Jeff Gordon, driver of the #24 Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet, and Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, lead the field to the green flag for the running of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 57th Annual Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 22, 2015 Photo – Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images

With another controversial Daytona speedweeks over, the question is whether it is truly deemed successful? More importantly should we continue to do as much plate racing in the Sprint Cup schedule? I will never suggest that we remove the Daytona 500, but I do see plate racing as more harmful and not beneficial to the sport.

Qualifying: Start with qualifying; Anytime you see cars going backward on pit road in an event that should reward the fastest car, you know there is a problem. Even with the changes to the Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series, there were guys like Daniel Suarez and Timothy Peters wreck and have to go to a back up cars just hours before the race started. Wrecking a car in qualifying, should never be a major concern. I am not sure what is the perfect solution. Personally, I’m fine with the old format, but understand many fans would disagree. What I thought would work better, piggy backs off what Darrell Waltrip proposed, which is to have the Chevy cars run in two groups split in half, then have all the Ford cars run together and same with the Toyotas. I also think that putting the cars that needed to race their way into the race with each other would solve some problems. Until there’s a better qualifying format, I see it negatively impacting plate racing.

The Race: Lets talk about the race. First, I was glad and pleasantly surprised that we did not see too many cautions and only one red flag toward the end of the race. Although a caution ended the event, I was happy we did not see the race turn into a big red flag fest.

During the race though, just a bit before half way, we saw drivers get in single file and simply log laps,basically meaning the cars line up and ride the laps out. I see it from both points of view. As a driver, they do that to make sure they can get the lead at the end. But as a fan, it is extremely boring to watch cars run single file and not race each other throughout the race. Although, I will say, the three-wide racing toward the end of the race was cool to see and provided some excitement.

The Finish: The green-white checker, in my opinion, is a hoax at Daytona and Talladega. I would really like to see the green-white checker go from two laps to three in plate races. The first lap is basically the cars getting up to speed where there are not many moves, followed by a lap with cars scrambling around each other, trying to find that right draft partner or their teammates, which usually ends as a big wreck. With three laps, I see the drivers being a tad more patient on lap two because they have that third lap to race their competitors. Nevertheless, I would rather see two laps at full speed instead of one or 3/4 of a lap. However, I think the idea of multiple overtime laps is pretty cool.

I will say, Joey Logano ran a great race and without dispute won. It did surprise me, how well his car was able to lead as it did.  Logano was able to go three to four car-lengths in front of whoever was in second and stay at that pace. So, congratulations to him and the No. 22 team, who I expect will have another great season.

I want to end by saying I hope we see Kyle Busch back soon. On pure driver ability, Kyle is one of the best in racing and anytime you miss out on seeing him race, it is a loss for the fans. It’s unfortunate what happened and I hope the tracks wake up and put SAFER barriers on every wall on every track. Now is the time for proactive and not reactive action.

Coming later this week…

Be sure to read my winner pick for Atlanta this weekend as well as my fantasy lineups.