Bob Pockrass | Nascar Reporter

It was one seemingly body of the race, and then of course the finish is always something completely different, but more than 50 lead changes, which I thought was really incredible. How would you describe the racing that we saw to start the season? Much like it always is at Daytona, the racing was unpredictable unless you consider knowing that somebody is going to spin predictable, but in Daytona and especially on Sunday, it was hard to know who. You know, cars seem to be handling well, and then you get one tap at the wrong time, the wrong push, and around you went, and often when you went around, that meant that other cars were going to be collected in the mess.

Well, then you say unpredictable, and certainly the outcome of the race itself is one that we don't see as much in NASCAR anymore. The fact that it was a small family-owned team that ends up grabbing the checkered flag. Brad Doherty is the co-owner, so former NBA All-Star, and Ricky Stenhouse getting his first win in years. What does this mean for Ricky, first of all?

Bob? For Ricky Stenhouse Jr., a Daytona 500 win can mean, you know, add years to his career, but maybe even more importantly than that, really, your place in NASCAR history. He will always be introduced as a Daytona 500 winner, and nothing against Fontana, where NASCAR will head this weekend, but you win that race, it's not like you're introduced years later as, oh, he's won at Fontana in such and such a year, but you win the Daytona 500. It's a signature event. It's a signature win. It's a career win in a lot of ways, and it will, uh, file you for years and years to come, because that is the way people are going to know you. What do you think it means for him in terms of being part of that fraternity that is? I know you said that he has haters.

I won't use that word, but you can use that word. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. followed, you know, a path to NASCAR, where he was a sprint car driver, and he wasn't just a sprint car driver, he drove for Tony Stewart. So he had a lot of fans, when he got here, because, you know, if Tony Stewart believed in how good you are, and the talent that you have, then you probably have a lot of talent, and you probably have a lot of potential to race stock cars, and while he did win two, uh, two championships in what's now the Xfinity Series, he's just never, uh, never shown it in Cup.

His only wins came during 20, during the 2017 season, and yet he's still been around for 10 years. So what people already knew about Stenhouse is that teams have always felt that he has potential, they felt that he has talent, but it just hasn't, you know, things just either haven't clicked or he just hasn't been, hasn't shown it. Uh, he obviously has a lot of people who, you know, believe he caused too many wrecks, but, you know, Brad Doherty and the co-owners, the guest directors of that team, believed in Ricky, they believed in his talent, and he, now he has the crew chief back to the one that he had when he won those Xfinity Championships, Mike Kelly, and they're clicking again, or at least they did for Daytona this year. We're spending a few minutes with Bob Potgrass, who is the NASCAR reporter for Fox Sports, fresh off Daytona, now in Chicago. We'll ask him about that coming up.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. How challenging is it, Bob, for a single car team like this one to win a race at all, much less the Daytona 500? Well, I'll put it this way, since 2009, this organization has run in the NASCAR Cup Series, and they have one win, just one, 2014 at Watkins Glen with, uh, with AJ Allmendinger. So, uh, you know, this is a team that has, you know, decent funding for one car, but it's still, you don't have, you know, every week you go to the track, the big teams, the three car teams, the four car teams can have, have, you know, can try different things because, you know, hey, let's do this in this car and this in that car, and let's see what happens. Well, when you're a single car team, you can't do any of that.

Uh, they haven't always had the most manufacturer support. They haven't had the most time in the simulator to get ready for an event. So, they, right now they have a little bit of a Hendrick Alliance, and Chevrolet is giving more time, giving them more time in the simulator. That started last year, and they think they're starting to see, you know, see kind of the, uh, the results of, of that extra time. So, it's just, you know, it's very difficult for a single car team to make it and to continue to do it and to run up front consistently.

And that, that's the kind of the challenge for this team going forward to try to do this more often on a more consistent basis. We know that Michael Jordan is now part of NASCAR and is a team owner. Bubba Wallace is breaking ground and is trying to increase the diversity. What does it mean for the sport to have its first ever victory for an African-American owner? Yeah, the first Daytona 500 victory for African-American owner and Brad Doherty, uh, it's very significant. NASCAR needs a diverse fan base, and the only way to get that is to have its driver core, to have its ownership core, to have its crew chief core also to be diverse.

And, you know, Brad Doherty, you know, he wore 43 as a player in the NBA and college for a reason. And that's because of Richard Petty, you know, this is the guy who loved racing all his life. And for him to, uh, to, you know, to be part of this, uh, ownership group and to win the Daytona 500 is huge. And I, you know, I think, you know, the NASCAR fan base has known Brad Doherty for, for years and years. He does work on the NBC side of the schedule. He's worked for ESPN before that. So people have, have seen him around for decades and they know that his love and his passion for the sport is incredibly genuine. Awesome.

Good to hear. Bob Potgrass is with us on After Hours, CBS Sports Radio. And as I mentioned, he's in Chicago. Why the trip from Daytona so quickly to the Windy City, Bob? Well, because NASCAR is going to try something they haven't done in their 75 year history. When later this year, they come to Chicago to run on the street to Chicago on a temporary street course, but they're going to shut down the streets for a couple of weeks, put up a temporary course and, uh, try to try to race you.

This is something that they've never tried to do. It's done in other cities with, uh, with other types of cars, but it's never been done in NASCAR. And so Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will be up here taking a look at some things and, uh, try to do some appearances and create some buzz. You know, this is, this is NASCAR's attempt to bring the race to people who maybe, you know, wouldn't drive two hours to, to a race.

And they're pairing it with a weekend festival atmosphere with a Chainsmokers concert and a Miranda Lambert concert. And then NASCAR's looking to see, you know, Hey, I mean, it's, you know, it's come to the festival and, you know, and, and enjoy your race. And that's the way NASCAR kind of hopes to expand the sport, not just, you know, looking for some of their fans to come for a unique event, but, you know, they're trying to create new fans. And when you talk about diversity and, and Brad Daugherty, you know, being a winning owner, you know, this is where that can be a really big deal, right? You know, you, you have Brad Daugherty come out at some point or during the weekend and people recognize Brad Daugherty and they say, Oh, you know, he, he's involved with this. Why is he interested in this? He feels comfortable being at the racetrack.

You know, maybe I can be comfortable too. Do you think we'll see more of the road races and the atypical courses that seems like NASCAR is trying to find some of the tracks that they don't quite fit the mold? Well, I think that's just gonna, you know, look, they're trying to do different things.

Obviously this year was the second year they put a temporary track in the LA Memorial Coliseum for their annual preseason race called the clash. They're going to continue to look at places and, and try to do things that they think create excitement and buzz and brings their product, uh, product to, to a fan base and encourages people to, to be interested in a sport who maybe wouldn't be otherwise. And they're going to continue to try to, to have different unique events. And, you know, that's their guarantee.

Every one of them will work. No, but that doesn't mean they're going to try. They went decades going to all the same racetrack at the same time, year after year after year. And they realized they've got to do, they've got to change up the schedule to kind of keep this work fresh. One draw this season, maybe the limited return of Jimmy Johnson after a couple of years of, I don't know if that was retirement or just taking a break, but what's it like to have him back? It's great to have Jimmy Johnson back because people, you know, cause he has tons and tons of fans and that he's not just back as a driver, but he's back as a co-owner of a race team.

And so he's kind of back in this different role where not only is he driving, but he's also driving, you know, knowing that that if he racks, he's gonna have to pay for the car. You know, you want your stars of the sport to remain involved if they can and if they want to. And, and Jimmy Johnson obviously can and obviously wants to. And so it's just, it's great to have him there you know, and, and, and especially, you know, seeing, okay, he's running this well for his own team. How is he going to better?

And maybe more importantly, how's he going to get that organization better? Similar to what his mentor did, Jeff Gordon, right? So Jeff was still driving, but he was a co-owner of Jimmy's team toward the end of his career.

Absolutely. You know, it's Jeff Gordon, who is the one who said, you know, he thinks that Jimmy Johnson can win races, even though he didn't have a proven track record of winning races and stock cars. And, you know, and so now can Jimmy Johnson do the same?

And it's not only just trying to choose a driver, but it's also trying to choose crew members. You look at Tony Stewart, co-owner of Stewart Haas Racing, there was a time where it was just Haas Racing, and they weren't very good. And they give half the team to Tony Stewart, and he brings in people and people want to work for him. And now that team has championships and wins races and is considered one of the elite teams. Question is, can Jimmy do that over the rebranded, petty GMS into what they're now calling Legacy Motor Club? Bob Potgrass is with us from Chicago for Fox Sports, fresh off the Daytona 500 and following champion Ricky Stenhouse around after hours here on CBS Sports Radio.

What are a couple of top storylines for the season ahead in addition to Chicago? When you talk about the new next-gen car, I think the main storyline is, will there be as much parity this year as there was last year? You talk about 19 winners last year and in 36 races. And you have a guy who won a race, who won since 2017.

So what does that tell you? How many winners there could be this year? And then the other one is, is that they did make some changes to the car for rear impacts, where the driver hopefully isn't absorbing as much of the energy in the crash, which you saw last year.

They certainly were. You had two drivers who missed races because of the concussions. Kurt Busch still is not able to race. He hopes to be able to race some events on a part-time schedule once he gets cleared, but he's not cleared yet. And so, you know, time will tell whether these changes that NASCAR made will prove to keep their drivers safe. The drivers feel like they, you know, they feel good about the changes.

They feel that from what they've seen from the crash tests that NASCAR has done, that they will help, but obviously you won't know until it happens. But he wants to return though. He's still intent on returning to driving. I think Kurt Busch would like to still race again. You know, he'd love to be able to kind of go out a little bit more on his own terms, but, you know, he just, he can't do it until he's cleared. And he says that he is, you know, everyday life is fine.

It's just when he gets his heart rate up to a point like where he would be in a race car that he still has some issues. All right, we're off and running after Daytona and Bob Pockrass now in Chicago because that's where the champ is as we get set for history there later in the season. You can find him on Twitter at P-O-C-K-R-A-S-S.

Covers NASCAR for Fox Sports. It's always good to catch up with you, Bob. Thank you so much for a couple of minutes. Yeah, thank you, Amy.