Daytona is synonymous with auto racing, most specifically NASCAR, as it hosts the league’s Super Bowl, the Daytona 500, every February. So much history has been made at Daytona international Speedway, but this weekend sees a first coming to the Daytona Road Course.
The inaugural Go Bowling 235 will run this Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. It was slated to be run on Watkins Glen, in upstate New York, but COVID-19 concerns and restrictions forced NASCAR to change course (literally and figuratively).
It is expected to be a very competitive race, with many unique features. The winner is projected to be either Chase Elliott, Martin Truex Jr. or Kyle Busch who are sharing the best odds. And those odds are perfectly in line with the trio’s track records; again in both the literal and figurative senses of the phrase. Busch and Truex are the co-leaders on the board of currently active NCS Road Course winners with four victories. Elliot is right there behind the triad with three Road Course wins.
While everyone knows that NASCAR races are just turning left over and over, four times in each lap, this weekend the racers will be turning both left and right with laps that consist of 3.61 miles and 14 turns. It should be a very interesting race, where multiple drivers have a strong chance of winning. Entering this weekend, 10 have previous NASCAR Cup Series wins on road courses.
Elliott is the most recent Cup Series winning two of the three 2019 Road Course, Watkins Glen International and the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL. So perhaps the smart Sunday money might be on his capturing the checkered flag again. No matter who wins, history will be made when the green flag goes up on Sunday.
“Daytona International Speedway is known for producing iconic moments in the history of NASCAR, and this will surely join that long list,” said Daytona Road Course President Chip Wile.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly contributes to WGN TV, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Now and SB Nation.
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