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After a controversial — to some — finish to the 2024 Daytona 500, the NASCAR Cup Series’ rain-postponed season opener ended with William Byron scoring the win in the Great American Race.
Adam Cheek and Vito Pugliese sit down after the race to discuss the finish, how the racing unfolded and who stood out to them, from a double-top-10 finish for Legacy Motor Club to Corey LaJoie‘s top-five effort.
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About the author
Adam Cheek joined Frontstretch as a contributing writer in January 2019. A 2020 graduate of VCU, he covered sports there and later spent a year and a half as a sports host on 910 the Fan in Richmond, VA. He's freelanced for Richmond Magazine and the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and also hosts the "Adam Cheek's Sports Week" podcast. Adam has followed racing since the age of three, inheriting the passion from his grandfather, who raced in amateur events up and down the East Coast in the 1950s.
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After 62 years a fan (beginning with dirt modified coupes at our home track Stafford Springs Motor Speedway) I just can’t keep watching this. Since mid-2000’s, I’ve witnessed one marketing “strategy” failure after another as it devolved into the spectacle we saw yesterday in Daytona.
I’ve waited patiently for NASCAR to get back to some form of basics. First and foremost — actual racing to the finish. But no; crashing-to-win seems a twisted methodology to attract non-race fan’s dollars. So far, hasn’t worked… but that doesn’t stop them.
TV commercials these days feature crashes. Absurd. Even worse, I was stunned to hear the atrocious Mike Joy tease with, “Don’t worry folks, the Big One is coming and you know it is” as if we’re to sit on the edge of our seats waiting for it as part of the attraction.
Myself? I fear for those drivers’ lives every time things go badly. I’ve personally witnessed 6 racing drivers die on tracks through the years. Those scenes never leave my mind.
Sadly, I wasn’t tempted at all to watch the 500. Decided to watch and maybe, just maybe, they’d race like adults; forego the Crash-To-Win nonsense. Nope. Only a Bill France, Sr could/would fix this. Farewell NASCAR. Until changes are made perhaps I’ll watch highlights; maybe. I refuse to watch these men & boys risk everything. I’ve seen enough of that. At the very least — force them to Race To The End.