Daytona 500

A little known fact about me... I love NASCAR.
This year, yesterday, was the 50th running of the Daytona 500.

And what a year it was.

First I like the "sport" because of the speed (180+mph), but more importantly (caution soap box ahead) I love that this is a fans sport. That the drivers, the owners, the sponsers know that without the fans they would get no where fast no matter how fast they drive, and so they turn around and support the fans, have dinner at the local hangout later that night with their fans, they have autograph sessions before each race, these guys love their fans. As oppossed to some over paid types of other sports that only acknoweldge fans for a price.

This is just one mothers thoughts on the event - I claim no claim to have real authority on the subject.

The guy that won yesterday, after 500 miles of speed, it all came down to one guy winning because someone selflessly looked out for him.

Basically cars and their drivers are running the race for themselves, erveryone wants to win - but there are still teams that are owned by the same person/company and or sponsered by the same company(s). In the final quarter of the final lap, going over 100 mph, (for the sake of easiness) the Home Depot car was ahead and should have crossed the finish line with a car length between him and the other guy. But instead what happened? The car behind him swooped to the top of the track in front of a team-mate who was in third place at the time and he then got "pushed."

Pushed in racing is when the lead car breaks the air force field and the back car gets close enough behind to push the lead car with the extra power it has because it doesn't have to break the air force field. Team work at it's finist.

The last quarter of the last lap and cars two and three fly past the Home depot car and cross the finish line. Winning the Superbowl of racing, the Daytona 500.

In the post race interviews driver after driver talked about how through the whole race, 200 laps, 500 miles, no one wanted to help each other. "I just couldn't get anyone to push me on the straights." "No one wanted to help each other out their today."

After all that time, all those miles, it came down to the last quarter of the last lap. When one guy was willing to come in second to help someone come in first.

In his interview, the most touching interview of them all, he said: "I knew I wasn't going to be able to get the speed to win in that last lap, I watched Ryan close and thought, if he drops down and goes for it, I will to, but if he comes up to the top of the track, I will bash his bumper in pusing him to the finishline!"

And that he did.

And that makes him a HERO.