One more day.....

....before the Daytona 500, and things are already getting interesting.

On the Sprint Cup side, Danica got wrecked out in the first Duel Thursday, on the last lap. After winning the pole in the Nationwide Series, she got wrecked on lap 49 by her teammate (whoops).

Both the Truck and Nationwide races ended with relative unknowns winning after late accidents mixed up the running orders. It sets quite a stage for tomorrow's feature.

Some random thoughts while I'm procrastinating....

1) While it's merely bemusing now, Danica's probably going to have to tone down the frustration and attitude on the radio... Her language was colorful even to me, and they can only redact so much. Her reputation had taken a hit in IndyCar for her temper, but if it continues along that vein in NASCAR, eventually she'll be viewed more like the Busch brothers than like her bosses, Junior and Tony.

She can't be fined for what she says over the radio (at least not for profanity-laced rants), but NASCAR's social structure can be a bit sensitive. Also, because she is such a popular subject for the media, any judgment by the masses may have a major impact on her future marketability.

Maybe I'm over-analyzing it (after all, that's more or less my job), but there is a tendency for women to be held to higher standards than men... want references for that?

2) Although it's unlikely, I have to wonder if I'm partly to blame for the wreck-fests this weekend. A distracted driving researcher (me) in conversations with NASCAR's director of safety MIGHT have had an impact on the restriction of cross-team chatter. Or not. Regardless, it's definitely played a role in the racing (combined with smaller radiators, lower water pressures, etc). On one hand, it's nice that the drivers are back to typically chattering with their crew chief and spotters, rather than other drivers, spotters, and who knows who else. On the other, while spotters are back to making and maintaining deals, verbal communication is just not quite as fast when you add in extra links (i.e., the reason drivers started communicating directly in the first place).

Restrictor plate racing makes these cars more sensitive to the dynamics of airflow... to take advantage of said dynamics, they have to run close together, either in tandem or in packs (we've seen both throughout the past week). Running close together pretty much guarantees contact between vehicles, which pretty much guarantees someone will at some point wreck, and wreck a few others in the process.

Drafting will be a necessary evil for the major superspeedways (Daytona and Talladega). I can see several reasons for why NASCAR chose to restrict communication as well as airflow through the throttle body. It makes for a more entertaining show, especially compared to the "two-car tango". Still, from a cognition standpoint, dependence on verbal communication is hardly optimal when performance is critical. It will be intriguing to see what workaround the teams find this time.