Daytona 500 2012: Drama, Delays Mar Experience of Great American Race

As I'm sitting here writing this, the 2012 Daytona 500 is just about start again after one of the strangest delays in auto racing history.

Under a caution flag on the 160th lap, Juan Pablo Montoya's car suddenly spun out of control and slammed into the back of a safety truck. There was an explosion, and jet fuel immediately started leaking out of the safety truck. Naturally, that fuel went up in flames.

The video of this incident will forever live in infamy.

The race isn't even over yet, but already the consensus is that none of us has ever seen anything like the Montoya crash and the fire that ensued. It's totally unprecedented. I'm not about to argue that point. What I will say, however, is that the Montoya crash feels almost par for the course as far as this particular Daytona 500 is concerned.

Nothing has gone right with this 500. Everything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong. And from where I'm sitting, it hasn't been fun.

It started with the weather. I, along with everyone else, was pumped up to watch the 500 on Sunday, but the rains came and forced NASCAR to postpone the race for the first time in its history. Upon reading the weather report on Monday morning, NASCAR had to delay the race yet again.

So in the span of less than 24 hours, the Daytona 500 went from being a Sunday afternoon race to a Monday afternoon race to a Monday night race. 

I'll be honest. By the time the race finally rolled around, my anticipation was pretty well spent.

Things went south pretty much as soon as the race started. Very early on, in the second lap of the race, there was a major wreck that left the cars of Jimmie Johnson and Danica Patrick.

So just like that, we had our first major delay. And for all intents and purposes, two of the race's biggest drivers were all but out of the mix.

That was the first delay, but not the last. There were several other cautions after that, and then the Montoya-induced fireball with the race just 40 laps from the finish. It's taking a loooong time to get this race in.

You obviously can't blame anybody for the way things have gone. You can't shake your fist at Mother Nature, nor can you shake your fist at the general sense of bad luck that has plagued this race over the last day and a half. What we have here is a version of the Great American Race that just hasn't been that great. Plain and simple.

All any of us can hope for at this point is a thrilling finish that will make us forget about all the drama, but even that won't totally wipe away the bad memories. Given all that has gone on, this particular Daytona 500 will forever be remembered for weather delays, cautions and unprecedented crashes than it will for anything else. The book on this one has already been written, and the ending will be a mere epilogue.

I'll speak for myself when I say that this is one story I'm not going to be quick to revisit.