Mr Blaney, on this day, is one of 40 fearless men and women set to race on the 1.5-mile Fort Worth oval at speeds of more than 180 miles per hour. While he’s been in fewer mishaps than most, he knows that accidents are not a matter of if, but when. There have been 28 driver fatalities in the sport’s history ­– though to illustrate how far Nascar has come in terms of safety, none since 2001 when Hall of Famer Mr Dale Earnhardt Sr was killed on the final lap of the Daytona 500. The most notorious pile-up occurred at the 1960 Daytona Modified Sportsman Race, where 37 cars were smashed on the course.

For Mr Blaney, the danger inherent in the sport is a way of life. As the son of former Nascar driver Mr Dave Blaney, the 22-year-old rookie spent countless childhood hours watching his own father compete while soaking up the sights, sounds and smells of race tracks across the US. But he doesn’t give the risks a second thought. “Being born into it and being there at such a a young age, it just gets you in that mindset so early, that really is the only world that you know,” he says.