Friends, Reel Racing is back to get you through the weird few days of limbo between the end of Super Bowl LVIII (which, as a Seahawks fan, I was rooting for Armageddon rather than either team) and the beginning of Speedweek at Daytona International Raceway.
As I put it to friends who aren’t as familiar with the schedule: “We’ve got qualifying Wednesday, twin qualifying duel races Thursday, Trucks Friday, Xfinity Saturday, Cup Sunday.”
That’s right, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck, Xfinity and Cup series are finally almost back in regular-season action after a few months away. I know I’m damn near ready to hear those engines again.
Before that, though, let’s do something for this special little eight-day period in which the NFL’s actual Super Bowl and NASCAR’s theoretical Super Bowl bookend the days (hopefully, provided we can fight off the rain). NASCAR ads as a whole have pervaded our televisions for decades, but what ads have been specific to Daytona, what could they do for future ads and how have the commercials evolved over the years?
On the heels of sports’ biggest ad weekend, in which we saw memorable billboards for Mountain Dew Baja Blast, Paramount+ and Homes.com, let’s talk motorsports ads and look at a few highlights from over the years.
The first we’ll talk about, of course, is the “Happy Daytona Day” ad.
Infamous as it was catchy, this is the embodiment of what I’d truly love the 500 to inspire in the general populace of this country. Turtles with numbers painted on them racing each other! Pool parties! Checkered flags on EVERY. SINGLE. PORCH.
Who cares about politics and flying the flag of your candidate when you can just fly the flag of a guaranteed winner every week? Astronauts throwing diecasts in space! It jumped the shark just like F9 did by going into orbit. It’s bonkers, it’s off-the-wall and I love it. I wish they still did it.
Lucky for us, it did happen again the next year. 2017 is the biggest year for Daytona 500 commercials that I can remember — or, at least, the most notable — of recent, with at least two. Not a lot, but one I absolutely remember running during the Super Bowl that year (when the Atlanta Falcons broke America’s hearts and blew the lead against the New England Patriots) and the sequel to “Daytona Day” for the 2017 500.