As I covered NASCAR weekend this past Friday, Saturday and Sunday, around 8,000 fans per day were allowed to enter the event to spectate as fans. It was the first NASCAR Championship to be held at Phoenix Raceway and the first time the title race would not be in Miami in nearly 20 years. Phoenix was handpicked a year before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world and has changed the lives of every individual in the past eight months.
To end the weekend, I wanted to do some kind of year in review, season recap, or 2021 preview pertaining to the world of NASCAR. As I wandered the facility throughout the day speaking with fans, track workers, fellow media members, and viewing what the experience was like in the crows, I began to understand that the impact of this championship event in Arizona spread far beyond the world of NASCAR.
As the race came to a close and 24-year-old, Chase Elliott, fulfilled the prophecy of becoming NASCAR’s next big superstar, my mind began to wonder, contemplating what the race a Phoenix Raceway could look like in just four months from now. I tried my best to organize my thoughts and this is how it came out on video.
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Devon Henry
Arizona native, Devon Henry, joined the Sports360AZ crew in 2018 after graduating from Arizona State's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communication. Devon has avidly partaken in coverage of the Arizona high school sports scene since 2013 and has covered NASCAR and INDYCAR at Phoenix Raceway since 2017. Devon is also a play-by-play announcer, calling over a dozen different sports and hundreds of events.