 |
| The 2018 Daytona 500 looks like it'll be a good one with passing. |
It really feels like a holiday deserving of a Hallmark card. It goes like this: Thanksgiving, then Christmas season, New Year's Eve, Super Bowl and closes with the Daytona 500. That's about the timeline of off-time between races for drivers. Sunday's 2018 version of the Daytona 500 is the 60th running. Start those engines, drop that green flag, and let's get this party going!
But let's get our bets in first.
We should all have a better feel for how they're going to run this week after watching the 75-lap Clash last Sunday won by Team Penske's Brad Keselowski. The cars had some burst, they were fast, but also loose. A couple drivers stood out handling the changes better and they're the same guys that have also been dominating plate races the past three seasons.
There's no ride-height rule for the restrictor-plate races any more, so the crews are taking advantage of it to the fullest by basically dropping the cars all the way to the asphalt. They look like a bunch of low-riders out there, but the aero effect is more speed. The Fords look like they'll continue to dominate, Toyota is almost there as an equal and Chevrolet is still a little behind despite having the new body design of the Camaro ZL1.
“My outlook is very positive," said two-time Daytona 500 winner Jimmie Johnson (15/1) regarding the new Camaro. "When you look what we did with the previous generation car, we had five seasons with no upgrades and still stayed awfully competitive. We’re going to be in much better shape this season from a competition standpoint."
The Camaro was fast by itself during qualifying and single lap simulations -- Alex Bowman in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 won the pole on Sunday, but once the cars got all jumbled together in the draft, the cream rose to the top with the Penske Fords and Joe Gibbs Toyotas looking the best, again.
Long term regarding the season championship, the final analysis on the new Camaro will be how it fares on the 1.5-and 2-mile tracks. A Las Vegas Motor Speedway test session Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 saw Kyle Larson's Camaro post the fastest speeds in three of the four sessions which featured a representative from every team. Rookie William Byron's Camaro was fastest in the session Larson wasn't. That will be the story next week on Atlanta's 1.5-mile track. But let's get back to talking plates.
No comments:
Post a Comment