The Verge:

The thing with NASCAR is that there’s no preseason. Any new ideas you want to test have to be tested in real time. And since the biggest race of the year is also the first, the Daytona 500 — the Great American Race, the race you want to win — became a sort of beta test for this bold new plan that will play out over the remaining 35 races of the 2017 season.

So I went to Daytona International Speedway to watch it all play out. As a long time, but on and off, fan of NASCAR, I figured I’d either see something new and refreshing. At the least, I’d get to feel the heat of Rome burning.

What I didn’t expect to find was a sport careening toward a technological and philosophical revolution.

If you’re not a fan of NASCAR, that’s OK. No need to tell us in the comments. But if you are, what do you think of these rule changes? I’m a casual fan and I enjoyed the stages in the latest Daytona 500 but I’m not such a diehard I really care one way or the other.