Well, I am a very old time, stock car racing fan. I've been a NASCAR (and other stock car series) fan since the days of Lee Petty, Buck Baker, Fireball Roberts, Junior Johnson, Ned Jarrett and others. Saw my first race, in 1959, at the old Lakewood Speedway, located on the old Southeastern Fairgrounds, here in Atlanta. That's 55 years ago, I was 6 years old, that year, when my dad took me to see it. I had started following it, with him, on the radio and in the news papers, the year before, 1958. I have been a hardcore stock car fan, ever since, to the point that aside from an occasional drag race, nothing else, in all of auto racing interests me. I had started to become and follow the Australian V8 Supercar Series, (I'm not sure why, considering the fact that I detest road-racing) maybe because I liked their Ford/GM rivalry, which was very reminiscent of the old days of NASCAR, the era that I came of, where being a Dodge, Chevy, Pontiac, etc., fan and saying something negative about a Ford, amounst a group of Ford fans, (And visa versa) would, wery rapidly, get you a serious ass whipping! Unfortunately, here in the U.S., the demise of SPEED Channel has pretty much put an end to the ability to follow the V8 Supercars, as whatever coverage we now get is two to three weeks old, at the earliest and often times is shown on a channel that is not part of any cable or satellite TV's basic station package. Plus, the V8s did not return to COTA this season. They say that they will be back, in 2015, but I SERIOUSLY doubt it, as once a racing series has left a track, it only VERY rarely returns -- I say the chance that they come back is "slim to none"! All of this is also a topic for another thread and a diffrerent forum. Back on topic, I am not, at all happy with what has been done to stock car racing, by Brian France, or as we call him, "Brainfart Brian!" He has NO understanding about what the teams, drivers and most importantly, the fans want to see. Even though he won a boat load of these things, the late Dale Earnhardt stated and expressed the feelings of most of the drivers and teams, with regards to restrictor plate racing, "This isn't racing! I don't know what it is, but it ain't racing!" The IDIOTIC changes, that "Brainfart Brian" has made and continues to make to the sport, such as the stupid "chase, the "Green, White Checkers, three attempts rule, this TOTALLY idiotic, BORING new qualifying format, just to name a very few, are against practically everything that myself and many other stock car racing fans like and want to see. It appears that "Brainfart Brian, with his senseless, counterproductive, idiotic ideas of change has, once again proven the old business addage to be true -- "The first generation starts and builds the business then turns it over to the second generation. The second generation, builds the business up to it's height, then turns it over to the thrid generation, who promptly goes about tearing down and ruining the business!
All of that being said, I welcome today's Daytona 500. Though I hate restrictor plate racing, this race OFFICIALLY opens racing season. It has been a LONG DRERY off-season and it, though still a couple of weeks away, we are within a couple of weeks, it signals the coming of Spring!
It means, to me, the end of boring, little to do weekends, I will now have something that I really enjoy, to watch!
So, WELCOME 2014 racing season, you have been a long time getting here, but now that you have arrived, "Let's go racing"! I'm anxiously awaiting THE command, (I will do it the traditional way, since I'm "old school", an old, traditional fan! "With aknowledgement of and to Danica Patrick" or "Danica, and Gentlemen, START YOUR ENGINES!" NOW, let's get this one run/completed, so that we can move on to the start of the actual RACING (as opposed to restrictior plate) part of the season, next week, at Phoenix!
To all, enjoy today's race and have an OUTSTANDING Sunday!