Why I Love NASCAR: 2011 Season

For months on end I have been writing why I love NASCAR. Usually the posts have little to do with what’s happening currently in NASCAR; it’s more of a generality I write. But with the 2011 season shaping up the way it has I can no longer ignore the glaring reasons I love this sport before me. This week’s focus is the unbelievably exciting NASCAR Sprint Cup Season witnessed to date.

With all types of racing available to watch, I hear many complain that NASCAR is boring, uneventful, and not worth the time. This infuriates me. I wondered if perhaps I was biased and not able to give an impartial opinion about the Sport I love and wax poetic about every chance I get. So, as the writer I am, I took to my powers of researching to compare the top tier of NASCAR versus the top tier of IndyCar racing and Formula 1 racing to see how they all stacked up.

The IndyCar Series has run fourteen different races to date. Of those events there have been seven different drivers claiming victory this season. There have been only two drivers of the seven who can claim multiple victories this season with four for Dario Franchitti and five for Will Power.

Formula 1’s season has completed twelve races to date. That series has seen four different winners out of twelve events. Out of the twelve there has been one 1-time winner, Fernando Alonso, two 2-time winners, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, and one seven-time winner, Sebastion Vettel. Sebastian Vettel has just dominated Formula 1 with his impressive skill leaving the field wondering how to outrace him.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ season is always a marathon with twenty-six regular season races run plus the ten races at the end called “The Chase”, the playoff portion of the year. With twenty-four races run to date, fifteen different winners have been crowned. Of those, two drivers, Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth, have 2 wins apiece, two drivers, Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski, have 3 wins apiece, and one driver, Kyle Busch, has four wins.  There have been multiple first-time winners during the 2011 season as well as a different points leader several times throughout the season.

Clearly the NASCAR Sprint Cup 2011 season is offering the best, most competitive and dramatic racing between the three compared. Some may argue that the last five seasons that the #48 team of Jimmie Johnson’s domination has made the sport of NASCAR intolerably boring, but I disagree. Regardless, this season the level and depth of competition in NASCAR is unparalleled in motorsports in the top tiers mentioned.

The air of mystery, the suspense, and the knowledge that any one of the forty-three cars on the circuit could race their way to victory makes me a huge fan of NASCAR. Then, when The Chase gives us twelve drivers to root for as champion the excitement continues while the rest of the field still vies for wins. I enjoy IndyCar and Formula 1 racing immensely. I do not believe you can only watch one without having a healthy love and/or respect for the others. But, the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup season that continues to play out is yet another reason why I love NASCAR.