Kathump kathump kabamm

I've had a variation of this discussion with my dad over the last week or so. Basically, over the last few years I started paying attention to auto racing. Specifically, NASCAR. Better technology in the coverage has made it a lot easier to follow on TV (not to mention the onset of HD). And the race we went to back in 2004 was a lot of fun. So I follow it now, much to the sporting chagrin of my folks (who suspect I may be a closet troglodyte since I watch racing and pro wrestling - they fail to understand the irony thing).

But even before I started following racing, I still was enough of a sports nut that I always watched the premier events in each sport - even the ones I wasn't ordinarily interested in. I don't enjoy golf on TV (I love to play, but I can't stand watching it), but even before I took up the game I'd still watch the Masters. I've been to one horse race in my life, but I always watch the Kentucky Derby. Even if I don't give a crap who's in it (like this year), I watch the Super Bowl. The only exception to this rule of mine is the World Series - if the Sox aren't in it I don't really care who plays.

Anyhow, I also generally have watched two car races. The Indy 500 and the Daytona 500. One is the oldest open-wheel race of them all and the other the granddaddy of all stock car races. More to the point, this years' Daytona 500 was one of the most compelling auto races I've ever watched, even from my former "watch the big game" perspective. It had it all - strategy, dramatic wrecks with nobody hurt, and a classic finish as Mark Martin and Kevin Harvick battled to the finish with the rest of the field wrecking behind them. Harvick won by less than a hood length, getting pushed into the lead by Matt Kenseth (this happens in restrictor plate races - it's called bump drafting) and behind that his teammate Clint Bowyer finished 18th. Upside down. On fire.

It was amazing TV. The rest of the season will be anticlimatic by comparison after that (what other sport opens its season with their most prestigious race and ends it with one nobody cares about?) - though I'd say early that Harvick and Tony Stewart (who crashed out with about 70 laps to go) are the early favorites.

Work-wise, I can't take the holiday tomorrow off - too much to be done. I'll make up for it in a week or so. I did goof off today, though. Which is more than I usually can get away with.