-hill and exquisitely experienced and talented. If only he could infuse the bodies with microphones on the broadcast with some of that. If someone could calm and quiet Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte I’d be grateful. Jeff quickly begins to sound hysterical and Stevie just won’t shut up – nor will he talk about what’s ”actually” happening on the racetrack. He gets on a train of thought and follows it, without regard to what’s occurring in the race.

160 laps in this race. Greg Biffle will lead the field to green.

STOP with the long close shots of the front and back of cars! We can’t see anything of relevance. They’ll break out of commercial if something happens???? Really??? Since when is that allowed? Good for them. That would be a nice change and MUCH better than the tiny box on the right where you can kind of see what happened – though you can’t hear it – but it’s so small you basically can’t tell what’s going on. I like the idea of breaking out of commercial when something happens much better.

Competition caution is out on lap 20 of 160. Landon Cassill is having issues with his car, slowly creeping around the track. He seems to have lost power and so far nothing he’s tried has helped.

Blake Shelton. ‘She’s Got A Way With Words’. Really? Really?? Grow up and grow a pair – a pair that you keep and don’t give away to the next blonde to come along. Whether that song is fact or fiction you ought to have more respect for yourself, her, and what you had – or even what you thought you had – and keep that to yourself. I expect that kind of thing from Taylor Swift – she’s a tacky child who likely will never grow up. Her maturation was put on hold by stardom and she’ll likely never catch up – like Michael Jackson. But you’re a rusty behind grown man who should’ve known better to begin with, now you want to act like a emo boy??? Seriously dude. If you can’t do better than that, then you probably want to look in the mirror for the problem instead of casting aspersions. Yeah, sure, the song could just be a song you liked and wanted to record that had nothing to do with your personal situation. It could be. Of course, the fact that you’re recently divorced is either convenient marketing, Freudian, or a coincidence – like your drinking which you now claim was just a gimmick to relate to your fans, instead of a documented fact. You might want to look at how well things were going and how well things aren’t going these days – though maybe you like the drama. Yeah, I’m not there, so I don’t know. Seems like you are there and you don’t know. It’s often said there’s nothing new under the sun. Just saying.

Green flag pit stops begin on lap 66 of 160.

Big wreck on lap 90 of 160 that collected Chase Elliott, Regan Smith, Paul Menard, Jamie McMurray, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Martin Truex Jr, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Brian Scott, Kevin Harvick, Chris Buescher, Matt Kenseth, Danica Patrick, Austin Dillon, Ryan Newman, Kyle Larson Ryan Blaney, Michael Annett, and Matt Dibenedetto. A whole in the middle was open, Jimmie tried to go through it, Jamie Mc came down at that moment, bounced into Kyle Larson, bounced off in front of Jimmie who hit his rear end and around went Jamie Mc into the outside wall and a large portion of the field was collected. Jamie thinnks he may have lost the left rear tire and he said at that point he was out of control.

I have no idea why they think its interesting to watch a driver turning or not turning the steering wheel instead of showing the outside of the cars – and not an aerial shot so everything looks like ants.

19 cars involved in that accident.

NASCAR officials are picking sheet metal out of the wall.

Kevin Harvick’s car ran underneath the back of Brian Scott’s car. Scott said he felt like he was looking straight down and he was just saying, “Come down, come down, come down.”

Kevin Harvick, Brian Scott, Paul Menard, Jamie McMurray and Jimmie Johnson were all released from the infield care center unhurt.

Kevin Harvick has been limping all week due to burns on the bottoms of his feet from last week’s race. He said it was very “uncomfortable” in the car tonight.

Regan Smith, Paul Menard, Brian Scott, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Chris Buescher and Chase Elliott are out of the race.

Caution on lap 130 of 160 for debris.

I have the lap-by-lap NASCAR page up also so I can find out about the various things never mention by the babbling brood, like penalties during the pit stop for Greg Biffle and Matti Di – both for too many men over the wall. They talk a lot about all sorts of minutae, irrelevant things, but they don’t spend much time actually telling us what’s happening that we can’t see.

Wreck with 12 laps to go as Tony Stewart ends up in the outside wall. Now we’re in a NASCAR non-stop so we’re still looking at commercials on one side of the screen and looking at the light shining into his car. The 13, 6, 21 and the 19 got a little of that.

Restarting with six laps to go.

Caution is out with 5 to go as AJ Allmendinger and Carl Edwards hit the wall. Carl came across Bobby Labonte and collected him.

Smoke said he got loose and over-corrected and drove it into the wall. He said he wasn’t tight all night.

The race will restart with 2 to go.

We really spend entire too much time int he car with a driver instead of seeing the racetrack. Its aggravating because it provides very little relevant information and seems a waste of time. If something substantial and well-lighted and unusual happens int he car I can understand it, but otherwise I’d prefer to see what’s happening on the track.

Kurt Busch got turned coming to the finish line. Bunny says Squinty-Douchey punted him. ‘It’ crosses the finish line first.

Congrats to Trevor Bayne on his third place finish. Congratulations to Ricky ‘Stinkhouse’ Stenhouse (5th), Michael McDowell (10th), Casey Mears (12th), Ryan Blaney (14th) and David ‘Thrilla’ Ragan (16th). Nice finishes for those guys.

There’s a post race show, but unfortunately Krista Voda, Petty Kyle and Dale Jarrett are doing their usual sub-par job on the desk rendering it virtually unwatchable.

Kurt Busch ended up finishing 23 as a result of Logano “Squinty-Douchey” “driving through him”.

NASCAR News:

Next Race: Kentucky

GO 48!!!!