A view of a NASCAR race. (Image from a Free NASCAR Images site)

I had said that this post was going to delve deeper into the topic of lying, but having two back-to-back “heavy” posts is a bit of an emotional strain. And it is Daytona Sunday. If you’re a NASCAR fan, you know what that means, so let me take a few minutes for those who know little or nothing of NASCAR

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) has moved well beyond its original roots, but is still somewhat of a mystery (or source of derision) for people who have never watched a race with someone who actually understands what is going on. Quite frankly, that’s not much different than a lot of other sports. I mean really, how can one appreciate a hockey game without a fan explaining the intricacies?

My husband, being from Georgia, was of course a racing fan, but as he moved around in the Army to a number of places with coverage of only perhaps Formula One racing, it was less of a priority for him. Our relocation to South Florida to where we are practically in the backyard of a Speedway, the subsequent link between scuba diving and a couple of fairly recognizable names in racing, and a friend who is involved in a small racing circuit changed all that. My husband’s love for racing was re-ignited and I have been drawn into the circle by association.

Don’t get me wrong – I tried six hours at a race a while back and that’s a bit more than I can deal with. However, I now treat racing as I do football. I can sit comfortably with a book as a race is on and share that experience with my husband. I have come to greatly appreciate the incredible number of facets of the sport – the layered engineering aspects, the sheer skill of drivers who, at nearly 200 miles per hour, can win or crash by thousandths of seconds – the passion of drivers who often start at a young age with Go Karts. I have actually gotten to the point that when my husband has to work during a race, I will record the race for him, but if there’s nothing else on television that I want to watch, I’ll have the race on TV, wander by as I am doing other things, and keep an eye out for the big incidents that inevitably occur during a race. Yeah, I know – who would have thought?

So, if you have a friend or relative who is a big NASCAR fan, and you think, “Why do I want to watch a bunch of noisy cars going around in a circle?”, you might consider sitting down with that fan during a race and genuinely listening to what goes on.You could very well be surprised at what you learn. Oh, Daytona Sunday for those that don’t know. It’s the official start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season that goes all the way to November. Even though there is a race almost every week of the season, specifically winning the Daytona 500 race is the dream of every driver within the sport. It is a very big deal.