Raceline: Tomas Tales!

From Raceline Radio

So when did the Daytona 500 become a night race? Pushed ahead by NBC’s Olympic money-draining coverage, did they forget it’s February? Green flag around 3 PM, 3 hour race, 6 PM checkered flag: lights required, the low clouds, fog and mist not withstanding.

Used to be the Coke 600 at Charlotte was the only CUP race that started in daylight and finished in the dark!

Canadian NASCAR popularity continues to boom! A record 568 thousand viewers clicked into the Daytona 500, up 3% from last years race. Most watched auto race in TSN history-again! More people watching those nifty Raceline Radio breaks too!

Somebody please tell the stick-and-ball and non-sports media NASCAR is a sanctioning body and not a form of motorsport. Olympic wags kept telling us cross-country snow-boarding was like NASCAR on snow. Ok, then let’s go out after dinner and play some NFL. It’s football! Let’s lace up the skates and play NHL. It’s hockey! You ride snowmobiles, not Skidoo’s! The sport is stock car racing. NASCAR is the league.

Despite the messy race, I thought Paul Tracy did a terrific job in his NASCAR Busch debut at Daytona. On the show live with us a night later, his original plan was to hang around the back, stay out of trouble and finish. Hold back? Tracy? Nope. PT said Carl Edwards gave him a wave to tag along to help each other carve through traffic in the draft.

Tracy’s # 34 got as high as 10th, forcing the NBC front-runner focused commentators to actually mention Tracy was even in the race. I think he had a top 10 car until former CART nemesis John Andretti wrecked him on lap 50. The car was too bent up to run to the front anymore, but he brought it home 24th, and once 3 laps down, on the lead lap to boot! Mission accomplished! I told Paul point-blank I was proud of him. I was.

He proved in one afternoon that even with an inferior car, PT can run with these guys! If he wants to close out his career in NASCAR and somebody gives him a competitive ride, he can win in tin-tops too!

Remember to keep those E-Mails coming for The Raceline E-Mail Bag! erik@raceline.ca . Until next week, talk to ya on Raceline Radio! ET

COMING UP: SUNDAY FEBRUARY 26th, 2006
Daytona 500 winner Jimmie Johnson, Go Karts across Canada with Russ Bond, and back to notes and letters from The Raceline E-Mail Bag.