This article is part of our Weekly Preview series.
We're set to kick off another season of NASCAR racing, and to get things started we head to the historic Daytona International Speedway for the season opener. The Daytona 500, also known as the Great American Race, kicks off each NASCAR Cup Series season and is by far the most prestigious event in the sport. The Daytona 500 is to NASCAR what the Super Bowl is to the NFL or the World Series is to Major League Baseball. It's unique in that it leads off the season rather than ends it. No other major sport can make that claim. All eyes in the motorsports world will be focused on Daytona this weekend because the winner of this race is not only making history, but he's also setting the pace for the season to come.
If there's one thing that we can count on with Speedweeks at Daytona, it's lots of practice laps. With all the exhibition and qualifying races, the drivers really get to know what they can and can't do with their cars over the weeklong events. Once the drivers get acquainted with the aero package, we should see lots of three-wide, big pack racing in this season's Daytona 500. When we get down to the final 10 laps and crunch time, it will be interesting to see how the drivers mix it up looking for that perfect drafting partner. Pushing and bump drafting are out of the question, so we'll see some precarious drafting, side-drafting and quickly shifting
