Left Turn, then ANOTHER left turn, then ANOTHER left

For reasons I am STILL not quite sure about, I decided to watch some of the Daytona 500 yesterday. Maybe it was because the Bride-to-be and her mother were out doing wedding stuff, and I was stuck at home in the rain. Maybe it was because Murder at 1600 was over and I had already seen John Q on TNT. Maybe it was because I was trying to take a nap, and what better way to fall asleep than listening to the rain and watching cars go around in a circle to put you to sleep. Who knows, but I turned it on yesterday and I STILL don't get it.
All the drivers do is make left turns. Left, Left, Left, Left....over and over for 200 laps. It is crazy. And this track was 2.5 miles long, but if a car crashed, even if it was in the back of the pack, nowhere NEAR the leaders, a caution flag came out and made everyone sort of stop racing, so the wreck could clear up. Ummmmm, are you telling me a tow truck couldn't race out there and pull the car down to the "infield grass" before the cars got around the TWO AND A HALF mile track? Come on.
Other questions I had included the term "teammates". Really? Teammates? Just because you race for the same owner that makes you teammates? Let me ask you, if Tony Stewart got help from his "teammate" Busch, if Stewart had won, does he split the check with his teammate? Does the Teammate get part of the trophy like teammates in other sports do? NO! It is like Ricky Bobby and Cal from Talladega Nights. Cal wanted to finish first once, but Ricky never let him. Having a teammate "help" you means he gives his OWN finish up for your finish. I wouldn't do it personally, but I guess I would not be a good teammate. I'd want to win. You can't have two #1s!

Also, there was a lot of "bumpin'" and "rubbin'" in the race yesterday, especially at the end. I know that Robert Duvall once said rubbin' is racin', but come on. In the last 16 laps there were three cautions. Totally zapped the "Excitement" out of a finish. When the cars "restarted" with about 3 laps left it took a good lap for the cars to get going 192 again. The track is 2.5 miles around, maybe the "wreckt" cars could just motor down to the grass and let the rest keep going. I mean they probably have a good two minutes or so to get out of the way.

Finally, Kyle Petty has now gone 26 Daytona 500s without winning the "Great American Race." It MAY be time for Kyle boy to stop trying. Has this guy ever accomplished anything besides being sired by The King Richard Petty? He has or had a bad ponytail and was VERY annoying on the Days of Thunder simulator at the King's Dominion ride in Richmond. Can SOMEONE stop paying him just because he was Richard's son? PLEASE? At least Dale Jr has won 6 races or something. Kyle, stop. You are entering Colin Hanks territory here.

I also wanted to touch on something from 790 The Zone from this past Saturday's Zone Sports Saturday show with my boys BA and Woolvey. They were asking about NASCAR and mainstream sports. They asked folks to call up if they were NASCAR fans to see if they were also mainstream sports fans. The reasoning was, they never received any email about the "country's largest spectator sport" and wondered why talk radio never really touched on it. Of course about 5 or 6 NASCAR folks called up and said they were mainstream sports fans too. The callers all sounded like their combined IQ was maybe 38, but that is beside the point.
Anyways what Brandon and Jeff should have been asking was for "mainstream" first sports fans to call up and ask if THEY were NASCAR fans too, and where it ranked on their heirarchy. Of course the NASCAR first fan will say he is a mainstream guy too; the key is is the mainstream a NASCAR too. Like a square is always a rectangle, but a rectangle is always a square.
And ps, The Zone also has a show on Mondays that is the Speed Zone with Mike Bell. So any Nascar fans out there, go to www.790thezone Mondays at 7:09 PM and you'll hear Bell talk about NATCAR.

But if I boil it all down, I still don't get it.
I don't understand why real NATCAR fans hate Jeff Gordon. Is it his hot wife? Is it that he broke all of those Dale Earnhardt records? Or is it that you can understand him when he talks? I've got a little piece of info for you.....very few are "good ole boys" anymore. Most are born with the silver spoon in their mouths and unless you hate them all, you guys are hypocrites.
I don't understand why they always go left (except on road courses. I know there are a few, Watkins Glen, etc). Could they just go right ONCE. Maybe if there is a race on leap year day?
And I don't understand teammates. I would want to win. Plain and simple, not help out a teammate and sacrifice myself. Whatever.