This past Wednesday and Thursday, while most of the northeast was digging snow and ice off their cars, were big days on the Eastern coast of Florida. Daytona International Speedway, host to NASCAR’s “Super Bowl,” the season-opening Daytona 500, hosted 18 NASCAR drivers from six teams in a Goodyear tire test on the new surface.
One thing was certain; this isn’t the old Daytona. It’s more like, well, Talladega. Take it from two guys who know what it’s like to get around Daytona.
“It’s certainly going to be more Talladega-type, really close, restrictor-plate racing. … You’ve got to hope that you’re going to make it to the end because the odds (of big wrecks) are going to be really good I’d say,” said defending Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray.
One thing was certain; this isn’t the old Daytona. It’s more like, well, Talladega. Take it from two guys who know what it’s like to get around Daytona.
“It’s certainly going to be more Talladega-type, really close, restrictor-plate racing. … You’ve got to hope that you’re going to make it to the end because the odds (of big wrecks) are going to be really good I’d say,” said defending Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray.
McMurray, pictured here after winning the Brickyard 400 in July, says racing at Daytona will be more like Talladega now that the track has been repaved
“It’s going to be more like Talladega,” said Bobby Labonte, who finished second in the 1998 Daytona 500. “It’s going to lend to more pushing, more shoving, more drafting like that. Obviously, that’s going to lend to more things that could happen.”
Get ready for breathtaking, side-by-side racing action, folks. How long can you hold your breath? We’ll find out in nine weeks, when the green flag drops on the Daytona 500.
Also, NASCAR announced on Thursday that there would be a new re-fueling procedure put into place in 2011. Gone are the catch cans, replaced now by a self-venting dump can. This procedure worked so well in the Camping World Truck Series that NASCAR has adopted it for the Nationwide (nee Busch) and Sprint Cup Series circuits this season.
“Over our three national series, we’ll run a fueling system that will eliminate the catch-can guy [because] it fuels and vents all in one process,” NASCAR vice president for competition Robin Pemberton said. “It’s what the trucks have used, successfully.”
Has my countdown started yet? No, but with no post-season college football in Cincinnati this season, it’s time for me to focus on the next season—the next NASCAR season. Nine weeks, 63 days, that’s all we’ve got left before the stars of NASCAR get rolling in what could be the season’s most exciting opener in years.
I can’t wait.
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