Brad Keselowski Explains How the Daytona 500 Has Changed and Its Impact on Racing

Brad Keselowski is eyeing his maiden Daytona 500 win. The win at “The Great American” race is a definitely a tough one, considering how many greats of the sport were unable to win it. However, over the years, the racing has undergone major changes in terms of tactics and strategies and how drivers approach it. Let’s just say that winning the most prestigious title in NASCAR takes more than just mere luck, and this is where team planning comes into play. Speaking in an interview, Keselowski highlighted the current trend of racing on superspeedways and at Daytona. He went on to suggest that, races at such venues turn into a game of chess.

Mileage based racing at Daytona is the current trend

Pitstops are an integral part of racing in NASCAR. The drivers do need to get the tires changed, and most importantly, they need to refuel their cars. From the outside, it may not look like that big of a deal, but this is where strategies are executed. For the time being, it is fuel economics that is seen as an integral part of pit stop strategies, especially during the races on superspeedways.

Explaining how this works, Keselowski explained, “The racing you know evolves. The last few Daytona and Talladega races have been really fuel mileage-based racing and those are some of the ebbs and flows of the sport. You’ll see that this time around. Obviously, once everybody gets their pitstops done, it’s not fuel mileage racing.”

“Generally I think you see that up until you are pit-stopping in each one of the stages, there’s a lot of people focused on that but afterwards not so much. So the last ten, or twenty laps of each stage you see the intensity pickup. I don’t think it will be any different,” Keselowski added.

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Winning at the Daytona 500 is the final peak, but Brad Keselowski believes more than luck, the drivers need survival skills to even complete the demanding race.

Challenges drivers need to overcome at the Daytona 500

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Imagine a car being pushed to its limits at speeds of 200 mph on the steep banking of the Daytona International Speedway. Add the heat, climatic conditions, and, of course, the wrecks and accidents and the Daytona track turns into a formidable opponent. All of these weighs in the final results, and unfortunately for more time than not, Keselowski has found himself on the receiving end things at Daytona.

“Besides the luck factor, first things first, you got to be running at the end of that race. For whatever reason, I think maybe because it’s the first race of the year, maybe because it’s one of the biggest races of the year, I’m not entirely sure, but the Daytona 500 has traditionally been a race of very high attrition. Getting to the end has been very difficult for us. I think that’s a big part of why it’s so hard to win, the attrition factor, just surviving it to begin with,” the driver said.

Starting 16th in the starting position in the 66th running of the Daytona 500, Keselowski will be looking to complete his NASCAR legacy with a win at the historic race.

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