Drivers compete in the 2011 Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
The Sprint Cup season is incredibly long – this year stretching from Feb. 18 (the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona Beach) to Nov. 18 (the finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway).
It’s a marathon of epic proportions, longer even than the college bowl season.
It’s long enough that seasons that appear to be mediocre (for example, see last year for Tony Stewart and Brad Keselowski) can turn into magical stuff by year’s end.
Along the way, there are benchmark events, races that often provide trail markers for the long season.
Here are five possibles for 2012:
1. Daytona 500, Daytona International Speedway, Feb. 26 – Now and forever the most important stock car race in the world, the 500’s gravity is compounded by the fact that the NASCAR circus plants itself in Daytona Beach for two weeks and prepares for The Big Event as if it’s the biggest thing in the world – which it is.
2. Kobalt Tools 500, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, March 11 – After Daytona and Phoenix, what some call the “real” season begins at Vegas because it’s the first race of the year at a 1.5-mile track. Although every speedway is different, good performance at one 1.5-miler often translates to wealth at others. And, of course, there are many.
3. Wonderful Pistachios 400, Richmond International Raceway, Sept. 8 – OK, the race name is weird. But no matter. It’s the last race before the Chase and, with the wild cards and all that tossed in, this race can make or break a season.
4. GEICO 400, Chicagoland Speedway, Sept. 16 – To measure the importance of the first race in the Chase, go no further than Tony Stewart. After a winless regular season, Stewart opened last year’s Chase at Chicagoland by leading 35 laps and winning the race, providing the surge that led to a championship.
5. Ford 400, Homestead-Miami Speedway, Nov. 18 – This one’s a no-brainer. Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards made it a race for the ages last season, and the increased probability that the points race will be tight as the tour rolls into Miami makes it a banzai finale.
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 29 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
