Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines! The NASCAR season has begun with the ¨Clash at the Coliseum¨ taking place at the Los Angeles Coliseum in Los Angeles, California on Saturday, February 3. Denny Hamlin was the winner of the inaugural race snagging the lead late with ten laps to go. Netflix released a docu-series titled ¨NASCAR Full Speed ¨on January 30 of this year. The series shows the inside life of NASCAR drivers and their lives. It follows multiple drivers including Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Ross Chastain, Bubba Wallace, Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, and Joey Logano. The series followed the drivers during the tail end of the season. It has gained immense popularity over the short time it has been out. It helped NASCAR fans understand the ups and downs of being a NASCAR driver.

This season NASCAR is gaining and losing drivers with legendary driver Kevin Harvick retiring before the season and being replaced by Josh Berry. Aric Almirola also retired from full-time cup competition. Ty Dillion moving down to the Xfinity Series and J.J. Yeley reportedly moved to the Xfinity Series (similar to Triple-A in baseball) as well.

NASCAR playoffs are very different from many other sports. A quick definition of the playoffs from CBS says ¨The NASCAR playoffs are called the NASCAR cup series with an elimination format with four different rounds in all. All Drivers are placed on the number of races they win during the regular season as well as the number of playoff points or through their points position at the end of the regular season they have earned throughout the entire regular season. If a driver wins a race, they automatically qualify for the next round of the playoffs.” Also, drivers can make it into the next round on points if they are above the cutoff line at the end of each three-race round. The four drivers below the cutoff line at the end of each round are eliminated from the playoffs and eliminated from championship contention but still are allowed to race but are not racing for anything.

There are many different storylines to follow in this year’s NASCAR. One Main storyline is will Denny Hamlin finally get his first NASCAR Cup Championship. Will Kyle Blaney win back-to-back championships? Will Chase Elliot get back in the winner’s circle? And will this finally be the year for RCR racing (Richard Childress Racing) to win a cup championship for the first time since the days of Dale Earnhardt over 30 years ago. In conclusion, This year’s NASCAR season should be an interesting one so every Sunday at 3 pm make sure to tune into FS1 to watch the thrilling sport of NASCAR.