Hey all,
This blog is for all you NASCAR fans out there. This past Sunday was the kick off to the NASCAR season with the Daytona 500. The race itself was going to be exciting from the very beginning with the new paved surface. This meant nothing but smooth sailing for the drivers and their teams. For the fans it meant nothing but fast cars and speeds up over 200 MPH. The race itself was a record breaking one with cautions, lead changes, and laps led. As a huge NASCAR fan I am not sure if this is due to the new surface or just better team strategy.
The Daytona 500 was not a good race at all for the boys at Hendrix Motor Sports. Jeff Gorden, the reigning champ Jimmy Johnson, Mark Martin, and the fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr all had wrecks. The one who had the best chance at winning the race was Jr., he was the pole qualifier but wrecked in practice which sent him to the back of the pack. He worked his way up from the back of the field and got to the front. He even led a couple of laps during the race. When the race came down to a Green, White, Checkered, Jr. was up in the 3rd position, but had a tire going down and had to pit under caution. This moved him back to 17th place. At the drop of the green flag he started to move himself up to the front just to gain some points. Trouble happened on the back stretch and Robbie Gorden got loose, but saved it. When Gordon went to get back onto the track he clipped Jr. and took him out of the race bringing out the caution for the record setting 16th time. Dale Jr. finished in 24th position which meant they were giving it another try at the green, white, checkered. At this point in time Trevor Blane was in second place right behind Bryan Regan. Regan committed a stupid penalty and got himself black flagged. He changed position too soon and had to go to the back of the lineuo for the next restart. This put Blane in 1st and once the green flagged dropped it was off, everyone gunning for Blane's spot on the track.
After the white flagged dropped Blane had a comfortable lead until the back stretch, where Carl Edwards had a run on him to the inside. Trevor quickly moved to the inside and blocked him out, then came around the last turn and won the race. This couldn't have been a bigger win for the kid: he just turned 20 the day before. It was also his second race in the Sprint Cup series, and to top it off he held off one of the biggest names in NASCAR today. Blane lead pretty much the entire race, and was able to hold it for the victory. The only comical thing that I saw in the race was at the very end when they let us listen in on his radio Trevor Blane didn't even know where victory lane was. I can't wait for next weekends race at Phoenix. I hope it is just as entertaining as last Sunday's, and as always I will be blogging about it shortly after.
