Daytona Beach, Florida. For most of the day on Sunday, mother nature looked like she wanted to be the lead story out of Daytona. The race started at 12pm eastern time with Austin Dillon on the pole, which he had earned a week ago on Sunday. Then at 2:14pm eastern time mother nature began to open up and create havoc with the great American race. At one point, there was even a tornado warning issued. There was a big crowd at the Daytona International Speedway, so for all of the media members including yours truly, it became a wait and see game to see what mother nature and NASCAR were going to do about trying to finish the great American race. It wasn’t until 8:30pm eastern time until the race came back. In the final 19 laps, it was all about number 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr, who cemented his way into the Chase. Top fives are not going to do it for you anymore. You must come up with wins if you want to make it into the Chase. Jimmie Johnson was unable to defend his title from a year ago. Friday will be fun, because you’re not going to be able to just qualify, you are going to have to go really fast in groups and there will be no individual times. Welcome to the new NASCAR, fans! This year is going to be fun. You better bring your “A” game Jimmie, top five is not going to work. If you want to be a seven time champion, then you and Knaus had better come up with an answer real quick, because Junior is already ahead of you. I would also like to remind people that if you are looking for qualifying for the Valley of the Sun, then you can hear it on MRNradio.com or you can also watch it on channel 68, Fox Sports one.
