Fans rejoice: Race season finally here
Start your engines! Another NASCAR racing season is upon us and if the events of this week are any indication, it should be a fun year.
Many changes have been made for this season. First and foremost, Toyota has entered into the Cup Series with as many as seven full-time racing teams. Some team owners have already expressed concerns that Toyota will spend, spend, spend, and then spend some more, causing General Motors, Chrysler and Ford to fall behind in R&D and team financing.
Some racing reporters feel the addition of Toyota will greatly improve competition. Dale Jarrett and Michael Waltrip have moved over to Toyota, as well as Brian Vickers, Dave Blaney, Jeremy Mayfield, and two rookie drivers.
Another change will be the Car of Tomorrow, a new car model that all the teams will use in 16 of this year?s 36-race schedule. The new model is supposed to go slower, increase driver safety and cost less for team owners to set up for a race. Many drivers are already expressing their dissatisfaction with the car as a result of testing during the offseason.
ESPN and ABC have signed on for 17 races this season and you can already see increased NASCAR news reports on ESPN. For years, NASCAR seemed to be a non-sport in ESPN?s programming.
Five drivers will run for Rookie of the Year with full-time teams. Most notable is Juan Pablo Montoya. Montoya ran Formula 1 cars in Europe and the U.S., and is an Indy 500 winner also. He has very limited experience in Cup cars but has Chip Ganassi backing him as team owner.
Other drivers running a full schedule and competing for Rookie of the Year are David Ragan, David Reutimann, A.J. Allmendinger and Paul Menard. Reutimann and Allmendinger have not qualified for the Daytona 500 race this weekend, putting them behind the 8 ball.
The big news this week leading up to Daytona seems to be the crackdown on illegal setups. Six teams have been penalized for infractions, the most severe being two-time Daytona winner Michael Waltrip and his No. 55 team.
A suspicious substance was found in the intake manifold resulting in NASCAR impounding the car, 100 driver and owner points were forfeited, crew chief David Hyder and the VP of team racing have been suspended indefinitely, and the team fined $100,000.
This is one of the largest penalties given to any team in NASCAR?s history. Crew chiefs for Kasay Kahne and Matt Kenseth were suspended for four races, the teams forfeit 50 driver and owner points and the qualification times were disallowed for failing post-qualification inspections.
Scott Riggs and Elliott Sadler had 25 driver and owner points deducted, their crew chiefs received a two-race suspension and the teams were fined $25,000 each for unapproved bolt modifications.
This was the first time NASCAR has deducted driver and owner points prior to the first race of the season.
After Jeff Gordon won his qualifying race Thursday, he was relegated to the back of the field for the 500 because his car was an inch too low during post-race inspections.
Cheating is nothing new to NASCAR racing. It seems most crew chiefs admit to bending the rules and getting away with what they can, as the sport has become so competitive. The problem now is that NASCAR has hired the cheaters of old to do today?s inspections and teams are having trouble slipping things past them.
Let?s hope for a safe and exciting Daytona 500 race today. I hope to be back next week with insight into the next race as well as any other items of interest I can dig up.
Art Larson Sr., has been following racing for over 40 years. He can be reached at [email protected].