Since a lot of others have said their thoughts on what the future of NASCAR will be like, I thought I'd try a slightly different angle and go for a 'season review' up to the (completely imaginary) Championship finale. Since I'm not from the USA, I can't enter that competition thingy, but if anyone asks me (very nicely), I might be persuaded to let you use this...if you just take it, I will be highly annoyed and shall target you mercilessly until you confess to everyone on here about it.
Daytona; the final race in the 2037 season.
Forty-three drivers started the year at this very track, all wanting to be part of the Chase. The 500 was won by the series veteran, and three-time Champion, Denny Hamlin. Hamlin, driving for the Tony Stewart owned Team Smoke, and his #11 McDonalds Plymouth Prowler turned back the clock and managed to gain revenge on Ella Gordon for last years race, denying her (and Gordon Enterprises) a fourth straight Daytona 500 win. Ella, daughter of six-time Champion Jeff, looked to have the race won in her #24 Microsoft Chevrolet Impala when she came up on lapped traffic and got boxed in. Denny took advantage of Ella’s misfortune and slipped by before holding on to take the chequered flag by a scant 0.004 seconds.
This season has seen the eagerly awaited debut of the DeLorean DMC-19 run exclusively by Evernham Motorsports. Like the rest of the manufacturers (Chevy, Dodge, Ford, Plymouth and Pontiac…no foreign brands allowed anymore after the domination of Toyota in the 20’s), the DMC-19 uses the 3 litre hydro-water hybrid engine as NASCAR mandated five years ago while the onboard computer manages to recreate the sounds of the, now outlawed, V8 engines which made this sport what it is today. The engine produces around 700 horsepower which must be planted onto the track through the rear wheels only. All the cars are the same as the ones in the showroom apart from the roll cages and other safety features (eg; airbags) designed to assist the driver in the event of a crash.
New for 2037 is Goodyear, who, after a decade long tyre war with Firestone managed to reclaim their place as the sole supplier for NASCAR. Firestone opted to focus on their Formula One program in the end so this left those multicar teams already with Goodyear (Hendrick, Gordon, Smoke and RCR) with the upper hand at the start of the season. However, as the season wore on, the rest of the teams, led by JR (the most unlucky team in recent memory finishing runner-up in the last five seasons) and Fenway Racing caught up. Penske and Petty Enterprises have struggled compared to the other major players, but have come on strong in the last third of the season, winning six of the last seven races between them.
Richmond saw the final race before the Chase with eleven drivers battling for the final three spots. In the end, Kiara Wolff (Fenway), Thomas Wilson (Penske) and Kyle Busch (Evernham) managed to make the final 10 races while the other eight drivers (and teams) had to pack their bags as their season was over (and they can start setting their focus on 2038 as only the drivers in the Chase race these last ten races). Twenty drivers started the Chase, with Ella, Denny and Kiara the favourites having each won four races during the year but it was the upstart, Kyle Busch and his Evernham DeLorean that took the early honours, winning the opening two races and launching himself into Championship calculations. Alas, like so many races this year, the fragile nature of the DMC-19 proved his downfall and Kyle now finds himself last of the twenty drivers having failed to finish four of the next six races.
The surprise of the year has been KHI and Aaron Fike Jr. Consistant top 10’s (including a win at Rockingham) have seen the return of ‘Happy Harvick’ and it is Aaron who goes into this race as the Championship leader. Ella Gordon and Denny Hamlin are snapping at his heels with Thomas Wilson the only other driver capable of winning the title going into this final race.
Qualifying saw Kyle Busch once again prove the pace of that Evernham DeLorean as he scythed his way to his ninth pole position of the year with Fike Jr alongside him. Gordon had a terrible time of it and will start the race from the back having to undergo a gearbox change (this being the first year that Gordon Enterprises have used the seamless shift ‘box), but if there’s one thing Ella is great at, it’s storming her way through the field. Speaking of storming, rain is forecast some time during the race so the teams have had to gamble on whether to go with a dry or wet setup and most have gone with a compromise. Only Thomas Wilson has gone for a full wet setup so it will be interesting to see how much quicker he will be when the skies open up.
Daytona, like all the other oval tracks, underwent a facelift a few years ago and now has a road course inside the oval. This will be used once he race officials deem the oval too wet to race on and will throw the red flag so the marshals can put up the temporary fencing required to run the road track in the rain. No adjustments to the number of laps are necessary since both tracks are the same length (another law imposed by NASCAR).
The engines have fired up and the pace car is going out to lead the cars around for their formation laps. Will the veteran, Denny Hamlin take his fourth title? Will Ella win her second crown? Or will it be a first time Champion in Aaron Fike Jr or Thomas Wilson?
However, it's not at all clear that the Imam's who will be ruling the world in 2037 will allow autoracing. And even if they did, they'd have to stop the Daytona 500 at least three times to face Mecca and pray (... cuz the races take a long time). Further, alcohol and tobacco sponsorships will be out. Should cars fail to pass inspection, the penalties will be FAR more severe, in fact there will have been no failed inspections following the martyrdom of the Hendricks team in 2015 for painting one of their cars in a manner not pleasing to Allah. The 50's era engine blocks will be retained (NASCAR's Imam's are no more prone to change than the France family had been). And the "lucky dog" rule will be replaced with the "blessed martyr" rule, whereby a driver finding himself a lap down may detonate the mandatory 500 lb explosive in his car, delivering him directly to paradise and his allotment of virgins.
chux; yes, all DMC-19's come equipped with a flux capacitor, lol. As I said, I was just writing a little story down, that's all :P
Dave; stop ruining my blog ideas dagnammit, lol
edclinch; the haka is rather overrated now....seems like everyone does them whenever they feel like it. I prefered it when it was just the Rugby Union and League teams that did them pregame. If you're referring to a comment I made on another board about basketball....it just doesn't appeal to me so I don't watch it, lol
This is great . . . and I am sure your predictions of Ella Gordon not only being a driver, but a dominant driver, will be true.
Tez - even though you are not from the US of A - your insight is wonderful. I have a question for you. What are your thoughts of NASCAR's future as far as the tracks that will be on the schedule? Will they eventually weed out ALL the small tracks and will the schedule become even more sponsor-corporate track friendly?
Lori; I would hope they don't get rid of the smaller tracks....those tend to be where the best crowd atmospheres are. That said, I can see them dumping those for economic reasons....money talks nowadays.
Personally, I would love it if they ran a race on July 4 every year at a 'smaller, out-of town' type raceway (Kentucky, Rockingham, Iwoa....those kinds of places) regardless of what day it fell on (if it's a mid week, then rearrange the schedule so that you've got a week and a half either side; simple). You guys get that day off and the NASCAR nuts in the area would flock to see it. Don't charge for tickets to practice and qualifying the day before....bring the racing back to the small towns who *really* want a race.
Naturally that won't happen, but dreaming is fun :P
TEZ: Very interesting. Amazing NASCAR is thinking corn squeezins ( Ethanol) for the future fuel needs. No date has been said yet.
Deloreans with Flux Capacitors. Interestingly enough, these are storage devices for peak discharges of voltage upon demand.
If you were ever into the custom sound systems in cars you might have noticed a few big can (1million plus Mica farad caps) in line with the power supply cables. They were used for the peak demands during the big base notes.
Through new technology these big caps have been reduced to a quarter of their former size and have increased up to 5 million mica farads.That is quite a bit of voltage storage capacity for energy.
I have to say it. I just don't know how to say it. Let me try this. Photogr told us to tell the truth so here gose. Wait phones ringing...... Yep hang on here its Photogr calling from his room and has fallen out of his bed laughing so hard.
Tez is a rare creature; an Australian who was living in New Zealand before moving to Canada. He's also a Civil Engineer who is hoping to spend his Monday to Friday sitting in front of a computer surfing the inter...uh, working hard for an Engineering Consultant or Contractor when he finds a job. His heart is torn between his two loves; F1 and NASCAR.
Due to his high interest in those, his blogs will likely focus on them with the occasional foray into sports that don't get much (if any) mention on this website. All blogs and/or comments will more than likely have his usual dollop of sarcasm and general Aussie spin on them.
Amazingly, he also managed to score 2 MiB nominations on consecutive days (August 5 & 6, 2007) after announcing he had been keeping track of them...he's considering hiding under his bed as a result.
