Today’s been an apartment straighten-out day. I went to Bed, Bath & Beyond and bought a new Dust Buster and then used it until the battery ran out. I also started reorganizing my kitchen.
During this whole time, I had the Daytona 500 on the TV, partly because it’s “The Great American Race”, and partly because there’s nothing else on. I’ve never really watched a NASCAR race from start to finish before, but so far I have to say that I don’t get it.
First off, they have to install these things called “restrictor plates” in each car which, I think, restricts the flow of fuel to the engine, which limits the speed of the car. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought the point of racing was to go as fast as possible. If everyone is running at the same speed, what’s the point of building the cars and tweaking them to get the most performance out of them?
Toyota made one of the car types racing today. The ironic thing is that the Toyota is the only one made in the U.S.A. The Fords, Chevys, and Pontiacs are all made in either Canada or Mexico. You gotta’ love NAFTA!
Everyone has a southern accent. If they don’t, they sort of talk like they do.
A car can be “loose” and it can be “tight”, but I can’t tell if it can be both at the same time.
They clean up the accidents pretty quickly.
Anytime anyone speaks about a car, the always seems to mention the big sponsor as if it’s the name of the car; i.e. “The Office Depot number 99 just got four tires.”, or “The Domino’s Pizza double zero had a good pit stop.”
I’m fine watching the race from the wide and semi-wide angle cameras, but every once in a while they have this camera that seems to be right on the wall of the track, and it snaps around as a car races by at 170mph. That shot gets me dizzy. They also have a crane camera in the front area that travels against the traffic…weird.
There is a lake in the middle of the racetrack, and there’s a boat in there. What’s the deal with that?
I’m not sure if Ricky Bobby qualified for this race or not, but I haven’t heard them mention his name.
Some pit crew member just had a car run over his ankle. How does that not happen more often?
OK, I’ll admit it…that was a great finish! The problem is that there was 198 other laps before it. It’s sort of like a basketball game…the last two minutes are great, it’s the other 46 that suck.
