Top Row Seat - Daytona
Dateline: 02/18/97
The Daytona 500 is
now history, the record crowd of 160,000 have gone home and the Top Row
Fan has some opinions.
Let's take a look at the big show.
The Daytona 500 started off with a scary moment when Robert Pressley touched
Terry Labonte coming off turn two. Sending Pressley's car tumbling through
the infield, spinning on its' front bumper, and slamming down on all fours.
It looked like he took a very hard shot. On the plus side let me give a
nod to Todd Bodine for climbing into the seat to earn some points for Pressley
while he went to the
hospital to get checked out.
The next real item of note was the pure stubborn ignorance shown by Steve
Grissom and Kenny Schrader when they got together on the backstretch. Kenny
went to pass Grissom low and Steve tried to slam the door. Neither of them
would give up until they both were on the grass and out of control. Pure
ignorance. There was a lot of racing left in the day and both of those
guys should have known better. You could tell by the interview in the infield
that they both felt pretty stupid.
Some guys had a great day
Mark Martin lead the most laps and had a real shot at the win until loose
lugnuts on a pit stop forced him to the end of the line during a yellow
flag stop. Mark's crew seems to haunt him race after race, hopefully I'm
not the only person who is noticing this. They're either slow, costing
him valuable positions on pit road, or they make critical mistakes. I'd
like to have Mark race with Rusty's pit crew for a couple of weeks and
see what he can do.
Bill Elliot ran up front all day and was leading towards the very end of
the race. It's nice to see Bill finally get that team on track and up front
again.
Jeremy Mayfield very quietly had a great run finishing 6th. This kid has
some real talent and I look forward to seeing him run up front more often.
Ricky Craven was particularly impressive on Sunday. After his mistake in
the 125 mile qualifier (and I give him a lot of credit for immediately
standing up and taking full responsibility for his mistake) he was forced
to start deep in the pack in 40th place. But patience, talent and a good
crew brought him to the front to complete the Hendrick Trifecta. Craven
learned a lot at Daytona this year and we're going to hear a lot more from
him before this season is over.
Rusty Wallace served notice that he was in Daytona to win by posting the
fastest laps in January testing. He backed it up with strong runs in the
Clash and in his 125. But again Lady Luck reached out and slapped him,
breaking the motor after just 47 laps. He finished 41st. Something about
Rusty and the fast tracks. Is he afraid of them? Is there a problem back
at the shop with his restrictor plate program? Or is it just unbelievably
bad luck?
This brings me to the end of the race and the Earnhardt incident. I didn't
see anything except "wunnademracindeals" and I think Dale's
comments after the race were out of line when he accused Jeff of being
too aggressive. Hold on there Dale, are you telling me that if you were
in third place with ten laps to go in the Daytona 500 that you wouldn't
try a perfectly clean pass for second? I'm sorry that you made a mistake
but it happens, even to you. Next time smile politely and accept it. Jeff
didn't do anything you wouldn't have done and it
was all clean racing. Want to talk about last years spring race at Rockingham?
I didn't think so.
One VERY bad side of this was that Ernie Irvan's hood came off and went
up into the Tiny Lund grandstand on the backstretch. The reports are that
2 spectators were injured but not seriously (I believe it was one broken
arm and one injured leg). This is a very real reminder that the injury
release language on the back of your ticket stub is there for a reason.
Well, I've gotten almost to the end of my wrap-up of the Daytona 500 without
using the name of the winner. I admit it, I was wrong I had predicted Ford
would win the race but instead we ended up with a Bowtie in Victory Lane.
Congratulations to Rick Hendrick on a very impressive sweep of the Daytona
500. Personally, I don't think the best car won the race. That race should
have been Elliott's, Martin's or Earnhardt's. But the Hendrick boys were
there at the right time and took advantage of team tactics to win the race.
Jeff and Terry ganged up on Bill Elliot down the front straight with Jeff
going low and Terry going high which forced Bill to choose who to block.
Bill took Jeff very low but backed off and relinquished the spot, choosing
safety over glory. Good choice Bill, I'd rather see you finish 4th than
finish in the infield care center.
I was dissappointed to see the race finish under caution. I'd like to see
Winston Cup adopt the same rule that the Craftsman Truck Series uses where
every race must finish under green. If the scheduled number of laps expire
under caution then the trucks run a green-white-checkers sprint to decide
the winner. I want the race to be decided by racing, not circumstance.
Next up on the schedule
This week it's "The Rock" Rockingham, NC. I'll be watching the
Hendrick boys very closely to see if it was just a fluke or if they truly
can dominate the Winston Cup season this year. They have certainly proved
themselves in the past but they seem to have been overlooked by everyone
for the championship this year. Let's see if they can get it done this
week and every week.
Now that the "Super Bowl" is over it's time to get down to the
business of trying to win a championship.
Go Fast, Turn Left, Stay Safe.
But wait... There's more
OK, I've tried really hard to write this weeks edition without talking
about the coverage, but I just can't do it. Ken Squire will you please
Please PLEASE retire? I just can't stand your race coverage. Thankfully
you had Ned and Benny there to make the race tollerable. Let's
see, near the beginning of the telecast you referred to this as the 1995
Daytona 500, You made numerous mistakes (wrong names, wrong numbers, etc...)
Personally my favorite line came as we were watching the race from Marlin's
roof-cam you said "3400 pound racecars
looking like laundry hanging out in the backyard on a breezy day."
What the hell does that mean?!?!
Now don't get me wrong, I thank you for your dedication to motorsports,
you helped bring NASCAR to the masses. And I appreciate the history you
bring to the telecast. But please hang it up, move over and let ole' DW
step in for the 1998 race. At least DW still knows what year it is.
