Track Trivia: Daytona

The Daytona 500 is often referred to as NASCAR's Super Bowl. There are similarities--it is arguably the biggest race of the year--but it's the first race in a long season, not a race to determine the champion. It's prestigious because of its history--what we now know as NASCAR racing really has its roots in beach racing at Daytona and the France family who owns N'car started their empire here. To me, it's exciting just to get the season underway. There are a lot of activities before the NASCAR weekend, including the Bud Shootout and qualifying the weekend before plus other types of auto racing collectively termed SpeedWeeks. Then the Daytona 500 weekend starts with the Duel to determine starting position in the race, and there's a truck race and a Nationwide (kind of Sprint Cup minor league) race plus practice before the big race on Sunday. I haven't ever been to Daytona for racing, but one of these years I will go--it's a must-do on a NASCAR fan's list, plus it would be nice to get out of this awful weather. There's apparently a lot to do at the track and it would be great to combine it with a NASA launch--Cape Canaveral is very close. I have been to the Kennedy Space Center and loved it--one of my favorite souvenirs ever is my sweatshirt from there that reads "I need my space" over the NASA meatball. What can I say, the space program was still cool when I was a (very young) kid :)

So, I will be parked in front of the t.v. for the flyover and pre-race introductions on Feb. 15th, and to be prepared I refreshed my Daytona info. The race is a restrictor-plate race--they put an actual metal plate on the engine to reduce power, or else on a high-banked superspeedway like this there would be 43 cars capable of going over 200 m.p.h., which could get ugly. They still go VERY fast, but they're kind of bunched up in a pack because they're all running around the same speed which can lead to some nasty pile-ups. Some spectators like the wrecks, but I don't--I feel bad for the driver who didn't make a mistake but still gets collected and misses out on his chance to shine in the biggest race of the year through no fault of his own. Daytona is something to see, but I'm not a huge fan of restrictor-plate races.  The track is one of the longest in the schedule at 2.5 miles, and it's a tri-oval, with essentially three corners. There's 31 degrees of banking in the turns--if you ever get a chance, take a track tour (anywhere) and see what's it's like to stand upright on any degree of banking. 31 degrees is amazing--it's probably like driving in a pinball machine up the chute. But the best part is how fired up the drivers are to get into the car again, because everyone wants to do well in the first and one of the most important races of the year. I'm not going to make any predictions (maybe after I have a chance to select my fantasy team) but I will say this is a good chance to see how some of the old favorites and new teams are looking this year. I hope they're ready, because I sure am!