Sunshine, blue skies, 70 degrees and lots of hype in Daytona for the 64th Daytona 500. The Hendrick front row of Kyle Larson (5) and Alex Bowman (48) will lead the 40 car field to the green flag. This is Alex’s record setting fifth time in a row on the front row of the Daytona 500. Mike Joy of FOXSports is calling him Alex ‘Front Row Bow’ Bowman. The stages for the race are 65-65-70.
I miss hearing the cars without the radio chatter. That sound moves me. The radio chatter aggravates me.
Tony ‘Smoke’ Stewart is in the booth with Mike Joy and Clint Bowyer again.
Looks like Austin Cindric (2) has thrown his lot with Brad ‘It’ Keselowski (6) though ‘It’ is no longer a Penske driver. Unsurprising. I’m sure Cindric’s Penske exec daddy would approve. ‘It’ always seemed to have his nose far up Tim Cindric’s bottom.
Two-thirds of the field are single-file on lap 3 of 200 and FOX has kicked off the gimmick camera shots. I believe this season may cause me to return to mostly listening to the races on the radio – back to how I began my NASCAR love. I enjoy watching the racing strategy play out during races. I can’t see that when I’m looking at the pavement, the bumpers of cars, the side panels of cars, blimp shots of the tracks that make it look like Hot Wheels cars. The television broadcasts that made me a massive NASCAR fan and led me to many seasons at the track is doing the exact opposite these days. It hasn’t completely turned me off of the sport, yet. I no longer feel certain my future includes blissful Sundays cheering the high speeds, high mileage, high talent excitement of NASCAR racing.
They’ve gone back to double-file on lap 24 of 200, but we’re only seeing a little of the actual side-by-side racing, because the television broadcast is showing the track surface and bumpers of cars for long periods of time and the windows of cars and side panels – basically junky gimmick shots that are visually uninteresting and eliminates the possibility of watching race strategy play out.
Green flag pit stops underway on lap 37 of 200.
The 27 car of Jacques Villeneuve spun onto pit road.
MRN’s Kim Coons is a bit screechy normally, but if there’s a loud noise nearby and she raises her voice my ears bleed. She desperately needs vocal training. She forgets that while the cars are loud to her ears, she still has the microphone near her mouth and the cars aren’t nearly as loud for us as they are for her – so there’s no need to shout. She works really hard on her pit reporter duties and has improved tremendously, but her voice is just painful.
MRN reports Ty Dillon (42) is getting black-flagged for speeding on pit road.
Caution on lap 40 of 200. MRN reports, “Kaz Grala (50) had a wheel come off his race car on the track and Chase Briscoe (14) spun around as well.” The television broadcast is in a commercial break.
Restarting on lap 45 of 200 with Kyle ‘KyBu’ Busch (18) and Joey Logano (22) on the front row.
Caution on lap 51 of 200 for debris. MRN reports there’s a tire rolling down the banking from the 31 car of Justin Haley. Again the television broadcast is in a commercial break.
Seems like the new single center lug wheel isn’t working as well as the multiple lug nuts.
MRN is reporting Chase Briscoe (14) lost his rear diffuser. His team has taped one on. The rear diffuser provides downforce.
Ryan Blaney’s (12) team is having trouble with his wheels and can’t keep the center lug on the wheel. They put it on and it falls off again, so he only has one on the car, on the right rear, at the moment.
Restarting on lap 56 of 200 with KyBu (18) and Joe Gibbs racing teammate ‘Desperate’ Denny Hamlin (11) on the front row.
Caution on lap 62 of 200 for a crash involving Harrison Burton (21), William ‘WilliB’ Byron (24), KyBu (18), Hamlin (11), CBell (20), Ross Chastain (1) and Alex Bowman (48) get collected.
‘It’ was pushing Harrison Burton (21) and Burton turned down into WilliB (24) then back up in front of the field, flipping onto his lid on Alex Bowman’s hood. WilliB tagged the inside wall hard. We were stuck with a bumper cam shot when it occurred so all we saw was the bumper of the car we were stuck under go away.
Martin Truex Jr (19) wins the stage under caution.
MRN reports ‘Desperate’ Denny Hamlin (11) has gone behind the wall. The Harrison Burton (21) car is on the hook heading to the garage. The Christopher ‘CBell’ Bell (20) car is under the crash clock. Kurt Busch (45) got some damage in the incident and is getting repairs on pit road. Alex Bowman (48) and Kyle Busch (18) also on pit road getting repairs.
Harrison Burton (21) and William ‘WilliB’ Byron (24) are out for the day. MRN reports ‘WillB’ had some wins this week at New Smyrna Speedway. Ross Chastain (1) also at the Care Center so I guess he’s out also. Denny Hamlin (11) is also out for the day.
Restarting on lap 71 of 200 with Erik ‘DaBrat’ Jones (43) and Ryan Blaney (12) up front.
On the radio interview Denny Hamlin (11) didn’t have much to say. “The 21 was getting pushed then he turned down into me.” On the tv interview he is blaming ‘It’ who “insisted on pushing the 21 when he was clearly out of control. “Too aggressive pushing when he didn’t have control.”
MRN reports Christopher Bell (20) heads to the garage on lap 74 of 200 ending his day.
MRN report Greg Biffle (44) returned to the track from the garage area.
The field is single-file on lap 91 of 200.
MRN reports this is the first time the 2 car has been driven by a rookie and that Ryan Blaney is tutoring Cindric telling him what to do throughout the race. When your father is a Penske executive you get all kinds of benefits if you decide you want to be a race car driver as Austin Cindric has done.
Green flag stops underway on lap 102 of 200.
On lap 107 of 200 most of the field on the lead lap pit.
Daniel Suarez serves a speeding penalty (99).
Chase Elliott (9) has an extended stop due to his stalling the car. He came in with the Toyotas and was left on pit road attempting to restart the car when they took off.
Chase Briscoe (14) misses his pit box.
Cole Custer’s (41) team is reporting issues fueling his car. He’s made two return trips to pit road.
MRN’s Kim Coons reports CBell is back on track (20) on lap 123 of 200.
We couldn’t see the actual end of the stage. For unknown reasons we were stuck looking at the dashboard and a driver instead of the on-track action. The television coverage on FOX blows so far in the 2022 season.
Martin ‘MTJ’ Truex Jr (19) wins stage two.
I began listening to bits of NASCAR races on my way to and from yoga class. I began to find myself sitting in the driveway to continue to listen when the action was exciting. I then found myself listening inside my home when I came across it on the radio. Eventually the call made it sound so exciting I tuned in on television to see what I was hearing. I eventually got hooked on the visual spectacle and only listened on the radio when I couldn’t watch. It seems that trend is reversing as the television broadcasts become asinine.
Chase Elliott’s team is looking under the front of the 9 car. MRN reports the team is doing damage repair. Kyle Larson clipped the 9 car earlier in the race on pit road.
Kurt Busch’s 45 team is doing additional damage repair on his car.
Michael McDowell (34) will have to serve a speeding penalty.
Restarting on lap 137 of 200 with Brad ‘It’ Keselowski (6) and Austin Cindric (2) on the front row.
FOX will have Matt Kenseth and Danica Patrick in the booth for the next three races. Why? I think Matt Kenseth is incredibly funny. I also think he’s generally boring on the mic otherwise. Danica doesn’t have the voice, nor the training, nor the talent, nor the vocabulary for the job.
Caution on lap 150 of 200 for a crash involving Joey Logano (22), Kurt ‘KuBu’ Busch (45), Tyler Reddick (8), Martin Truex Jr (19), Jacques Villeneuve (27).
Joey Logano and Tyler Reddick are both stuck in the grass.
Tyler is turned by Jacques Villeneuve in front of the field, directly in front of MTJ, KuBu and Logano.
Logano is getting a push out of the grass. He is backed into his pitbox.
They think they broke the rear-toe on Reddick’s car. The car would not roll. Steve Post thinks the bumper has gone through the radiator because there is fluid coming out of the car. He believes they’re just waiting for the wrecker.
Chase Elliott (9) waited to enter his pit letting Bubba Wallace (23) leave before entering his stall.
Larson stalls his car on pit road.
Restarting on lap 159 of 200 with Cindric (2) and Bubba Wallace (23) up front and 20 cars on the lead lap.
MRN reports the lights have come on at the track at 1751 eastern time. The sun is still shining, but sinking behind the grandstands.
Rusty Wallace on MRN said NASCAR learned something new about this new car – when it loses a tire the whole car is on the ground. He believes NASCAR will make some adjustments.
It’s very difficult to see the car numbers on these cars if they’re alongside another car or not at exactly the right angle.
I was recalling the good old days when the broadcast would allow the viewer to watch the energy build so that we could see a wreck, or a run building. Now the shots are so bad just about everything seems to come out of the blue, because the broadcast no longer visually relays the story of the race. It’s kind of like watching a collection of photographs by a photographer who clicks whether or not he’s pointing toward anything relevant.
Bubba and Cindric are trading the lead back and forth depending on the push.
MRN says the Thunderbirds flew over earlier. I missed seeing the fly-over.
Happy 85th birthday Roger Penske.
Bubba (23) and KyBu (18) clear Cindric (2) and Blaney (12) and drop down on the inside lane on lap 177 of 200. Buescher (17) is in the top lane pushing Ricky ‘Wrecky Spin-Out’ Stenhouse Jr (47) to a battle for the lead.
The majority of the field has single-filed out on lap 182 of 200. Only a handful of cars not in the single-file line.
Twenty cars on the lead lap, being led by Stehnouse (47) and Chris Buescher (17).
MRN is reporting fuel may become an issue for some teams on lap 188 fo 200.
The field is breaking into a second line on lap 189 of 200 about mid-pack.
Caution for a crash on lap 190 of 200 involving Kyle Larson (5), Chase Elliott (9), Noah Gragson (62), Kevin Harvick (4), Todd Gilliland (38), and Erik Jones (43).
Harvick turned down into Noah Gragson (62) after a shot in the rear from Kyle Larson (5) when Buescher (17) was checked up. MRN reports Buescher had been dumped so he was moving much more slowly than the linked up cars of Harvick and Larson.
Red flag 1822 eastern on lap 191 of 200. 1827 yellow flag is out.
Kyle Larson (5) actually accepted responsibility for turning Harvick. Shocking. He’s done for the day. So is Todd Gilliland.
Restarting on lap 194 of 200 with Ricky Stenhouse Jr (47) and Austin Cindric (2) on the front row.
Harvick heads to the garage as the field heads to the green flag.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr (47) spins in front of the field bringing out the caution and collecting Chris Buescher (17). ‘It’ turned Stenhouse with a push.
Dave Moody of MRN reports Bubba Wallace (23) got a piece of that and is missing the right front fender.
Lights are off on the pace car at 1842 eastern.
Restarting in overtime – nascar.com just set the lap total to 201 – with Cindric (2) and Blaney (12) on the front row. Fifteen cars on the lead lap according to Jeff Striegle of MRN. It is behind Cindric and Bubba is behind Blaney. Afterburner and Briscoe follow them.
Cindric immediately drops in front of Blaney.
Cindric take the white flag.1845
Austin Cindric gets the win as Blaney tags the wall due to a block by his teammate and Michael McDowell (34) and David Ragan (15) crash behind them. Bubba couldn’t quite get past Cindric finishing 0.036 seconds behind.
What a disappointing finish. Proves money and connections mean more in NASCAR than talent and hard work.
At least Bubba’s final run gave me something to cheer for. Unfortunately I foresaw that son of a Cindric winning.
Bubba is classy in congratulating Cindric. He says he’s dejected on the tv interview. He says the toe was knocked out and he was worried about a tire rub, but Bootie told him it would be okay.
It felt good to cheer for someone at the end of a Cup race for a change. It would’ve felt better if the finish wasn’t rather predictable.
Congrats to Bubba (23) on finishing a very close second.
Congrats to Chase Elliott (9) on managing a tenth place finish.
Looking at the replay I see that I was cheering for Bubba after the race was completed. The stripe was not very visible during the final racing action.
Ryan Blaney (12) congratulated his former crew-chief Jeremy Bullins (2) and Roger Penske for winning the Daytona 500 on this birthday and everybody who worked on the car. He mentioned that he was blocked by Cindric when he started to make a move. He was way less than pleased.
Motorsport News:
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- B. Force fastest in Top Fuel qualifying in Pomona.
- Briscoe, Hemric cars fail pre-race inspection.
- NASCAR Completes Daytona Fence Repairs.
- Chase Elliott signs contract extension with Hendrick Motorsports.
- Kurt Busch Now Becomes the Last Full-Time NASCAR Driver Who Battled with Dale Earnhardt.
- NASCAR driver Myatt Snider thankfully OK after violent, airborne Daytona wreck.
- NASCAR has more Black owners in the Daytona 500 today than ever before.
- 2022 Trans Am Series races to air on CBSSN in prime time.
- B. Force, Capps, Enders lead into finals at Pomona.
- Rosberg team wins opening X Prix of Extreme E Season 2.
- ‘I’ve got a real job’: Jeff Gordon returns to Daytona 500 in a new role.
- Denny Hamlin Criticizes Brad Keselowski’s Aggressiveness in Upside Down Crash.
- Roger Rager, 1948-2022.
- It’s full speed ahead for NASCAR president Steve Phelps.
- Allgaier Likens Snider’s Crash to Larson’s 2013 Wreck.
- Daniel Hemric Begins Title Defense With Pole Win At Daytona 300-Miler.
- Austin Hill Wins His First Race Out with Richard Childress Racing.
- Corey Heim on Pole for ARCA Daytona Race.
- Corey Heim Dominates To Win ARCA Season Opener at Daytona.
- Sean Corr Nabs ARCA Top 5 in Late Bob Keselowski Tribute Paint Scheme.
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