Well, it is safe to say this season is off to a flying start.
This is our 11th season with our NASCAR on FOX team and this season has started better, in my opinion, than the previous ten. The energy, the excitement, the anticipation and the passion have returned to our sport.
As it should, since it’s our biggest race of the year, the Daytona 500 really set the sport off on the right path. It all started with resurfacing Daytona International Speedway, which hadn’t been repaved since 1979. That got the drivers and the teams excited, especially after the tire test in December and then the three-day test in January.
Now we had seen the two-car tango at Talladega Superspeedway before, but the cars simply couldn’t replicate that at Daytona because of the old rough surface and lack of grip. The new surface was a game changer, and a positive one at that. The racing was different. It was different from anything we had ever seen at Daytona before.
From the Budweiser Shootout to the Gatorade Duel races to the Daytona 500, the two-car tandems were the hot tip. Two cars hooked up simply ran faster than the other packs. You’re talking about two cars being 10 to 15 miles an hour faster than the others that weren't running in pairs.
It made for a very exciting race for the fans in the stands, the fans at home and honestly for us up in the booth. We had to learn to call a different type of race because the action changed so much and so quickly. Then, we come down to the end of the day and have a storybook ending. A young man who had just turned 20 years old the day before, driving the iconic No. 21 car, became the youngest winner of the Daytona 500.
Trevor Bayne was able to hold off veteran Carl Edwards to the checkered flag. Trevor’s life changed forever. For the rest of his life, he will be introduced as the 2011 Daytona 500 winner. That’s how big and how important this race is on the professional sports landscape.
Trevor’s a great kid. He’s good looking and well spoken. On the Monday following the race, NASCAR took Trevor on a media blitz all over the country promoting our sport. The action then moved out West to the desert and at Phoenix we had another surprise winner.
Jeff Gordon passed Kyle Busch, who had already won the Camping World Truck and Nationwide races at Phoenix that weekend, and won the race. It snapped a 66-race losing streak for Jeff.
There was a lot of action and a great race at Phoenix and the Hendrick offseason realignment of drivers and teams paid its first dividend.
All that momentum carried over to Las Vegas. That place is like a big amusement park. There’s all kind of things you can do in Las Vegas. Carl Edwards did a great job and won his third race in our last five events going back to the end of 2010. It also made up for Carl’s extreme disappointment the week prior. He had a really strong car at Phoenix but got wrecked out early.
I felt bad for Tony Stewart last Sunday. He and the team got behind with a pit-road infraction and they just never could overcome it. They then made a bold call in the pits later in the day by only taking two tires and the rest took four tires. Tony drove away from the field. That’s how good his car was.
Unfortunately, it put them in a box late in the race. When it came down to the last green-flag stop late in the race, they put four tires on Tony’s car and the others took two. While I understand the need for four tires at that point, I probably would have rolled the dice one more time and have only taken two tires.
Carl Edwards was one of those that only took two tires. He got a big lead. Tony simply couldn’t chase him down and had to settle for second. Carl won the race. Carl did his famous victory back-flip and the fans went wild. All Tony could do was wonder how he and his team lost that race and to tell our Matt Yocum in his postrace interview that “second sucks” even though Tony had just taken over the points lead.
So that was our first three races. I don’t think I have been to the first three races of any season where we had so much happen, with so many storylines that include a new points system, new nose for the car, new fuel and a new fueling system.
Overall, though, there is a new attitude in our sport.
It’s great to see the Ford’s back. They are running great. The Toyotas are running well. The Chevrolets are always strong. Even the two full-time Dodges of Kurt Busch and Brad Kesolowski are running strong.
The fun thing is it will only get better. Other than the Truck series, we are off this weekend, but next weekend we are in Bristol. We all know what kind of race that place can produce.
Don’t lose sight of what this new points system has done to these drivers. They are hungry. They want to win and they want to win right now. It’s changed the way they race. You heard Carl talk about it Sunday. He talked about the drivers know if they win races, they most likely will be in the Chase.
In the past you had to finish races, now you have to win races. You can finish and be in the top 10 in points, but if not you can win races, be in the top 20 in points and you can qualify for the two wild-card spots in the 2011 Chase. So there’s a different race mentality out there.
It’s been a great start to the year. Personally I think it will only get better. There is so much to look forward to. Go look at the Nationwide Series. Danica Patrick made history last week by finishing fourth in that race at Las Vegas. It's the top finish for a female driver ever in one of NASCAR's national series.
The fans are loving all the action. The TV ratings are up. You find yourself filled with excitement and anticipation.
What’s going to happen at the next race? Will there be more surprise winners like in two of our first three races? Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle and Mark Martin, just to name a few, have long winless streaks they want to break.
Everything in NASCAR for 2011 is better and that is good. Better is good, but good is better.
