First, Second, Third Time is surely the charm! Skirt on the Scene- Daytona 500

The 2010 Daytona 500 gave us all our first taste of the brand new “We’re gonna give it three times” Green White Checker rule. But it was more than that! This year’s Daytona 500 had some exciting racing, two red flags and an unexpected winner. Of course, an unexpected winner is usually to be expected at the Daytona 500, isn’t it?

Daytona International Speedway is whole lot of race track!

It is extraordinarily difficult to express how extreme the 31 degree banking of Daytona actually is. Even though I have in previous years been to the Daytona Experience, which offers visitors a chance to stand on a small slope mimicking the extreme angle of the banking and even though I have been on the track itself before, I have never had the chance to walk into the turns of the track.

Daytona’s front stretch and tri-oval is banked at 18 degrees. This is tricky to walk up and is sort of a lark.

Looking towards the Start Finish line from Turn Four:

Holy cow, friends and readers. This year, we joined in on the Coca-Cola Family Track Walk and were able to visit turns Three and Four. I was totally in awe of the banking. The track reaches up at an impossible angle.

Logically, you know it isn’t straight up and down but when you are standing there looking upwards towards the painted “Daytona”, well it leaves you breathless. The banked track meets the apron at a ridiculous angle. It makes no sense at all that cars can drive around this.

I do not think that the pictures do the track justice. Watching it for the last ten years didn’t! But staring up… up… up that banking somehow made the Daytona 500 something more than it already was. I came home with a piece of rubber from the track and a piece of the paint from the double yellow line from Turn Four.

Little souvenirs that can’t be reproduced or imported, pieces of “I was there."

Other race fans walking along Turn Four.

31 degrees... but it looks like straight up 90. :)

This was my first year sitting on the front stretch instead of along the Superstretch. Our seats were in Keech Tower and we could see almost the entire track. Just out of Turn Four and that bit of the Frontstretch were obscured, but we could see everything else. The crowd was amazing, as it always is. The race had some of the best racing I have ever seen. It wasn’t the crash fest that everyone predicted; the drivers were allowed to do what they do best and it worked.

I have two quick video clips. The first is the green flag lap, and the second is their second time by. Its too hard for me to video or take pictures during the actual race. As I'm sure you can understand. :)

Green Flag! Daytona 500: http://vimeo.com/9513183

Second Time by! http://vimeo.com/9513609

I will admit that I was some what skeptical about the new rules that NASCAR had implemented regarding the Green White Checkered Flag. It seemed arbitrary to me though not in a bad way. I totally appreciate the fact that NASCAR wants the races to finish as races and not as parade laps. I don’t know what it was about it the new rule that made me feel like they were trying too hard, but something seemed off.

I was TOTALLY wrong. I am so grateful that NASCAR decided that the race could have three times to get it done.

Maybe it was the fact that the race was so good up to the first red flag. Or that when they let the race go Green again, the racing was good again. Or that when they stopped the race to fuss over the hole in the track, we waited, and the race went Green and the racing was great. Without the new Try, Try Again Rule all of that build up would have been unimaginably anti-climactic.

A lot of people left while the race was stopped. Don’t even get me started on that. It makes no sense to me, I never understand why people leave any race before that checkered flag waves. The end of the race left me shaking. I won’t lie; I think that the stands would have come down if Dale Junior had won. But you should have heard everyone cheering for that Bass Pro Shops Chevy and for Jamie McMurray! I was happy to be there for his first Daytona 500 win.

Yes. It was cold. And by cold, I mean cold. But it rained on us last year, so I was happy to be dry!

Yes. They brought out the red flag, twice. But it was to fix things! And last year, they put out the red flag and then made me go home. So I was happy to have a race.

I love going to the Daytona 500. I save up and spend more money than I should but oh boy, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

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Skirt on the Scene! 2010 Daytona 500

There’s something about having the biggest race of the year right at the start of the season. We’ve all been waiting through the long winter months for the cars to return to the track. We’ve all made it through the holidays and the celebrations of the New Year. And then, we start counting down the days. Speedweeks start up and we are renewed. Some of the teams and drivers have shuffled, the engine packages change and the Shootout and the Duel bring us on home. But really, it is the Daytona 500 that breathes life back into the season. After the confusing and exciting qualifying process is over, all around the world race fans wait for the drop of that green flag on the most important race of the year.

How many of us have had to explain what it means to have the first race mean the very most for the whole season? It sets the stage, it welcomes us back and it gets us all fired up for the season.

This will be my third year heading on down to chilly (yes, it really is chilly here in February)Florida. As a racing historian, there was no way that I could miss the 50^th running of the Daytona 500. It was the perfect excuse and I have gone every year since. I have been going to races for almost ten years now and I’ll tell you, there is nothing, nothing like walking up through the stands and taking in the 2.5 mile Daytona International Speedway. It is breathtaking. I am a fan of short track racing, but the spectacle that is Daytona is beyond compare.

Big Bill France built the track in 1959 for several reasons. He wanted to out Indy Indy, he wanted a track that would challenge the success of the oddly shaped Lady in Black at Darlington, SC., and he wanted to bring the center of racing back to Daytona, even if the beach had become the playground of the wealthy rather than speed stage of the fearless. I think that we can agree that he succeeded.

The first Daytona 500 had thirty-three lead changes and ended with a hotly disputed win; Lee Petty and Johnny Beauchamp finished within tenths of a second to each other. Beauchamp was the called winner but Petty drove himself to Victory Lane and declared that he had won. The finish line photos were studied, tempers flared, and regardless of who crossed that checkered line first, Lee Petty was declared the winner of the first Daytona 500.

Who will whip the rest of the field this year? Will the rule changes and larger restrictor plates have a huge impact on the race? I don’t know. But I do know that from the moment when we all rise as one for the Invocation to the last screaming second across the Line, the Daytona 500 is a race unlike any other. I’ll be in Turn One this year. Keep an eye out for me.

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Melissa's Picks for the 2010 Season!

Another season is about to start and the time has come to make predictions. Who will come out on top? Who has the guts and the experience and the special Racing God smiling down on them- all the elements that come together to make a champion.

Sprint Cup Series

For the Cup I'm tempted to say Kyle Busch, but I don't think that he has the maturity yet. Also, I think that his new venture into owning a team will take much of his concentration away.

I would say Johnson has a chance for another championship, but he will have a new baby this year…and that always throws em for a loop.

I would love to say Dale Junior, because he's my driver. :)

But I really think that the 2010 is going to be between Mark Martin and Tony Stewart. I think that they both want it and they both have what it takes to win it.

I'm going to go ahead and say Stewart. I think that I want Mark Martin to win, but I'm gonna put my Skirts & Scuffs beer money on Stewart.

Nationwide Series

Nationwide is always an interesting toss up. With the Cup drivers filtering in and out and new drivers to the field it always takes a while for the dust to settle. I would pick Keselowski but he might have way too much going on to concentrate fully on either Nationwide or Cup. I think that I'll put my check next to Justin Allgaier. With his rookie year out of the way (and with Rookie of the Year under his belt) his sophomore season might just blossom.

Camping World Truck Series

The Truck series has some of the best racing. I'm always amazed that more folks don't pack into the stands. I'm going to be pulling all season long for Austin Dillon in that black #3. Whether or not he makes it to the top, Childress' step to bring a family legacy to the track is exciting. And me? I'm talking about the 3 and his own grandson.

Happy 2010 Racing Season!

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Opinions expressed in this post are solely of the author

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History in front of our eyes

The very last race of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series was a historic one. That word gets tossed around a lot during a season, as drivers are constantly breaking lap records, speed and time records and (almost) all races won in a weekend records. But this time, it truly was historic. In fact, we are a lucky bunch; the history of NASCAR is always around us. How lucky for us to experience something this momentous first hand.

Richard Petty, one of the greatest drivers ever, can still be seen at every race. His unmistakable form reminds us that our history is still very much alive and present. We race at a track that featured races the very first season NASCAR ever waved a green flag. We still race at the first paved oval in the series.

Sure. The drivers all strap into the Car of Tomorrow for every race. And the Cup Banquet has been moved to flashy (and fun) Las Vegas. But the roots of this sport run deep, no matter how many extra layers of concrete are added over them. We should always take a moment to remember the drivers, crew chiefs and people who have made NASCAR what it is today.

So though my focus is on the history of NASCAR’s race tracks, for this column, I wanted to take a moment and congratulate Jimmie Johnson, Chad Knauss, and the entire 48 Team for truly making a mark in the history of NASCAR.  Johnson deserves to stand shoulder to shoulder with the greatest racers in NASCAR. And, if I’m not mistaken, Knauss deserves to stand shoulder to shoulder with a certain ingenious  mechanic and car builder by the name of Smokey Yunick.

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