October 13, 2026

NASCAR at Daytona

You never know what life has in store for you, so when I got invited back to commentate at Final Bout in the big ole smoke of the US of A, I knew I had to get to a NASCAR race sooner than later! (More on Final Bout in a different post)

The Daytona 400 was on the weekend before, it was also the final race where "The Chase" drivers a.k.a the Top 16 were decided. A little story line creator to add a bit of spice to a traditional championship format, and spice there was. Any non bias southern hemisphere wheelman is going to be rooting for New Zealander Shane Van Gisbergen. A real go getter behind the wheel, Shane was 16th coming into the race and to maintain 16th (Thus securing a place in the chase) he needed to finish ahead of Ryan Preece.

Well if you're an enthusiast you already know how it went down, and it was shit. We all wanted to see SVG get through but unfortunately that wasn't the case with Ryan Preece taking the win.

Whilst it was a shit day for Shane, it was fairly unreal for myself getting to witness NASCAR in person. Jet lag hit me the hardest it ever has (35 hours worth of travel and not much sleep) had me asking some really stupid questions & genuinely a little bit out of it which sucked for those around me I am sure!

Any who, shit was ripper, thanks Shane for hooking up the PitPass, sorry for the stupid questions, heres to some redemption next year and here are some flicks!

-Mez

View from the spotters tower during the O'reillys race