5 Questions Before ... Daytona 500

The first points race of the season is this Sunday, and boy is it shaping up to be a good one! The NASCAR season isn’t even a week in, yet we already have some new rules in place! And, as long as Mother Nature doesn’t interfere like she did last year, it should be a long and exciting race!




What drinking games can people play during the 500? … I was going to make this a “bonus question” at the end, but I wasn’t sure if anyone would get it. Lots of NASCAR fans like to make fun of the commentators for how they have a tendency to run things into the ground. For instance, and I wouldn’t recommend this, fans could drink a shot of Budweiser (or your beverage of choice) every time they mention Danica Patrick during the NASCAR Nationwide Series race. I’m not sure a six pack would be enough for something like that, but you get the picture. Potential drinking games: Every time they mention Mark Martin/Joey Logano’s age … every time they say “four-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson”… every Digger mention, etc. I’m sure you can come up with a few more of your own!



Will we use up all three green-white-checkered attempts? ... NASCAR announced that instead of one attempt at a green-white-checkered, they’d attempt three. This should guarantee that we will be able to finish the race under green, but how can we be sure? After all, if these guys can’t make it through practice how can they make it through multiple green-white-checkers? Oh well, we’ll get to see how talented these guys really are!



How big will the “Big One” be? … And how many “Big Ones” will there be? At least one big wreck during a restrictor plate racing is basically inevitable, but we’ve had multiple incidents with multiple cars involved in several races in just the past few years. Based on what we’ve seen so far we’ll most likely see either two big wrecks (at least), or multiple little ones. I could be wrong. Like that’s ever happened before.



What will the new rules bring? … With the bigger restrictor plates and new bump drafting rules being the biggest news of the offseason, we have to wonder if they’ll make a huge difference in the race. So far, the racing has been exciting even in practice, but the 500 will be a different animal. Also, will we have another controversial finish due to the double-yellow line rule? We can only hope not. Like that discussion needs to flare up again.



Who will be our “Where did he come from?!” winner? … Daytona has constantly provided us with drivers that came from seemingly nowhere to still the victory from a would-be winner. Kevin Harvick did it to Mark Martin, Ryan Newman did it to Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth did it to Elliott Sadler… and so on and so forth. No one is out of the picture in this race, so don’t count anyone out within the top 10 once the race starts winding down.


Bonus questions: Where will Danica Patrick finish on Sunday? Oh wait … Will our winner show as much emotion as last year’s? … Do you love love?