What a great race! We waited all winter for the return of NASCAR, and the Daytona 500 certainly did not disappoint this year. This year’s running of the greatest race in sports did bring to mind a few questions, though.
#1 Why do kids love Dale Earnhardt, Jr. so much? I mean really, every kid I know loves Junior. My nine year old was screaming on the last lap when Junior made a push for it. I’ll admit, I may have yelled a little myself. It was an awesome finish.
#2 Did you notice the Elliot- Logano crash that set up the series of events that lead to the finish? It was interesting that the oldest driver and the youngest driver in the race locked up as the whole thing came down to the wire. I’m not saying that Bill Elliot is old, but I’m pretty sure his first few races were on the horse and buggy circuit. Joey Logano, on the other hand, somehow got into NASCAR before he could get a driver’s license. My winter coat is older than this kid (to be fair, I live in Florida so I only trot out the coat about twice a year, but still…)
#3 – How great would it have been if Scott Speed had won the Daytona 500? I don’t really know anything about the guy, but with a name like “Speed” how can you not root for him? During the few laps that he led toward the end of the race, my whole family was sitting in front of the TV singing the theme song from “Speed Racer”. I hope we see a lot more of Speed this year.
#4 – How did a hole appear in the Daytona Speedway? Do you think the maintenance crew was somehow NOT expecting 43 cars to race around the track at 200 mph all afternoon? This isn’t some one-off little track. This is the granddaddy of all car races. Two tries and 2-1/2 hours to fix a pot hole took a bit of the wind out of the whole event.
#5 – Was that the longest Daytona 5oo ever? I’m glad I got to watch it live. If I’d had to set my DVR I would have missed the last two and a half hours of the race.
