From a NASCAR Fan’s View
Well, hello again from the ‘Old Guy’ hosting the NASCAR Fan’s View blogcast for another NASCAR Cup Season. To coin a phrase that my dentist uses to get me to make an appointment, “It’s been a while since I’ve seen your smile.” Look, I know I can’t see your smiles but I do know I’m back for another season of NASCAR Cup racing and I can’t wait to see how this season pans out from here. (And I still don’t know what that has to do with seeing your smiles… )
For the last couple of years or so, I haven’t been all that interested in the first race of the year and, I have to be honest, I’m not all that thrilled with the way the season starts these days. If I can be bold and honestly state my opinion, this first race on the short track at Bowman Gray and the ones at the Coliseum in California, just aren’t my favorites. I know nobody cares what I think of these races but, to me they are more a race for the drivers than anyone. I realize short track racing appeals to a lot of fans, but to me, these aren’t all that exciting and the real appeal for the fans is the close racing and the bumping and banging, pushing and shoving. That just doesn’t do it for me. I mean, I raced short tracks and there was plenty of that kind of stuff going on in our class and the street racers.
So why do I even bring any and all of this up? Well, because it is going to be racing like a Saturday night under the lights and, even though it’s on a Sunday night, it does hold a certain draw on my attention and I am usually glad I took the time to watch. I can only hope that it is somewhat more than I expect.
Unfortunately, I don’t believe it will be much different if the practices and qualifying were anything like the race will be tonight. I still believe it is a race more for the drivers than anyone else. Since it is short track racing at a track where it is hard to pass, it will be a race that sees what I mentioned earlier. Most of the passing will be done by moving someone out of the way. Oh sure, there will be a little bit of normal passing but most of it will be by what some call the usual method, the “old bump and run.”
Judging from what I witnessed in the heats, some of it could get a little out of hand. I realize a part of short track racing is just what happened in the heats but I also noticed that once things settled down a bit, it was pretty much follow the leader and hardly any passing took place. I admit during the heat races there were fewer cars on the track at once and I know there will be more on the track during the race tonight. What concerns me is that the race will become mostly follow the leader and the only hope someone has of moving forward will be to use their bumpers.
Once again, that’s what many consider to be normal short track racing but, in my biased opinion, the race can become a bit boring. I’m a fan and I like good hard racing but I hope things go a little different than what I witnessed last night.
So, what do I expect to see? Well, that’s a good question. I think the ones that start out front will move ahead until they catch up with the slower cars. That may be the only time things might get interesting. Those in the lead during the heats seemed to stay there because there were only so many cars on the track at once and the heat races were short. In the race tonight things will be decidedly different if for no other reason there will be more cars and more laps.
In this fan’s opinion, that could be the thing that might keep this race interesting. Then again, it may be just the fact that the emotions will begin to mount up and the frustrations from being beat on and bumped continuously will add up to temper displays that could change the whole outcome of the race and, in particular, for those that looked like they might win.
I guess you can tell I’m still not thrilled with The Clash but I will still be watching and hoping to be completely surprised by the outcome…
Ok! Now that I’ve vented about my feelings for this first race of the season, I guess it’s time to move on to what this is really all about… the 2025 NASCAR Cup season. Can’t wait for Daytona!
Hey, this is Russ and that’s my view… See ya next time…
All views expressed are strictly the opinion of the writer
© February 02, 2025 – all rights reserved
Rusty Norman, Nascarfansview.com and Justafansview.com
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