Daytona 500
By timhinyy
@timhinyy (1653)
United States
February 14, 2010 6:56pm CST
did anyone see the Daytona 500?
i was thinking after it ought to be renamed the pothole 500.
never thought id see 2 delays for holes in the track.
at least it did have an exciting finish even though it took two tries to finish it.
so what did everyone that saw it think of the race?
will anyone remember down the line that mcmurray won or will it be for the holes in the track?
1 person likes this
3 responses
@Kenorv (343)
• United States
15 Feb 10
I don't mind the potholes. That was a freak thing that no one could have anticipated. Last year was much worse when everyone knew the rain was coming and they still started the race at 3:30 P.M. eastern instead of 1 or 1:30, and of course the rain came and they only managed to finish 152 laps. At least this year they managed to get the entire 500 miles, and then some in.
As far as the race goes, it was very exciting at the end there. I don't think that I've ever seen them race that hard at the end of a restrictor plate race without the "big one" occurring and yet that's exactly what happened today. Sure there were a lot of small wrecks, all of them at the back of the pack, but that happens at every race. The "big one" that always seems to happen that the plate tracks, never happened despite a lot of hard racing by everyone at the end. I thought for sure that someone at the front was going to wreck or get wrecked and a bunch of the contenders would get caught up in it but that never happened.
I really thought that Harvick was going to win and I think that he would have if not for all of the restarts. I guess that I'm in the minority but I'm against this new triple, green/white/checkered rule. It just means that instead of one wreck at the end, there's going to be three wrecks at the end. That's not to say that McMurray isn't a deserving winner, I just wonder why NASCAR would think that a second or third attempt would go without a wreck if the first one doesn't. And that's exactly what happened today. The first green/white/checkered had a wreck and then the second one did and the third one did as well. I say have one attempt at it and that's it. But again, Jamie is a deserving winner and I don't want to take anything away from him, I just don't see the point in two or three green/white/checkered finishes.
1 person likes this
@timhinyy (1653)
• United States
15 Feb 10
its just a shame that the potholes will probably get more of the attention then the racing will.
i think the new rule it to make sure the fans get a legitimate racing ending and not have the race end with a wreck causing someone to win the race, which can happen especially at those tracks.
to have a race at that track that sets a record for lead changes and not have hardly any big wrecks is amazing.
i didn't think Dale Earnhardt Jr would get anywhere near the front and he darn near won the race.
Mcmurray ran a very smart race at the end and waited for the right moment to get to the front and i think he was lucky that the race ended there.
i just hope that the race will be remembered more for the quality of the racing and not the condition of the track.
@Kenorv (343)
• United States
20 Feb 10
I think the NASCAR fans and media will remember this year's 500 for the great racing but the mainstream sports fans and media will remember it for the potholes. I mean this is one of the two times that casual fans and mainstream sports media types pay attention to NASCAR(the other being the Brickyard 400) and the last few years they've come away with a bad impression of NASCAR. Two years ago at Indy, there was that big tire debacle, last year it was the rain issue at Daytona that I mentioned, and this year it was potholes. It's one thing to have those issues at a track like Pocono where only the hardcore NASCAR people are watching, but to have it at a major event like Daytona or Indy is going to give all of the outsiders that are looking into NASCAR, perhaps for the first time, a bad impression of the sport.
@terri0824 (4991)
• United States
15 Feb 10
Whoo hoo you finally past post 400!
I didn't watch the race, but I did hear about the potholes in the track.
My thought that Florida has been colder than usual and that is what may have caused the track to have potholes. But a bit strange that there was potholes, seems like they would have checked the track out before the race started.
1 person likes this
@timhinyy (1653)
• United States
16 Feb 10
they did have a lot of rain down there the last couple of weeks and that did not help the condition of the track.
yes i finally got there took awhile, but i made it.
it was a bit colder then usual for this time of the year, but the race was very entertaining if you could cut out the 2 hours of delays that it had.
it made them race extra hard in the worry the race could end at any moment.
