Friday Faceoff: Should EchoPark Still Be the Second Race of the Season?

1. Should EchoPark Speedway still be the second race of the season?

Aaron Bearden: The drafting races are at their best when sprinkled in periodically, so no. Venture out west after Daytona International Speedway through Phoenix Raceway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway, toss Circuit of the Americas in there after that and place EchoPark between Martinsville Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway in late March. That mitigates the risk of annoyance with drafting or short track races when you have a buffer between those races.

Michael Finley: If Naval Base Coronado is a one-year thing, I’d rather all of the west coast races were in separate spring and fall swings. COTA could move to this weekend as a travel buffer coming out of Daytona. Then, go to Phoenix and Vegas before heading back to the east coast.

Steve Leffew: I see no problem with EchoPark being second on the schedule. It presents a different version of plate racing than Daytona. I understand the argument to provide more variety early on, but Atlanta has been putting on great shows since its reconfiguration, and what better way to continue the momentum than another photo finish?

Michael Bellifemini: I am not a big fan of starting the season with two straight drafting tracks, but I do like the racing product EchoPark puts on track. If I had the power, the second race of the season would be held at Vegas, starting the west coast swing earlier.

2. Which of the underdogs in the top 16 in NASCAR Cup Series points after the Daytona 500 is most likely to make The Chase?

Christopher Hansen: Carson Hocevar. Hocevar is looking to improve on a 23rd-place points finish from last season, during which he showed winning speed on several occasions; however, circumstances kept him from capitalizing on the speed Spire Motorsports brought to the track. As long as he channels his on-track aggression without making too many rivals, expect Hocevar to make a run at the championship later this season.

Steve Sonderman: Can Kyle Busch be considered an underdog? His move at the end of the Daytona 500, where he pulled out of line to salvage a decent finish and preserve a fast racecar, was a move by a veteran who understands points racing. The shift in the NASCAR playoff format could serve as a return to the familiar and a reset for Busch’s recent woes. Qualifying on the pole at Daytona helped build some momentum. If he can run well at EchoPark and follow that up with a strong finish at COTA, where he came close to winning last year, it could be the start of a run that brings the swagger back to Rowdy Nation.

James Krause: Hocevar is the clear pick here with how much he’s been in contention for wins the last two seasons, but there’s something in my gut telling me to watch out for Riley Herbst. Yes, he underperformed last year. But he’s in great equipment and there’s a lot of optimism from his owner, Denny Hamlin, that he’s made strides coming into the year. Making The Chase would probably be a shocker, but I could see him finding his way into bubble watch as the postseason gets closer.

Ben Lloyd: Hocevar is a popular pick here, but I am going to go outside the box and say Josh Berry. Despite the worst postseason in the history of the sport for Wood Brothers Racing last year, he is still in essentially a fourth Team Penske car. If the No. 21 team can find some kind of consistency, it’ll be in business. We already know that car and driver have winning speed, they just have to eliminate the DNFs and bad runs.

3. Where does Austin Hill rank among the greatest superspeedway drivers in NASCAR history, even without a Cup win?

Sonderman: It is hard to compare what Austin Hill is doing in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series to what he could do in the Cup Series. The differences in cars and racing styles make comparisons across eras challenging. Some of the current superspeedway aces in the Cup Series have been able to show off their skills over a long period, spanning multiple cars and eras. If Hill was given one of the fastest Next Gen cars and thrown into the Cup Series in this current era of fuel saving, it would be nearly impossible for him to display the same level of consistency. What I do know is that the size of the runs Hill made last weekend was truly special. No one else in the field could match it. His consistent display of talent deserves praise.

Krause: He’s among the best of this generation for sure, but that’s limited to O’Reilly races. Nobody in that field can touch him, but it’s impossible to compare him to Hamlin, Ryan Blaney or Brad Keselowski. The superspeedways are where he’d be at his best in the Cup Series, but I don’t know if he’d break through those veterans in terms of success.

Finley: Hill has made six career superspeedway starts in Cup, all for either Richard Childress Racing or in an RCR-prepped Beard Motorsports car. His best finish has been 14th. Hell, his only career Cup top 10 came in a ninth-place performance on the Chicago street course last year. He’s pretty good at the current NOAPS package, and RCR is giving him rocketships. However, let’s pump the brakes on comparing him to the greats yet.

Bearden: He’s an immense talent, no doubt. But history shows we grade non-Cup success on a curve. Tony Stewart won the Daytona O’Reilly opener seven times, but he’s more known for his five Cup superspeedway wins (and lack of a Daytona 500 triumph). I wouldn’t have him near the top of the heap just yet.

4. What is your first impression of the Kaulig Racing RAM NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team?

Leffew: Kaulig Racing is likely to be hit-or-miss this season. Starting a program in a new series with a new OEM is a monumental task. I do expect it to struggle mightily at some tracks and find great speed at others. Justin Haley still looked like a major threat to win throughout much of the race at Daytona. Honing in the balance at the more handling-centric tracks will be a big ask, especially early in the year. 

Lloyd: It’ll be competitive at times and running in the back at other times. Mini Tyrrell is who I am watching the most closely. On a one-year deal from winning RAM: Race for the Seat, he has to show clear improvement in a hurry if he wants to stick around the NASCAR scene. RAM is capable of scoring a win this year. It’s tough to say exactly where yet; we haven’t seen anything but the superspeedway package and won’t get a feel for the intermediate oval or short-track pace it’ll have until mid-to-late March.

Bellifemini: It is too tough to say how much of a threat this team is based off of one race at Daytona. We have to see it race at other track types like a road course, an intermediate and a short track before we can firmly measure its performance compared to the other teams in the series.

Hansen: One race is a small sample size, especially at a track like Daytona, which makes judging Kaulig’s debut with RAM a difficult one. The real test will be once the series races on tracks like Darlington Raceway, Rockingham Speedway and Bristol. Those tracks will offer a good sample size to see where Kaulig’s fleet of drivers stack up to the rest of the field.