NASCAR 2019 – The Daytona 500 is here let the season begin

NASCAR 2019 needs to be a much better season than the last few NASCAR Seasons.  The seasons have been long.  The racing has not been that great.  Several really popular drivers retired.   The changes that NASCAR has been making have not really helped the sport.  Yes driving is a sport.  So to all you that will cry to the hills that it is not.  Just stop it.  The Chase is a mess.  The Chase is what should be the most interesting part of the season.  Each year since it comed up against the middle of the NFL season it gets lost.  Even die hard race fans are mostly watching football and just checking to see how the race is going.  I could not even tell you the last time I watched a full race after August.

Enough of that we know that NASCAR is not going to give up any races.   They need that money even though it would actually make the sport stronger to eliminate some of the races.  The NASCAR 2019 season is here.   Qualifying was this past weekend.  The Twin 125’s are in the books.  We are ready for the season to start.

It is a bit odd that the biggest event of the season is also the first event of the season.  It kicks the season off with a bang and gets things going though.  With the big start at least the momentum can carry them through the first few months of the season.

Some Changes This year

There are some car changes for this season.  The hope is that it will make the racing a bit tighter.  Leading to some closer finishes and some big excitement on the track.

The idea is to reduce power and increase down force in the cars. This could do what they want by creating closer racing. It could also lead to more wrecks. The drivers don’t really like that. The fan how ever do. So it will remain to be seen what happens with this. In order to do this NASCAR 2019 is going to replace the restrictor plate with a tapered spacer. This will be used on all tracks that are over 1.2 miles. The restrictor plates were only used at Daytona and Talladega.

The cars will also be getting a taller spoiler and larger front end Splitters. This will lead to more down force. Theoretically this will make it easier to draft with the cars having a stronger grip. This should also help to bring the speeds down a bit. As much as well as fans like the cars to go faster and faster. It is just not possible to maintain that speed and have super exciting racing.

The Long and Winding Road

The NASCAR season is so crazy long that any thing can happen in it.  The first race of the season is the Daytona 500.  It is Coming up Sunday February 17th.  The final race of the season is Sunday, Nov 17 in Homestead – Miami Speedway.  Every year since they have been doing The Chase – it is no longer called the chase – it is now the NASCAR Playoffs.  But every year since NASCAR has had a playoff Homestead has been the final race of the season.  Nothing wrong with that but it seems like they get something good and bad at the same time.  They get to crown the champion but they get the last race right in the heart of the NFL Schedule.

This really is the biggest thing that NASCAR needs to deal with.  NASCAR has an identity problem and they really need to fix this.  Not sure that they can.

What should we expect for the NASCAR 2019 season

On average only four drivers change in the playoffs from year to year.  This is a pretty small sample.  So for the season you can figure that 75 percent of the drivers in the playoffs will be the same as last season.  The big question is who will those drivers be.

It will be very difficult to predict which drivers will be the four out and who will be the four in.   There are a lot of variables that will go into deciding how that happens.  Last year there were several young drivers that were making their first serious run into the playoffs.  One of the old guns.  Jimmy Johnson was out in the first round of the playoffs.  That was and odd sentence in several ways.  Jimmy Johnson out in the first round and holy crap how old I must be that Jimmy Johnson is now one of the old guns in NASCAR.

I do believe that the Hendrick drivers will all have very good seasons and one of them will win the championship.  All four of them will have at least one win.  Jimmy Johnson will get back to form this year and be poised for a deep run into the playoffs.  Chase Elliott finished 6th over all last year.  I predict that this will continue and he will likely win the champion ship this year.  Alex Bowman will continue to improve and William Byron will show glimpses of what he has the potential to become.  This is not really much of a surprise or going out on a limb.  Hendrick teams have always been able to compete.  Of course with the resources they have they should be able to compete.

On to the NASCAR 2019 Season

The NASCAR 2019 season kicks off with the Daytona 500.  It will be the spectacle that it always is.  It is so difficult to predict a winner since there is no way that you can take into account a mechanical failure or who will get caught up in the big crash.  I am going to pick Alex Bowman to win the race.  It will be a close race and will bring in the end of the restrictor plate era of NASCAR.  It will be interesting to see how the new rules play out this year.   Here is to a good start to the season.  Will have to see how much of the season I actually get to watch this year.