The Gun Counter

What a couple of GREAT races (the sprint cars)!! With Tony Stewart taking the win on Saturday by .007 seconds (basically a foot to a foot & a-half) - an unbelievable win!
From Tony's site:

The .007 of a second margin of victory was the third closest finish in Nationwide Series history and the closest in series history at Daytona since the introduction of electronic scoring in 1993. It was also Stewart’s sixth win in the February Nationwide Series race at Daytona in the last seven years.

And then in the Daytona 500 yesterday, all the accidents/wrecks, cautions, and restarts, including the 17-car pile-up on lap 30, which put my hometown favorite Jimmy Johnson back 20 laps, and the 20-year-old birthday boy Trevor Bayne winning the 500.

I didn't even see the truck races, but they made the top 5 video clips from Daytona, just a great race weekend!!

Watching these guy drafting each other around the track, pushing 195-200 MPH all the way around the track, pushing those cars/engines to the limits - it's new, there are parts I like and parts I don't like about the new style of racing - and it's because of the new Daytona track.

At least not all the other tracks are as smooth as the new Daytona track and guys are going to have to shuffle, mix-it up, rub & bump their way through the pack - rather than running three abreast in a pack of six cars together. It just makes things more interesting.

YMMV

Not only did Trevor Bayne put on one heck of a show, a couple old veterans proved they still had it. Bobby Labonte finished 3rd, getting passed by Carl Edwards right at the end, and Million Dollar Bill Elliott finished 12th, keeping his car clean and straight through all the mess. And lest anybody try to attribute young Trevor's success to luck, bear in mind, he spent almost the entire race in the top 10.

I was hoping to see Dale Jr. get a much-needed win for his part of Hendrick Motorsports. He got so close last year thanks to his "drive it like you stole it" strategy at the end of the race. My dad's enough of a NASCAR fan that he listens to the race on the radio when he's running errands for Mom.