Saturday, February 19, 2011

Tomorrow is the Super Bowl of NASCAR Racing-The Daytona 500

The NASCAR boys are back at it.  Actually, they have been at it for a couple of weeks at Daytona.  Last Saturday night I watched the Bud Shootout, 24 cars and drivers going for broke.  During the last week, qualifying took place as well as the twin 125 mile races Thursday to set the starting grid for tomorrow's 500 mile race.  Last night the first Truck race of the season took place with Michael Waltrip, not a regular in the Truck series, taking the win.  Today, the first Nationwide series race was run, and won in very exciting fashion by Sprint Cup regular Tony Stewart.  Not a regular in the Nationwide series, Tony won this particular race for the 4th year in a row.  Amazing!

This year the Daytona races have been two-by-two affairs.  Seems for the cars to go fast, they need to pair up and push each other around the track.  In the past, the draft was always important but was characterized by one or two long lines of cars nose to tail.  This year pairs of cars run fastest together.  A bit tedious for the drivers, somewhat interesting for the fans since so far there have been lots of lead changes throughout the races, and still dangerous because it takes a lot of skill and patience to push another car or be pushed by another car at nearly 200 mph!  Should be an interesting race tomorrow.  

Am hoping for a Dale Earnhardt Jr. win tomorrow.  Would be memorable for all 10 years after his dad died at Daytona.  

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