For anyone reading this and finding it familiar, I apologize. I always write what I feel at the moment and in as much as this is Daytona 500 day, the start of the 2010 Cup season, I am experiencing flashbacks to all the 500s I attended through the years and all those I have watched on television all the years after I quit going. Between radio, attendance, and television, I have never missed a Daytona 500. The past few years I have missed other races for one reason or another but I never miss the Daytona 500 or any race at Darlington. It is that much in my blood.
I may have written something like this before but all the blogs and forums I've written over the past two years disappeared into the netherland of cyberspace never to be seen or read again. I wish I had printed them and kept them in a notebook because there were two or three of them of which I was very proud. At the same time, I am well aware how transitory everything in this life is, I still can see, as if watching it on video, the black number 3 crashing on that last lap of the 500 in 2001, and that is just a part of the vivid memories I have about so much of the racing history that floats around in the head under the cowboy hat with feathers. I can see that 1959 photo finish, the 1976 Petty-Pearson crash and spin when David crossed the line at about 30 mph with a crushed front end, the 1979 crash in turn three when 18 of us on top of a motorhome in the infield immediately went nuts because we knew that put The King in Position to win the race. So many memories, so many experiences.
Today, I shall go starch and iron one of my Racers Reunion shirts, put an extra spit-shine on a pair of boots, and sit back to watch the race.I am very happy that the race starts at 1:00, like it used to and the time it should start. I'll recall all the past 500s and all the good things I remember about each one. I'll try to overlook the past couple or three years when I would actually fall asleep because the racing was so mundane. I'll try to block out last year which, in my opinion was the worst Daytona 500 ever run. Ending in the dark, with it raining, and a winner who really happened to "luck into it", not that others haven't, but remembering how Jack Roush acting as if his team had dominated the event simple disgusted me. Sorry, Jack, just can't help that feeling.
It's the start of a new season, my 57th season of following races. It's not like it used to be and it's a pretty safe bet it won't ever go back to those days. But, just like all my blogs/forums are gone forever, I start over again. Here I am. I'm writing. If you got this far, you're reading. So, it's time to get it going again. I will not use D.W.'s chant used at the start of the race, but I will say this: :Let's have a great season boys (and girls) and may all be safe, the race days all sunny, and everyone remember we're on this site because we believe in the history that made the sport such an attractive television package even if we don't necessarily approve of the way things are today.
Tim
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What a change! It's been awhile since I've checked in and I'm quite surprised. It may take me awhile to figure it our but first look it's really great.
updated by @tim-leeming: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM
