NASCAR kicks off its 2024 season this weekend with its first points-paying race, which also happens to be its biggest. The 66th running of the Daytona 500 — the “Super Bowl of Stock Car Racing” or the “Great American Race” — is scheduled to run Sunday afternoon.
After attending several runnings of the Indianapolis 500 over the years, I have made my way southward to the Free State of Florida to attend my first Daytona race in person. Yet the milestone comes with a twinge of ambivalence, and not just because NASCAR — unlike Indianapolis open-wheel racing — more closely limits access to garage areas, where fans can get a “sneak peek” behind the action.
As some fans of the sport will admit, the Daytona 500 represents a unique type of stock car racing, one where the best car and best team come up short more often than not. And while it’s great to root for the underdog, it seems paradoxical that a growing number of NASCAR’s biggest and best drivers have yet to win the sport’s biggest race.
Unique Style of ‘Pack Racing‘
The current style of racing at Daytona stems from a horrific crash by Bobby Allison in the spring of 1987. When Allison’s engine malfunctioned during a race at Talladega Superspeedway, his car slammed into the catch fencing while running over 200 mph right in front of rows of spectators, practically disintegrating on contact. Miraculously, the incident only resulted in a few minor injuries.
Following the incident,
