Whoop There It Is....NASCAR is back so where you at?

If the start of the 2012 NASCAR season has taught us anything, it is that in NASCAR racing, nothing is for sure.

Coming into its third week of the season, NASCAR is giving its current and new fans a lot to talk about.

The Prelude

The 2012 season got started with a weird, but exhilarating speedweeks at Daytona International Speedway.

In a wreck filled race for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, newcomer John King was able to survive a wild night and grab his first truck series win in the series biggest race.



 The excitement continued into the next day as all of the attention turned to Danica Patrick and the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

Danica’s day didn’t end well, as she was taken out by her JR Motorsports teammate, Cole Whitt, early in the event.

James Buescher survived multiple late race cautions to claim his first Nationwide victory in thrilling fashion for his Turner Motorsports team.

 Buescher’s NNS win was impressive, but Danica and the ultimate event, the Daytona 500, is what everyone was talking about afterwards.  

Sorry Buescher fans, but his win was a bit overshadowed.

Setting fire to the rain

Finally we get to the day of NASCAR’s most prestigious race and Mother Nature lapped the field.

For the first time in history, the Daytona 500 was postponed until Monday due to rain.

We all know what happened. Matt Kenseth won his second Daytona 500 and Juan Pablo Montoya made his own history by wrecking into a jet dryer under caution, causing a massive fire that delayed the race for a little over 2 hours.

Grammy winner, Adele, wasn’t at the Daytona 500 on this Monday night, but her hit song “Set fire to the rain” will forever remind me of the 2012 Daytona 500 because that was something we have never seen in the sport.

Let the real season begin

Many people in the NASCAR community consider the race after Daytona to be the start of the season.

While Daytona is a points paying event, most teams believe  a non restrictor plate track like Phoenix gets the season started.

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series continues its season March 31, in Martinsville, Virginia, but the boys and girls of the NNS and the NSCS were in action this past weekend at Phoenix International Raceway.

Finally, “the real” 2012 season was underway.

For Elliot Sadler and Denny Hamlin, the second race of the season got started with a bang.

Sadler was able to win the NASCAR Nationwide race, ending a 14 year winless drought in the NNS series and perhaps opening doors to get back into the cup series one day.

I honestly can’t grasp why he isn’t there full time already. Who is his competition for a full time ride: Ragan, Almirola, Allmendinger, Menard, Montoya, etc.  #enoughsaid

For Hamlin, he showed signs of why his #11 FedEx team almost won the championship in 2010.

Hamlin was able to hold off a charging Kevin Harvick, until Harvick ran out of fuel and Hamlin cruised to the victory.

For Hamlin fans, his team gave you plenty to be excited about.

It seems the 11 team is back. Can they carry the momentum into next week? Only time will tell.

I know it’s too early in the season to give the title to anyone, but the competition may want to keep an eye on this team, because they started the Daytona season and “the real” season better than any of us (and perhaps themselves) ever thought.

The honeymoon is over. So what have we learned so far?

NASCAR is perhaps the hardest sport to predict.

As we have seen from Daytona and Phoenix, anything is possible.

If anything, the start of this season has taught me that this will be another exciting season and there is absolutely no way to predict what will happen next.



Danica Mania prior to the NNS race at Daytona International Speedway

 The start to the 2012 season in NASCAR’s top 3 premier series has been anything but normal and I see this being a continual theme for the year.

From  Danica mania, rain, fire, wrecks, Danica, NASCAR primetime, fines, suspensions, negative points, a new understanding of C-posts, tweeting and driving,, Danica, Jr. porta potty races,  manufacturer changes,  belly dancing, and of course DANICA mania again, NASCAR seems to be in mid-season form.

Since we are only entering the third week of the season, I’d say that we are in store for one hell of a season.

The next stop for the NASCAR circuit is at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, right? Wrong, because NASCAR is in town folks.

Adele, nor Hollywood could not have written script as intense and wild like the start of the 2012 NASCAR season. But I am confident that after this weekend’s races in Vegas, NASCAR will give us another thrilling chapter in its showing of the best 43 drivers in the world.

We haven’t learned much after 2 races, so there’s no reason to have shame, tune in this weekend to watch NASCAR racing, because according to David Higdon(managing director in NASCAR), “EVERYTHING ELSE IS JUST A GAME!”

Now set fire to that!

This article was written by Dontae Allen, an avid NASCAR fan. Everything above is strictly my personal opinion and those opinions are not shared by NASCAR or any of its affiliates. I love and want all types of feedback (positive, negative, the whole 9 yards). I can be reached through this blog post or you can find me on Twitter @Dontae_Allen   . Thanks for reading.