Well....the 2010 Daytona 500 is in the books, and it was a wild one. Not wild, as in "the Big One" wild. Wild as in the most leaders in Daytona 500 history. Wild as in multiple green-white-checkered attempts. Wild as in Jamie McMurray beating Dale Jr. to the flag after Junior went from 10th to 2nd in less than two laps. Wild as in (you know I have to mention it) 2+ hours of red flag stoppages to fix a pothole between Turns 1 & 2.
As far as the racing goes, it was the best Daytona 500 in many, many years. NASCAR made several changes in the past few weeks that allowed this improved racing for the fans. First, they increased the size of the restrictor plate holes, adding approximately 12 HP to the cars and making it almost impossible to just run wide open the entire race. Secondly, they doubled the height of the "shark fin" on the back window of the car (and added one the same height to the decklid) which allowed more side-drafting, but also made the cars a little tougher to handle in the pack. Third, they "took the gloves off" and said that the drivers were going to be the ones policing themselves on the track (to a point) and allowed bump-drafting/slam-drafting in the race. Fourth, they changed the rules on the green-white-checkered finish to allow multiple attempts if the leader did not take the white flag under green.
All of these things made the racing better, and all of them came into play during the race on Sunday and made for as dramatic a finish to the Great American Race as I can ever remember.
Now, onto "Pothole-gate." NASCAR and DIS have taken some MAJOR heat during the past few days regarding the 2-hour plus delay to the race to repair a "pothole" that formed during the race between turns 1 & 2. Letterman made a mockery of it on Late Night when Jamie McMurray was on the show. ESPN has called the event "Hole-Gate" and bashed NASCAR as being a bunch of buffoons in dealing with the issue. I think that's all B.S.
Here's the deal....shit happens. When it does, you have to deal with it in the best way possible for the safety of the drivers, and the happiness of the fans. Did Daytona and NASCAR want a 2-hour delay in the middle of their "Superbowl" of racing?? No. Did they have a choice other than stopping the race to fix it?? Yes. They could have called the race, declared a winner (as it was past the halfway point of the race) and sent everyone home. Would that have been the right thing to do?? I don't think so. You think people were mad about the delay to the race, just imagine what they would have said if this race turned into the Daytona 251, especially after last years rain-shortened event.
The speedway and NASCAR did the only thing that they could have done - try to fix the issue so the race could finish safely and they could get a winner taking the checkered flag under green. And that's exactly what they did. It might have taken a while, and several different mixtures of various paving compounds before they found something that worked (which ended up being bondo BTW), but with the unseasonably cold weather none of their "usual" fixes worked the first time around. You definitely can't say that they weren't trying though.
What was the cause of this "issue"? Nobody knows for sure. Was it the fact that the pavement is 32 years old? Maybe. But the 24 hour Rolex race, the ARCA race, the Bud Shootout, the Gatorade Duel(s), the Nationwide race, the Truck race and hours of practice and qualifying didn't cause any issues to the "old" racing surface. They walked the track before the Daytona 500 (as they do before each and every race) and there were no signs of imminent pothole disasters. The bottom line is, once again....shit happens. Nobody knows why, but it does. And it doesn't just happen to NASCAR tracks. What about a basketball game where the backboard shatters after a dunk?? Do they just call the game and go home? No, they spend an hour replacing it and then the game resumes. What about when the glass at a hockey game shatters from a slapshot? Yep, they fix it, clean the ice off, and get going again after a stoppage of play. What about rain delays in Major League Baseball? They tarp the field, make the fans sit around for hours sometimes, then clean up the mess and resume the game. Sunday's Daytona 500 was nothing different than any of those other examples, except for the fact that those other things happen MUCH more frequently than the pavement coming loose at a racetrack.
So just LET IT GO. Other than the delay, Sunday's race was one of the best ever run at that track, and there is a great story that goes along with it for winner Jamie McMurray. Let's talk about that instead, since he is now a Daytona 500 Champion! Congratulations Jamie!
Next up....Fontana, CA (southern California) and Auto Club Speedway for the Auto Club 500 on Sunday. Oh, and some chick named Danica is racing in the Nationwide race on Saturday afternoon in the Stater Bros 300. Maybe you've heard of her??
