...Auto Racing

I love cars, and I love racing them. Unfortunately with my driving record it is better for me to watch than to participate. Memorial Day Weekend is the unofficial start to the Summer season, but for us race fans it is the greatest race weekend you can wish for.

The day starts at 7:30AM with Formula 1 racing in Monaco. The grandest race for that series it delivers high speeds on the only actual road course in Formula 1. If you are lucky to be there in person you may also be lucky enough to be on a yacht backed up against the track, literally 20 feet away in some spots. Though I love racing and I find Formula 1 interesting, it is not that exciting. F1 claims it is the most technologically advanced auto sport on earth. This may be true but it is a little boring and predictable. Basically the winner of the race will be one of the 1st 4 cars on the starting grid. This season if your name is not Vettel then you are probably not going to win the race, seeing how he has only lost once to Lewis Hamilton. This multi billion dollar sport needs more excitement. The most exciting part of this race was the start, as usual, and unfortunately the accident towards the end of the race.

Now we go to Indianapolis for the Indy 500, the grandest race for the Indy Car series. Somehow Danica Patrick is still a major headline grabber and attention getter. I understood why 4 years ago, but now...not so much. I think as a role model she is not so good either, I say that because I am sure a lot of people would use that in their argument for why she is good for the sport. She makes money from racing yes, but she makes a lot more form sponsorship deals, most notably GoDaddy. If you want to go there you could say she is telling girls that you do not have to be great at what you do just be pretty and guys will like you and pay you to see you showoff your body. Also she is like maybe the best of the worst. She has literally won 1 race in her Indy Car career! Hey little girls just know that no matter what you do a man will be better at it than you. I think the little girls got that message already...Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, Lauren Alaina, etc. Back tot the race. It was better than I expected. I do like to watch the series when I can but it rarely seems to be on television. I do not like that they have a "push-to-pass" button that gives your car a little more horsepower and a little more RPMs to let you pass a car. Though you only get 15 per race it is still a little like cheating or taking an easy way out. I guess they were inspired by the "Fast and Furious" franchise. The race also seemed to try a little too hard to create stories. An Iraq war veteran "won" the chance to ride along with race legend Mario Andretti before the race started. Memorial Day weekend...war veteran..fluff piece...human interest story. Whomp! Then there was the car owner in a wheelchair...Whomp. Then there was the winner of the 1st Indy 500's son! Oh man they really tried hard to sell some stories and possibly earn an Emmy nom. The ending to the race was great. It came down to fuel and cars were dropping off and hitting the pits. The last lap, the final turn, a rookie JR Hildebrand crashed into the wall and Dan Wheldon won!

Finally there was NASCAR, the Coca-Cola 600, their longest race of the season. Maybe I am bias, but this was the best race of the night. These cars can take a lickin' and keep on tickin', as they would say int he backwoods of any Southern state. This race always comes down to endurance and gas. Can the engines and transmissions hold up? Do I have enough gas? Apparently a lot of people had to refuel towards the end as the yellow caution flag did not wave until there were 5 laps to go. Why? Because Jimmy Johnson's engine blew up. Now though Jimmy Johnson has won the championship 5 times, unlike F1 there were a host of other drivers winning races throughout the season. So with the rules stating that there can be up to 3 Green-White-Checkered finishes before the race is officially over that is what happened. The race started and Dale Earnhardt Jr. took the lead. An accident happened behind him but NASCAR officials let the race carry on because the track was clear by the time the other cars came back around. Earnhardt was exiting turn number 4 when he ran out of gas! We all thought his 208 winless streak was coming to an end... We were wrong. Kevin Harvick comes form behind like a thief in the night and wins the race. Thrilling for sure. He even has enough gas left over the do a doughnut, a burnout and drive into victory lane.

A Sunday like this comes once a year and when it comes I enjoy it. Breakfast in Monaco, Lunch in Indy and supper in Charlotte, as D.W. put it. It was a good day. I can only hope that next year F1 will deliver more action and excitement, but if not I will always have NASCAR. I am giving Auto Racing a Digit Up for sure.