Daytona 500 recap!

The Great American race did not disappoint this year, well ok it did in some aspects, but that ending and surprise win by Trevor Bayne was simply awesome. I wasn’t this excited why my driver, Ryan Newman, won it in 2008. Which is like saying a 9 vs a 10 on the excitement scale, but it was for different reasons. It was nice to see someone win who was humbled by it, showed true emotions about winning. Heck, if you watch the video he almost falls off his car his legs are shaking so much.I loved that! Being stuck with robot pitchmen like Jimmie Johnson, who would have won then thanked all the employee owners of Lowe’s, Chevrolet, Quaker State, etc. all in a robotic voice, I would have not even stuck around to listen to it. “Car drove well, the engine and fab shop worked their butts off, I need your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle, come with me if you want to live.” Most likely would have been the victory speech, but not in the case of Bayne, who was still in shell shock most of the interview.

What I didn’t like:

Kevin Harvick drop out after 22 laps, because that meant my Dad was most likely to fall asleep during the race, which I did catch him dozing off. He blamed it on the Labbatt Ice he was drinking, sure Dad. Back to Harvick, seeing him driving a black car had ghostly images of Big E, but it was not meant to be as his and Jeff Burton’s engines soured. So add this to the list of things that didn’t go as planned, as some suggested it would going to be a magical weekend on the anniversary of Big E’s death his old team, old drivers, and son would do good. Michael Waltrip caused 50 crashes (give or take 47), Junior wrecked 50 cars (give or take 48), Harvick and Burton blew engines when ECR engines are usually bullet proof, and Steve Park stubbed his toe watching the race from home. That adds up to a very not magical weekend. What they needed to do is play some Cabana Music and see if they could make it Weekend at Dale’s. Wow, even I’m offended by that last sentence, I am definitely going to a pit of fire. Good news, I’m already over it.

This two car drafting crap everyone was doing. While I didn’t like the three wide packs from when they had the fin on the top of the cars, I like when you could at least get a pack of cars together to break away from the field. This was basically find someone and hold on for dear life and hope you don’t Waltrip him into a spin. Although this played into another reason Bayne deserved it, he was such a team player and smart out there, it just so happened David Ragan remembered he was about to win the Daytona 500 and wanted no part of that and got penalized, and it opened the door for Bayne.

Lastly, the big one happened way too early and for no reason. Jeff Gordon said it good, that it made no sense that these guys race so hard for 28th place. No one knows how to ride and pace yourself out there, everyone just thought that they had the fastest car and needed to be up front.

What I did like, yes, that happens:

Trevor Bayne winning, which was covered above.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. not winning was a plus. It would have a been a feel good story, but I’m still torn on the guy. His skill has all but left him behind the wheel, but I want to root for him. I want him to catch fire and dominate, ala shades of his father. But the more I hear about him or see about him or how many fans he has, then I go back to not liking him. Oddly I’m the opposite with Kyle Busch, I want to hate the guy but the more I see him win or do good commercials or call out other drivers, like he did to Jr, the more I like him. The mere fact Dale Jr wouldn’t talk about his father’s death, because he didn’t want attention draw onto him from his father was a terrible idea. You have everyone else talking about it, giving insight, why not you? Honestly, I worry about him as a person because he has shoved all those emotions so deep down he will one day break down. It’s like when he won last year in the Nationwide race at Daytona, it would have been cool if he drove to turn four, parked his car for a second or something there to acknowledge it. But nothing, as cool as that was, he was business like especially in vowing to never drive a number three car again.

Not the Daytona 500, but Michael Waltrip winning in the truck race was just awesome. Beyond how he did it which was just amazing how he set up Elliott “let’s go clubin’” Sadler, but even how emotional he was in victory lane. As a contrast to Dale Jr., enter Waltrip who was so overcome with emotion, ala Bayne (but for different reasons) it was cool to see. And leave it to Michael to turn such a raw, emotional, crying time into a laugher when he mentioned just meeting the crew that week and not knowing any of them. Also it was fun to hear him at the beginning of the race mention that between him and his brother they accounted for 87 wins and 3 championships, never mind most of them being Darrell’s.

Good to see Bobby Labonte get a top 5 out of the race. Granted he benefited from the wrecks, but every now and then it’s good to confirm he hasn’t reached Derrike Cope levels yet.

This just in, the points system is still a joke.

I think that just about covers everything I can think of right now about the Daytona 500, now it’s off to Phoenix and I can’t wait for what that track has in store for us.