The Beginning of the NASCAR Season in Review (Pre-Martinville)

By: Rebecca Cottingham

​Like most fans, I count down the days, hours  and minutes from the end of the season until “Speed Weeks ”happen in Dayton every year. I have to find something to fill my time between then. Sometimes I fill that time with catching up on football and other times with books since I have been a fan since a child. NASCAR has always been something that has brought my family together at home or at a live event. So waiting for the Dayton 500 was no different for me this year.

​Speed weeks are always part of the showcase that is the start of the season. It is a glimpse at what the season could hold. Who has spent the down time testing and preparing for the season.  Along with who has spent sometime in the sun with their family and friends. We also get a glimpse of who seems hungry enough to go for a championship in both series. Also don’t forget the rookies moving up for the first time into the Monster Energy or Xfinity series. While things start shaking up around midseason for drivers under contract review, we have to get used to our favorite drivers possibly in a new car. What is there not to love and wait for every season?

​Dayton came in with a bang as it always does. We had Ryan Blaney win one of the Can-Am Duels. That was quickly followed by a fan favorite from last year, Chase Elliot in his new number nine car winning the second duel of the evening. We also got to see some bigger names get taken out during the duals that would have to move to back up cars for the actual Dayton 500. To top all of that off we had the Rookie Alex Bowman, a college sophomore at Liberty University who placed his car in the top starting position for the super bowl of NASCAR.

​With any restrictor plate race you can expect close racing with only your best guess as to who is going to complete the race. The person who starts on the pole hardly ever actually wins the race. There is almost always a huge accident that is likely to take out your favorite driver either by the half way point or at the end of the race. When you are driving 200 miles per hour within inches of other drivers, one wrong move will send you and several other drivers into the wall. When the big one happens in the middle of the race it can cause a delay but for a time period the drivers settle down until the end of the race. Once we get within the last twenty to thirty laps, watch out. Drivers are ready to truly starting to make deals and moves to try to set themselves up for the win. This is the second largest chance for a big accident to happen. Therefore, sending us into what we love to call overtime in NASCAR to determine who is going to be declared the winner.

This year’s Dayton 500 was no different. Austin Dillion won his first race of the season closely followed by an emotional Darrell (Bubba) Wallace JR. This is after a late large crash that sent us into overtime and a battle at the end to close out one of the largest races in NASCAR.  In the end, only 10 total drivers ended this race on the lead lap. Others were either out due to the new NASCAR damaged car policy or had fixed their car to the standard but could not truly be competitive at the front of the pack. Austin being the grandchild of Richard Childress has a lot of pressure and a lot of things to prove in Monster Energy series. Richard Childress has given him everything he needs to win, and so far with only one other win under him he is bound to be feeling the pressure.

Darrell (Bubba) Wallace JR gave him the push he needed to win the race but it also gave him the best finish of any African American in NASCAR’s Dayton 500. He has worked extremely hard to get where he is in racing and his post-race interviews show what an emotional day it was for him.  That he is making his mark on NASCAR and that he is here to stay. Richard Petty made a heck of decision in placing Darrell (Bubba) Wallace in the number forty-three car for the foreseeable future.

We moved from a wreck filled Dayton 500 to the Atlanta Motor speedway. Where Kevin Harvick showed up and simply dominated the little over one and half mile racetrack from start to finish. He dominated so much that a new term was createdjust for what he accomplished. Harvicking is now officially a thing, because of the driving style that he used in order to get around the track with little to no difficulty. This saved Kevin Harvick after a couple of mishaps throughout the day, but in the end nothing would hold him back from taking the checkered flag.

Kevin Harvick would then leave Atlanta Motor Speedway and head to Las Vegas and ISM Raceway for two more wins. Kevin Harvick looked unstoppable even after facing penalties through his wins. He had rear window car part failure at Las Vegas and loose lug nuts from Atlanta. Everyone was wondering what was going to happen heading into Fontana at Auto Club Speedway for Harvick. Only for everything to change in his chase for finishing four races in a row as the winner.

Martin Truex Jr came out and dominated by putting his car on the pole for the first time this season post winning the NASCAR championship. We had not heard much from Martin so far in the races. Many people and fans were wondering if Martin Truex Jr was a once and done kind of championship driver. But the way he drove that car no only proved that Martin Truex Jr is not a once and done championship driver, but that he can honestly do anything he wishes to do in racing. We look forward to seeing and hearing more from Martin throughout this season.

Then we come to small paperclip race track known as Martinsville. It is the fastest short track around and NASCAR experienced its first snow delay ever known. Normally, we have rain delays, but Virginia experienced a snow storm that shut down the track during the Camping series race. After being postponed until Sunday they ended up pushing it back to a Monday start time. Tony Stewart made a call to put Clint Bowyer in a Stewart-Hass car this season. That had some people questioning his decision. Well Clint showed up when he needed to. While Denny Hamlin won stage one and Ryan Blaney took stage two, Clint won the stage that truly counted.

The new question is what has happened to Chevrolet cars since the first race? While Austin Dillion showed up and put Chevy in victory circle for the first race, all remaining races have been won by either Ford or Toyota. People have been expecting more from Drivers such as: Chase Elliot, Alex Bowman, Kyle Larson, Martin Truex, and Ryan Newman. Speed or getting used to the new body style maybe an issue. Only time will honestly tell but they are going to have to do something to play catch up in this season in order to make an impact or to bring Chevy another championship. There is also another big issue that seems to have started at the end of last year heading into this season; large sponsors are pulling out of NASCAR. Now what are they going to do to fix this new issue? How is NASCAR going to respond?