Nascar at Daytona – 2010: Will the Carnage Continue?

 

 

The Budweiser Shootout opened the 2010 Nascar season even though it isn’t a points race and has very little to do with the actual season. In fact I would go so far as to say it won’t tell us much about Daytona 500 or who will win it, either. From this fan’s view, one thing we probably should look for this coming Sunday would be a return to more accidents and maybe even more than one of the “Big Ones”. I really think the Gatorade Duels on Thursday will tell us a lot more about which of the teams may have an advantage going into Sunday’s race.

 

The Shootout definitely showed how aggressive the drivers can be, (which it does just about every year), and how they might handle the slight relaxation of some of the rules. It was a good warm up for the teams and drivers that were qualified to be in it. Even though most probably won’t be running their Shootout car on Thursday or Sunday, most of the drivers were happy to knock a little of the rust off of their Super Speedway driving talents and showed, once again, they were chomping at the bit to get the season under way … and soon.

 

It will be interesting, from this fan’s view, to see how many more Cup teams may have to move to backups after the Duels tomorrow. As I said, I don’t see the carnage letting up… If anything, I’m expecting more of the same of what we’ve witnessed so far. Yessir, it’s shaping up to be quite a “Speed Weeks.”

 

One thing is certain so far. No one will deny the fact that a lot of racing equipment has been torn up and many of the drivers have had to revert to backup cars. It has just been a little rough so far and, personally, I don’t see the carnage letting up. The practice sessions have had more than few altercations and some of the same people have been involved in more than one. All of this action hasn’t been just limited to the Sprint Cup side, either. The ARCA race tried their best to be a “wreck-fest”, and the Camping World Trucks and Nationwide Series have yet to run their races. Who knows what will happen in them…?