The Daytona 500Feb 28, 2012
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| It was a rainy day in Daytona Beach on Sunday so the 500 was cancelled until Monday. The race finally started after the drivers waited something like 36 hours. I bet they we anxious to get behind the wheel. - The race got a late start on Monday afternoon and Judy had just turned the TV on and noticed it on Fox channel. They only raced one lap and into the second when the first wreck happened and the red flag was waved. - I believe that this was the first race I ever watched the whole way through....the reason why....It was a totally crummy afternoon with wind and rain and more rain. That is the only time I hate to live in a RV. The doggies still have to go outside whether it's raining or not and last night I was out several times. At the house I just let them out in the enclosed courtyard. - Back to the race...I am not a big race fan and I never heard of a "half way through the race" prize. Whoever is in the lead half way into the race which is lap 200 or 250 miles, they are awarded $200,000. Yes, that's the right amount of zeros. Almost a quarter millon dollars just to make it half way. I was amazed. - I don't know if you watched it or not but with only 40 laps left in the race there was a caution flag and one of the drivers was on his way into the pits when all of a sudden his car malfunctioned and he was going sideways down the track and he slammed into a truck with a jet engine blower on the back. The blower is used to blow the debri from the track and holds 200 gallons of jet fuel. There was a humungus fire and the jet fuel leaked across the downward slant of the track and was on fire and to make matters worse the truck carried maybe another 35 gallons of diesel fuel that was also leaking and on fire. They worked for a long time to get to fire under control. When the fire was out they had to get the track cleaned up with absorbants and then they used "Tide", the dry powder laundry soap to help with the clean up effort. While all this was going on it looked like a parking lot on the race track and all the drivers were out of their cars just standing around bullshitting. All this went on for hours and after the track was cleaned they had to put a sealer on the track and used what looked like leaf blowers to get it dry. - It was after 9 PM California time when the race was over which means that they raced until after midnight eastern time. The fans were still in the stands and if they were there to see wrecks they sure got their money worth last night. This was the first time that the 500 was started on a Monday and ended on a Tuesday due to it being after midnight. - We were rooting for Dale Ernhart Jr during the race and most of the time he was either in 4th position or 11-12 position but was in 3rd place on the last lap. I figured he had a surprise in store for us but was just not fast enough and ended the race in second place. The "Best Buy" car finished in first place and it was a entertaining race on a rainy California day. - Happy Camping, Bob, Judy and Our3dogs |
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