Start your engines! Photo via: Wiki Commons
After a long winter, the time has finally come for the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season to kick off, and there’s no better place to do it than at Daytona International Speedway for the Daytona 500. This is far and away the most important and prestigious race on the schedule, if you win the Daytona 500 you become immortalized. Even some of the greatest NASCAR drivers in history haven’t been able to win this race, just proving how difficult it is to win here. This will certainly be appointment television come Sunday.
The big story aside from the race itself is this brand new racecar. With as many supply chain issues that have been plaguing the United States, there has been a major degree of difficulty getting a lot of new parts for these cars, so a lot of teams are coming to Daytona with no backup car. Another major obstacle is that NASCAR is limiting teams to only seven cars. While this doesn’t sound like enough cars, it is important to note that teams can use one car for each racetrack unlike years past when they had to have a designated car for each type of racetrack. This new era of NASCAR appears to be heading more spec than what we are used to seeing and while each car isn’t exactly the same, this is a much more level playing field than we are used to seeing and everyone is starting from scratch.
Another interesting storyline this year is a few of the new teams on the grid. Legendary boxer Floyd Mayweather has thrown his hat in the ring with his new race team, “The Money Team Racing.” For now, their goal was to make the Daytona 500 (which they did) and then make select starts throughout the season with Kaz Grala behind the wheel. I look forward to seeing their progress. Xfinity series regulars Kaulig racing will also make their debut with two cars as well, with Justin Haley piloting the #31 Camaro full-time and a trio of Noah Gragson, Daniel Hemric, and AJ Allmendinger driving the second entry. This is a team that has a lot of talent and can really hit the ground running this year. They also benefit from running a part-time schedule last season as well. This team will be one to watch for.
After sweeping both duels on Thursday, it would appear that Jack Roush and his team are going to be the two cars to beat. When it was announced that Brad Keselowski would be purchasing a 50 percent ownership stake in the team, many wondered how this could improve a team that had been struggling over the past decade and despite a poor showing at the LA Coliseum. It would appear that this move has worked wonders. We all know Brad Keselowski is one of the top drivers in NASCAR but after watching the dwindling performance of the team, many were wondering if Brad was making a mistake. But after showing signs of speed in practice, it would appear that the 2012 Champion has proven his doubters wrong for the moment. Look for Keselowski to be a contender for the 500.
The driver I am picking to win though is Alex Bowman. Going into qualifying, the Hendrick Chevrolets were insanely fast sweeping the first four positions. They had a bit of trouble in the Duels though, struggling to keep up with the Fords. All that doesn’t really make a difference considering how this is simply a qualifying race. When it’s all on the line, I am sure they will be right back where they left off last year and Bowman will be at the front of the line. Alex has had a lot of fast race cars on these super speedways but always seems to get caught up in the big wreck. If he can stay out of trouble, I think he will take the checkered flag first on Sunday.
Most Popular
SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome
Listen Live
Astros betting big on their biggest advantage tonight
Jul 8, 2025, 12:03 pm
Adding a player of Kevin Durant’s caliber was too valuable an opportunity for the Houston Rockets to pass up, even though it meant moving on from Jalen Green just four seasons after they drafted him second overall.
Durant was officially acquired from Phoenix on Sunday in a complicated seven-team transaction that sent Green and Dillon Brooks to the Suns and brought Clint Capela back to Houston from the Hawks.
General manager Rafael Stone is thrilled to add the future Hall of Famer, who will turn 37 in September, to a team which made a huge leap last season to earn the second seed in the Western Conference.
Asked Monday why he wanted to add Durant to the team, Stone smiled broadly before answering.
“He’s Kevin Durant,” Stone said. “He’s just — he’s really good. He’s super-efficient. He had a great year last year. He’s obviously not 30 anymore, but he hasn’t really fallen off and we just think he has a chance to really be impactful for us.”
But trading Green to get him was not an easy decision for Stone, Houston’s general manager since 2020.
“Jalen’s awesome, he did everything we asked,” Stone said. “He’s a wonderful combination of talent and work ethic along with being just a great human being. And any time that you have the privilege to work with someone who is talented and works really hard and is really nice, you should value it. And organizationally we’ve valued him tremendously, so yeah very hard.”
Green was criticized for his up-and-down play during the postseason when the Rockets were eliminated by the Warriors in seven games in the first round. But Green had improved in each of his four seasons in Houston, leading the team in scoring last season and playing all 82 games in both of the past two seasons.
Pressed for details about why Green's time was up in Houston, Stone wouldn't get into specifics.
“It’s the NBA and you can only do trades if a certain amount of money goes out and a certain amount comes in and there’s some positional overlap or at least overlap in terms of on ball presence,” he said. “And so that’s what the deal required.”
In Durant, the Rockets get a veteran of almost two decades who averaged 26.6 points and six rebounds a game last season and has a career average of 27.2 points and seven rebounds.
Houston loves the veteran experience and presence that Durant brings. Stone noted that the team had arranged for some of its players to work out with him in each of the past two offseasons.
“His work ethic is just awesome,” Stone said. “The speed at which he goes, not in a game … but the speed at which he practices and the intensity at which he practices is something that has made him great over the years and it started when he was very young. So of all the things that I hope rubs off, that’s the main one I think is that practice makes perfect. And I think one of the reasons he’s had such an excellent career is because of the intensity with which he works day in day out.”
Durant is a 15-time All-Star and four-time scoring champion, who was the Finals MVP twice. The former Texas Longhorn is one of eight players in NBA history to score at least 30,000 points and he won NBA titles in 2017 and 2018 with the Warriors.
Now he’ll join a team chasing its first NBA title since winning back-to-back championships in 1994-95.
“Everything has to play out, but we do — we like the fit,” Stone said. “We think it works well. We think he will add to us and we think we will help him.”