Best Daytona 500 ever?

Lets see, it had the allure of Danica Patrick, a nail biting finish, prime time television on a national network, lots of wrecks, and of course A GIANT FIREBALL. If you didn't know, Juan Pablo Montoya found his way into the back of a jet engine, which is used to dry the track. Again, he found his way into a JET ENGINE. Thankfully, everyone was OK, as were the ratings for the race. Nice work, NASCAR, you have a little bit of attention from people who other wise wouldn't give it to you.

A post about NASCAR

Tomorrow is one of the two biggest races of the year for the casual fan. The casual fan, I assumes, enjoys the massive wrecks and not the skilled passing at a places like Martinsville or wherever. Anyways, this weekend is at Talladega, a very good place to go if you want to see spectacular crashing, but one thing they have is drafting and wide open racing.
This year, since the threat for crashes is high, and the need for drafting helps cars in many ways but also leads the potential for more accidents with drivers running blind, many drivers are programming other drivers' radio frequencies for themselves. 
So now all these drivers are going to have the potential to chit chat with one another mid race. What will this do? The drivers of NASCAR are notoriously high strung, will they use the radios for the purpose of expressing their road rage? Or will they have to end up listening to other drivers rattle back and forth with their spotters and crew?
Actually, what this sounds like is a bunch of drivers are going to go through what the rest of the world does when we go for 500 mile drives. Talk radio. IT sounds less and less like a typical sport and more like a test of endurance. Pretty soon, they will throw a gassy dog in the back seat for all the races.

Today is the Daytona 500

The 4 years I spent in Indiana made me something of a NASCAR fan. I know, and I like it, but it's not necessarily my favorite competition out there. For example, I am spending my snowy Sunday toggling between the Purdue-Ohio State game and the Wild-Red Wings.
That said, knowing what I know about stock car racing, I would be remiss if I didn't note the importance of today. 10 years ago, Dale Earnhardt was killed at the end of the Daytona 500 that his friend Michael Waltrip won, and his son Dale Jr. finished second in. It's not a stretch to say that no single incident has affected another sport, both in the way that the game is played and in the long term emotional impact like Earnhardt's death affected NASCAR, and it's hard to imagine that another sport will see such a traumatic event on such a large stage.
So, mock NASCAR all you want, that's your perrogative, but remember that today is a very special day for race fans, and it has almost nothing to do with the race in Florida.

Fox really loves annoying on screen gimmicks

Above you see Digger who is apparently a gopher. He made his debut today at the Daytona 500 and was even more pervasive than Jeff Gordon's eyebrows. He makes me yearn for Cleatus. I never thought I would say that.

Surviving February

Before I get started, i wanted to extend a special thank you to Kevin from Barry Melrose Rocks and the AOL Fanhouse for swinging by and picking up the slack while I was under the knife on Wednesday. Then a sick Beth stepped up and completed her regularly scheduled post. Heck, you haven't seen me since Monday! Sorry to ruin that streak.
Anyways, with the surgery, I learned that I am fairly anesthesia resistant, and they took twice as much to knock me out as usual. However, I also learned that Vicodin is pretty awesome. I have also established that there is only so much chocolate pudding a guy can take, and I'm really looking forward to a nice cheeseburger some time in the near future.
We're entering the time of year when all that we have to watch is hockey or basketball, unless you are into racing, which, admittedly, in February, I can be. Big Daddy Drew gives us solace in the fact that we don't seem to watch those sports that we like, but we still know whats going on. I do have a tough time sitting through entire games, especially when there are three on at the same time, and its on a weekday evening when there is other excellent programming on. And oh yeah, I tend to work from 2-10 in the afternoon. I'm pretty good at following scores on the computer, and I constantly check blogs for my favorite teams so i know exactly what I should be feeling, but really, how many sports do I sit down and watch? I'm pretty much tapped out until March. I'm not proud.
I will, of course, be sitting down to watch a basketball game in Monroe, Louisiana next Saturday, however, so don't forget that.