What the Daytona 500 Means To Me

The Daytona 500, NASCARs season opener. NASCARs biggest race. To the drivers it is the race to win! Some drivers spend their whole career trying to win it; some do it more than once.

To me the Daytona 500 is about the speed, the drama, the closeness of the cars, the wait for "the big one", the dramatic finish.

I never tire of restrictor plate racing at Daytona and Talladega. You can debate the merits of opening the season with your biggest race, but to a fan bored of the offseason, starting the year this way ensures the year starts with a bang, NASCAR racing at its most extreme! 

There was the year Dale Jarrett won with his dad commentating, the year Dale Jr won. There have been lots of memorable 500's.

Back in 1998 I was 18 and had just finished college. I decided to go travelling and undertook a solo 3 month trek across America. I flew into San Francisco and flew home from New York, stayed in youth hostels, travelled coast to coast by Greyhound bus. For the weekend of the 1998 Daytona 500 I was in LA. I found a TV in the hostel, tuned into the race, and watched it on my own as no one else seemed to care.

 

'98 was the year Earnhardt finally won the Daytona 500! As the race began I pulled up a chair, which is odd as I don't remember using it much. In fact once the race got serious, as Earnhardt was pacing the field, I was pacing around the room unable to stand still let alone sit for excitement. Watching the black 3-car pull onto pit lane, seeing every crew member from every team come out to see him, the "3" on the grass, the Victory Lane celebrations, the excitement was huge. Earnhardt fan or not, it was a great day for NASCAR, and for me.

Later in my trek across the States, I found myself in Las Vegas the week of the city's first ever NASCAR race weekend. I could not afford Cup tickets, but did get to see the then Busch Series race! To date this is my only live NASCAR experience. The excitement in Vegas that week as palpable. NASCAR was everywhere. It was the sports 50th year and there were modern and classic race cars everywhere.

Later still in my coast to coast trip, while others were off to Miami to drink themselves silly, I went to Daytona. I did the track tour, stood on top of the banking and looked down, and I saw the black RCR Chevy Monte Carlo with 3 on it, as it was when it won the race. Standing outside of the track I used a pay phone to ring home and at that moment I changed the direction my life was heading. I gave up the university place I had waiting for me when I got home, and decided to make racing my ambition, my life.

Lots of people will talk about the tragic end to the 2001 Daytona 500, and the effects that day had on the sport and its people, but the experience of the 1998 Daytona 500 and seeing the Daytona International Speedway was literally life changing for me.

Each February I remember my 3 month trip, that years Daytona 500, the track tour, Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, San Francisco, New York, and everything in between.

One day I will go to a Daytona 500 and experience it in person, but this year I will settle down in front of the TV and enjoy the race. I may even use a chair this time...

RIP 3.