65th Annual Daytona 500: Off-Season Drama to In-Season Action

Why does it feel like the 2025 edition of what should be the “Great American Race” feel like the focus is on anything but the actual racing?

Even before the prior season came to a conclusion, talk of “do charters work, or is it control” were prominent.  Two organizations filed suit against NASCAR, and it has felt as if things had gotten worse, and talk of the on-track product was the least talked about item leading into the new year.

Drivers made moves, some retired.  Organizations closed their doors, but no talk was about who would be winning the biggest event of the season.  A race that has sold out once again, showing that even with how much the sport gets criticized, it still can bring in a fan base like no other.

Still, even as the time to go green draws closer, even more news outside of the racing product came about.

One established owner at the second-tier level raced into the field decided to take a chance at the highest level, and make the field.  Somehow, that team made the field, and the owner felt as though he had just experienced victory all over again.

Those are the things that Daytona should be about…the teams trying to show they belong, the drivers that want their first win in the biggest event, and others wanting to get another.

It should be about the No. 22 team beginning their quest in defending another championship.  It should be about Kyle Busch’s next attempt to finally win the race he’s been chasing for over two decades.  It’s about new faces in familiar places, like Josh Berry driving for the Wood Brothers or Chase Briscoe at the wheel of the No. 19 Toyota.  Teams that were multiple-car operations either added drivers, or reduced to only one.

So why is the talk still about 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports suing NASCAR, and right now running as charter teams knowing they could lose at the end of the year?

Simple, it consumes us.  If it has anything to do with NASCAR, it consumes us.  That’s how it is to the true fans.  It doesn’t matter if it’s on track or not, NASCAR news consumes us, and that had us filling up all through the three months no action was actually on track.

Bowman Gray Stadium brought us back to the track, and it gave us a little taste of what could come at some of the smaller venues.

Now, the business is the biggest business event of all.

No matter how it’s looked at, the off-season topics take a back seat when the green flag waves and a full field of cars and drivers make a dive into turn 1, full song for 200 laps.

It’s still the race that matters the most in the entire year, it’s the ultimate crown jewel event.  It is the Daytona 500, and it can change the course of a driver, a team, and an organization in one moment.

Sunday cannot come soon enough.  Drivers…start your engines.