NASCAR BLOG

Guess who is the Associated Press’s Athlete of the Year. I’ll start by giving you some hints. He has won 4 straight championships in his sport. How many other people or teams can boast having won 4 championships in their sport? The number 48 is very significant to him. Got it yet? His initials are JJ. You’ve probably figured it out by now, so I’ll tell you. It’s Jimmie Johnson of Nascar. Believe it or not, the sport has finally come into its own with a driver winning the Athlete of the Year for the first time, and Johnson is the one that has proven his mettle. Having to win 4 straight championships is a really high bar for anyone who’s trying to get honored in some way! But either way, congratulations to him. While he may not always be my favorite driver, I have to admit that he’s one of the best drivers in the entire league. I enjoy watching him race, because while he doesn’t always win individual races, he does have a sense of the marathon-style racing that can win Sprint Cups much more easily.

The Daytona 500 is not that far away. Even though it’s not Christmas yet, February isn’t such a long time from now. The Daytona 500 occurs frequently in the middle of February and it’s going to be a hoot this year. That’s why you need to find Daytona 500 tickets at Vivid Seats to get yourself into the best seats and see your favorite drivers as they try to make a splash at the beginning of the Nascar season. Last year, Matt Kenseth was declared the winner when a red flag was waved due to a heavy rainstorm. They didn’t want to risk having drivers going around really fast when it was so very wet that time. Kenseth went on to have a respectable showing in the Sprint Cup, and anyone who wins or comes close to winning in Daytona has a leg up on all the rest of the competition!

A few months ago, there was some discussion that Kyle Busch might in fact become a a driver for the American Formula 1 team. No matter whether you think he’s a good driver or not, it does appear to many people that this kind of driving is better suited to his style than is Nascar as it is normally raced. He was going to be a great representative according to many racing experts. But instead, he has announced that he will be joining the ranks of the Nascar Truck Series. This is an interesting choice. The truck series isn’t as popular and it isn’t quite as littered with ads, commercialism and big deals as the regular stock car racing is at the moment. It has some amazing racing and some talented drivers trying to make it in a tough crowd. Busch will be a welcome source of investment and attention to this sector of the Nascar system.

Danica Patrick’s new deal with Nascar has been detailed a little bit more over the last few days. It wasn’t clear how she would split her time between the Indy racing scene and Nascar; since she has deals with both now, we were wondering earlier this week how that was going to work. Nascar is going to be kind of her second-place deal. She will be racing on a limited schedule, presumably to get her feet wet in the style of racing. So don’t expect her to win the Sprint Cup, or even qualify, if she’s going to be racing the kind of schedule that they’re talking about. The racing circuit is, however, hoping that she will bring in some very important advertising dollars when she arrives. She is perhaps the most marketable racer in the world and this will get her that much closer.

Despite everything that we thought a few weeks ago, it appears that Danica Patrick will indeed be headed to the Nascar circuit next week. She is one of the most popular drivers in either type of racing and she’s hopefully going to bring more people to Nascar. When Patrick comes, she will be taking on some very exciting racers in the Nascar paddock. People like Dale Earnhardt Jr and Patrick going head-to-head will be a very exciting time. Before, we heard that she had signed an exclusive deal with the Indy Car world, but there are reports that she’s coming over to Nascar, so it must not be as exclusive as we had previously thought. She might not be as hugely transformative as we had thought, but she will be a rare female racer, possibly bringing in all kinds of fans that hadn’t thought of it before.

The Nascar Champions Awards are going on today and it’s supposed to be a particularly fun affair. This year, they made some changes. Normally, in the past, they have done this event in New York City, but in an effort to change a few things, save some money and to shift the image a little bit, they are having it in Las Vegas, a no less flashy place but sufficiently “real American” to offset the benefits offered by New York. So far, there isn’t much news to come out of the awards, other than that Dale Earnhardt Jr. is still the most popular member of the crowd of competitors. That’s not a huge surprise, even though he hasn’t won the way he used to. Hopefully he will be able to ride that popularity forwards.

Next year, we probably won’t be seeing Danica Patrick on the Nascar circuit. She just signed a 3 year deal with Andretti on the IndyCar world. That wouldn’t give her much opportunity to work at her Nascar driving and make some inroads. This will also be disappointing to many fans in Nascar who were hoping to have a pretty woman in the sport. But equally so, it would have been an interesting change for a sport that hasn’t gotten too many women behind the wheel over the years. Hopefully that will beging to change, but it would appear that this year isn’t it. Patrick hasn’t been particularly successful as a driver, only winning once in awhile, but she has been able to bring a certain kind of exciting celebrity to her team.

When the new Nascar series begins next year, there are some big concerns. There has been a drop in commercial advertising and some other kinds of things. It’s also not clear whether the fan base is holding out the way that they want them to. There are a lot of fans who can’t afford to come to a race anymore, if they got laid off or have seen their incomes drop. Some people have attributed the drop to other problems, like the fact that Jimmie Johnson just keeps winning. According to one columnist, there’s a big branding problem, because the sport tried to get fans nationally and it hasn’t worked as a long term strategy. But that’s not really true. The fans from around the country are still getting used to the characters in the sports. They haven’t had much time to enjoy their different quirks and such yet. Give it time and I’m sure it’ll work out for Nascar.

It’s not a surprise that Jimmie Johnson is finally a winner again in the Sprint Cup. You probably even watched the race. Let’s take a minute to be happy for Mark Martin, who came close again this year and was gracious in his runner-up role. Jimmie Johnson completed a 4-peat in the Sprint Cup, which is the first time that’s happened in the Nascar world since the championship was created. He was able to complete what no one else has been able to, not Earnhardt, Gordon or any of those other guys. Will he be able to make 5? This team has been able to accomplish so much over the years, with talented driving and sturdy car mechanics which have allowed them to make all these wins. For fans of other teams, perhaps it’s boring to see them win again and again, but this is a huge accomplishment!

This weekend might be the moment you’ve been waiting for all year. Jimmie Johnson could come in and actually win the Sprint Cup this weekend, with a good win in the race. We will be interested to see what actually happens, because this year has been anything but normal for Nascar racers. It’s not the last race of the year, but if Johnson can open up a big enough lead on Mark Martin, he will be hard to beat. It could get exciting if Martin ends up far ahead of Johnson though, or if Johnson is unable to finish. The end of the season is fast approaching, and then it’s going to be quiet for us Nascar fans for a little while. This has been a good year though, aside from some weird controversy, and hopefully we’ll have some fun again next year! But watch for a champion in the next week or two!