No. 5 crew celebrates with a selfie
No. 5 crew celebrates with a selfie
With all due respect for the accomplishments of Austin Cindric winning the Daytona 500, the real NASCAR Cup Series season started this weekend on the two-mile oval outside Los Angeles, Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. While Daytona is the biggest race of the year, NASCAR’s premier contest of the year, it’s only the beginning of the season. And this year’s season is going to be a learning one for everyone, from NASCAR to its teams and suppliers, as well, dealing with a new car and the variables that must be learned.
NASCAR made this week’s second contest of the season into a two-day affair, something the teams likely appreciated after the slugfest that was Daytona. There were some very torn-up racecars after that elongated contest ended with a pile of cars needing parts – and parts availability is a real problem for NASCAR’s Cup and Xfinity teams. It’s more so for the Cup competitors, as they’re dealing with a new car and new engine regs.
Erik Jones took third for Richard Petty
Probably the biggest bone of contention last week at Daytona was the efficacy of the new, spec wheel. Team Penske got in trouble for modifying their wheels, had them all confiscated but still won the race with their rookie driver on team owner Roger Penske’s 85th birthday, even as they tried to explain to NASCAR that there was a problem getting the wheels off and new ones seated during pit stops. At Auto Club Speedway, again there were issues with the wheels, but mostly the issues drivers and teams faced was the lack of practice time to understand what the new generation of cars would do once they went into battle with one another.
There were spins and hits in both practice and qualifying. To a man most everyone was glad to have the ability to practice and qualify again; it made the young 2022 season feel almost “normal” – but with only 15 minutes of green flag running in practice for…
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