The Coke Zero 400 proved, among other things, that while NASCAR’s new car sometimes doesn’t race well, it certainly crashes that way.
You can take that however you prefer.
With 11 cautions, the outcome of the 160-plus-lap race hinged on who was in front of the pack when the 11th and final caution erupted in the middle of the pack as the field went to turn one for the final time.
Kyle Busch was a nose in front of Carl Edwards at the time, and he earned the victory.
Meanwhile, several drivers — including Jeff Gordon, Ryan Newman, Jeff Burton (twice) and Jamie McMurray — spent time in wild slides that resulted in little damage, and that was a very good thing, because it could have been a very bad thing had they hit something going that fast out of control.
The crashes are normal for a restrictor-plate race, but the ability to come back from a crash that would have wadded up the old car into a beer-can-sized hunk of steel and aluminum is a welcome thing. That is, to come back and still race. Kasey Kahne had the right-front fender hammered into his tire from contact on the track, but still returned to finish in the top 10, for example.
In the draft, the new cars act like slot cars, albeit with VERY loose connections, and they can get to a respectable speed in a group. So, it was a decent show, all things considered.
It’s too bad that hardly anyone was there to see it.
Yes, there were lots and lots of people in attendance, but it’s not what NASCAR — nor its fans — have come to expect from the midsummer classic at the beach. Quite frankly, by Daytona standards, the place was a ghost town.
Driving down A-1A on Friday night, the number of hotels with vacancy signs lit up dwarfed those that were full, and you could get a table at Barnacles with a two-minute wait. Compared to February Speedweeks, that’s unheard of, and in most cases, a bit concerning.
A slowing economy can be blamed for most of this, but there are other factors as well, like race fans voting with their wallets when it comes to hotel prices, parking and other “add-ons” that go along with attending a NASCAR event these days.
Amid news that NASCAR is slashing prices on memorabilia in an effort to spur sales and sponsors are finding it difficult to justify upwards of $20 million for a single year of sponsorship, this ought to at least send a chill through the NASCAR and International Speedway Corp. offices that has nothing to do with air conditioning in the heat of summer.
Competition is another thing that ought to concern the folks based here. While the Coke Zero 400 was entertaining and came down to a last-lap crash to determine the winner, the week before at New Hampshire was notable mostly for the post-caution contretemps between Juan Montoya and Kyle Busch, not the racing.
NASCAR CEO Brian France gave his “state-of-the-sport” talk on Friday, and the competition angle came up.
“Some of the drivers have said they didn’t think it was as fun or as exciting and that tends to carry to our fans,” France said. “The races, on balance, have been very good. In my own view, the races are getting better every week.
“We’ll satisfy our fans because that’s what we’ve done for 60 years.”
This has come up in the past, and NASCAR has generally been true to its word. But with the other aspects — economy, gas prices and the simple cost of attending — as they are now, it might be a little tougher to pull off than it used to be.
If it is, then NASCAR had better hope it crashes as well as the new CoT does.