A new date for 2012 Daytona 500

  Brian Vickers: first race back, after some nine months on the sidelines (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   However, the main reason for the Daytona move appears to be to accommodate Fox TV, by eliminating the current off-weekend in mid-March – the weekend where the Atlanta 500 has long been scheduled….until NASCAR moved that Sprint Cup date to Kentucky Speedway this season.
   In something of a twist, the National Basketball Association will play its All-Star game Feb. 26, 2012, in nearby Orlando. That event will be televised by Turner TNT.

 Fox TV reports last Sunday's Daytona qualifying was up significantly from 2010, with a 2.0 rating, meaning 3.3 million viewers.

   
  The Daytona midway, just outside the fourth turn tunnel, is more impressive than ever this season, with even more lavish displays.
  Indeed, there is a different, distinctly more upbeat than the last few years….for whatever reason. Why, Joie? "Hey, I'm a promoter," Chitwood says with a laugh.
  One of the prime promotions this SpeedWeeks is the Transformer movie tie-in, the latest iteration of the robot genre first seen in a 1984 TV series, part of a toy-inspired (Hasbro/Takara) marketing link.
   The twist – a NASCAR-Chevrolet tie-in.
   And the NASCAR-inspired Chevy-Transformers have been on display here on the midway. The three are wow-ed up versions of the Juan Pablo Montoya, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Sprint Cup stocks. In the movie they're 'the wreckers,' some kind of commando unit.