A Note About Nascar

If you’re a sports junkie like me, or you just love the sport of NASCAR, you were probably slow going Tuesday morning whether you were headed to work or to school or to play.

For those of you who are already lost, or live under a rock with no cable (which I have) let me explain.

The Daytona 500—what is known as the “Superbowl of stock car racing,” was scheduled for last Sunday, Feb. 26.

This is the first and supposedly greatest race of the NASCAR season, being a party and a race weekend, opening of the season event.

I say that it was scheduled for Sunday being that it wasn’t run on Sunday, because of weather. And when I say weather, I mean rain.

It rained all weekend making the drivers wait Sunday as the opening ceremonies barely got under way and the rain was relentless. The famous track in Daytona never got a chance to be dried, so the race was rescheduled for noon Monday.

As a side note this was the first ever Daytona 500 to be postponed in over 50 years, a long time in the history of the sport.

Needless to say, noon Monday came and went and there was still no racing. Nascar officials decided that the start time would be 7 p.m. Monday night, taking in the weather conditions and the safety of the drivers.

Before I get to the good stuff, let me give you readers a little background.

I am a country girl, sometime and a city girl sometimes. There was a time when I thought that Nascar was a redneck sport and had no intention of ever watching or going to a race.

Well, that was then.

I was taken under the wing of a very loving aunt who got me into the tradition of Sunday—Sunday…we’re going racing (after church, of course).

It was and still is a tradition to get together to ‘watch the race.’ By watch the race I mean we socialize, have some beverages, and grill out.

Watching the race is often the main focus of the afternoon and evening, while other times it’s simply white noise in the background until something exciting happens.

Friends and other family drop in for a snack or just to watch a part of a race; this is all informal, too, where you bring something to share (in theory) and come and go as you please. It’s a chance to see children, catch up and just enjoy the company.

I have to admit, when I watch at home by myself, I often say that I ‘find the race watching me’ as I snooze until there is a wreck or commotion from the announcers in which I wake up, and see what was missed.

This tradition is one which I look forward to all week. Sunday, the day of rest, relaxation, laundry, friends and family and Nascar.

It’s during those few short months that Nascar breaks that Sundays fall by the wayside. So when it’s time for the Budweiser Shootout (a qualification race) and the 500, the excitement takes over, and the Sunday tradition begins again.

Then, there is actually attending a race. I did. I was invited to go with my cousin and friends, (which had done this race thing before) and off we went for the weekend to Talladega.

Talk about a weekend. I had the coldest, longest, most fun-filled weekend ever. I camped. In a tent. Not any of that hoity-toity camping in a RV, but in a tent. It was a blast.

We cooked, listened to music, met our neighbors, and enjoyed a campfire each night. We went to a bar one night, got live music shows, visited driver’s trailers, got autographs and watched an eventful race on Sunday. Did you know you get to carry a cooler in with you?! Greatest spectator sport… We did things that were a blast that probably would not be best published in this newspaper.

By the end of the weekend I felt like an old pro, looking forward to Atlanta, and to Atlanta Motor Speedway I went.

It was much of the same, and the fun cannot be put into words as Atlanta got a nighttime race which just happens to be on my birthday weekend….and I attended. Wow!

This became a tradition and I even got my parents to go one year. Stepdaddy, Jimmy Mudd, smoked or grilled or whatever he does a whole hog for the occasion, and a good time was had by all.

Now on to the excitement…Sunday’s Daytona 500 was one for the record books.

Like I mentioned earlier, the drivers had to wait some 36 hours to officially start their season opener due to weather.

Second, once it started, there was a wreck on lap 2, that took out five-time champion Jimmy Johnson and damaged a handful of other cars…and that was only lap 2 of 200. During the race other big names such as Jeff Gordon, and Tony Stewart were taken out to end their hopes of a win.

Then with 40 laps to go, the “strangest thing in Nascar history,” happened when Juan Pablo Montoya got turned sideways to the right and crashed into a jet dryer truck that was on the track and immediately sent jet fuel and diesel all over the track, and catching on fire.

If you haven’t seen the video yet, it’s viral. Scary and cool all at once so go check it out.

Turns out that Montoya said that he had pitted because of a vibration, and when he went back out whatever was wrong with his race car, finally broke sending him out of control.

The good news is that both the dryer truck driver and Montoya were okay after the incident.

After more than two hours where the raced was red flagged (stopped) and the drivers were out of their cars, talking and one (Brad Keslowski) tweeting (if you’re exciting enough to do that), the race restarted under caution and went back to full speed at 35 laps to go.

This was a crucial restart, and was the hot topic of conversation during the red flag. In Nascar rules, if the race is more than half way finished and has to be stopped for weather, the person in the number 1 spot wins.

Dave Blaney was that person when Montoya crashed. Had the racetrack been damaged and the race not restarted, he would have won by default. He and his crew took a chance by not pitting in order to lead a lap for points, putting him leader of the pack with 40 to go.

Once the green flag was waved, the race to the end was anything less than smooth sailing.

There were two more wrecks after the delayed restart taking out a number of the cars still in the race, and damaging several more.

Matt Kenseth came out on top with the win which finished with a green-white-checkered flag. This was his second win in Daytona and remarkable being that he was down early on when he lost a tire, but at the restart it was apparent that he would battle Greg Biffle and Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

At the finish Jr. was second with Biffle in third, Denny Hamlin in fourth and Jeff Burton rounded out the top 5. And, finally, the race ended just before 1 a.m. Tuesday morning.