Daytona 500 postscript

Austin Dillon

Getty Images

I don’t know what Austin Dillon was thinking the moment he made contact with Aric Almirola on the final lap of Sunday’s Daytona 500. Almirola, of course, was the race leader when the field took the white flag during NASCAR overtime as Dillon, rookie Darrell Wallace Jr. and 2016 Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin were behind in close pursuit.

As the field moved down the backstretch, Dillon, driving the No. 3 Dow Chevrolet moved to the outside of Almirola. The driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford, as had been customary for the race leaders for much of the day, made multiple moves to block Dillon. The two made contact with Almirola suffering the worse end of the deal and colliding head on with the SAFER Wall on the backstretch at Daytona International Speedway. Dillon, the grandson of team owner Richard Childress, would move to the lead and ultimately seal the victory on the twentieth anniversary of Dale Earnhardt’s lone Daytona 500 win driving the No. 3 for Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Almirola finished 11^th.

Now, you wouldn’t have known it watching the FOX broadcast (more on that momentarily), but the contact between Dillon and Almirola was in my opinion THE STORY of Sunday’s Daytona 500. And I’ll admit: someone winning a race by simply driving into the back of a competitor, which takes absolutely no skill, does not exactly sit well with me.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]And while Dillon’s driving may have in my opinion lacked a certain purity, I have to be fair: Almirola wasn’t exactly Mother Teresa either. As was the norm from many drivers throughout Speed Week, Almirola made multiple moves in blocking Dillon that one could interpret as dirty. And with the Daytona 500 win on the line, can you blame Dillon for not simply abdicating to Almirola’s blocking maneuvers? After all, NASCAR had allowed such driving throughout the week.

Ultimately, my problem with the way Dillon won the race is just that: my problem. If you look at the matter from the moral relativity standpoint of what was allowed during the race, and what Dillon knew the repercussions would likely be (none at all), I can sit and say the move was douchey, but I can’t sit here and cast aspersions. Austin Dillon did what was allowed within the rules; and given the stakes one could argue he’d have been foolish to NOT take out Almirola.

This brings me to my next topic…

FOX

Almirola got taken out by Austin Dillon who punted him into the wall on the last lap

art of the reason I led the column with something of an extended debate on the Dillon/Almirola accident was that we didn’t exactly get much discussion concerning the matter on the television broadcast. FOX after all does house two Daytona 500 winners with a combined 177 NASCAR Cup wins, in its broadcast booth. And it would have been nice to hear how Darrell Waltrip or Jeff Gordon might have reacted to being stuffed in the fence about a mile from a Daytona 500 win.

And yes, I understand Almirola had to go to the infield care center and was not available until later. But I personally would have enjoyed getting some feedback from say Almirola’s team owner Tony Stewart. I’m sure Smoke would have been all class and said something to the effect of “it’s one of those racing deals; congratulations to Austin Dillon and the fine people at Richard Childress Racing."

What did FOX do with this highly charged emotional moment? Wait MORE THAN FIVE MINUTES to show a replay of the accident while proselytizing about Austin Dillon’s ace of spades symbol, and talking about Richard Childress Racing, and the No. 3 returning to victory lane. When Dillon was interviewed, he was not asked about the contact. Instead, we heard about a lucky penny he received from a young fan.

Here’s the problem: NONE of that was the story. The story was the elation of victory for Dillon combined with Almirola’s agony of defeat. It was almost as if they wanted to pretend it didn’t happen.

More on FOX

It wasn’t just the end of the race in which FOX failed to cover itself in glory. From “Boogity Boogity", the endless commercials or the over-proselytizing about how “these amazing athletes are pushing with everything they have", there is only one word I have to say about FOX’s coverage: AWFUL!

As for “Boogity Boogity", I’ve made this point numerous times. Racing is in a constant struggle for credibility as a “real sport," with much of the general public. “All they’re doing is driving and turning left," is the type of refrain racing people have undoubtedly heard before from non-racing folk. Screaming “Boogity, Boogity", whatever that means, does not assist in that battle for credibility, nor does it do anything to heighten excitement. For me at least, it makes me think, “what a jack ass Darrell Waltrip is."

As for the commercials, I read somewhere (and I can’t confirm or cite this) that 23% of the race was commercials. And I get it: FOX overpaid dearly for a depreciating asset in the last TV negotiation and is doing everything it can to earn back the money. But for a sport that is desperately trying to make new fans, that amount of commercials for what is racing’s biggest audience of the year, is not doing the sport any favors.

Nor is the Racing Itself

Austin Dillon, born with a silver spoon in his mouth – Richard Childress is his grandfather

I hear a lot about how restrictor plate racing at Daytona or Talladega is “exciting," and I’m not going to take exception with that. However, during the Daytona 500 and its leadup I constantly how “it’s the Super Bowl of NASCAR."

Aside from the obnoxious and overused stick-and-ball sport comparisons, equating the Daytona 500 to the Super Bowl just doesn’t add up for me. And here’s why:

The Super Bowl is an event that legitimately determines the best NFL team. Does the Daytona 500 do that? Was Austin Dillon really the best driver on Sunday? Or did Austin Dillon simply shoot snake eyes in a high stakes 200 mile-per-hour dice roll. I’d argue the latter.

Again, credibility is the issue here. And right now, for a sport desperately trying to attract new fans, my advice to Brian France would not be to continue band-aid type solutions like tweaking the Playoffs, or adding more stages. He might want to look at what his races actually determine; or better yet, what they don’t.

Brian Carroccio is a senior columnist for AutoRacing1. He can be contacted at BrianC@AutoRacing1.com