The Beijing Olympics Vs NASCAR's Bristol Bull Ring: One Night of Channel Surfing

These past few weeks have been truly schizophrenic for me as I have tried to divide my time between two of my most favorite passions, watching the Olympic Summer Games and NASCAR.  

While the games are only once every few years, the NASCAR Chase for the Championship is coming down to the wire and my favorite driver Jeff Gordon is hanging on by a thread.  I think, unfortunately, he has become the Laura Wilkinson of NASCAR—a great veteran but just slipping a bit back in the pack.  But I digress.

Saturday night was the ultimate conflict for me, to watch the Beijing Olympics or one of the most heated battles in NASCAR at the short track in Bristol, Tennessee.  What to do? 

I decided to do what all of us Americans do best—channel bounce.  So, back and forth between the two channels I went pretty much all night long.

I first started watching the Olympics, and they were broadcasting from the now famous "Bird's Nest."  As I flipped back to the NASCAR race, I was a bit surprised to see that the Bristol track, which is shaped like a coliseum and a bull ring combined, looked vaguely familiar.

Back I flipped to the Olympics.  There were fans there galore in the Bird's Nest, cheering boisterously for their favorite track and field competitors, waving their country's flags. 

Then I returned to NASCAR.  Ok, there was only one flag there—that's right, the American flag, the way it should be—but the race fans had a different take on the waving thing, participating in setting the Guinness Book record for the biggest human wave ever.

After that spectacular event, I returned to the Olympics to watch the marathon runners come into the stadium for their final lap after their two-hour-plus run.  There was one runner that was just pouring it on, overtaking one runner who was literally almost "out of gas."

When I switched back to NASCAR, thankfully, no one had run out of gas there.  But I did see championship points leader Kyle Busch sprinting out to the lead, overtaking pole-sitter Carl Edwards and my favorite driver Jeff Gordon.

Since I'm not all that fond of points leader Kyle Busch and since he did pass MY driver, I flipped back to the Olympics.  The women's relay race was on.  This time the US team executed all of their handoffs flawlessly.  It was like watching a well-choreographed dance team going for the gold. 

Back in NASCAR land, the boys were coming down pit road for one of their few pit stops of the evening.  Again, like a well-rehearsed show, the pit road warriors acted as one, changing tires, fueling up the car, removing a tear off from the windshield, and handing off the driver back onto the race track.

Since the NASCAR race was coming to an end, I didn't want to miss too much more.  So, I flipped quickly back to the Olympics, only to catch one of the men's track and field races.  Wow, there sure was some chaos there, all the runners jumbled up, elbows flying, and racers jockeying for position. 

Quickly I returned to the race, just in time to see Carl Edwards, one of NASCAR's coolest because he does a gymnastic backflip when he wins, elbow that devilish Kyle Busch right out of the way to take the checkered flag.  And yes, Carl Edwards scored a perfect 10 for his backflip in victory lane. 

Flipping back to the Olympics, I caught the US women's relay team on the medal podium with their gold treasures.  Back to NASCAR—ok so it wasn't gold, but Carl Edwards did collect a big giant Sharpie pen (they sponsored the race after all) and a pretty good sized trophy to add to his own collection.

So, all in all, it was a pretty perfect evening of blending my two very diverse passions.  The Olympic Games will now end, but the NASCAR championship race is just beginning.  Thank goodness I can now just focus on that. 

But wait, did I hear you say that football is back?  And my beloved Jets are starting Brett Favre?  Now, where did I put that remote?