The Disappointment of Daytona
Tuesday, February 20th, 2007 1:27am CST
By Tim Spencer, Thunder Lounge
Published on Thunder Lounge.
Who is disappointed the most as the Daytona 500 winds down could very well be a slue of people, car owners and drivers as well. From bad finishes to just being taking out or being nipped at the finish line it what was the closest finish in NASCAR history at Daytona since the introduction of electronic scoring. Daytona had it all.
Probably the two most noted was the deal with Mike’s Toyota and Harvick pushing a fender in front of Martin for the win. We all know those two events have been put all over the press.
Toyota found out that Daytona was for the big boys. The highest finishing
Toyota was that of Dale Jarrett who finished 22nd. His team owner managed to take a car that had not seen the track until the Duel and finish in the 30th spot.
Dave Blaney finished the day in 34th after flying down pit road to miss the being of one accident and cause another as he exited pit road and slammed into Schrader who was another innocent by stander taking out do to someone else’s carelessness. The final Toyota of Reutimann ended the day in 40th. Add to that Waltrip is starting the season in the hole in points! Not to good of a day for the first race with the Toy’s.
How about Tony Stewart?? Think he had what he would call a disappointing day? He finished dead last after being taken out by Kurt Busch. Busch managed to return with his way ward Dodge run enough laps to move in front of Stewart and Kyle Petty. The sad part is that Busch and Stewart had by far the top cars of the day. Busch still led the most laps while Stewart led the second most laps.
How about all the cars that were trashed while trying to race back to the finish because NASCAR didn’t put out the caution on the final lap?? I’m sure there is a bunch of upset drivers and owners with that. Take for example, David Gilliland who spent part of the day a lap down and then got the luck dog to work his way back to the top five. Only to be knocked out in the last lap to finish eight. While eight is nothing to complain about for a rookie who was running in the top five to be caught up in someone else crash makes it a little disappointing. Matt Kennseth would also be another who was running well into the top ten when it broke loss and finished 27th.
How about the fans?? I bet there are several fans that are disappointed and that would even be without the big wreck at the end. A true fan of racing would agree that the race was disappointing just from the standpoint that the race was only about 40 laps long rather than 200. It was definitely one of the most boring races that I’ve ever seen at Daytona. Let’s hope that July brings a better race, for the fans and for the drivers.
And That’s The Way I See It!!!
Filed Under: Damn Good Points, Daytona, Guest Authors, Kevin Harvick, Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth, Michael Waltrip, Michael Waltrip Racing #55, Nascar, Richard Childress Racing #29, The Way I See It, Tim Spencer, Tony Stewart
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To Nascar,
YOU BLEW IT BOYS!!
You make “RULES” for a reason! Then why does NASCAR change them? 9 out 0f 10 times NASCAR would have thrown the YELLOW Flag! Why Didn’t they? My Faith in NASCAR has been broken. Now I feel it’s just “politics” as usual! When the rules can be “bent” or made an “exception” to, we have a problem! Who was the “person or persons” that made the decision? What did they have to gain from this foolish decision? It’s a sad day for NASCAR!
P>S> PLAY BY THE RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mike777 said this on February 20th, 2007 at 9:37 am
Check our previous article if you need to know “why”.
The “exception” came because of safety. Nothing less, nothing more.
What did they have to gain? Less cars wrecked.
But, you can read our other article touching the subject of the finish in detail.
This “True Fan” thought The Daytona 500 was a great race from start to finish. One of the aspects that I love about NASCAR is that it is always so unpredictable. The yellow dropping would have made no differance. Had the flad dropped the instant of the “wreck” Harvick still would have won by a hair. He was already there…ahead of Mark Martin.
But Clance, if they had dropped it right at that second, where was the last scoring loop they passed? That’s the kicker.
You could literally be 2/10ths of a second from the next scoring loop, and in the lead, but if the caution comes out before you pass it then it goes to the last one passed.
How many loops and where they are is a mystery. Kinda like the “stealth planes” used to be. “Oh yeah, they exist. They’re right over there.” Come to find out, they really were.