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The confetti has fallen and Daytona is in the rearview mirror. Speedweeks is a thing of the past and it’s now time to look ahead at the rest of the season.
While Cup and Xfinity are headed to Hollywood for a race at Auto Club Speedway, there are still a lot of key takeaways from last week. Whether it was surprise winners, big wrecks or just good racing, Speedweeks gave us a lot to talk about.
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The Truck Series is wide open
The Truck race at Daytona is one of my personal favorite races every year, and this year was no exception. There was a very healthy mix of usual drivers up front and surprises mixing it up. For every John Hunter Nemechek leading 50 laps and both stage breaks, there was polesitter Ty Majeski leading 21 laps in his first full-time start for Thorsport. It wasn’t just Majeski, as Colby Howard led nine laps in his first start for Bill McAnally’s second entry. With last year’s top-two championship finishers sweeping the top-two spots, this time Zane Smith beating Ben Rhodes, everyone knows who they will need to get through. But if Daytona is any indiciation, the championship sure won’t be a cakewalk for anyone.
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Chevrolet is King in the Xfinity Series
Shoutout to Ty Gibbs and Joe Graf Jr. for being the only non-Chevrolet drivers to lead on Saturday. That’s 6/120 laps that the bowties weren’t leading for. This is no fluke either, as Kaulig Racing and Jr. Motorsports are the two best teams at superspeedways. It doesn’t matter who Kaulig brings in, because they’re always competitive. In his first run, Daniel Hemric won the pole and both stages, and was the favorite to win until he got a speeding penalty, then was caught up in a lap 91 wreck. He had a good shot at the win, especially as teammate Aj Allmendinger was running up front all day, losing the win on the last lap. While Jr. Motorsports wasn’t too competitive as a whole, they had two top-fives, including a Noah Gragson who made an early candidate for Save of the Year. He was looking like the guy to contest Allmendinger, but got beat by another Chevy team.
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Do not overlook Richard Childress Racing
What an incredible day RCR had on Saturday, as their two rookies were up front all day and scored a win and a sixth-place finish. Both graduates of the Truck Series, Daytona-winner Austin Hill and Sheldon Creed were guys that didn’t get the attention they deserved moving up to Xfinity. Both have eight Truck wins to their name in three years, with Creed grabbing the 2020 Championship. Richard Childress did a masterful job rebuilding his Xfinity program, a team that boasts some of the best alumni, like Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer and Tyler Reddick. They’re off to a fantastic start, and I don’t see them slowing down soon. It’s too bad that there’s only one Rookie of the Year award.
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NASCAR’s safety innovations can’t go unnoticed
We witnessed a horrifying crash on the final lap Saturday, as Myatt Snider’s car flipped and was shredded by the catchfence. While everyone held their breath, including Michael Jordan and Bubba Wallace watching the wreck unfold right behind said catchfence, Snider miraculously walked away from his car that lost all of its tires and its engine. This past Friday was the anniversary of Dale Earnhardt’s passing, the last fatality in a NASCAR national touring series event. While it took too long for major safety innovations to come into effect, the success that these have had is unbelievable. The mandates of HANS devices, addition of SAFER barriers and reconstruction of cars with safety at the forefront have made differences that has forever changed the sport. Right off the bat, I can think of drivers like Ryan Newman, Michael McDowell, Kyle Larson, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch that could’ve been seriously injured, or even worse, had these changes not had the success they’ve had. Fans, say what you want about Brian France and NASCAR executives, but this is something that they knocked out of the park.
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Early Gen-Seven advantage: Ford
Holy smokes, Ford has come to play. Ford has been the team to beat on superspeedways for a while, but nobody expected what we saw on Thursday, as both duels saw four-car breakaways consisting solely of the Blue Ovals. The only things they didn’t win were the pole and stages. Every checkered flag went to a Ford, including the big one, with Austin Cindric doing the unthinkable and winning the Daytona 500 as a rookie. One team that was very impressive was RFK Racing. In addition to the Duel wins, Brad Keselowski led 67 laps and was the most aggressive driver out there (for better or worse). Jack Roush’s team has been easily the third-best Ford team lately, behind Penske and Stewart-Haas. Between Keselowski’s presence at RFK and Tony Stewart hinting at switching to Dodge, might we be seeing a shift in power at Ford?
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The Kids are Alright
I have never seen a driver improve as much as Austin Cindric has since 2017. I compare him to Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen, someone who came in with obvious raw, though untapped, potential. Cindric struggled out of the gate, in a Truck year and his first Xfinity season. Something clicked in 2019, as he’s had a stellar progression ever since, with an Xfinity championship and now a Daytona 500 under his belt. He’s easily the most Cup ready rookie since Chase Elliott, and there’s no reason he can’t score more wins this year. It’s not just him, as Harrison Burton was looking very competitive in his first Daytona 500. It didn’t end well, as he flipped over at the end of Stage 1, but leading laps and being competitive is a promising sign. The other rookie, Todd Gilliland, had a great day as he scored nine stage points in his Cup debut. Unfortunately, he couldn’t avoid the lap 190 crash, but that’s the nature of the beast. Few people would blame the rookies if they took it relatively easy and just logged laps, especially in a new car. The fact that all three of them battled all day and ran up front is a very promising sign. The future is in good hands.
This was a great Speedweeks to watch. Hopefully NASCAR continues to build off the promising start. What are your takeaways from Speedweeks? Feel free to leave a comment, or Tweet me @HBLoomis. Let’s talk racing!
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