Time flies when we are having fun! Another Daytona Speedweeks is in the history books. Congratulations to all the winners Ryan Reed in the Xfinity series, Tyler Reddick in the Camping World Truck Series and Joey Logano in the Sprint Cup Series. All these winning drivers are in their twenties. Jeff Gordon’s last Daytona 500 at the ripe old age of 43 years old. Maybe our sport is becoming more and more like the stick and ball sports where 30 is middle aged and past 35 years young you are considered OLD! The 2015 Speedweeks can be considered a changing of the guard.

From being at the track the following are just some notes I observed, heard, etc.

If you noticed even the flagman/flagwoman wore helmets, what I heard was insurance made this a requirement. How soon before this will be required at the local racetracks? Ican see the day coming soon all officials will be required to wear helmets at the local tracks. Also there were less officials on pit road because they have adopted a trailer full of young officials (kids) who were monitoring pit road via cameras. That alone is another changing of the guard. Electronics are making their way into our sport and as we all know what starts at the top makes its way onto the local scene. Older officials look out you are about to be replaced by a computer and a monitor.

Jennifer Jo Cobb had a great spotter. At Daytona the spotter’s are such an important person much like an air traffic controller is to a pilot. The spotter is the information person keeping the driver informed of who what when and where, in this particular instance which line is moving and who is pushing whom. Sometimes they even get a little crass with their drivers but sometimes especially with the changing of the guard that is what is required.

Now while the young are taking over the top driver spots in the NASCAR series the old guys are heading to the dirt Modifieds. At Volusia some of the competitors this past week in the Modifieds were Ken Schrader, David Stremme, and Kenny Wallace. Will the Modifieds become the old man racing series?

Daytona Rising will be extremely nice. We got a taste of it this past week as we utilized escalators to our seats, this was much faster than waiting on an elevator, or walking the stairs. I did walk the stairs though because Terry Wantland forgot to get his lineup sheet and being the younger person I volunteered to walk down the stairs and back up. When the construction is complete this will be the racetrack to come to just for the amenities.

Clint Bowyer, good run, not exactly what you wanted but your crew and your crew chief made all the right calls to get you to the front. Logano was continuously praising you for your pushing ability, maybe next year he pushes you to the top spot!

NASCAR needs some work. All week long they forced the drafting qualifying procedure on the drivers and crews and it led to wrecked cars and disgruntled drivers. Instead of group qualifying why don’t they send them out four at time but spaced out where they can’t catch each other. In today’s world the one at a time qualifying does not work but four at a time all spaced so many seconds a part where the draft is not involved and teams are not involved would probably be just as exciting and save the owners a car or two.

Another fun week in the history books, now to head back home bringing the warm weather with us for a fabulous Snake Saturday and the start of the racing season at home.