I haven't been to a hockey game in a good while, but I do remember two "blue lines" under the ice at all hockey rinks. You experts correct me, but I recall them being used to establish offsides penalties if players beat the puck across it?
Doesn't really matter, but I was reminded of the Blue Line when I read about the Barry Dodson/Kyle Petty win at Dover in 1995.
I'm not sure the various stories mentioned it, but that 1995 Dover race was the first Cup race on the new Dover concrete surface.
I was at Dover that June weekend and the new white concrete surface was near blinding in bright sunlight. The wall was stark white and bright. It was so bright and white, in fact, that cars in Friday practice and qualifying and in the Saturday Busch Series race kept hitting the white concrete walls (no SAFER barriers) because drivers couldn't determine where the white concrete track ended and the white concrete wall began. Drivers and car owners made a real fuss to NASCAR.
On Sunday race day morning, as was my custom, I arrived in the very early wee hours to the Dover track to beat the traffic and get a prime parking spot. I always got a special parking pass from NASCAR at Dover that let me park on the horse track ( remember, the track was still "Dover Downs" - not Dover International) and we tried to get as close to the gate and little steps that led straight down into the Winston Cup garage.
When I exited my car and walked down into the garage, I could see a crew of painters all around the Dover track. They were painting a blue line 6"-8" tall all around the base of the concrete retaining wall around the entire race track so drivers could determine where the track ended and the wall began.
I don't see quite as much of it around the track as used to be there, but it is still very evident in long stretches.
And that is how Dover got it's Blue Line. I should point out that the Dover blue line is a different shade of blue than the blue Armco guardrail at Watkins Glen or the blue walls at Phoenix. Just in case you ever noticed and wondered what that blue line at Dover was or why it was there.
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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM
