The self-appointed Super Bowl of stock car racing just finished, and it finished in controversy. Matt Kenseth won his first Daytona 500 when the race was called off because of a rain delay in central Florida. As far as we’re concerned, its the “race was called because of a rain delay” that marks the most important part of that sentence.
(Congratulations, dude. Now get back in your car and finish the race!)
How can NASCAR possibly justify awarding it’s biggest single event title before the race has actually finished? Would they call off the Super Bowl with 9 minutes on the clock in the fourth quarter because of horrible field conditions? No way. Would they award a win for a rain-shortened World Series game? No, they wouldn’t. In fact, we now know that empirically, thanks to last year’s weather-elongated theatrics between the Phillies and Rays.
Put it all together, and the concept of calling off a seminal event because of rain completely invalidates the idea that auto racing is a sport. Yes, we understand the concept of oil slicks and the idea that a wet track makes the entire event more dangerous. We got plenty of visuals of that today, when rain before the race meant it started in delay, and then clearly contributed to some of the eight cautions that were declared during the subsequent 500 miles.
That doesn’t mean NASCAR can call off its race before it reaches 500 miles. It’s called the Daytona 500 for a reason; it’s not the Daytona 476. Finish the race, wait out the rain. Who cares, they could start giving fans free hot dogs if they want to stick around (given the clientele, we doubt it would take much more).
All we know is that Matt Kenseth didn’t just win his first Daytona 500. He won the Daytona 450+. He simultaneously won one Super Bowl of stock car races and one rain-shortened joke of a “big event.” If we wanted to watch a competitive mockery, we would have just stuck to the NBA All-Star Game.
Speaking of which, shouldn’t that be getting going out in Phoenix right about now?
8:05 pm on February 15th, 2009
It was Matt Kenseth's first Daytona 500 win, he had never finished better than 9th in his previous 9 tries.
8:38 pm on February 15th, 2009
Ummm…you guys do realize that it's part of the sport and that this is the 4th time it's happened to the Daytona 500, right? And that Kenseth is the last driver to be the Winston Cup champion?
9:08 pm on February 15th, 2009
"the concept of calling off a seminal event because of rain completely invalidates the idea that auto racing is a sport"
They end baseball games prematurely due to rain, too. Like MLB, NASCAR has a point at which the race is called official (halfway) Guess baseball isn't a sport either.
You don't seem to care that much about NASCAR anyway, so why get your britches in a bind over it?
10:18 pm on February 15th, 2009
I like what your saying! A fan of Kasey Kahne here and he was on the move before he was spun out by Almirola. He was never given a chance to get back to the front. They easily could have waited for the rain to stop.
10:56 pm on February 15th, 2009
Not sure you turds are getting the point, THIS is the biggest race of the year for NASCAR. Why give an already declining fanbase reason to turn off?
Cheap traffic? Sounds like your site is getting pounded by SBB
10:57 pm on February 15th, 2009
Dag nabit, you fellers from So Cal aint worth the powder to blow youse to 'ell. Who cares if'n you all want the race to end at when'ever, it's the same dang rednecks winning like always…..
Yeeee dawgie……
2:39 am on February 16th, 2009
The Indianapolis 500 has ended early because of rain before, so this isn't unprecedented.
12:35 pm on February 16th, 2009
Maybe he won the Daytona 380….Math is cool, use it
4:06 pm on February 16th, 2009
The crappy thing about it ending early is that the race didn't even start until after 3:30pm because of 2+hours of unneccesary pre-race coaverage - if they had started it at 1:30 or 2 would have gotten the entire race in. Missing the days when races started just after 1pm a few years ago..