NASCAR QNA: Ricky Stenhouse wins Daytona 500, but let's hear it for Travis Pastrana
Can we take away anything useful from the Daytona 500?
Only that Ricky Stenhouse has a spot reserved when the playoffs start in six-plus months.
Other than that, you don’t learn much from a plate-race, which isn’t technically a “plate-race” anymore but it’s still the best description we have.
Well, actually, there’s this: There appears to be nothing Travis Pastrana can’t do. He finished 13th in Friday night’s truck race and 11th in his first Daytona 500. Eleventh!
And given his daredevil creds, for all we know he might be the only guy ever collected in a big Daytona wreck to enjoy the ride.
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Is this week’s race the last one at Fontana?
It’s the last at a 2-mile track in Fontana. Work is supposed to begin shortly on converting the speedway into a short track.
NASCAR will have to find a replacement venue for 2024, and some of us are rooting for North Wilkesboro, assuming all goes well there in May’s All Star Race.
There’s some speculation that Fontana’s renovation could take long enough to also rule out a trip there in ’25, and knowing California and its construction hurdles, that might be true. Who knows … in mid-project they might insist on turning the whole property into a solar farm.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Travis Pastrana joins Ricky Stenhouse in 'winning' Daytona 500 | NASCAR
