By Claire Wright, Advisor
2021 marks the twentieth anniversary of the death of one of the greatest drivers and athletes of all time; Seven-time NASCAR Champ Dale Earnhardt Sr.
Earnhardt died tragically, in his car in a last lap wreck on February 18 of the 2001 Daytona 500.
This year’s Daytona 500 saw stories, dedications, and a touching lap “3” tribute to the late racer. It also saw the most unprecedented start to a NASCAR season we have ever seen. With two first-time winners, a 23 year-old and a driver who hadn’t won since October of 2019, many of the big names in the sport are outside the playoff picture looking in.
Many have dubbed this season “The Best Season Ever” and I am starting to think they are onto something. With only 11 wins between them, these four drivers have taken the sport by storm and are setting the sports world up for a NASCAR season like no other.
Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin; those are the names you typically see with winner’s stickers on their cars at this point in the season. Michael McDowell, Christopher Bell, William Byron, Kyle Larson; those are the drivers doing donuts, picking up the checkered flags from the starter’s stand and putting winner’s stickers above their window nets.
Last year’s championship winner Chase Elliot has struggled early on, with only one top 5, one top 10 and 73 laps led. Kevin Harvick, who dominated 2020 with nine wins, has three top 10’s but has only led 17 laps and is sitting seventh in points. While both are still in perfectly fine shape to make the playoffs, they are in no means running the dominant races we have seen from them in the past.
This year the sport has added new tracks, more road course races, and has continued with “one day shows” for most of the season. There will only be practice and qualifying at a few of the newer tracks and for the championship race at the end of the season. Qualifying is set by points standings, previous race finish, and fastest laps times in the previous race.
This system rewards those running well, and pushes others to work harder. It also allows more parody across the sport giving those with good finishes the previous week, the chance to start up front everyone once in a while.
The lack of practice is also allowing some of the smaller, slower teams, with lesser equipment, and fewer employees the opportunities they may not otherwise have. It allows them to roll into the track the same as the bigger teams and unload cars as they are. Many times, the big teams have the knowledge and the resources the smaller teams don’t have to make wholesale adjustments during practice, making their cars that much better.
This whole lack of qualification and practice situation does not suit many drivers’ styles and some are going to struggle more than others, causing more parody, and allowing more drivers to win than we have seen in NASCAR in many years.
With the current playoff structure, these early winners have positioned themselves nicely to race for wins and points without the late season stress that accompanies the sport. One win and you are into the playoffs; or so the rules state.
This may be the first season in which the 16-team playoff structure may have more winners than spots in the playoffs. What happens then? The standings will revert to overall points standings and wins won’t count. In 2021 we may see some of the sports most dominant drivers on the outside looking in.
