|
There was a real feel of excitement
Saturday night at Daytona
International Speedway.
Kevin Harvick made a
pair of daring, breathtaking
last-lap moves to win a
Budweiser Shootout that
featured more leaders,
more lead changes and
more cautions than in any
of the previous 30 years
that event had been held.
Cars seemed as if they
were bouncing all over the
place, and not just while
they were wrecking. They
looked tough to drive, but there was
plenty of passing and - as eventual
runner-up Jamie McMurray found out
on the green-white-checkered finish -
the lead was not necessarily the place to
be.
"They ought to cancel testing every
year if you want to see a race like that,"
Harvick said. "That was a lot of pent-up
race car drivers who were really looking
for something
|
to hang out on the edge. I think
everybody got a good show
tonight."
It was a good show.
Sadly, however, it was
followed Sunday by the
soul-crushing boredom of
single-car qualifying runs
for the Daytona 500. It
should be considered a
crime to sell tickets for
something as mind-numbing
as restrictor-plate qualifying. It
should be considered a cry for help to
purchase one.
Daytona Speedweeks badly needs a
schedule shuffle. The Shootout should
be a one-day event the Wednesday
before the Daytona 500. Thursday
should be a media day and a fan fest,
with drivers spending half a day inside
the track meeting fans and half with
|
the media talking about the Daytona 500
and the season ahead.
Friday should be Daytona 500 practice,
an afternoon Truck series race and
the Gatorade Duels to set the 500 lineup
at night. Saturday is Cup practice
and the Nationwide race, and Sunday is
the 500.
That's not going to happen because
there are fans' pockets to be emptied
and it behooves everyone who does the
fleecing to have people here for nearly
two weeks.
Moving beyond that, though, there is
something to the perception that people
generally seem happier to be here this
year. I can't necessarily say that's true
for the fans, although there are reports
that ticket sales for the Daytona 500
and other events later this week have
picked up at least a little bit from a
rather frighteningly slow off-season
pace. But inside .
|
the garage, the feeling
is palpable
Some of it is simple to understand.
The people who are here are grateful
they still have jobs in an industry that's
in its deepest downturn in the memory
of almost anyone who has been around
this business for a while. Even those
who are here on a wing and a prayer of
making the Daytona 500 are grateful to
have a competitive heartbeat.
But even guys whose survival in racing
was never in question sound
|
fired
up and ready to go.
"If you look at the crew guys,
they're not beat up from having to run
across the country all winter in testing,"
Harvick said. "The drivers are excited
to come down here.
"Everybody is excited to be at the
race track, smell the fumes of the cars,
drive laps. There's just that added
enthusiasm.
"It's like everybody got a wake-up
call and said, 'Hey, we need to get our
stuff together. We've never not been
able to go to the race track and not test.
Now you get to come to the race track.
"It's like taking your favorite toy
away. It's almost like you got grounded
for a few months, and now you get to
come out and have fun with it again."
|
2009 Sprint Cup Champion: Jimmie
Johnson.
The last pole sitter to win this race was
Dale Jarrett in 2000. Only nine pole winners
have captured the Daytona 500.
Kevin Harvick:
Does a win in Budweiser Shootout foreshadow a return to Victory Lane in a points race?