New Year New NASCAR

And the Winner Is!!!  Oh wait?!!

            2019…This is a new year for the NASCAR season.  So many different changes.  So many new, new <---this is not a typo.  Yes, I said that.  It is the most exciting time of the year if you are a racing fan.  We are going to see some racing on the track this weekend.  Exciting!!!  I’m not going to go into details of the many different changes.  I just want to talk about one of them for now.

            I know everyone heard the news by now.  Which news?  I am talking about the post-race changes.  So, NASCAR finally is going to step it up after the races.  They will do a full post-race inspection after every race.  There may be one or two races that they may not be able to do that though.  It isn’t just the Monster Energy Cup Series.  It is also going to be done in the Gander Outdoors Truck Series and the Xfinity Series.  So even though we will know the winner when the race is over, we are not going to know the winner officially yet.  We are not going to know if that driver is really the winner.  Do you get what I am saying here? 

            This has been a long time coming.  I always felt if you had points taking away from you later in the week, the win should have been taking away too.  Especially, if the win at the time was an encumbered win, it should be taking away all together.  There may be some mixed feelings about this.  I guess we all are going to see what happens. 

            Just in case some people do not know the small details.  NASCAR will be tearing down the car for a full inspection after the race.  Instead of waiting until Tuesday or Wednesday to do the full tear down to see if there will be a penalty or not, we will know after the race.  I guess I said that right.  I think NASCAR said that it will take about 90 minutes to 2 hours to complete the inspection.  We are not going to know the official winner until about 2 hours later.  So, if the winning car fails post-race inspection, the win will go to the second-place driver.  And yes, NASCAR is going to inspect the second-place car.  I want to make this clear that NASCAR will inspect the first and second place cars and then a random car.  They will still take the cars to the R&D center on Tuesday and Wednesday to go into more detailed inspection than they did at the track.

            What if the second-place driver fail post-race inspection too?  Well, the win will be giving to the third-place driver.  What if the third-place driver fails inspection?  We just hope it doesn’t come down to that, please.  I just do not want to think that a scenario like that will happen.  I hope not!!!  We just let it play out in our dreams.  I just do not want it to come true.  We do not really want to see this in real life, do we?  I am not even going to go there.  I do not want to.  I’m just ready to see some NASCAR activities on the track.

            So, let’s get back to the penalty of failing post-race inspection.  Not only will the win be taking away, the playoff points, stage points and everything else that comes with the win will be taking away as well.  Plus, the person will be dropped down to the last place.  Everyone will move up in the finishing order.  So, every finishing position will mean even more this year.  Like the drivers need more reasons to get even wilder on the track.

            I’m going to really wait to see what will happen later in this season.  I do not feel like this will happen early in the season with this new rule change.  Ok!!!  It may happen early in the season.  I’m just going to be hopeful that there will be no issues of this so soon after the start of the season. 

            So, comment on what you think about this new change.  I’m all for your thoughts and opinions on this.  It is ok to leave a comment. 

I’m done!!!  I guess until next time.  I hope sooner than later.