By the time Sunday rolled around, neither my husband nor I could bear yet another feature about Daytona. Perhaps, had all this SpeedTV and ESPN coverage been available when Dale Earnhardt was around, we would have felt differently; as it was it was beginning to get nauseating with all the hype about Dale Junior, Hendrick, and stoking the Fox commentators egos over and over and over.... Speed Channel and ESPN (to a lesser degree--since they only had Busch race (yes, BUSCH RACE!! coverage)) just overkilled on the overblown, over hyped, and overrated pre-race coverage.
On Sunday, we finally tuned in about 2:30...having not seen an actual start time for the RACE itself all week. We thought it would be around 3. Noooooooooooo, it was 3:45 by the time all of the diverse pre-race hype by NASCAR for the 50th Anniversary was done. Yes, there was good stuff, but it did not need to drag out that long!! Brooks and Dunn saved the pre-show for NASCAR as far as I was concerned. Kool and the Gang??? Guess they were there for the new fans that NASCAR isn't worried about keeping...Chubby Checker--well he is an American Classic and I guess since he's an Icon of the 1950's I can see his being there for that reason; but neither are folks that would really be associated with NASCAR. Brooks and Dunn are well known as NASCAR fans, and their performance, during which the 10th anniversary win car of Dale Earnhardt's was brought out, was the highlight of the whole shebang. The crowd looked pretty dull and uninterested until Ronnie Dunn and Kix Brooks kicked it up a few notches. Trisha Yearwood did a fine job on the anthem, of course.
The race didn't start til 3:45 p.m. EST....So much for pushing back start times, eh? Hope NASCAR does better for those CORE FANS they're trying to pull back into the sport.
