Daytona 500 2017 and NM State Aggie Baseball

As if that title isn’t confusing enough, but it’s still not as confusing as the new NASCAR points rules and “Stage Racing.”  In Rally racing, they have stage racing where the teams go from one interesting course to another at an event.  In NASCAR, it just means breaking the race up into three segments, so that they can stop the race after each and put in a couple more commercial breaks and lengthen the time of the race.  I already covered this earlier, but now we get to see it in action.

Dad was coming over to watch the race, so I was going to have to at least pretend to be interested.  He had tried to read an article about the new rules and gave up halfway through, but he still wanted to watch it anyway.  He also got his new teeth in and was looking forward to having a pizza.  I hadn’t had one in a while either.  Papa John’s filled the bill with a large pepperoni, breadsticks, and a large chocolate cookie.  It was all very good and worth the wait. 

The Fox pre-race started with a nice, classy intro.  I wish “classy” would be the word they used as a guide for all their extraneous production material.  On that note, Chris Meyers got us started with a flashback of his Tom Brady interview at the Superbowl and the quip, “I should have given him back his jersey.  I didn’t know it was going to cause that much of a fuss.”  Jeff Gordon and the Waltrip brothers rounded out the pre-race crew.  Jeff has slotted into the TV analyst role pretty well and has been fairly insightful.  I had seen Jeff last month at the 24 Hours of Daytona race.  He was there driving and had Ingrid and the kids with him.  After seeing his black prototype ride for the race, the kids said that they thought he was now cool because he was driving the Batmobile.  During Jeff’s interview, his little girl Ella looked like she was yearning to get into a car and start driving. 

I missed most of the discussions while going out for the pizza.  I heard them talk about Carl Edwards’ sudden departure, though no mention of a possible political run was made.  Edwards’ departure has been overshadowed by talk of his replacement, Daniel Suarez.  The promo image had him in front of an American flag.  He’s actually Mexican and something of a racing hero there.  (There is, or at least was, a Mexican NASCAR series.)  There was an animated explanation of the new stage racing rules.  Even using cartoons, it still didn’t make any more sense. 

There was a remote shot of Texas Motor Speedway.  The infield was open for a Daytona viewing party on the track’s big screen.  What a good idea.  There was detailed explanation of how to play fantasy racing at an Internet betting site.  Another great idea.  Heavy betting is the only thing that will save the sport now.  Then the best idea of all was introduced: the Monster Energy Girls.  Frankly, the new series sponsor didn’t get a lot of mention during the coverage (until the end, but we’ll get to that).  I say that these new trophy girls should get non-stop exposure during the race by whatever means necessary.

Jeff got to drive the pace car, but not before Tony Stewart, also now retired, came over and gave him some good-natured trouble while Jeff was being interviewed.  The stands were sold out.  This may have more to do with the beautiful weather and last year’s remodeling than the new rules.  And with that, the green flag dropped and we were underway!

Though the drivers were out for points in the first half of the race, it still felt pretty perfunctory.  Dad and I were both nodding off, though this may have been food-induced narcolepsy.  During the commercials (dad liked the Uber-calling bank robbers one), I put in an earplug and tuned into the Sunday Aggie baseball game on the radio.  I had started listening to it before dad came over.  The weather was a little cold, but still reasonably nice to start off.  I rejoined the game in the bottom of the fourth.  The score was a shocking 14-0 Aggies over Mount St. Mary’s!  In the two minutes I was listening, they hit two home runs!  Well, given Friday’s 13-2 win and Saturday night’s 25-4 win, maybe this wasn’t entirely shocking, but still, “Wow!” 

Meanwhile back at Daytona, what was probably the critical moment of the race occurred.  In Stage two, Kyle Busch cut a tire while leading the pack of Toyota entries.  This took out many of the favored drivers, including Dale Jr, who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.  The Toyota teams may be reconsidering their pack strategies after this.  The wreck red flagged the race for a short time, during which I flipped over to a college basketball game, which dad seemed to enjoy more.      

The winds had picked up here in the meantime, making it cold and nasty out.  I was sort of glad I wasn’t at the ballpark.  Then again, in the seventh, it was now 22-1 Aggies.  I heard two more home runs within a couple of minutes of listening.  Even having been there for the Saturday night game, this game would have still been impressive to watch in person.  I kept listening.  The broadcasters were openly wondering why the run-rule (which ends games that get out-of-control like this early) wasn’t in effect for non-conference games.  The final was 29-1 Aggies.  Five of the Aggie players were now, unsurprisingly, hitting over .400 after this weekend.  Amazingly with all that scoring, the game just went a bit over three hours.

The race was getting ugly.  Big wrecks were dragging out the race and had taken out the rest of the favorites, including Jimmie Johnson in the Stage three.  With 50 laps left, three-quarters of the field had some kind of damage.  Dad had to leave early, since the race was running late.  With 25 laps left, there were only 25 cars on track, 17 on the lead lap.  The new damaged car rule was having an effect. 

With all the wrecks and trying to account for the stage yellows, the fuel situation at the end of the race became an issue.  Most of cars in front that had stayed out for track position were now close to empty.  This somewhat forced the remaining contenders to all stay together in single file to conserve fuel.  Whoever was leading was getting the least conservation.  Chase Elliot, the polesitter, was out in front for most of final sprint, but he ran out with three laps left.  Martin Truex was briefly in the lead, before he ran out of gas.  After some jockeying, Kyle Larson was in front on the last lap, but he couldn’t make it.  Kurt Busch, who had earlier been tagged to run out on the last lap, powered right on across the finish line.

Now we have a bit controversy.  Series sponsor, Monster Energy, was also Kurt’s sponsor.  It looks a little suspicious, given that this was their first race as the series sponsor.  Regardless, Tony Gibson, Kurt’s crew chief, was so happy afterward, he was shaking during his interview.  Tony Stewart, at least had the satisfaction of winning Daytona as an owner.  Manufacturer-wise, Ford stealing Stewart-Haas from Chevrolet had just totally paid off.  Kurt Busch was all grateful happy in Victory Lane.  He made sure to thank his new wife on stage for “Making a man out of me.”  For a guy who’d had some embarrassingly public girlfriend troubles a couple of years ago, this may have been some redemption.  Speaking of that, Michael Waltrip, in his last race, managed to finish in the top 10 and unscathed.  And one of my favorites, AJ Allmendinger, finished a surprising third.    

Honestly, the race was not more interesting for having a couple of extra stops.  It probably dragged out the race a bit, that along with numerous field-clearing wrecks.  I don’t think quarter and halfway points lead to the additional wrecks at least.  It’s Daytona though, a race unto itself.  We won’t really see how this new format works until the following races.