The days leading up to the Daytona 500 have been anything but sedate, but Sunday the focus turns to actual racing.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Ideally Daytona Speedweeks is about the promise of a new season up ahead. The whole "hope springs eternal" thing where every driver thinks they're going to win a championship, and teams are optimistic that an offseason of hard work will pay great dividends.
Entering this year's edition of Speedweeks the talk was about Jeff Gordon's pending retirement and the momentum NASCAR gained following a very successful 2014. What's unfolded, however, has seen that positivity dissolve thanks to a bizarre series of events taking attention away from Sunday's Great America Race.
The happenings since Feb. 19, Daytona 500 Media Day and the beginning of Speedweeks, include:
-- Entering a contract year and with sponsor GoDaddy not guaranteed to return, much speculation on Danica Patrick's future in NASCAR. With more questions than tangible answers Patrick, understandably, has shown some testiness about what her plans may be.
-- Following the Sprint Unlimited last weekend, defending Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano engaged in a heated pit road skirmish where the two had to be separated. A second intense back-and-forth transpired between Patrick and Denny Hamlin after Thursday's Budweiser Duel.
-- The next day Daytona 500 qualifying turned into a fiasco with group qualifying inciting a near-revolt among drivers and NASCAR scrambling to modify a format almost universally loathed by its participants.
-- The ongoing Kurt Busch soap opera coming to an ugly head. On Monday a Delaware Family Court granted Patricia Driscoll's request for an order of protection against her ex-boyfriend. In issuing the ruling, released Friday, Commissioner David Jones found "more likely than not" Busch grabbed Driscoll by the throat "manually strangling her" while placing his other hand on her head and face and smashing her head against a wall.
NASCAR responded to the findings by indefinitely suspending Busch just two days before the sport's biggest race. The 2004 Cup champion twice appealed the ban Saturday, with the sanctioning body's decision being upheld both times in a hearing taking place literally in the shadow of Daytona International Speedway, across the street at NASCAR headquarters.
-- As one Busch brother fought to regain his eligibility, another endured serious injury. In the final laps of the Xfinity Series race, Kyle Busch slammed nearly head-on into a wall not covered by a SAFER barrier. The impact was significant with Busch suffering a compound fracture of his right lower leg and a mid left foot fracture. He will miss Sunday's race and likely a large portion of the season.
Notice what's missing from the above list? Little if any focus on what is supposed to the core of Speedweeks: actual racing and the Daytona 500 itself.
That will change Sunday when Gordon leads the field to the green flag having taken the pole-position in the most absurd and controversial session of qualifying in recent memory.
A Gordon Daytona 500 victory would serve NASCAR greatly and help restore some glimmer to the proceedings. But with a strong contingent of cars behind Gordon, the challenge is an arduous one. And due to the always predictable nature of restrictor-plate racing, the probability is high of another surreal moment occurring.
But no matter how fleeting, there will be a return to normalcy Sunday. Cars will be on the track and the past 10 days will be a footnote. Unless, of course, something else crazy does down -- which considering recent events, would only be par for the course.
from SBNation.com - All Posts http://ift.tt/1vpFoUI
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