Jet fuel, wet road make for fireworks
It would be safe to say that this year’s Daytona 500 hasn’t given the so-called sport of NASCAR a good image.
Personally, I don’t believe NASCAR to be a sport, but I can play devil’s advocate on the matter. It’s understandable that turning left with precise arm movements at high speeds for many hours can be tiring, both mentally and physically. But I still don’t think of it as a sport in the same manner that I do with hockey and football.
By those criteria, Wii Sports would be real and I would be a professional golfer and bowler, because I too can use precise arm movements for many hours. I do have to give the racers some respect, though, for being able to handle a couple tons of machinery at high velocities.
Though if given any Gran Turismo game for the Playstation consoles, I, too, could handle heavy “virtual” machinery, therefore making me a professional race car driver.
To me, NASCAR is more like an entertaining event. Crashes, explosions and people with two first names create great visual entertainment but lacks in the mental stimulation department. It would be grouped with WWE and Backyard Wrestling in my book, but to each their own.
When the Daytona 500 ended early in the morning last Tuesday, it had its fair share of crashes sprinkled throughout.
I sympathize for any victims of these crashes and that’s where I wish something different could be done. I know putting a robot into the driver’s seat could save a life, but it would also create two problems.
First, watching a robot race around a track would take out all the suspense of wondering if they are going to enter the turn on a perfect line. Where we have human error, computers do everything perfect every time. It would be like watching life-sized RC cars. If I’m not controlling it, it’s not fun to watch. And second, putting a robot into the driver’s seat will only result in many disgruntled race car drivers and redneck-like followers protesting the streets screaming aloud, “They took our jobs! Took our jerbs!”
Every Daytona race features one crash spectators call “the big one.” This year’s “big one” even had NASCAR president Mike Helton shocked. Juan Pablo Montoya, who drives the Target-sponsored #42 Chevy, was under caution with 40 laps remaining when it occurred.
Wet weather brought rain to the pavement, which postponed the race’s start and caused a few cautions. He came up to a stretch that had two track-drying trucks on it, both full of jet fuel, and something gave way in his rear suspension. He missed one but slammed full on into 200 gallons of fuel that instantly went ablaze. Both drivers amazingly walked away with little harm.
“About the time you think you’ve seen about everything, you see something like this,” Helton said to ABC News Corp.
It makes me wonder if NASCAR picks random people from the crowd to help plan and run their events. You know, like the bare-chested guy holding up two beers and screaming at the cars every time they go by. They seem like the kind of people who would send trucks full of jet fuel on the tracks while race car drivers fly by at dangerous speeds. The same kind that would send the drivers of those trucks full of extremely flammable hydrocarbons out onto the track without fire suits and helmets.
So it makes me want to say thank you to all the people who are hardcore fans. Those that push the notion that NASCAR is a true sport. You confirm my suspicion that being dumb and dangerous go hand in hand.
