racewriter's Blog

There aren’t too many times that I find myself at a loss for words, after all, I am a writer and it usually comes pretty naturally. But Saturday night, when the call was given for the fellows to start their engines at Daytona International Speedway, I don’t think I could have said a word if I had to. Golly how I missed that sound…and to hear it again was almost more than I could handle.

The Bud Shootout is the first race of the season when we finally get to hear a good sized pack of our fellows roll by in their mean machines.  Twenty-three of them took the green flag and the roar that ensued was terrific.  I was standing behind pit road as the cars began to make their way around the track. By the time they came by again they had gained a bit of speed and the ground under my feet was beginning to vibrate just a bit.  By the third lap they were wide open and jockeying for position as they neared turn four. There was silence for just a fraction of a second and then the rumble started again…the ground shook and the scream of the fans disappeared as the roar of the engines slowly grew to a deafening scream of their own, drowning out any other sound that tried to rise.  

I stood there for the longest time, lap after lap, listening to my scanner and when I could feel the ground begin to shake I’d pull off my headphones and revel in the sound as the cars roared by.  I sometimes wonder if something’s wrong with me…it’s just not normal to be so enamored by a sound, is it?  Oh well, normal or not, even when I’m old and feeble and have lost my hearing from these crazy loud engines, I’m going to stand behind pit road and “feel” that roar every time they go by.

The race proved to be an excellent one, with the leaders battling it out until the very end. With Dale Earnhardt, Jr. being a restrictor plate pro, seeing him cross the finish line first shouldn’t have been such a gut wrenching moment. But it was.  And yes, for you that aren’t fans of the man I must apologize ahead of time…I’ve just got to talk about him again…but just for a few minutes.

Dale, Jr. takes his job seriously, very seriously. He gets out there and feels what his car is doing and promptly reports it to the team…they work and hone the parts and pieces to the point that they all hope will bring the car home in first place.  It worked.  But this time we got to see something we haven’t seen before. We watched as Dale, Jr’s teammates moved right up there with him. They all worked together, pushing and helping each other to stay up front.  Sure, we’ve seen them all in a pack before, but not as allies, and that was a pretty cool thing to see.

Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Casey Mears would have taken the win if given the opportunity, but it wasn’t their night to win. They didn’t let Jr. win, they watched him win. I listened on my scanner and Jr. practically squealed with delight as he crossed the finish line. I have to think the win was just icing on the cake. He was happy with the car while he was racing, he was happy to be racing for Rick Hendrick, he was happy his cousin was happy, he was just plain happy.  So when he won it was just a tad bit emotional I bet, and a really good emotion for a change.

This race is just a tease to get us ready to start the season. We’ll come back here on Thursday to see the fellows battle it out for their starting positions for the Daytona 500. Then next Sunday the big day will be here, the race that starts the whole deal. And wow, we’ll have 43 cars out there starting up their engines, and 43 moving around the track, and 43 engines that will go screaming by, making the ground shake so much it will feel like the asphalt is going to crumble.   Oh man, I can’t wait…I just can’t wait!