MOORESVILLE, N.C. — I’m tired of masks. I miss my favorite restaurants. I’m tired of not going places, not visiting friends and family and I’m tired of hearing the phrase, “when things get back to normal.”
Isn’t everyone feeling like that?
But as COVID-19 rages on and we all do our best to keep ourselves and our loved ones healthy, there’s an excitement in the air for a new racing season, and, personally, I may be looking forward to the new season more than I have in many years.
Sure, it’s partially because racing — and other sports — gives us an escape from the stresses of everyday life. But there are a lot of intriguing aspects of this new racing season, and we look forward to seeing how things play out.
With that in mind, here are some of our predictions and things we’ll be watching for beginning this month in Florida and throughout the season.
— By now we’re all familiar with Kyle Larson’s accomplishments and failures last year. After losing his NASCAR ride, Larson thrilled dirt-track fans by winning 46 features in four types of race cars, including 12 victories with the World of Outlaws. It seemed barely a day passed without Larson winning a feature.
But last year may have been Larson’s opening act.
He returns to the NASCAR Cup Series full time with Hendrick Motorsports. It will be the best equipment he’s ever driven in NASCAR competition and Larson certainly has a lot to prove.
Larson won’t win 46 races this season, but he’ll win more than his share, and many of them will be in the Cup Series as he not only contends for but wins the series championship.
He’ll also continue to race on dirt, running sprint cars, midgets and late models more than 40 times. At this writing, he’d already won the Chili Bowl for a second consecutive season and by the time you read this he will have likely added a couple more dirt-track victories prior to his NASCAR return in the Daytona 500.
— Paul Silva’s familiar No. 57 sprint cars will win a lot of races, with Rico Abreu joining Larson in the driver’s seat of the Silva-owned machines.
— Donny Schatz won only five World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series features last season and finished third in the standings.
I believe the 10-time series champion will return to form this year with a double-digit victory tally and that elusive 11th series title.
— COVID-19 will continue to impact motorsports and our daily lives.
— New NASCAR team owners NBA legend Michael Jordan and international recording artist Pitbull will open NASCAR to new audiences, and to potential new team owners as well, which will help ensure the sport’s viability well into the future.
— Pato O’Ward will get his first NTT IndyCar Series victory.
— Clint Bowyer will make NASCAR television broadcasts more than three hours of hype; he will make them entertaining.
— The Aug. 6-8 Music City Grand Prix in Nashville, Tenn., will be the best new race of the season and will provide the IndyCar Series with another much-needed destination event.
— This will not be the year someone steals the Formula One championship from Lewis Hamilton, as the Englishman will win his eighth title and become the world championship’s most decorated driver.
— Dirt-track racing at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway will not be a flash in the pan this time around. When the historic .533-mile concrete track was covered with dirt in 2000 and ’01 for two weekends of racing, it was a painstaking process that had to be juggled between a pair of NASCAR weekends at the track.
Now, the spring NASCAR events at Bristol will be run on dirt and there have been tremendous advancements in track building. That means dirt racing at Bristol, which this season includes the Cup Series, Camping World Truck Series and World of Outlaws sprint cars and late models, will be a staple for years to come.
— With Michael Shank Racing and Wayne Taylor Racing now fielding Acuras and Chip Ganassi Racing joining Action Express in the Cadillac camp, the battle for the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship DPi title will be as interesting as it has been in years.
— USAC midget and sprint car champion Tyler Courtney will turn heads as he makes the full-time transition to winged sprint cars with Clauson Marshall Racing while running the Ollie’s Bargain Outlet All Star Circuit of Champions tour.
— Justin Allgaier will finally win the NASCAR Xfinity Series title.
— By mid-summer, we’ll all go to the races while leaving our masks at home.