Rear View Mirror: Daytona 500

This blog is just a collection of my thoughts from Sunday’s Daytona 500. I’m not feeling up to doing a real recap, so this is what ya get.

Besides, most of you are just itching to know what I think, aren’t you?

Really, Dale Jr.?

Once a month, I have it on my personal agenda to ruffle the feathers of Jr. Nation a little bit. They have this “up against the world”-type attitude thing going on, so, I figure why shouldn’t it be me to fuel the fire?

Fortunately, for Jr. Nation, this blog is almost totally Jr.-free. I’m still going over the incident he had with Brain Vickers, and so I can’t say anything about it until I'm sure I have it right. Rest assured though, Jr. people, I will have something to say about it, and I’m almost positive you won’t like it.

He’s so special, he gets his own blog. Read into that sentence whatever you will.

As I said before, this blog is almost Jr.-free, except, I will just say, he needs some work on pit stops. He had pit row mistakes not once, but twice during the Daytona 500, and also missed his box during his Gatorade Duel on Thursday.

Anyway, that’s all I’m saying about Jr…for now.

Rain…Rain…Go away!

Last night while on the phone with a friend of mine, I sort of let loose on NASCAR for calling the race early. I’d like to take this time to recant that statement. Sure glad I waited twenty-four hours to write this up.

Consider this for a moment. It takes NASCAR roughly two and a half hours to dry the Daytona track after it has been soaked with heavy rain. At 10 p.m. when ESPN’s coverage of NASCAR ended, it was still raining in Daytona.

So, let’s assume the rain stops, and they get the dryers going at 10:30. That means you go green for the race again at like one o’ clock in the morning.

According to Ask.com (more on that later), the average American goes to sleep at about 10:30 p.m. It’s not like NASCAR enjoyed having to call the race.

What, you think they sit in the hauler and ask themselves, “How can we piss off the most fans?” I actually think it’s just the opposite. NASCAR is great with its fans, and I just know they do everything in their power to get these races in.

Case and point, Fontana in 2008. I didn’t hear anyone yelling then. In fact, I heard, “They tried too hard”. UGH.

Quite Frankly (ROFL), I don’t think anyone was happy with the end of that race.

Well, maybe Matt Kenseth was.

Goodyear, I love thee

Wanna know what really over cooks my grits? People bashing Goodyear. I hear all the time, “We don’t have this with the trucks or the Nationwide cars!” Geez genius, wonder why that is? Didn’t NASCAR just go to the "car of tomorrow", or did I dream that?

The reason you don’t have the problems in those series is because of the new Sprint Cup car.

Look, I’m the biggest fan of the new car (well, maybe except for Bella), so I’m not saying let’s all bash the new car. What I am saying is it’s new, so there are still problems. It has a lot of weight on the right rear and has a high center of gravity.

The other two have more level weight and a low center of gravity. I don’t think we have heard the last of tire issues this season, but I’m serious about laying off of Goodyear.

They want these races to go well as much as anyone. It may just take awhile for things to get worked out. I know Goodyear is trying really hard, so let it go. Just relax and enjoy the ride. They will get it right soon.

The Guy…Ya Know…Matt Kenseth

I guess I should say a big congrats to Matt. Sure, I think it was more luck than anything else, but he becomes one of the few drivers to win both a championship and a Daytona 500.

So big props to you!

Asking Ask!

I don’t know why this bothered me, but it did. It really annoyed me that they didn’t tell us the answers to the Ask.com trivia questions during the broadcast. I knew one on my own, but the other two I didn’t.

It’s just that, when I finally did drag my butt to my computer, I couldn’t remember what the questions were. I love the Aflac ones, (besides, who doesn’t love the little duck fellow when he quacks, “AAFFLLLAAACC!”? HAHA) as at least they give the answers.

I dig the trivia, but maybe they could give us the answers later on like Aflac does. It still pimps the sponsor, but oh well.

Sorry for that, but I was annoyed.

Hope you enjoyed this little adventure, now share your thoughts on the race.

(The views in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of Fox Sports)

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