By Lou Modestino
The next race after the Daytona 500 is when the real NASCAR season starts, minus the hoopla and hype, and that’s when Carl Edwards’ storybook win at Phoenix broke his long 70-race drought. “I like running here and this means that we’re back. All I can say is that it was hard to stay positive after what we went through. It was just tough not to win during that long period,” exclaimed Edwards in victory lane. He went on to say, ” When I broke my cell phone today, I thought that it was going to be another bad (race) day. I’m glad I was wrong. I think that we’re really back!” Coincidentally, PIR is known for drivers breaking out of the slumps they’ve had over the years. No wonder Carl was nervous Sunday after he wrecked five race cars at Daytona.
Edwards’ victory was also the seventh win for Roush-Fenway at PIR. The driver’s crew chief, Jim Fennig, quipped, “We’re looking forward to the rest of the season!” Edwards on Fennig, “I’ve learned a lot from him. And next week’s race at Vegas will be the true test.”
Earning leftovers at Phoenix were Jimmy Johnson, who after just nosing out Denny Hamlin, said, “I’m proud of everyone on my team. We had great pit stops.” Next was Brad Keselowski, then JR, and Clint Bowyer. Pole winner Mark Martin ended up 21st. The crowd looked pretty good.
Hamlin revealed, “It was so hard to pass with the tires hard, but it was still a good day, though, and I’m happy. But we didn’t have the car we would have liked to have had today.” Brad Keselowski said, “I’m happy for Carl. We raced hard and we’re still pumped up and proud of where we finished today.” Later he said, “We’re still learning about the new cars.” Jeff Gordon echoed those comments saying, “We need to get used to these new cars.”
We got the impression that there were still major issues to be worked out when we saw the drivers all bunched up in heavy traffic.
That same issue was further compounded during a discussion about PIR being a difficult track on the SPEED REPORT by analyst Sam Hornish, Jr.
JR said,” We had a new strategy and made a lot of changes to the car. It was a good time out there today for us.” Johnson had more post race comments when he said, ” I’m not happy with the way Edwards got away with starting slow at the line.” But in post race commentary, the color analysts all differed with JJ. It was the consensus that the leader has lots of freedom to do the restart in any way he wants to.
There was also a bit of panic and scrambling at the end of the race when it looked like some of the front runners could run of gas. That’s an issue that wrankles fans as they want racing right up til the end. The race had 12 lead changes. The hype over Danica fell through the cracks when she went out early on due to a wreck. Earlier in the Subway Fresh race Clint Bowyer had some communications problems with his crew chief. But that appeared to resolve itself based on how he finished.
Finishers 5 through 10 were Bowyer, Kenseth, Stewart, Jeff Gordon and Burton. Sunday, though, was a bad day for Kyle Busch as he ran into trouble. Saturday was much better as he dominated the Nationwide race.
On the naysayers who are critical on the media’s fawning over Danica: Get used to it because she’s the only chance NASCAR has to claw their way back up in TV ratings and at the same time sell more tickets.
Still lots of talk around about the fans that were injured at the Daytona Nationwide race. Our personal opinion is that they all lawsuits will be settled out of court. Wouldn’t be surprised if all tracks on the NASCAR circuit are going to get some retrofitting on those crossover gates to make them stronger in order to prevent any further racecars and parts from going into the grandstands.
Elsewhere over the weekend Ryan Villopoto won the SuperX at St. Louis while the Grand-Am race at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, TX was won by Jim Fogary and Alex Gurney in the DP class.
That Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Daytona 500 from Daytona International Speedway earned a 10.0 overnight rating on FOX, up 30% from last year’s Monday night race (7.7), and up 22% from 2011 (8.2). According to FOX, the 10.0 overnight is the best for the Daytona 500 since the 2006 race on NBC. That 2006 race had a lead-in from the Winter Olympics and finished as the highest rated and most-viewed Daytona 500 ever. Unlike other sporting events, such as the NBA or Major League Baseball, final ratings for NASCAR typically increase from the overnight. Over the past five years, final ratings for the race have risen between 4% and 15% from the overnight, putting Sunday’s race on pace to finish in the 10.4-11.5 range. The record-setting 2006 race had an 11.3 final rating. That came from Fox.
We are hearing a lot of negative comments about the fact that the Wind Tunnel program has been cutback from an hour to 30 minutes on Speed.
March provides a little bit of everything for the SPEED viewer, as sports car enthusiasts get the highly anticipated return to SPEED of the iconic 12 Hours of Sebring on March 16 at 10:30 a.m. ET.
The 61st running of the 12 Hours of Sebring, Varsha and Till lead a SPEED broadcast team of 10, highlighted by racers Dorsey Schroeder, Johnny O’Connell, Justin Bell and Calvin Fish. The SPEED schedule (all times Eastern and subject to change):
12 Hours of Sebring on SPEED
March 16 10:30 a.m. to noon (LIVE)
March 16 1 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. (LIVE)
March 16 10:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. (SDD)