By Jared Turner From the glory of Daytona to the beginning of the grind that is the remainder of the schedule, the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season gets in full swing with Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Aside from Atlanta being one of the fastest tracks on the NASCAR tour, the high-banked, 1.54-mile quad-oval couldn’t be much different from Daytona International Speedway — the world-famous site of last weekend’s season-opening race. Atlanta is the first of 32 “normal” races on the 36-race schedule, meaning that drivers won’t be bunched in tight packs all day by…

By Jared Turner The Verdict Is Out NASCAR’s New Stage Format Sunday’s Daytona 500 was the first full premier race broken down by segment, on the basis of NASCAR’s new enhanced race format introduced for the sport’s top three series prior to the 2017 season. While some observers suggest that dividing races into stages — all of which pay points at their respective conclusion — makes wrecks more likely to occur, there is no empirical evidence to support this kind of cause and effect. In fact, many drivers completely refuted this theory at Daytona, saying that the presence of segments was not…

By Jared Turner When Kyle Busch wrecked out of Sunday’s Daytona 500, it was a disappointing end to what had been a promising day for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver. Busch, still seeking his first triumph in the sport’s biggest race, had won the first stage, and — despite being a lap down by virtue of being on a different pit sequence from the leaders — stood an excellent chance of contending for the win. But all that changed when a tire failure sent his Toyota spinning abruptly in the middle of the pack, collecting multiple teammates along with Dale Earnhardt Jr.…