Has the 2013 Daytona 500 Become Just Another Race?

Does That Look Like Your Typical Daytona Finish?

Here, I'm going to chat a bit about what I've seen so far and how this year, the Daytona 500 has a different feel to it.  And how almost any race run, it's the last few moments that define a race weekend's events.

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For The First Time in 20 Years, I'm Not Enthusiastic About The Daytona 500. 

Every year I've come to anticipate the outcome of the Daytona 500.  Every year, or every race on the Daytona International Raceway track surface had brought with it two things:

• Excitement to see the better drivers get to the front of the pack &
• The fickle fate of the push-draft and the effect it has on the final few laps of the race.

Drivers have always said how they hate the process of racing at Daytona and in restrictor plate racing and how it's more a crap shoot than skill.  Yet in just about every race, it is the more season drivers who usually manage to make it to the front and take the checkered flag.  Except in the case of Trevor Bayne, when the majority of the name drivers in that race had already been parked via wrecks and what not.

So it's actually a "predictable" race. Predictable in how 8 to 20 cars will cross the finish line within .5 to 1 second of each other.  Predictable in how the name drivers (the seasoned talent) always manage to be up front at the finish.  But predictable is not counting what used to be those final moments of green flag racing.  And that was the bump draft, where a car can goose the gas with the excess horsepower they have from being in the draft, and push both of he and his lead drafting partner to the front.  It was all about the timing... and patience of everyone involved.  And it made for fun racing to watch for 480 miles, and intensely exciting, heart-stopping racing for those last 20 miles.

But this year, with the introduction of the new Gen-6 NASCAR race body, all that has changed.  In fact, it looks like it's changed the racing back to the old school days of racing where the better cars pull out front and the finishes will now have the stronger cars of the pack vying for the win.

That in itself, in most every other race, is pretty exciting, but this is not what Daytona has come to be known for.  And I worry the TV ratings could possibly demonstrate that.

In the exhibition race held last Sunday and the Budweiser Duel qualifying races run Thursday, what I saw was actual race plotting.  The high line seemed to work better throughout the race.  Slipping into the single file pack paid its dividends and bump drafting is now a thing of the past since pushing the car in front of you now results in getting them sideways.  Or having your aero messed up just enough, that the now shorter spoilers don't keep the cars on the track.

I've watched three races where the race leader made a few good, blocking moves, and kept the lead and won the race.  Unlike days of old, where half the pack could be contending to take the checkered flag, now, we can pretty much guess who might hold off and win the race, with 5 laps to go.  Much like any other race of the season.

Me, as exciting as it seemed, (barring the potential hazard to the drivers), always looked forward to how the restrictor plate races pan out.   This year, I think I know.

Congrats NASCAR, you did indeed eliminate the tandem draft.  And now all the fans should be pretty happy about... no, wait, from what I'm hearing, the fans are seeing the same thing I am.  And NASCAR is back to square one with the Daytona 500.

Or are they?

I retweeted journalist Jeff Gluck yesterday when he said, "Blah Sprint Unlimited. Blah Duels. Hope the Daytona 500 snaps the pattern with the Gen 6 car."

I'd like to think that the Daytona 500, with all 43 cars on the track proves me wrong.  I really do, because the excitement of those finishes was something I've always carried with me through the years.  But if this becomes just another track where the field is spread out and the leader can hold off the competition in the final lap, then this will become just another race.  At least, in as much as the racing is concerned.  (One which I think Kevin Harvick might have a handle on, since he won both the Unlimited and his Duel.)

No matter what, it's still the Great American Race, as hyped, and the Daytona 500 will define someone's career for the rest of racing history, pretty much as it's always done.  And we will be talking about it come Monday.

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