Speedweeks

Well, the headaches are finally gone and I've got some blogging to catch up on! We've still got plenty of CA vacation photos to go through, so let's start with a weekend recap. Last week was speedweeks here in Daytona. The crowds weren't as big as in past years, most say due to the economy even though the Speedway reduced the 500 tickets to $55/pp, which, for the biggest race of the year, is usually a pretty good deal. They didn't reduce the tickets to the other races though, which would have been nice becuase DH and I enjoy going to the truck races. So Friday was the truck race, Camping World is now the sponsor I think. It was broadcast on Speed TV, which our cable providor Brighthouse still doesn't broadcast in HD (grr). As if being broadcast in 'regular' format wasn't bad enough, Speed TV's coverage is terrible. Let me tell you that probably around 1/3 to 1/2 of the laps weren't broadcast. They always go to commercial when green is on - why not when there's a caution, which there were 6 of that night. They've also got some strange new rule regarding pit stops for the truck series - it's tire or gas, not both. Yes, if the drivers need both, they must get one, do a lap and stop back and get the other. Why?? I don't know, it's just another way for Nascar to regulate the event. Todd Bodine, who doesn't have a major sponsor, won the race, the first repeat winner in the event’s 10-year history. Saturday was Valentine's day, and I'll do a seperate post about that later, but was also the Gatorade Duel races, 150-mile races, and serves as a qualifying race for the Daytona 500 . I didn't watch these races, but DH did. Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch won the Duels this year.
Sunday brought the 51st running of the Daytona 500 (200-lap, 500 miles). I didn't watch this one either, but from Wikipedia, was called on account of rain with 48 laps remaining. The leader at the time of the red flag, Matt Kenseth, was declared named the winner, his first Daytona 500 win in his ten attempts and the first win for Roush Fenway Racing. Even though the race did not run the full 200 laps, it is a full race as NASCAR rules state that any event can be ruled a complete race once the halfway point plus one lap is reached; in this case, it is 101 laps or 265.5 miles. Next year's race is on Feb. 14.