The Big 6: Questions Answered After the 2011 Budweiser Shootout at Daytona
For the first time in a long time, I’m looking forward to a restrictor-plate race. The Daytona 500 is looking like one exciting event.
Amy is an 20-year veteran NASCAR writer and a six-time National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) writing award winner, including first place awards for both columns and race coverage. As well as serving as Photo Editor, Amy writes The Big 6 (Mondays) after every NASCAR Cup Series race. She can also be found working on her bi-weekly columns Holding A Pretty Wheel (Tuesdays) and Only Yesterday (Wednesdays). A New Hampshire native whose heart is in North Carolina, Amy’s work credits have extended everywhere from driver Kenny Wallace’s website to Athlon Sports. She can also be heard weekly as a panelist on the Hard Left Turn podcast that can be found on AccessWDUN.com's Around the Track page.
For the first time in a long time, I’m looking forward to a restrictor-plate race. The Daytona 500 is looking like one exciting event.
Will it ever end? Following a 2010 season in which the seemingly impossible happened, as Jimmie Johnson won his fifth Cup title in a row, coming to rest dangerously close to the sport’s all-time greats, we’re all left to ask one question: Can he possibly do it again?
A lot of fans are probably hoping to see Johnson’s streak come to an abrupt end this year, and some even go so far as to argue his titles are “bad for NASCAR.” (A ridiculous argument, by the way. NASCAR survived Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt relatively unscathed and it will survive Johnson, too.) But whether Johnson can continue his remarkable streak is up for debate. There is plenty of reason to think that 2011 will be same old, same old. But there is also plenty to think that this time, he won’t. As the new season looms, the title question is already at the forefront. Here are six reasons why Johnson will – and won’t – hoist his sixth straight Cup this year.
I’ve been in the sport for a long time. I grew up in a racing family, I’ve been in NASCAR now for roughly 10 years …
NASCAR came so close to getting it right. The 43-1 points system has potential to create excitement from the green flag at Daytona all by itself.
The real elite owner in racing isn’t named Hendrick or Roush or Gibbs, or even Penske. It’s Chip Ganassi.
For Casey Mears, the 2010 season was brutal. He was left out in the cold when sponsorship couldn’t be found for him in the Childress camp.
Jimmie Johnson had to do what many fans figured impossible to win his fifth straight title – lead laps and run up front at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The bummer at Homestead is, no matter how well you run, the Chase guys get all the airtime. Which is too bad, because Aric Almirola certainly deserved some.
There is a report circulating at Homestead-Miami Speedway that has taken many people by surprise.
Carl Edwards won the Kobalt Tools 500 pole at Phoenix and had the car at the end to take him to victory lane snapping a 70-race winless streak in the process.