2015 Daytona 500 brings what may be the last current NASCAR packs I ever open.

The 2015 Daytona 500 was today, the true start of the NASCAR season. It was a solid race. Not as much passing as I would have hoped for, but the last 30 laps or so were very good. I won't spoil the winner but he has appeared on this blog before. It is a driver I root for so I can't say I am unhappy with the race.

With Press Pass out of  business and no new company stepping up to the plate, the 2015 Press Pass set may be the last current NASCAR product ever released. I had two blasters from my local Target saved specifically for today, the day of the 500, and opened them shortly after the race began.

I have cleaned out my local Target, and by this point I am assuming they are going to be sold out from Wal-Mart as well, but I was not actually able to get there. If they are...then these were the last current packs of Press Pass/NASCAR I will ever open.
That's not a good feeling, but I did get some nice cards.

Each Blaster promises one autograph or relic, and I got one of each.

I did not have an autograph of Gilliland or a relic of Almirola before, so I was happy with that. This is actually the first base Signings autograph I've pulled from the 2015 set, but the 4th overall. Nice amount of lettering on the tire piece...there's almost no unpainted rubber at all! I really like the Burning Rubber concept (race win tires) and I am always happy to see a first time winner, so I really like this card a lot.

Each blaster also gives you a parallel. Target's were red. Wal-Mart's were purple. I did not get a single one of them.

Unfortunately they were both from one of the pointless subsets Press Pass loved. They couldn't be bothered to include the cars, but we got everything from eyeball closeups to driver's "star signs" over the years...Still, neither were duplicates, so there's that, at least.

I went in 12 cards short of the base retail set, and I got 8 of them. Unfortunately 6 of the 8 came out of the pack damaged, with the Jennifer Jo Cobb card with the biggest hit. Some of the cards that got water damage earlier this month are in better shape then the brand new just out of the pack cards from Press Pass. I wish I could say I was surprised by this.

 

This is a really terrible, craptastic picture. Sorry about that. I can do better than this, I really should have taken a better one, but I'll have all of them scanned hopefully later today, so I didn't want to go through a lot of effort on this.
I'll edit in the scans when I get them made, if I remember.
The driver on the top left who is too blurry to make out is Dylan Kwasniewski.

Here is the scans...I was not able to make them yesterday, but I got them done now.

I ended up with another stack of duplicates- including at least one more copy of the #11 Austin Dillon card. Of the 6 blasters I opened, I got that card in 4 of them. Plus I had a few copies beforehand. Yet I still ended up 4 cards short. Also not much of a surprise.

If I can't find any more blasters or loose packs at Wal-Mart, I will try and trade for the last four cards I need, or if not, I'll just nab them off Ebay I suspect. Most likely I would be able to trade for them, but I want to at least try and get them myself first.

As always, thanks for reading!