The easiest place to start a story is the beginning, so let
me just start there. I became a lifelong fan of NASCAR in 1993 after I saw my
first full race on television that August. There were several events that led
up to that, which I plan to cover on here later, but for now, let’s just say
that I was hooked after that night race at Bristol where Mark Martin beat Rusty
Wallace in a photo-finish. I saw a little bit of the previous World Series, I
watched some of the Magic/Michael NBA Finals, and I even witnessed the Dallas
Cowboys win 2 Super Bowls by that time. All were great, but nothing spoke to me
like those cars did, and nothing probably ever will. This leads to me to the
past weekend at Daytona. After several admittedly weak years of NASCAR premier
series racing (2007-2010 and 2013, and arguably 2004-2006), I think it’s on at
least a slight upswing as far as competition and excitement goes. I used to
feel an anticipation before every race that I don’t feel as much anymore, and I
think I speak for a lot of longtime fans when I say this. However, the races in
all 3 series (truck, cup, and xfinity) at Daytona last week reminded me of why
I became a fan. Tyler Redick and Austin Theriault working together as young
kids in the truck series. Jack Roush smiling and in utter disbelief that his
team just finished 1-2 for the first time in an xfinity race at Daytona. Joey
Logano, whose Cup career was all but done after the 2012 season, winning the
biggest race of his life (albeit under a somewhat unnecessary caution, which is
another topic I’m sure we’ll discuss as the season goes on). I welcome everyone’s
comments and I hope everyone enjoys the blog. I’m going to try to have as much
fun as I can, and I hope anyone else reading does too.
