Why the Daytona 500 is worth watching

[Music] ask any non-nascar fan what the daytona 500 is all about and you probably get one of two answers that they just go around and around and around in a circle for three hours with absolutely no skill involved whatsoever in the most boring display of auto racing ever devised and the other lot of people well they'd probably say that it's all about this on his side for everybody yeah the stereotypes around nascar still exists today a bunch of rednecks driving in circles for ages with major x being the only source of entertainment but i mean is that even the case i mean surely there's more to it than that right well we're a couple days out from the great american race happening and i thought yeah sure why not i'm going to try and convince the people that could be bothered clicking on this video while the daytona 500 is worth a damn and let's start that off with a history lesson from a guy who knows his stuff the daytona 500 can actually trace its origins all the way back to 1936 when the first daytona beach race was held the layout of the course was simple two miles on the two lane paved highway a1a a quick u-turn on the hardpacked sand surface of daytona beach two miles up the beach and then another u-turn to do it all over again the composition of the sand in this area of florida is unique in that it makes a surface almost as hard as concrete and your car won't sink into it before this race had been the site of numerous land speed records that first race in 1936 was held by the city of daytona beach and ended up being a complete disaster by the time organizers arrived at the track that morning thousands of people had camped out the night before and it was impossible to sell them tickets the race then ran over its allotted time and had to be called off early due to the tide rolling in the city ended up losing tens of thousands of dollars on this event and that's before adjusting it for inflation however one competitor in that race thought he could do better a guy by the name of bill france france held a race on the same course the next year and suffered minimal losses the next time he held the race he broke even and on his third attempt he netted some serious chatter and that was it the daytona beach race was now a mainstay of american racing they usually race three times per year once on labor day once more on july 4th weekend and to kick off the year one time in february a tradition that still continues today while racing at daytona was halted during world war ii it made a big comeback after the war when gis found themselves with nothing to do but soup up dirt cheap cars and race them for money and glory and honestly after you've saved the world from fascist and imperialists on one side of the world or the other there's really nothing left for you to do anymore to get your rocks off but this gave veterans an outlet by 1948 bill france wanted to unify the many disparate stock car racing bodies out there and bring them all under one umbrella he wanted a national association for stock car auto racing and in february of that year he got what he wanted when nascar first incorporated in 1948 it was red byron a world war ii vet who took home the trophy out there on the beach in the first ever nascar modified race and in 1949 when the strictly stock division now the nascar cup series started up byron became the first ever champion throughout the 40s and the 50s the saiyans of daytona became a proving ground for nascar's first batch of superstars curtis turner joe weatherly junior johnson and marshall teague among many many others cut their teeth out here and won fame and fortune during nascar's primordial years but by 1958 bill france the head of nascar wanted something more he had seen the southern 500 over in darlington south carolina become a crown jewel event and wanted daytona to be even bigger and better he envisioned a track where drivers would never have to let off the throttle and after buying some marshy land a few miles inland he set off to build daytona international speedway a two and a half mile speedway with an unbelievable 31 degree embankment he settled with 31 degrees because his engineering crew simply couldn't stack the dirt any higher than that the dirt for the banking had been taken from the infield and the large trough left over was quickly filled with water and dubbed lake lloyd in honor of saxton lloyd a local car dealership owner who had given france his first job down in florida the first race was held in 1959 and fans came from all over the country to see this oddity and the show didn't disappoint one bit it was far and away the fastest track on the schedule and after an unforgettable three-wide photo finish where a fan favorite lee petty prevailed the race was set in stone forever as the ultimate nascar race and in the years that followed history was still being made because that's how history works i'm bad at scripting arta through the 60s and 70s we saw victors like mario andretti aj foyt and richard petty massive names in racing pity won the damn thing what seemed to be eight million times including the 1979 iteration where for the first time ever it was broadcast live on national television the nation tuned in to watch donnie allison and carl yarbrough battling for the lead at the end naturally allison didn't want to let him buy and yabra effectively said well yous i'm coming through whether you like it or not and definitely in that accent the laws of physics though gave both them the middle finger and threw them into the infield meanwhile pity romped on home to win whilst allison and yabro had a mean ass fight by their wrecks and thus started the tradition of trackside boxing matches which the public just oh so loves i mean hey what's not to love about a driver trying to punch someone wearing a helmet you can hear their hand breaking from a mile away petey would win the daytona 500 again a couple years later making it seven victories overall a record he still holds along with his 200 overall cup victories which just completely dwarfs everything else although if there was one driver that you would think would have that record but didn't it was the man in black the intimidator dale earnhardt a name that just about transcends nascar in a way the famous number three and the guy who donned it kind of summed up what racing was although sometimes he liked to piss off people can't criticize though i literally piss off people for a living he achieved everything but the daytona 500. the dude couldn't buy luck there until 1998 where after 20 years of trying after 20 years of frustration he finally went to victory lane in the daytona 500 and yet just three years later he would lose his life in the very same race coming off a turn four on the final lap he crashed into the outside wall a few hours later he was announced dead what resulted from the crash was the mandating of the hans device safer barriers and other safety focused innovations including the car of tomorrow and the year since 2001 there has not been another fatality in the 500. there have however been heaps of interesting moments i guess whether it be juan pablo montoya lighting the track on fire after getting a little bit too friendly with the jet dryer several first-time cut winners in out of nowhere wins danica patrick grabbing the pole position in 2013 and dal sundell jr going on to win the 500 in 2004 and again in 2014 and this sunday you bet your ass more history will be made now this video is kind of targeting non-fans i suppose not in the loop with nascar in 2022 don't know who to chair or who the informed drivers are take it away darion 2022 marks nascar's 74th season and the 51st in the modern era for the past few decades the season opening race has always been the daytona 500 but while the sport has had changes year by year this is without a doubt the biggest change in all of nascar's history brand new cars brand new number placements new drivers coming into the cup series as well as a single lug nut and of course let's not forget nascar beefing up its penalty system but one of the few things that has remained the same is the daytona 500 opening up the season let's go over some of the favorites first off by far the biggest favorite entering this year's daytona 500 is denny hamlin he's won the great american race three times in 2016 2019 and 2020. while he's still looking for his first championship the next guy i'm gonna mention already has one chase elliot is nascar's golden boy the most popular driver in all of nascar he won the cup series championship in 2020 but is still looking for his first daytona 500 victory you can also throw his hendrick motorsports teammates alex bowman and william byron in the mix as well as for defending cub series champion kyle larson however let's just say his track record on the super speedways is much to be desired team penske is obviously going to bring their muscle in with both ryan blaney and joey logano showing promise on super speedway and finally some hungry veterans that are established champions in the sport but are looking to win their first daytona 500 to solidify their career are these veterans in martin sherex jr brad keselowski and kyle bush this race is going to be a wild one 200 laps on a 2.5 mile super speedway is gonna lead to some chaos every now and then so by the time we reach the final laps some of these favorites might not even be a factor so look out for some underdog drivers and tyler reddick bubba wallace austin cendrick daniel suarez and of course the defending daytona 500 champion michael mcdowell a huge shout out to josh for letting me on the video really appreciate it and make sure to tune in to the 64th running of the daytona 500. okay okay that's cool but why watch the daytona 500 after all it's just dudes going around around in circles with no skill involved right i mean yeah there ain't as much technique to driving restrictor plate tracks as they are to other tracks on the calendar at least when you're running around out there on your own but it does come with its own challenges in the race the objective is to stay with the leaders lose the draft and you're gonna fall back worse than you know what even with my history and america's even i won't go there but you get the idea when you're with the leading bunch you could try vying for the lead but again lose the momentum and you could be thrown out of contention you have to time your moves right minimize mistakes stay out of trouble have a half decent car underneath you and ultimately hope that your luck ain't crap on the day it's essentially one big chess match with a massive ass track as a board and 43 cars as pawns yearning to be taken out yeah we've arrived at that point after all it is a staple of this damn sport the big one once the car breaks loose and oval you can kiss your sorry ass goodbye you'd have an easier time recovering seth benz's career than that car and with heaps of other cars around you screaming along at 200 miles an hour the results are inevitable happily though the days of cars flying over the barriers and back onto the beach are behind us but still does get smashed from time to time so for you knuckle dragon mouth breathing lowest common denominator fans out there that part of the sport is still out there for you guys to get giddy over overall though on the surface i know how this race may seem to a lot of non-nascar fans but for a lot of us f1 fans that contend with 23 races where the same two guys win every race it is a nice change to see multiple league changes every lap finishes they come down to the thousands of a second and honestly you don't really know who's going to win the race and that's the beauty of it really so yeah the daytona 500 the great american race give it a watch please otherwise this video is pointless

Channel: Josh Revell

Views: 189,737

Keywords: NASCAR, Daytona 500, Daytona

Id: EIw_ouMmqN8

Length: 10min 16sec (616 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 20 2022