The Super Bowl of NASCAR, the Daytona 500, is ready to roll Sunday and there are no shortages of storylines and intrigue surrounding the sport’s biggest race.
The first is that the number 88 car will be on the pole for the race, but it will be driven by Alex Bowman, who drove the Chevrolet to the pole last Sunday, turning in a 195.644 mph lap to do it.
It was Dale Earnhardt, Jr. who drove the #88 Camaro before retiring last season. It was only a year ago when Bowman was struggling to fill out his calendar until Junior got injured and Bowman took over for quite a few of the races.
It put Hendrick Racing in the front seat for the fourth straight Daytona and shows that the #88 car has the horses to win.
Another storyline is one of the two last races for Danica Patrick, who will race Daytona and the Indy 500 before retiring from racing and moving on. There will be a final GoDaddy commercial that will document her passage from the track to the business world.
Patrick has had significant success and will retire with a ton of records for female driving, and has an Indy win to her credit. She is a polarizing figure, not in personality, but the attention she received separate from track success. It is significant that this is her last NASCAR race and it will be covered heavily.
Finally, for fun, the honorary pace car driver for the event will be Peyton Manning, though no word whether his noodle arm will impair his ability to complete the pace lap. Junior will serve as the race Grand Marshall and Charlize Theron will wave the green flag to start the race.
YouRulz has you covered for your fantasy NASCAR needs and will have deeper and more information as race time approaches.