Wednesday afternoon, NASCAR reached a major milestone. The Cup Series drivers prepared to practice ahead of their Daytona 500 qualifying sessions. This moment marks the first time since Mar. 6 that practice will take place due to COVID-19.
Jeff Gluck of The Athletic posted a photo on Twitter Wednesday that showed multiple cars in front of their garage stalls. Kurt Busch’s No. 1 Chevrolet Camaro, Austin Dillon‘s No. 3 Camaro, and Matt DiBenedetto’s No. 21 Ford Mustang were all visible. This sight sparked excitement among the fans and created expectations about an entertaining week of preparation leading up to the Daytona 500.
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FOLKS! For the first time since MARCH 6, the Cup Series cars are getting ready to practice. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/pBUREB0zWn
— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) February 10, 2021
“It’s the most wonderful time of the year,” one person commented on Twitter after seeing the cars lined up and ready to hit the track. Others chimed in and made jokes about how they have waited “literal years” to see the return of practice sessions.
When NASCAR returned from a pandemic-caused postponement in May, the governing body announced several changes to the weekly schedule. Specifically, the drivers would no longer have any practice sessions or qualifying laps to help them prepare for each race and track. Instead, these drivers and teams would show up on the day of the race, get behind the wheel, and just go.
These changes led to many comments from drivers and teams about how the new guidelines impacted them on race day. They had to make adjustments on the fly and determine which setup was the best for the respective tracks. Though they could prepare on the simulator and get some feel for the turns and braking areas.
As an example, Alex Bowman spoke to PopCulture.com in an exclusive interview prior to an August race at the Daytona Road Course. He had never raced on the track and could only rely on extensive preparation and film study from other racing series.
“I’ve been in a simulator quite a bit. I’m just trying to prepare, and I think watching the Xfinity race is really crucial as well,” Bowman told PopCulture. “Obviously, the simulator is accurate to a point, but typically the accuracy in the simulator comes from correlating it to pass data, and a driver going in there and saying, ‘Yes, this is what the car really drives like at this racetrack, or no, this isn’t right,’ and that kind of dialing it in and getting it right and we don’t have that. We don’t have any data from the road course at Daytona. I don’t know what it’s supposed to drive like, so it’s hard to say the simulator is spot on for it.”
Fast-forward to 2021, and the drivers will be able to start the Cup Series season with extended practice sessions at Daytona International Speedway. They will have the opportunity to test out the oval before attempting to qualify for a spot on the first two rows.
