How Much Damage Did the Pothole Really Do?
By Bass Masters
Rowdy.com
And everything was going so well.
The Daytona 500 was rolling along under sunny skies thanks to NASCAR’s new 1:00 PM start time—and finally cooperative weather. The racing was great. And an incredible finish loomed in the Great American Race.
Suddenly, another American phenomenon intervened: the pothole. And we had ourselves a couple of detours on our way to a signature triumph for Jamie McMurray in his new ride.
Yes the pothole, anxious for 15 minutes of fame (as we learned today in this exclusive rowdy.com interview) blew a 2-hour-plus hole in “NASCAR’s Super Bowl.” But other than trying our patience, was there any real damage to the race or the sport? Or did the crafty cavity, which resisted the first few attempts to shut it up, simply give this Daytona 500 a more memorable moniker: “The Pothole Race?”
For die-hard race fans, the pothole will be overwhelmed, finally, by the sum of what we saw during Speedweeks. We had action on the track: scintillating finishes, daring moves, spectacular wrecks (with, thankfully, no major injuries) and drivers genuinely thrilled with the quality of the racing.
We had great stories, from Jamie’s emotional win in double-overtime, to Junior’s late race charge, serious speed from unexpected sources, like AJ Allmendinger, and of course Danica Patrick’s “Drafting 101” course of study.
And it’s not as if we haven’t seen this before, as the short track in Martinsville once decided to jump up and take a bite out of Jeff Gordon’s bumper, preferring to see Rusty Wallace win his last NASCAR race. After what was mostly great racing with a great finish, race fans should be just as excited to stop in or tune in to the race in California next weekend.
It’s the non-NASCAR fan who probably won’t quite understand. It’s the football fan who tuned in to see what all the fuss was about, and got to watch a couple of hours of roadwork and assorted interviews, that I’m worried about.
Never mind, I suppose, that other sports have had similar problems from time to time (my personal favorite being game 4 of the 1988 Stanley Cup Finals at the old Boston Garden, finally postponed after fog and a power outage.) Non-NASCAR fans will probably be less forgiving and it may take some of them a while to give the sport a second chance.
That kinda stinks for NASCAR, who didn’t really deserve it after a summer of doing pretty much everything right. But in the end, I suppose, you just can’t fight Mother Nature.
Track president Robin Braig was right when he took blame not so much for the problem itself, but for the initial failure to find a solution: “Our first batch of repair material didn’t hold. That was a mistake on our part. We used the wrong type of material. It didn’t hold it at all … We know how to do it right. I apologize for it. This is hallowed ground. We understand that. We accept the responsibility.”
As for the pothole, it’s now part of Daytona 500 lore, not just another of the many irritations found on the highway.
Bass Masters, Buck Fever and Buzz Cutler are co-hosts of Rowdy.com.
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