DAYTONA, Fla. — Your attention please, my friends and readers who are hard-core NFL devotees and are still in recovery from last weekend. You know who I’m talking about. The folks who wear their favorite QB’s jersey all season, hunkered down in the recliner every Sunday with eye black smeared onto their face and a pair of 25-year-old underwear on, because that’s what they had on when their team won that one big game back that one time so many years ago. Last weekend they spent football’s biggest day answering an endless flurry of queries from relatives who hadn’t watched a down all fall, if ever, like, “Hey, that yellow handkerchief that guy keeps throwing on the field, what does that mean?”
Well, that’s exactly what we lifelong NASCAR fans will be subjected to Sunday when the Daytona 500 roars beneath the green flag to begin its 66th edition. It’s the Super Bowl of stock car racing, only it takes places at the beginning of the season instead as the grand finale. With February snow on the ground, no football to watch and the lure of the sheer over-the-top, turned-up-to-11 spectacle of it all, Daytona inevitably draws the eyeballs of millions of folks who watch NASCAR only once a year. Asking stuff of their obviously locked-in friends like, “Hey, that yellow flag that guy keeps waving over the racetrack, what does that mean?”
It is with that struggle in mind that we present our annual act of service for both sides of the stock car racing coin. A Daytona 500 cheat sheet that NASCAR newbies can memorize to impress that one friend with the “Raise Hell Praise Dale” tattoo, and also something that said Earnhardt follower can print and hand to their lost pal like a 200 mph FAQ.
You’re welcome, America. Enjoy the Great American Race.
Five favorites to win the Daytona 500
During the latest episode of his always entertaining (sometimes too entertaining for NASCAR brass) “Actions Detrimental” podcast, Denny Hamlin was asked for his pick to win the Daytona 500. He replied: “I’m not saying me. I know I’m going to win.” Cocky? Yes, always, but his Daytona confidence is well-founded. After all, he is a three-time winner of NASCAR’s biggest race, one of only six drivers to win three or more, and the…
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