NASCAR IS SAVED!

No, seriously.  Dale Earnhardt Jr. winning the Daytona 500 late Sunday was the best possible outcome for the sport.  Not only has NASCAR’s most popular driver found his way back into Victory Lane after over a year’s absence, Junior won the biggest race of the year, and, thanks to the changes to the Chase, he’s guaranteed a spot in the playoffs.  The series has basically guaranteed an increase in viewership at least through the first round of the Chase, and any additional victory will only boost that.

No shots on Junior here.  He’s been close to victory several times over his win-less streak, and definitely had the strongest car on Sunday, and him and the crew closed it out.  I’ve even heard him thank teammate Jeff Gordon for his push at the end a couple of times.  Junior may finally be able to put talent, experience, focus, and great equipment together for a legit championship run. 

The main unfortunate thing is that this didn’t occur a few years ago before NASCAR’s popularity started waning.  In spite of all my shots at Junior, I don’t actually dislike him.  It’s been more of a teasing of Junior fans.  I do respect his talent.  I don’t even think he’s been over-hyped.  If I really didn’t like him, like Lebron James or the NFL/NBA in general, you’d know it. 

When NASCAR hitched their wagon to Junior after the death of Dale Earnhardt Sr., they couldn’t have known that he was going to swoon and take the sport with him.  (Of course, NASCAR’s various rules changes haven’t exactly helped either, along with Jimmie Johnson dominating the championships.)  My rub against Junior is just that he’s been disappointing.  He’s got talent.  He’s had plenty of wins.  After his problems with his step-mom/owner and then moving to the powerhouse that is Hendrick Motorsports, he should have been making championship runs every year and increasing the popularity of the sport in the process.   

Regardless, congratulations.  Even if Junior doesn’t win anything else this year, him and Junior Nation can coast on this for the rest of the season.  Honestly though, I don’t think he’s finished winning this year.

Where to begin with the rest of it, the all-day/all-night broadcast?  We’ll start Saturday night with Fox’s “Bash at the Beach.”  We got this instead of the Sprint Unlimited.  The only discernable purpose of this event was to remind viewers when the race was going to be on Sunday.  Jeff Gordon and Danica Patrick were the theoretical hosts and managed to put the word “awkward” through its paces.  Thankfully, the actual host, Charissa Thompson of Fox s Sports 1, was not only gorgeous, but an actual professional host.  She even flirted a little with pole-winner Austin Dillon, who has managed smile his way through what must be a tremendous amount of pressure for a rookie driving with a legendary car number.

Sunday’s pre-race featured a “Bacon-Insider” burger from Jack in the Box, courtesy of my dad.  Excellent.  Charissa was back with a good interview with Tony Stewart.  Not to disparage her professionalism (and certainly I’m not complaining), but her pants looked like they were sprayed on.  The Danica/Richard Petty/Tony Stewart feud was discussed and the longer it goes on, the more I’m convinced that it was all a publicity stunt for Danica.  I expect a gag commercial somewhere in the near future.  There is no way her and Petty are going to have an actual grudge race.  If she won, she just beat an old man.  If the King somehow won it, I don’t know how Danica could return to the track. 

The drivers were introduced in Indy 500 style, two at a time with majestic music, and holding sponsor soft drinks and kids.  NASCAR, next year, make them stop that, before there’s some regrettable incident as a driver attempts to juggle three things at once down the runway.    

In retrospect the first 38 laps of the race make perfect sense.  The drivers almost immediately went to single-file racing, which technically isn’t racing.  It’s not even traffic.  It’s not even an F1 race!  Obviously, they were expecting the rain, and nobody wanted to mess up their car.  I’m not going to comment on the six hours of rain delay coverage, because I didn’t watch it.  Although at one point in flipping channels, I did see a race start and was momentarily fooled by the rebroadcast of last year’s event, unlike certain news organizations who watched the rebroadcast and announced Jimmie Johnson as this year’s winner.  (Hee, hee, hee, snicker, snicker, snicker.)  I’m told Jimmie got some congratulatory tweets and e-mails afterward.

When the race restarted there was a promising 15 minutes on uninterrupted race coverage.  However, by the end of the first hour, there were eight, count ‘em eight, commercial breaks.  Look, the track is covered in advertising, the cars are covered in advertising, the drivers are covered in advertising, and the commentators are constantly putting in plugs for the sponsors.  How much more do you need?  The first 38 laps had more commercial time than racing time (and were more interesting).  How about this, do full screen commercials during cautions.  If you need to break during green flag racing, go “side-by-side.”  If there’s a wreck, immediately go back to race, you’ll be able to make up the break during the caution. 

Thankfully, the racing was actually good, in spite of the coverage.  This time, impending weather, worked in the fans’ favor.  NASCAR seemed determined to finish the race as quickly as possible too, so no phantom debris cautions and even waving a yellow for spins on the track.  As the race wore on and attrition became an issue, the new position ticker showed its limitations.  It needs to be modified to show that cars are out or laps down.

Unfortunately, a bunch of wrecks later and a bunch more commercials ran smack into the season end of Downton Abbey.  It was the tensest moment of the evening, as I frantically flipped between the broadcasts.  Who was going to win and how was the season going to end?  The tension was unbearable.  In the end, I thought the episode was spectacular and pretty much made up for an otherwise lackluster, listless season.  Frankly, this Sunday was the first time I really thought that they’d finally filled gaping hole that Matthew’s death had left in the show.  Not to spoil anything, but the episode ends on a really sweet note, as opposed to a really horrible, tragic twist.

Okay, what was I writing about again?  Let me check the tags on this post.  Oh, yeah, congrats again to Junior. 

JUNNNNNIOR!!!!!  Junior Nation shall rise again!  JUNNNNNIOR!!!!!