Prelude to Daytona

Every year Nascar does this completely backwards, they have their biggest event of the year "The Great American Race." It starts with the Bud Shooutout and then they do the Gatorade Duels. Now just so you know where I stand I don't consider myself a true Nascar fan, I follow the sport beacuse my wife and her father are huge fans.

I enojy watching Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt JR, and Kasey Kahne. They all ran reasonably well in the afore mentoined events and I was ready for Daytona.

Daytona Day 1

Last Sunday I sat with my wife and her father patiently waiting for a hopeful start of the Daytona 500. After hours of wating the decided to reschedule the race due to rain. No one wanted to wait until Monday after work to watch it, we were all deflated. No Daytona had ever been postponed before this was a first, little did we know there would be more firsts to come!

Daytona Day 2

We had our DVR ready to record the event so we could watch it after work. Just before leaving for work the rain had yet to let up and it was again rescheduled. So now we had an opportunity to watch it live later that night, and we were pumped for that.

The Start of the Race

We were ready to go racing and the flag had been waved, not even 3 laps into the race a wreck took out a few cars.T hey were pretty big name drivers. Jimmy Johnson, Danica Patrick, and Kurt Busch to name a few. Wow! Seriously? Everyone waits a day and a half and a "bonehead" quoting one of the drivers decideds to make a bonehad move and wreck drivers.

Halfway into the Race

We got to the halfway point and the race had went quite smoothly. There had not been many cautions, and I might make it to bed at a reasonable time tonight. Then another first happened Juan Pablo Montoya Jr had something break on his car on a caution, he slammed into a truck carrying a track dryer. That track dryer happens to be a jet engine. The engine is full of flue and as soon as the car hit the truck it went up in flames.

The Fire

While both drivers walked away with minor injuries, the fire blazed out of control. The fire was tended to, but there were other issues now. Clouds roll in and there is a possibility of rain on the way. Nascar tries diligently to repair the track, but is safe for the drivers to race on? We can’t have a shortened Daytona after waiting this long can we?

The Finish

Nascar repaired the track it looked to be safe for the drivers, the rain passed and we were going to finish the last 40 laps. Was it worth the wait? Everyone would soon find out. The race came down to the wire. Three drivers were racing like they never had before. Matt Kenseth lead Dale Earnardt Jr, and Greg Biffle to the checkered flag getting his second career Daytona 500 win. The Great American Race was amazing all the way through. Lets all hope Nascar drivers keep up the intensity and we have an amazing year!