This year’s race is Sunday at Daytona International Speedway and Logano, the pride of Middletown, will be there in hopes of getting the 2017 season off to a memorable start, like he did in 2015 when he won.
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Monster Energy is the new sponsor of the NASCAR Cup Series and the women – dressed in knee-high boots and corset-style shirts – appeared last Sunday as official on-track ambassadors, said USA Today’s blog For The Win.
It’s apparently a common question Earnhardt is asked, and he shed some more light on the unpleasant subject Tuesday. “We’re nearly going to be forgotten”.
And when Waltrip won his second 500 in 2003, that one was rain-shortened, and thus diminished in another way. Laughing, smiling and always over the top, he’s made the easy part-time transition into FOX’s television broadcasts.
Thursday night’s race will also give us a good indication of how strong our auto will be in a pack and how well we’ll be able to draft with Erik’s No. 77 Toyota and also with the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas.
With the Daytona 500 just days away, it’s time to make some predictions about what’s to come in the 2017 NASCAR Cup season.
CONCUSSION AWARENESS: The absence of Dale Earnhardt Jr. for 18 races last season raised awareness on concussions in racing, and NASCAR this year has beefed up its concussion policy in an effort to better detect head injuries.
“The partnership with Aaron’s has been important to me, and they could wrap their arms around us doing a final race together”, Waltrip said.
The Daytona 500 is unique compared to other sporting events, as it’s like having the NBA’s Christmas Day games as the first day of the regular season. (The outrage might be justified, but they are certainly no more revealing than what a typical National Football League team’s cheerleaders wear.) It’s symptomatic of the sponsorship straits in which NASCAR found itself that terms of the deal with Monster haven’t been revealed.
And it all comes to an end on Sunday. There’s a few races I’d like to win.
“But I love Daytona”.
Jimmie Johnson carried the banner for one of NASCAR’s original super teams in 2016, winning all five of the team’s races and his seventh premier series championship.
“Just enough to let fans go to the bathroom and get a commercial break in”, one driver quipped.
Martin Truex Jr. saw his Daytona 500 victory vanish in just a blink of an eye. The place differential category is still going to have some value, but for the most part, building a winning lineup is going to require a lineup of drivers who all finish near the front. “That’s the last box that I don’t have checked”. He and the rest of the NASCAR drivers as well as the truck racers (when that became a thing), the ARCA drivers and the guys in the Busch series spent hours on the track testing and in practice, looking for the right setup.
Indeed, this was technically just an exhibition race.
And he makes no apologies for carving his own unique spot in the sport’s history.
Maybe the highlight was trading helmets with four-time Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel. If the best orthopedic surgeons in the world often can’t figure out what causes back pain, think of the added complexities neurologists face when dealing with brain bruises.
He knows his final race will be emotional.
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Q: Why is this year more important? I would have done everything that I have wanted to accomplish, so I’d have to find different means of motivation to come back.
