Extra! Extra! Persistent pothole wins the Daytona 500!
I’m not a big fan of pranks. (I’m basically a humorless old coot.) But I laughed out loud about 6:15 Sunday night. While waiting through the second televised pavement malfunction, I clicked on the Wikipedia entry for the Daytona 500. As the 2010 winner, some devious gearhead had already entered “Pothole.”
Under “make of car,” the listing was “Hole.” Under “car number,” the listing was “2.”
I’m sorry. For reasons unclear, I found that hilarious. Maybe because I use Marietta Street to get downtown and nearly lose a hubcap on a weekly basis. Maybe because it seemed rather incongruous that the self-appointed Great American Race could be halted — for 2 1/2 mind-numbing hours! — by the not-so-great American pothole. But it was most amusing watching Fox fill (and fill, and fill) to the point that a third delay would surely have prompted Chris Myers to tell the story of how Jim Mora screamed at him at halftime of a Falcons-Panthers game in 2004. (Haven’t heard that one, have you?)
I’m not really a NASCAR guy, but I do like the Daytona 500. (I’ve covered four.) And I will tell you that nothing in sports matches the final lap of the Great American Race for drama tinged with zaniness. In 2007 we had Kevin Harvick nosing out Mark Martin — maybe nosing out Mark Martin — while Clint Bowyer’s car went upside-down and caught fire to boot. This edition featured Dale Earnhardt Jr. trying to run down a car co-owned by the evil stepmother whose shop Junior famously left.
But Dale Jr. didn’t quite make it. (Made a great run, though. And I’m not a Junior fan.) But Jamie McMurray won the race and cried on camera, which in itself made up for 2 1/2 hours of televised pothole repair. And then, just to be sure the real champ had gotten his due, I rechecked Wikipedia. Sure enough, “Pothole” had been taken down.
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62 comments Add your comment
JC
February 15th, 2010
10:07 am
That was one of the greatest 500’s ever!
We need more NASCAR blogs
February 15th, 2010
11:40 am
Like him or not, McMurray can wheel a car at these super speedways.
gdawginkalamazoo
February 15th, 2010
12:24 pm
I thought it was going to turn into 24 hours of Daytona there. Holy crap who has ALL freaking day to watch them repair potholes. Always a great finish at Daytona.
Pothole
February 15th, 2010
12:30 pm
Boogity boogity boogity! My a$$. Yahoooo, man what a day yesterday! More air time than the Bud car, the AMP car and the Napa car put together. All you folks tuning in in the middle of the red flag probably thought there was that big crash that always happens and that they were claeaning it up. LMAO! Six and a half hours to finish. Say hello to my best buddy Jimmy Johnson, I don’t think he liked me too much.
Hillbilly Deluxe
February 15th, 2010
1:11 pm
Ross @ 11:03 last night is not the only person who misses the old days. Pearson, Yarbrough, Petty, the Allisons, Benny Parsons, those guys were racers. They did their talking on the race track, not in the press. For those of us who watched those guys race, today’s product is boring.
Pothole
February 15th, 2010
1:44 pm
Hillbilly, yeah those guys had the grease under their fingernails from actually working on the cars. Aerodynamics? That was how far your cigarette would fly when you flicked it out the window at 200 mph.
oldfart
February 15th, 2010
1:58 pm
NASCAR needs to bring the sport forward by reverting to something resembling “stock” cars. No I don’t endorse a return to a non-racing chassis but at least make them compete with something closer to what is available in the showroom. They are still running with carburetors and push rod engines, technology that dates back to the beginning of the last century. Make them all use an OEM six cylinder engine block with overhead cams and fuel injection. Done right, it could negate the need for restrictor plates and bring back some innovation to a sport that has become stagnant in the competition between manufacturers.
Ross
February 15th, 2010
2:08 pm
Hillbilly D, a-freaking-men. With emphasis on MEN.
-drl
Ross
February 15th, 2010
2:12 pm
sb – I try every year – time was, I would not miss the 500 for a stop-over by Jesus himself (Wanna beer J-man?) It sucks now – I can’t tell you how much – someone said to me yesterday – “The only thing more boring that watching them run is watching them park.” If you had told me 15 years ago that all three of the 500, Talladega, and the Indy race would be ruined by women and corporate interests, I would have checked myself into rehab for the DTs. Everything about NASCAR is pabulum for people who don’t even know what racing really is.
ThatDawg'llBiteYou
February 15th, 2010
8:26 pm
Oldfart. V-6’s have push rods, too.
In the first days of NASCAR radios, there was one open channel, and each driver could hear all the others’ conversations. Darrell Waltrip whined constantly to his crew when his car was off, and crowed incessantly when it was going good. Thus earning the name “Jaws” from the soft-speaking, big-stick-carrying David Pearson.
He continues this legacy on Fox, right down to stealing the “Boogity, boogity” crap from Ray Stevens, and never giving him credit.
The coverage is so over-hyped and hyper-produced, that even trying to watch a recorded race, fast forwarding the commercials and gushing commentary, is too revolting to contemplate.
Potholes Win The Weekend [Weekend Winner] – 112th Edition | Gear Tackle
February 15th, 2010
11:08 pm
[...] more stopping of auto races for cracks in the asphalt. I say make stock car driving more like real driving. Construction zones. Old dudes in Buicks doing 45 in the left lane. A-holes on cellphones who [...]
oldfart
February 16th, 2010
8:11 am
The V6’s run by NASCAR have push rods, most in production vehicles today are overhead cam or cams. Toyota had to design a custom engine just to run NASCAR, they had never built a push rod V8. All I’m advocating is that the core of the competition used to be between the manufacturers and you could buy some semblance of that car in the showroom. “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday.” There is nothing on the current cars that represents anything in the showroom with the exception of the badge. Give them a cubic inch limit and maybe even a fuel limit and let some engineering happen. It could even support the old research angle the manufacturers used to sell. They’ve been stagnant for years, satisfied with the status quo, but the numbers are dropping and even the “car of tomorrow” is really the car of yesteryear.