Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...
Tony Kanaan announced that this May will be his final time competing in an IndyCar and the Indianapolis 500. A tiebreaker decided what team would get a 24 Hours of Le Mans invite. A few more Formula One liveries were unveiled. A few errors nearly decided the Supercross race in Oakland. There were a few repeat winners at Daytona. Conor Daly may have had the greatest Thursday of his career, but it is the entire week that is on my mind...
Special in Name Only
For the 65th time, the Daytona 500 took place, NASCAR's biggest race. It opened another Cup season and for Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., and JTG Daugherty Racing it became a memorable day. Still a significant event and a race every driver wants to win, but this year Daytona became something it should never be, just another event. Truth be told, it has been trending in that direction for quite some time.
Speedweeks has been reduced to five days. There was no practice session before Wednesday night's qualifying session. Conor Daly could not completely a qualifying run because of an oil line issue. Chandler Smith, the first qualifier of the night, had his car break down as he roll off of pit lane for his warm-up lap. Both those drivers were pigeonholed into having to race in to the Daytona 500 without have a chance to be one of the fastest two Open entries or at least having a chance to establish a time that could be enough to fall back on. Even worse is Daly's car was out of balance on the pace laps for the second qualifying race, clearly not up to standard to race, and his Daytona 500 hopes looked practically daed before he could even complete a lap at speed.
Fortunately for Daly, Austin Hill and Travis Pastrana were both caught in an accident in that qualifying race, allowing Daly to slip into the Daytona 500 as the top Open entry in that race and then proceed to finish the Daytona 500 six laps down.
This year's format was an abomination to motorsports. Even the locked in teams were looking for some practice ahead of qualifying. Instead, the first time the cars took to the track with other entries was in Thursday night's qualifying races. Don't worry. After a pair of 60-lap races, and once the 40 entries were set, the teams got two 50-minute practices split over Friday and Saturday ahead of Sunday's race. For the biggest race of the season, NASCAR should want its teams most prepared and competing at their highest level, not winging it and hoping everything works.
Beyond being the Daytona 500, this race has lost much of what made it special. Ninety percent of the spots are guaranteed. Each qualifying race is determining one position apiece. The buildup is more a charade before race day, repeating the motions because it has been done this way for over six decades even though these steps no longer matter.
If this is NASCAR's biggest race, NASCAR should treat it as such, and it shouldn't afraid of it being different. This is the series that will develop a special package to run one dirt race but cannot find a way to have at least one more 50-minute practice session.
Everything around the Daytona 500 used to have meaning. The qualifying races weren't just a 60-lap warm-up that happened to set the grid. A driver couldn't afford a bad day. Outside of the front row and a handful of other drivers that qualified at the front, no one could feel safe with their qualifying time alone. Even those in the middle of the field had to feel pressure to perform on Thursday knowing there was a possibility they could miss NASCAR's biggest race.
Failure is a great motivator. It isn't as abundant as it should be leading up to the Daytona 500.
NASCAR keeps reverting back to the way things used to be in a few other areas of the schedule. The Southern 500 moved back to Labor Day weekend in 2015. A dirt race is back on the Cup schedule after nearly 50 years without one. North Wilkesboro will be back after being dilapidated for 25 years! What is old is new again, and the same can be true for the Daytona 500.
Thirty-five races can look the same, but the Daytona 500 should have its own identity. It should be the one race where nobody is locked in. It doesn't matter if it is a Chartered team or an Open team. All 40 spots are up for grabs. The Chartered teams will still get the money even if they miss, but they aren't assured a spot in the race. They have 35 other races plus the Clash they get to compete in. For Daytona, they have to earn it.
Qualifying would matter. Only the top two would make it, but all those qualifying runs would carry weight. A top ten run would likely be enough to fall back on, but someone who qualifies 25th could be in a dicey situation if the qualifying race does not go as planned. And the qualifying races would be more than riding around, single-file around the bottom for 50 of 60 laps. Drivers couldn't afford to lose the pack.
The original Daytona 500 qualifying method still works in the 2020s, and people would understand it. Qualifying locks in the front row. The top fifteen finishers in each qualifying race fill in rows two through 16. The remaining eight spots would be for the fastest eight drivers that did not race in during the qualifying races.
It would at least add some tension to each session. A poor qualifying run could allow doubt to drift into a team's head. A team could overthink the qualifying race and find it on the outside. The qualifying races would at least be worth viewing. For the better part of the last decade it has been for one spot in each race and that battle for those final two Daytona 500 spots has usually been anti-climatic or been at the very back of the pack, sometimes seconds behind the lead pack. In this case it would be throughout the entire field.
The current format disincentivizes trying to attempt the Daytona 500. If you are in an Open entry, you are competing for one of four spots. Hélio Castroneves hoped to attempt the Daytona 500 this year but the lack of practice combined with driving for a one-off team while only having four spots to fight for is a turnoff for any driver interested in giving it a shot. It is more appealing to try and run at Martinsville or Gateway or Loudon. At least a driver would get some practice laps before having to make a qualifying run.
NASCAR should want the Daytona 500 to be a destination race for the best drivers from other series. It should want a half-dozen one-off entries with drivers from many different disciplines competing along with the normal five or six NASCAR regulars running part-time or only attempting Daytona. To do that it must make the drivers feel like they have a fair shot at competing, not have it be a crapshoot that a team will have the car just right for one qualifying lap and a 60-lap race right off the truck in hopes of claiming one of four spots available.
The Daytona 500 should feel different but for more than its six-plus decades of history. That history was established through a system that gave the small teams hope and could humble the large organizations. That should still be the case in 2023, and frankly it would be better than what we have been seeing for the last decade, especially this past Wednesday and Thursday.
Taking away the guarantee would only make the buildup better, For Daytona to be special, it should mean something to make the race, not be a given, and adding some practice would only be fair to everyone making an attempt.
Champions From the Weekend
The #3 DKR Engineering Oreca-Gibson of Salih Yoluç, Charlie Eastwood and Ayhancan Güven clinched the Asian Le Mans Series LMP2 championship with its victory in the season finale at Yas Marina Circuit.
The #8 Graff Racing Ligier-Nissan of François Heriau, Xavier Lloveras and Fabrice Rossello clinched the ALMS LMP3 championship with its victory in the season finale at Yas Marina Circuit, winning the championship on tiebreaker over the #29 MV2S Racing Ligier-Nissan of Jérôme de Sadeleer, Viacheslav Gutak and Fabien Lavergne.
The #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW of Nicky Catsburg, Chandler Hull and Thomas Merrill clinched the ALMS GT championship
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and some of what happened in the Asian Le Mans Series, but did you know...
Austin Hill won the Grand National Series race from Daytona. Zane Smith won a rain-shortened Truck race.
Eli Tomac won the Supercross race at Oakland, his third victory of the season.
The #37 COOL Racing Oreca-Gibson of Alexandre Coigny and Malthe Jakobsen won the first ALMS race at Abu Dhabi. The #4 Nielsen Racing Ligier-Nissan of Matt Bell and Tony Wells won in LMP3. The #7 Haupt Racing Team Mercedes-AMG of Al Faisal Al Zubair, Martin Konrad and Luca Stolz swept the ALMS races in the GT class.
Coming Up This Weekend
Fontana has its final race on the two-mile oval.
Formula E visits another new country, this time it is South Africa for the Cape Town ePrix.
Also taking place in South Africa, the Kyalami 9 Hour, the second Intercontinental GT Challenge round of the season.
Supercross will be in Arlington, Texas.
World Superbike opens its season at Phillip Island.
