NASCAR = Holy cr*p!

Let me start by saying that I'm not a NASCAR fan or follower but yesterday and today I ended up watching the two races from Talladega when I took a break from working outside in the heat.

Of the two races I can say:

1) ABC/ESPN was really pushing the danger of racing at this particular track on Saturday. The announcers were all over "the Big One" that was to happen sooner or later. (It never really did as far as I could tell.) Saturday's race turned out to be quite entertaining even without any wrecks. David Ragan got his first win with a pass on the final lap.

2) In today's race "The Big One" was actually "The Big Three" with two huge pile ups involving lots of cars (a 13-car crash on the seventh lap and another 10-car accident with nine to go) and one smaller but all important one happening with less than half a mile to go that resulted in Brad Keselowski becoming the winner.

This led me to come up with two insights:

1) Perhaps the reason the Main Stream Media news folks seem to look down upon the NASCAR fan is that the typical NASCAR fan is wise to them. Your average liberal newsman is constantly pushing crises. The NASCAR fan watches the race and sees one in action. The fans are there to root for their favorite gladiator to defeat the lions and come out victorious. (Or at least survive to do battle another day.) As a result, the "crises du jour" of the cable and network news shows means little to them.

2) The drivers who go out there to race four across at 200 mph are plum crazy! They get into wrecks early in the race, get their cars rebuilt in the garage area of pit row and then go out to race some more. They end up getting bumped while leading the race with half mile to go, end up airborne and totally wiped out, hop out of their car and run to the finish line just to say they completed the race. Which is what Carl Edwards did today. After 499 1/2 miles he gets wrecked and his car does not finish. Was he angry at the driver who bumped him? No! Edwards acknowledged that what happened was part of racing and that Keselowski was not to blame.

(Incidentally, on that final crash, Edwards' car smashed into the safety screen between the track and the fans. Apparently some loose debris made it's way into the stands and several people were injured. Two had to be airlifted to local hospitals. The helicopter was used to avoid traffic problems on local roads.)

As they say, "You don't have to be crazy to work here, but it helps."