“This is idiotic. This, along with other recent decisions, will be the death of Nascar.”

As quickly as the news came out that Nascar was officially looking at hybrid and electric technology, there were the usual naysayers. The people that now have a NEW reason not to watch Nascar in the future. Yet they always find a way to the comments section on Nascar-related articles…

While the comments section is not the place to gauge the potential success or failure of really anything, there is some legitimacy to the more rational concerns being raised. Can Nascar – a southern sport born of loud engines and fossil fuels – make a successful transition into hybrid, or even electric, technology?  (more…)

Dale Earnhardt died on my birthday. 

While it was 19 years ago now, the gravity of that moment in Nascar history has never left me. And the connection continues to haunt every time Daytona – and my day – comes around in February.

It was inconceivable that the man in black could die in a racecar. But it shouldn’t have been. After all, we’d lost Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin and Tony Roper in the previous year alone. But Feb. 18, 2001 hit me differently. 

And it hit Nascar differently.

Out of that tragedy came incredible safety advances and standards. Mandatory head and neck restraints, SAFER barriers, full containment seats, larger cockpits. The list goes on and on. The result? No Nascar driver has died on the track since Earnhardt. 

That’s probably why Monday night was so tough – the risk of death on the track seemed so far in the past. But immediately as the 2020 Daytona 500 ended, that uneasy 2001 feeling returned around Ryan Newman’s last-lap crash. Emergency crews rushing to the scene, the driver not getting out, an awkward winner’s circle. My mind rushed back to a younger me watching helplessly as Mike Joy and Darrell Waltrip took us off the air on the Fox broadcast with a very unsure sendoff. Something was clearly very wrong.

Even that moment was mirrored, with Jeff Gordon standing in for Waltrip this time, and Joy trying to measure the potential gravity of the situation without alarming viewers too much. When word came on Twitter that screens were up as they were working on getting Newman out of the car to block the fan’s view, my heart sank.

You can see that sinking moment from Corey LaJoie when he found out that Newman was taken directly to the hospital following the last-lap crash. LaJoie’s car hit Newman as he raced toward the finish line with nowhere to go.

Hours went by. Then, the scariest moment of the night for me. Nascar Executive VP Steve O’Donnell came to the microphone for the first announcement on Newman’s incident. It was impossible not to flash back to Mike Helton and the four words that rocked the racing world. 

O’Donnell did give shocking news. But it was an opposite shock from 2001. Newman was in serious condition, but his injuries were not life threatening. Instantly, a weight was lifted from all of us.

Newman’s full condition is unknown and he likely has a long road to recovery. But he has the chance to recover- he’s here. And we have Nascar and the drivers that push so hard for safety to thank. Ironically, Newman is one of the drivers that is the most outspoken on safety, and may have saved his own life from a past incident at Talladega that created the invention of the “Newman bar” that helps protect the driver’s window in an impact.

While there is a lot of talk about learning from Newman’s incident in terms of car safety, as him simply being alive isn’t “good enough,” this seems somewhat harsh. At the end of the day, it’s racing. Another car literally hit his car square in the driver’s window area at 200 mph and he lived. It was truly an engineering worst case scenario and the product succeeded.

If anything, Superspeedway racing that produces this pack racing is where the magnifying glass should be focused the most. While this type of racing started in the late 80s with restrictor plates to slow the cars down and keep them on the track, that use case seems to have long since become irrelevant. Cars get airborne just as much now as they used to.

Fans love it. But Monday proved how dangerous these races – and the sport in general – can still be.

Will Newman’s incident, while not fatal as in 2001, be the catalyst to the next change in the sport? And will the sanctioning body look at changing the racing itself and not just the equipment?

Time will tell. But for tonight, we can sleep easier knowing that the safety equipment kept our driver here. And remember the man that started us on that trend in 2001 by sacrificing it all.

Teams that have won a Nascar Cup Series race this year: Penske, JGR, Hendrick and Spire.

One of these is not like the other. With Justin Haley’s upset win on Sunday at Daytona, Spire Motorsports suddenly went from an also ran to a top Google search.

So what is Spire Motorsports?

With the Nascar charter system that was installed a few years back, not just any team can attempt to make a Cup Series race. You have to be the owner of a charter to get your car entered.

Spire Motorsports purchased the charter that was available when Furniture Row Racing shut down following the 2018 season. This gave the team a valid charter to be able to enter races this year.

The team’s unexpected win sparked controversy through the racing channels in the hours after the race for several reasons.

1. Spire Motorsports isn’t a team that necessarily is doing everything it can to win races. 
2. Spire Motorsports is an offshoot of Spire Sports and Entertainment, an agency that represents drivers and teams.

To the first point, the argument is being made that the team owns the charter, so it fields a car in the Cup Series races to collect the earnings for whatever place it achieves, and goes home. There is no large investment in the best equipment and talent to actually try to compete for wins and championships at the top level.

While there may be some truth to that, the SuperSpeedways are the ultimate equalizer in the sport. Add to that a rain shortened race scenario, and it’s a recipe for the ultimate upset. And you can’t tell anyone that the crew isn’t trying to get the best finish it can every week. In this particular week, the crew chief made the right decision at the right time to stay out with one to go for the restart. When a bolt of lightning hit within Nascar’s 8-mile radius and the skies opened up after, Spire Motorsports became one of the biggest upset stories in Nascar history.

To the second point, there is no rule that says that an agency can’t also own a team. Should there be? That depends who you ask.

Haley is a client of Spire Sports and Entertainment, which put him in a spot to also drive the car. But again, there is no rule against this, and Haley isn’t exactly an unknown in the sport. He drives full time in the Xfinity Series and finished second at Daytona two days prior to the Cup Series win. He also had a win taken away from him last year at Daytona in Xfinity when it was deemed he made his last-lap pass under the yellow line.

“And hey Daytona, we’re even,” he said on his Twitter post race.

Never lose faith. A absolute blessing to take this small team to VL on the biggest stage in motorsports. Thanks you @FOEGrandAerie & @Spire77. And hey Daytona, we’re even. 👊🏼 pic.twitter.com/cYSwEgUv8M

— Justin Haley (@Justin_Haley_) July 7, 2019

No matter how you feel about Sunday’s unexpected result, it certainly has people talking about Nascar today. And this isn’t completely unprecedented. Rain shortened races and pit strategy play into the end result at times – it’s part of the sport’s history. You have to look no further than Chris Buescher’s victory at Pocono in 2016.

How about we all just enjoy the unpredictability of our sport instead of picking it apart.