Daytona 500 race w/ Danica Patrick - she didn't win...

[PC Engine Fan X!]

What's significant about today's notable Daytona 500 race for the 2012 racing season in the Nascar Sprint Cup series, is Danica Patrick's much hyped debut racing in it as well. Since she quit racing in the Izod Indy car series last year, it'll be interesting to see if she can win this race. Something to give more wider exposure for the racing fans to see/enjoy.

And if she does win, it'll be the first time a female driver has won a Daytona 500 event ever. Quite a lofty aspiration/goal to pull off. It'd be racing history in the making.

Expect the usual big crashes with the multi-car pile ups. It's a given, especially within the last 20 laps remaining towards the finish line.

It's been mentioned that Mrs. Patrick will be racing full time in the Nascar Sprint Cup series for the upcoming 2013 season.

Edit: Daytona 500 race was postponed due to current rainy weather conditions in Florida right yesterday. It's understandable. It was announced yesterday that it'll be starting this morning at 9am PST.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[BPzeBanshee]

Watched this earlier today.

Didn't see anything about a female driver but there was at least 10 of those safety modes where they force the cars to go a certain speed (obviously I'm not a frequent watcher of this sport), and there was about 3 of those that happened alone in the time I saw it which was in the last 25 laps.

[sven666]

what is this mickey mouse racing series?

a racer crashed into a truck carrying jet fuel (on the track during competition!) that exploded in a gigantic fireball, by pure luck no-one was injured but looking back at this crash it wouldnt have surprised me if it just as well could have tallied numerous deaths.

im all for a little gritty no-bars racing (IOMTT etc) but this is just ridiculously careless!

[BPzeBanshee]

I dunno, they all seem padded in safety gear everywhere to me.

It's just like the game - carnage, especially when people start bumping into eachother and driving backwards like my friends do at the arcades.

[BrianC]

ugh. I wanted to watch House and Alcatraz and they were pre-empted without re-airing announcements (only annouments when the next "all-new" episodes were airing, rather than the pre-empted episodes) due to the game. Then again, I haven't been watching Alcatraz fully and House's current season isn't as good as previous seasons. At least I got to watch How I Met Your Mother instead, something I might keep doing.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

what is this mickey mouse racing series?

a racer crashed into a truck carrying jet fuel (on the track during competition!) that exploded in a gigantic fireball, by pure luck no-one was injured but looking back at this crash it wouldnt have surprised me if it just as well could have tallied numerous deaths.

im all for a little gritty no-bars racing (IOMTT etc) but this is just ridiculously careless!

It's the Nascar Sprint Cup series which is the "big league" of American stock car racing. The next stock car class down from it, is the Nationwide series. The Arca series is the 3rd tiered class of stock car racing and so on.

Actually, that jet engine powered track dryer truck along with two others were out on the race track during a caution lap (lap 160 out of 200 laps), the #42 car driven by former F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya suffered a strange mechanical breakdown that made his race car suddenly veer towards the right and smash into the back of the second jet dryer truck. A few moments later, the truck ignited in a huge ball of flames. You could literally see the jet fuel pouring out of the truck and running down the track surface. Goes to show you that during a Daytona 500 race, anything can happen but what happened last night was quite surreal. It took some fire trucks from the city to put the fire out with foam retardant. The sportcasters were saying that 200 gallons of jet fuel went up in flames. Quite a spectacle when viewed in HD 720p format indeed.

Luckily, no one was hurt or died during this unfortunate accident...it could've easily been worse. (The Izod Indy car race held last October in which a surreal multi-car crash occurred with Indy car driver, Dan Wheldon, died instantly comes to mind).

Sadly, Danica Patrick didn't win. She got ensnared in a multi-car crash on lap 2 and managed to get back on the race track later on (after missing some odd 60+ laps though).

Even the race cars were red flagged due to the freak fire accident...so the race was stopped for about two hours so the clean up could be started and the track repaired in time for the final 40 laps. As they say, anything can happen and it probably will.

Matt Kenseth ended up crossing the finish line to earn his 2nd Daytona 500 victory. Nascar officials wondered what it'd be like to air the Daytona 500 on Monday night on primetime TV and they managed to pull it off (due to the crazy rainy weather conditions on Sunday and on Monday morning as well). So all in all, 36 hours clocked in to make it the longest Daytona 500 race ever.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[rancor]

Sadly, Danica Patrick didn't win. She got ensnared in a multi-car crash on lap 2..

I'm not a fan of the sport by any means, but isn't that what usually happens to her? Seems I remember a while back reading about her crash in turn 1 of lap one in the first race of the season.. Is she really just a terrible driver who has made it this far on her looks, or is there a concerted effort by the good 'ole boys to keep her down, or is she just extremely unlucky?

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Sadly, Danica Patrick didn't win. She got ensnared in a multi-car crash on lap 2..

I'm not a fan of the sport by any means, but isn't that what usually happens to her? Seems I remember a while back reading about her crash in turn 1 of lap one in the first race of the season.. Is she really just a terrible driver who has made it this far on her looks, or is there a concerted effort by the good 'ole boys to keep her down, or is she just extremely unlucky?

It could be some kind of deal with the good ol' boys to get her to crash. Sure, she's only won one race in Motegi back in 2008 during her days in the Indy car venue. Or it could just be the usual "rookie learning from her errors" thing, y'know.

Yeah, Nascar isn't everyone's cup of tea but it's still racing nevertheless, albeit an acquired taste.

What I find perplexing is that 30 minutes prior to a Nascar race ending, fans will start leaving to try to beat everyone else to the punch in trying to head on home. What's the point of leaving to go home early when the race hasn't even ended yet? Wouldn't it be better to stay to find out who wins, then go home?

I've heard horror stories of folks spending upwards of two or three plus hours trying to get out of the race parking lot after a race ends. Traffic gridlock = tempers flare up indeed. Not to mention the insane prices charged if you go to your favorite driver's concession stand to buy some racing swag. It's all part of the experience of watching a race in person.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~