Your Daytona 500 Open Thread

As you may or may not have heard, it’s DAYTONA DAY!

Of course, this is stupid Fox marketing to try to hype up something that shouldn’t have to be hyped up.  It’s like saying Happy Super Bowl Day!

Completely stupid.

Anyway, they do call it NASCAR’s Super Bowl even though it’s the first race of the season and doesn’t decide the championship.   So, what does the Daytona 500 mean to me?

A while back, a much younger Balls worked with a friend that was really into NASCAR.  He invited younger Balls to his house for the 500.  I arrived a precisely the time the TV said the race would start.  Of course, that was just the start of the broadcast and there was still the anthem, the invocation (They pray at the track?!?), the Gentlemen Start Your Engines, and finally the Green Flag.

As soon as the Green Flag dropped, my buddy said, “Ok, let’s go outside and get some beers and get the grill going.”

The rest of the day was spent eating and drinking in the back yard while occasionally going in to check to see how many laps had been run.  Once it got to 30 to go, we went back inside and watched the end of the race.

And yes, there was a Big One.

Now, who is going to win this year’s race?

Your guess is as good as mine.  The frustrating thing about the Daytona 500 (and the other Daytona race and both Talladega races) is that luck plays an extremely large role in who wins.  There are several drivers that excel at restricted plate tracks, but if they get caught up in someone else’s mess, they are screwed.

With that said, given that this group loves a good drink and a good eating, I suggest you follow the 500 as I did way back when.  Consider this the backyard and post funny gifs and videos while drinking and checking in occasionally to see if anyone has wrecked.

But do watch the last 30 laps.  It’s the best part.