Last night NASCAR ran the Daytona 500.
The race was supposed to run the night before, but NASCAR doesn't race in the rain, so it was delayed.
Within the first lap last night there was a crash involving many cars and drivers.
As if that weren't enough, somewhere around lap 158 Montoya's car had mechanical failure and skidded into a truck with a jet drier, which was out there drying the track. The truck, with its jet fuel on board, blew up into a fireball. Both Montoya and the driver of the truck managed to escape from their vehicles. The track was on fire for, it seemed, forever, and total time to clear everything up took two hours, at which time the race resumed and finally ended early this morning.
You can read all about it here. If the link works.
But what gets me is this: Mi esposo has read the comments online and the fans were thrilled. "Best Daytona 500 ever!" is the concensus. That's what NASCAR has come to - it's all about the wrecks, and the huger the better. Maybe it always was, I don't know. All I know is that today's fans won't be satisfied even if there is a death.
Oh wait, there was one terrible one, wasn't there? Dale Earnhardt. And still, NASCAR meets Survivor is where it's at now. Maybe it just seems like a live video game.
NASCAR, time to forget what your fans want and go back to racing. Period.
2 comments:
"Gladiatorial" reminded me of a football incident -- years ago (1978) a Patriots player, Darryl Stingley, was paralyzed by what might have been a dirty hit by a Raiders player. My wife's college roommate said she wasn't watching football any more because after that it made her feel as though she was watching gladiators.
Ooo, yes. I remember that incident. Thanks. DeanB.
Post a Comment