Cassill's Daytona 500 Day the best kind of chaos

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Racing at Daytona International Speedway is a bit like organized chaos.

Well, really, racing anywhere is a bit like organized chaos. And in NASCAR specifically, nearly everything that surrounds the top level of American motorsports certainly is just that. The athletes — yes, athletes — who compete in the Sprint Cup Series have more demands on them on a given day of competition than any other sport.

That's never truer than before the biggest race of them all, the Daytona 500. Football, basketball and baseball players, for example, get long stretches of time before their games where no one outside the locker room gets at them — not fans, not media, not anyone who's going to distract them from the task at hand. NASCAR drivers don't get that luxury.

Cedar Rapids native Landon Cassill knows firsthand. This season marks the 10th season he's participated in the traveling circus that is NASCAR. It's been a long time since all he had to worry about before a race was if his Modified was ready to race at Hawkeye Downs.

He has a new ride with a team directly tied to Ford Motor Company's Ford Performance division. He has fans who want autographs. He has an infant son who wants nothing more than to be in his 26-year-old father's arms. He has a wife and family who wants him safe.

Cassill's race days are organized chaos. But there's nothing better.

FOX Sports rebranded the day of the Daytona 500 as '#DaytonaDay' for 2016. Their commercials depict fans celebrating the running of the Daytona 500 as one would the Super Bowl — something NASCAR and its community have called the 500 for decades.

Cassill's Daytona Day started at 5:45 a.m. Daytona International Speedway, which completed an 18-month rebuilding project called 'Daytona Rising' and had substantial pressure to live up to the hype it created around what it calls the 'first motorsports stadium,' did a sound check over its speaker system.

Before the sun was even up. So too, then, were Cassill, his wife, Kaitlan, their son, Beckham and their five-pound Yorkie named Indy. No rest for the weary, as they say. Their young family got the first few hours of the day to themselves. Beckham crawled around their motorhome, they watched some TV and ate breakfast — what any normal family does on a Sunday morning.

Normalcy ended at 8:45 a.m. That's when Cassill left for the first of two appearances and a meeting with Ford executives and all the other Ford drivers. That's all before 11 a.m.

'I still don't have a routine totally set,' Cassill said as he hopped onto a golf cart to make it from an appearance for his race sponsor, the Florida Lottery, to one for Ford Performance on time. 'Things are still so new with Front Row (Motorsports), and honestly this is the most appearance responsibility I've had since (being with) Hendrick (Motorsports). It's good though.'

Cassill signed a development deal with Hendrick Motorsports in 2007, and his first two years, he did regular appearances for National Guard and Chevrolet while driving the No. 5 JR Motorsports entry in the then-Nationwide Series. His years following his departure from Hendrick — stints with James Finch, BK Racing and Hillman Racing — didn't see close to the sponsor obligations he had then, or has now.

Ultimately, they aren't obligations. Cassill sees them as a relief. He has sponsors and a manufacturer who support him and his team, and want him to represent them. Some appearances are more fun than others — on Sunday, the Florida Lottery appearance was the fun one — but he doesn't seem to mind any.

In fact, the Florida Lottery appearance was an opportunity to get to know his new teammate, Chris Buescher, even better. Being busy has kept them from having significant time to do that. But they needled each other on stage — Cassill gave Buescher a hard time for the second straight day about why Buescher hasn't popped the question to his fiancé — and as they walked.

Appearances and meetings led directly into the driver's meeting. Roughly 18 minutes of celebrity and sponsor introductions begot a roughly eight minute actual driver's meeting — with tutorials and the usual instructions from race control. After that, face time with sponsors and autographs behind his No. 38 Ford's hauler.

From 8:45 a.m. to noon, there wasn't a minute Cassill wasn't rushing to be somewhere, or engaged with someone. Once he was off to driver introductions, there was no time to spare before he climbed in his racecar. Only a fleeting moment before he climbed into his racecar with Kaitlan and Beckham, in which she asked him if he was nervous, and to which he smiled and shook his head, 'no.'

A kiss for his family, and a hug from his best friend, and it was time to climb in for the Great American Race.

From the moment he woke up, to the time he cranked up his engine, Cassill got exactly 20 minutes to himself — from noon to 12:20 p.m., to sit with Beckham, eat a Vegan sandwich wrap and pet his dog. All that organized chaos just means he's made his dream come true.

Cassill hasn't forgotten that. And he made sure his team knew it before the green flag flew on the Daytona 500.

'I'm glad I'm here,' Cassill said to his Front Row Motorsports team over the radio during pace laps. 'We're starting a new journey together, and there will be good days and bad days. Take a look around at each other and remember it's each individual person's role to pick each other up after the bad days, and keep each other humble after the good days.'

Immediately after a race — especially the Daytona 500 — is one of intense reflection on what just happened. A debrief with crew chief Donnie Wingo and race engineers, interviews with media and replaying the race over and over again are just the first 20 minutes for Cassill.

He was excited Sunday about how his car ran, and what that might mean for the future. But that doesn't mean he was satisfied. Cassill is a racer. He has been since he was a toddler who knew every name, number and sponsor of the Cup drivers of the time. He can't shut off his competitiveness completely, and after Sunday's race, he simultaneously reveled in where he'd found himself and yearned for more.

The brisk walk back to his motor home to hug Kaitlan and hold Beckham was flanked by yet more fans with Sharpies and hats; by fellow garage members congratulating him on a solid run. His sounding board, his best friend of 12 years — there to siphon whatever emotions Cassill wanted to get out before he was back to his wife and son.

There's really no way to prepare a person for the life of a professional athlete. It's got all the pressures and all the rewards.

This is the 10th season Cassill will make organized chaos his employment. He's a long way from Cedar Rapids Jefferson High School, from hanging the bodies on his Modifieds inside his dad's race shop.

He doesn't ever want to not see the beauty in what his life and career have become.

'I don't think it's old hat for me, all this,' Cassill said. 'I hope it never gets to be that. I still feel like it's a privilege to be here.'

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