I'm not even gonna pretend to know a lot about NASCAR, other than left turns. But I think something as momentous as last night's race is worth a whole post.
I'm also going to tell you right now, I didn't see a lap of this sucker live. I was at work. But I was keeping track (get it? Track? Whatever.) of what was going on. And watching replays. And animated GIFs. Afterward, I watched some "highlights" and it looked pretty crazy all night.
I'm not going to go into the 'sport-not a sport' argument, as it is mostly pointless and a matter of opinion.
I'll put it this way. I admire people who can do things I cannot do. Giving birth. Doing difficult math in one's head. Being able to sing well. And driving cars fast while other people drive them fast around you. It is scary. It takes mental toughness. Being in a car that long takes stamina. And when you see the dude in front of you start to "get loose", you better have the reflexes of a cat on speed, or you could end up like Jimmie Johnson and Danica Patrick. So, sport or not is your decision. But either way, I think it's ballsy.
I guess the two things I really took away from Daytona is that this stuff is dangerous and just like anything else in life, fluky things happen that no one can control. Montoya's car had an issue at the bottom of the track and spun and hit that jet dryer. If his car spins a little further up the track, or the jet dryer is not in the spot that it's in, the explosion and fire don't happen. Then again, Montoya might have ended up in the wall. Thank goodness everyone involved in EVERY crash was okay. Also, thank goodness that crash with the jet dryer happened on the back stretch. Can you imagine the panic if it had happened near the grandstand? Some of those flames we jumping outside the fence.
Like I said, I don't really do NASCAR, so I don't know if that was an inordinate amount of crashes, but either way, tonight's explosion seems extra creepy. I understand they wanna keep the cars running and moving or whatever with the caution flags, but they were cleaning the track with the jet dryer. If the grounds crew at GABP tried to re-chalk the field during the top of the 4th inning, they'd all be fired. I feel like there's gotta be a safer way to go about it.
Despite the doom and gloom, there was, to me, a bright spot to the race. Whenever I hear about NASCAR, I always think it's 43 people individually driving cars. However, I forget that they're really on big teams. Their pit crew obviously is there for them. But other drivers are also on teams together. They just don't have uniforms that match (cause, ya know, different people pay for their cars). So I thought it was really cool, that as the race was winding down, Greg Biffle basically blocked Dale Earnhardt Jr., so that Biffle's teammate, Matt Kenseth, could win the race. Biffle could have easily attacked, creating a 3-way dash to the finish line. But he held off, and made sure that Earnhardt couldn't go anywhere until it was too late. I suppose it's something akin to throwing the lead block for a running back on his game-winning touchdown run. You won't get much credit in the history books, but the guy you blocked for probably really appreciated it and couldn't have done it without you. It's one of those neat moments I like to see in sports (or "sports"), no matter who you root for.
Oh shit, look out!!! Jeff Gordon is on fire again!!
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