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The season wasn’t even two days old before Christopher Bell provided one of its best quotes.
“This is fun,” Bell said, very tongue in cheek. “We’re having fun.”
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was not having fun. Bell had just been spun during his heat race for the Busch Light Clash inside the L.A. Coliseum. A few weeks later, he would use the same line, this time with a big smile, while standing in the snow that was coming down at Auto Club Speedway.
With the 2023 calendar coming to the end of its final page, so too does NASCAR’s 75th anniversary season. Plenty did indeed have fun, the last of which being Ryan Blaney earning his first Cup Series championship. On the other hand, Hendrick Motorsports didn’t have as much fun as it would have liked after seeing two of its drivers suffer injuries early in the year.
There were good races and bad races. Fines? Oh, NASCAR levied plenty. Penalties were distributed like Christmas presents at times, and there were enough drivers mad at each other to fill the family dinner table.
NASCAR didn’t miss a step with marketing around its 75th anniversary season. Some of the most popular merchandise throughout the year was the anniversary-logoed apparel and accessories. Fans were treated to special coverage with ad campaigns and films, and in late spring, additional drivers were added to the Greatest Drivers list to bring the total, of course, from 50 to 75.
If we want to get personal, then here is a shameless plug for ‘NASCAR 75 Years,’ a coffee table book released in early April. Among the four authors was yours truly.
It was another long but rewarding year of covering the sport in what will stand as one of its milestone seasons.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and JTG Daugherty Racing were first-time winners in the Daytona 500. It is special trying to capture the emotion and the meaning of winning the sport’s biggest race.
North Wilkesboro returned. It’s a place that just won’t go away. The enthusiasm around the weekend was refreshing, even with the stomping Kyle Larson put on the field. It seems rare for positivity to outweigh all else, but during the week and weekend when cars and trucks were on track at North Wilkesboro, it was hard to find someone unhappy or not enjoying themselves.
In a reflection column afterward, it felt fitting to share a story of seeing the track in 2016 when it was beat up and left for dead. The hope of a community (and one dedicated gatekeeper) kept the place from completely falling down and disappearing.
By the time the circuit entered the summer months, there were great stories emerging. NASCAR was a big hit in France with the Garage 56 entry, and seeing the project go the distance made it even better. Plus, the next time someone says NASCAR is nothing more than big old stock cars, you can prove the point by pulling up the Getty Images photo of the car largely standing out – and tall – in the field. If you haven’t seen it, it’s hard not to find. It’ll be iconic for years to come.
There was a ton of coverage around Garage 56, and it was clear how much fans were enjoying seeing the car, whether it was those in France or in the United States, when NASCAR put the car on display at NASCAR races late in the year. When it was brought out for some laps around the Charlotte Roval, Rick Hendrick and Jim France looked like proud parents who didn’t want to let it out of their sight.