NASCAR Is More Than Just Left Turns

Approaching a 31-degree banking at Daytona International Speedway doing close to 200 mph, the track feels like it shrinks by ten, and the g-forces on the banking make you feel as if you’re being crushed like a can. It’s insanity.

Christopher Bell, the 25-year-old behind the wheel of the No. 20 Toyota Supra NASCAR race car, does this almost every day. I was trying to keep breathing and not soil the flame-retardant racing suit I was wearing. At the same time, I couldn’t stop laughing.

“Holy shit, that was awesome!” I yelled at the end of the three-lap ride.

“Oh yeah? You liked that?” Bell replied. “Imagine doing that with 40 other cars on the track.”

Yeah, I couldn’t imagine that.

Why was I there? Because Toyota was introducing the new Supra for the 2021 model year. It has a more powerful engine and a revised chassis, and Toyota added a four-cylinder model for the U.S. The cool thing? Toyota chose to unveil it just ahead of the Daytona 500.

I’ve never really been that interested in NASCAR. It was just a bunch of left turns to me. So I wasn’t too keen on staying for the race. Turns out, I was very wrong.

The most exciting part of the four-day weekend wasn’t even the 500. It was the truck series race on Friday night. Picture this: a bunch of 17- and 18-year-olds driving 750-hp trucks, which have little downforce on the rear end, trying to prove themselves on one of the most legendary tracks in America. What could go wrong?

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I counted four crashes in the truck-series race, a.k.a. the NextEra Energy 250. During the last, let’s say, 10 laps, things got out of control. It was the same for the 500. The drivers tried to go four cars wide on the turns, and the whole time I was remembering what I felt like on that banking a few feet from the white wall, which at that point is just a blur. But Chris and I were in the only car on the track. Like he said: “Imagine 40 other cars on the track.” One small mistake can be catastrophic. Once one race car crashes, it’s likely that another will follow; it’s a domino effect. Another fascinating discovery: If a car is involved in a crash, the team has only six minutes to fix the car and get it back in the race. I saw one team pull out a piece of duct tape at least two feet wide and slap the hood back on.

Unfortunately, due to an unexpected monsoon, I only got to see 20 laps of the 2020 Daytona 500. However I did get to see the president fly over in Air Force One. I watched the finish at home on Monday night. Toyota had brought driver Denny Hamlin to talk with us before race day, so I was rooting for him to win.

The finish, the second-closest in Daytona 500 history, was marred by a serious crash involving the No. 6 car, driven by Ryan Newman. Newman, as of this writing, is awake and speaking with his family and doctors, and his injuries are not considered life-threatening.

A devastating incident like that crash reinforces the fact that anything can happen in the blink of an eye in this sport. These drivers are some tough athletes, and I now have a newfound respect for them and the sport—and plans to watch NASCAR races a lot more frequently.