If you take in all the hype then world peace is at hand, famine will soon be eradicated from the Earth and Jesus himself will be coming to a city near you in the coming months. NASCAR’s new racecar, the so-called Generation 6, or simply the Gen-6 for those who like to speak in sound bites, will soon make its on-track debut in anger. No more testing, no more flashy unveils with rock music thumping in the background. No more auto executives in suits, their skin pasty due to living in almost endless Detroit winter, droning on about how great the SS-Fusion-Camry looks and how excited they are.
This Saturday night at Daytona fans and the rest of the world will finally get to see what drivers can do when there is an actual winner that results in the end. Up until now there has been talk, speculation, posters, t-shirts, pretty girls in firesuits and testing, lots of testing. No one however has yet turned them loose on the track and allowed drivers to do what it is they really do best, race. By all accounts the drivers are eager to do just that. And by all accounts the testing has shown that the new cars should race very well. Yet it hasn’t actually happened just yet.
So then Saturday night there will be the first actual race. A non-points race once known by a beer moniker that was a ‘Shootout’ that is now sponsored by a phone company and is ‘Unlimited’. It was always sort of humorous that a beer company sponsored a car race called a ‘Shootout’; surely everyone drinks responsibly and would never mix firearms and driving with their favorite alcoholic refreshment. Of course how could anything that is so heavily formatted be ‘Unlimited’? Ah, but the fans will get to vote on various parts of the race… but only in a limited way. MORE>>>
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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