Dallying Toward Daytona

The clock on the wall says 51 days until we can get back to the business of finding out who is going to win the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title.

In 51 days, we’ll be watching the green flag flutter at Daytona, kicking off the 10-month, 36-race schedule that will determine who hoists the Tiffany trophy at Homestead.

That’s too long. Why can’t there be spring training, pre-season workouts, so on and so forth in NASCAR? Yeah, there’s testing, but it’s antiseptic and controlled from the NASCAR hauler, and you can’t get a feel for who is going to be good, who is going to be just all right and who is going to be making changes by the time Charlotte rolls around.

For years, those of us in the brother/sisterhood who follow NASCAR have had to make do with replays and magazine-style programs, the odd fan festival or celebration and the like before we get to see the boys get up on the wheel. I should say, boys and girls, now that Danica is among those in the mix.

This time of year is all about teams coming together. New teams need to gel, experienced teams need to work out dynamics and teams that are in between have to do a little bit of both. Pit crews have been a big part of the news the past couple of years, with several teams sorting out on a race-to-race basis.

With the new fuel-injected engines, there will be some growing pains, though not as many as you might imagine. Fuel injection is not rocket surgery; it’s the way cars have been made for the past 30 years or so. The manufacturers have the fuel-injection story down cold; all that might happen this year is a slight downtick in the search for speed, waiting for the engines to catch up and hit the limiter.

It should help fuel mileage, and that is a blessing to those among us who would rather chew barbed wire than watch a fuel mileage race. The fuel systems will be under scrutiny until there are a few races under their belts.

There will be the usual weeping and wailing over tires and track conditions and such, but that’s just racers doing what they do. I’m sure there will be some moaning over the gas cans left over from 2011, but I don’t think NASCAR is going to do anything about it.

Whatever the ticker clock says, Daytona can’t get here fast enough. Once you’re in DAB, it seems like the year has begun and you can get on about your business…which at this point, is programming the DVR like a fiend and searching for anything to do with fast cars and last-lap excitement.

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