Why I Like NASCAR Starts/Restarts: It's Part Personal, Part TV

One of my favorite parts of a NASCAR race, regardless of whether it's the Sprint Cup, Nationwide or Camping World series, is the start of any race.  And I have to add restarts in there too.

What I find exciting about the start of any NASCAR race is that all the hype, media and past performance statistics become moot.  No more predictions, hopes or focusing on team emotions.  No more surveys asking the emotionally invested fans.

It's go time and all predictions will be proven true or not by the end of the day.

Personally

In the starts (and restarts) of a race, everyone is side-by-side and packed into as small amount of track surface as they'll ever be.

It's this moment when we'll see who the more aggressive drivers are, the better setups, or the most desperate or ill-tamed drivers in the pack.

I like it because this is where most of the fender rubbing could happen.  Where exciting pack passes can take place.  And if someone screws up, where some sheet metal will be left with paint from their competitors or pieces of it on the track.

And the first few laps show us if the cars is seeded in the right spot or they had to settle for this starting spot.

The other aspect that I find good is...

TV

It's the start/restarts of a race that the majority of the field will be captured by the TV cameras covering the race.  They almost can't help but show most cars in the field, whether they like it or not.

It's true that in some of the 'down the stretch' shots, you have to look hard for your driver, but it can be done.

Plus if you have an eagle eye, an awful lot of action takes place back in the pack that sometimes the network misses or chooses not to cover because it's more important to show the single car leader all by themselves because they're a name driver.

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Be it as it may, sometimes a race finish will have come at the end of a long day of many laps around some tracks where everyone sorts themselves out and settles in.  Some of the finishes can be pre-ordained by how the leader has dominated.  Sometimes you might get a good race-ender too, but on those days when a few dominate, that takes a bit away from the finish.

It's almost a one-trick pony.

But during the starts/restarts, especially later on in a race, there's all kinds of options that can happen then.  That's when NASCAR racing gets exciting.  When you don't know and you start worrying/hoping about your favorite driver or freaking out that this desperate driver near your driver might do something stupid.  Therein lies the excitement!

-Bruce