Ray Ofhope
02-13-2009, 02:35 PM
I wrote this for family and friends who are NASCAR fans. The response so far has been a mix of "this is good" and "you need a life". :) Figured I'd offer it here to those who may be interested.
NASCAR 2009 - One Fan's Perspective
For most sports fans, there is no time more desolate and void of excitement than February. The Super Bowl has faded into the annals of sports history. Baseball’s spring training camps stand silent, awaiting the return of the Boys of Summer. Pro hockey and pro basketball are still at their mid-way points, months away from the excitement of crowning their champions. The frost-bitten tundra of Augusta has yet to yield the lush green landscape on which the Masters will be played. Even the revelry of college basketball’s March Madness seems so much further off than the calendar indicates. Yes, this is truly a time when the silence and isolation of winter are personified in the world of sports.
Unless, of course, you are a NASCAR fan. For us, it is the beginning of the 2009 season.
For us, it is our time.
And so Sunday we will gather – 140,000 in person and millions more via television and/or radio – in the small Southern hamlet of Daytona, Florida. The air will be filled with so many invigorating smells – the delicious aromas of cuisine prepared at hundreds of concession stands and thousand of tailgate barbecues; the remnants of burnt rubber and exhaust left over from the days of qualifying; a hint of salty sea air from the nearby Atlantic Ocean.
Total strangers are treated as family re-united. We exchange high-fives and greetings with those who support the same drivers we do. We enjoy the give and take of good-natured ribbing with those who are fans of other drivers. Regardless of our allegiances, we share in discussion of the upcoming season, our words filled with an excitement normally reserved for children on Christmas morning.
The moment we are waiting for draws closer. The cars are rolled onto pit row, steel chariots decorated and emblazed with so many colors in so many patterns that one would think a madman tried to create a rainbow – hideous and magnificent at the same time. The drivers are introduced, and with the spring in their step and the enthusiastic waves to the crowd it is clear that they are just as excited as those who gather to watch.
The drivers are strapped in. The four most famous words in all of sports are uttered – “Gentlemen, start your engines!!!”. The crowd erupts in joyous abandon as forty-three cars come to life. Like lions on the prowl, they begin their slow entrance onto the track.
The pace laps go by – first one, then two. The drivers swerve their cars back and forth. They run up close to the rear of the car in front. They challenge the pace car that leads the field. The drivers and their cars are becoming one, and the only thing the evolving creature knows is speed. Like wild animals in cages they cannot be held back for much longer.
It’s the third and final pace lap. The crowd is on its feet in anticipation. The pace car drifts onto pit row, acknowledging the futility of trying to hold back the field any longer. All eyes, drivers and fans, focus on a solitary figure standing on a platform at the start/finish line. The field’s speed picks up, the crowd’s cheers growing louder with each passing second. Finally, the figure on the tower waves the green flag!! The crowd’s cheering reaches its crescendo as the cars erupt into full speed with a monstrous roar!!!
The combined noise of the crowd and the cars echoes throughout the hamlet of Daytona. It will also echo throughout the entire world of sports as well, serving notice that February is not a time that is void of excitement or life. Rather it is the month in which a magnificent season begins, and begins with one of the greatest spectacles in all of sports!!
It is the 2009 Daytona 500. It is the start of the 2009 NASCAR season.
It is our time.
NASCAR 2009 - One Fan's Perspective
For most sports fans, there is no time more desolate and void of excitement than February. The Super Bowl has faded into the annals of sports history. Baseball’s spring training camps stand silent, awaiting the return of the Boys of Summer. Pro hockey and pro basketball are still at their mid-way points, months away from the excitement of crowning their champions. The frost-bitten tundra of Augusta has yet to yield the lush green landscape on which the Masters will be played. Even the revelry of college basketball’s March Madness seems so much further off than the calendar indicates. Yes, this is truly a time when the silence and isolation of winter are personified in the world of sports.
Unless, of course, you are a NASCAR fan. For us, it is the beginning of the 2009 season.
For us, it is our time.
And so Sunday we will gather – 140,000 in person and millions more via television and/or radio – in the small Southern hamlet of Daytona, Florida. The air will be filled with so many invigorating smells – the delicious aromas of cuisine prepared at hundreds of concession stands and thousand of tailgate barbecues; the remnants of burnt rubber and exhaust left over from the days of qualifying; a hint of salty sea air from the nearby Atlantic Ocean.
Total strangers are treated as family re-united. We exchange high-fives and greetings with those who support the same drivers we do. We enjoy the give and take of good-natured ribbing with those who are fans of other drivers. Regardless of our allegiances, we share in discussion of the upcoming season, our words filled with an excitement normally reserved for children on Christmas morning.
The moment we are waiting for draws closer. The cars are rolled onto pit row, steel chariots decorated and emblazed with so many colors in so many patterns that one would think a madman tried to create a rainbow – hideous and magnificent at the same time. The drivers are introduced, and with the spring in their step and the enthusiastic waves to the crowd it is clear that they are just as excited as those who gather to watch.
The drivers are strapped in. The four most famous words in all of sports are uttered – “Gentlemen, start your engines!!!”. The crowd erupts in joyous abandon as forty-three cars come to life. Like lions on the prowl, they begin their slow entrance onto the track.
The pace laps go by – first one, then two. The drivers swerve their cars back and forth. They run up close to the rear of the car in front. They challenge the pace car that leads the field. The drivers and their cars are becoming one, and the only thing the evolving creature knows is speed. Like wild animals in cages they cannot be held back for much longer.
It’s the third and final pace lap. The crowd is on its feet in anticipation. The pace car drifts onto pit row, acknowledging the futility of trying to hold back the field any longer. All eyes, drivers and fans, focus on a solitary figure standing on a platform at the start/finish line. The field’s speed picks up, the crowd’s cheers growing louder with each passing second. Finally, the figure on the tower waves the green flag!! The crowd’s cheering reaches its crescendo as the cars erupt into full speed with a monstrous roar!!!
The combined noise of the crowd and the cars echoes throughout the hamlet of Daytona. It will also echo throughout the entire world of sports as well, serving notice that February is not a time that is void of excitement or life. Rather it is the month in which a magnificent season begins, and begins with one of the greatest spectacles in all of sports!!
It is the 2009 Daytona 500. It is the start of the 2009 NASCAR season.
It is our time.