NASCAR at the 2022 midpoint

NASCAR is hitting its annual All-Star break (yes, I realize there’s not an actual break, and there won’t be one for another month, but Sunday is the All-Star Race, so work with me here), and the Cup Series season now has 13 of the 26 regular-season events in the books. We’re halfway to the playoffs.

So, what have we learned? What preseason predictions and concerns did we correctly see coming and on which ones did we totally whiff worse than Kyle Busch at Darlington?

Grab ahold the Newman Bar and read ahead as we take stock of stock car racing before officially dropping the hammer on the summertime grind.

All that Daytona “NASCAR is back, baby!” has held up

That was the exact sentence screamed by driving legend-turned-Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon as he walked onto the set of “Marty & McGee” on Daytona 500 eve, and Wonder Boy’s wonderment was with good reason.

The race was sold out, preceded by a buzz-machine Busch Light Clash held inside the L.A. Coliseum, all while new sponsors were popping up all over the garage, and the celebrity guest list for the Great American Race looked like it had been stolen from the MTV VMAs red carpet. The next day was a nearly perfect event, and that momentum has seemed to carry on throughout spring.

Fox’s TV ratings are up nearly 20 percent over one year ago, including a giant number posted on a date that was long-considered NASCAR taboo, Easter evening. NASCAR doesn’t release attendance numbers, but series track execs say that in-person crowds are also up by double-digits over 2021. Atlanta Motor Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway both confirmed their biggest spring crowds since 2014 and 2017, respectively.

Is anyone ready to declare this a return to the 2000’s? No. Does everyone in the paddock understand there are still a lot of races remaining, a large chunk of which still have to fight football for eyeballs in the fall? Of course. But it has been a long time since the garage felt this good as a group.