“If you ain’t first, you’re last.”- Ricky Bobby

When people think about NASCAR, this is often one of the first things that pops into their heads. I can’t really blame them. It’s one of the greatest lines in cinematic history and the first sentence in my Common App essay. People often forget, though, the next line in the movie (Talladega Nights if you didn’t already know). Ricky Bobby’s father responds, “That doesn’t make any sense at all, you can be second, third, fourth…hell you can even be fifth.” Normally, I would agree with Ricky’s dad, but the Daytona 500 is a completely different animal. Hell, Tony Stewart has been on the record saying he’d take out his grandma to win the race!

According to my estimates, I’ve seen about 350 NASCAR races. If you do the math, that’s a little over fifty-eight days of racing. If you never thought I was crazy before, then there you go. For every one of those races over the last ten years, I’ve been rooting for Dale Earnhardt Jr. to get into victory lane. Before last Sunday, he had only won two races since 2006. That’s abysmal for someone who has won NASCAR’s most popular driver award eleven years in a row. Earnhardt has actually become an underrated racer due to the unfair expectations put on him. He especially excels at the restrictor-plate tracks, which happens to include the Daytona International Speedway.

Every year, I have a countdown to the Daytona 500. It’s the first race of the season and the only race that makes me legitimately nervous. I know that a loss would probably keep me irrationally upset for weeks, but I didn’t really know what a win felt like before Sunday. Earnhardt won the Daytona 500 in 2004, but I don’t remember much from the win. That race was the first I’d ever seen and really created my intense passion for the sport. For that reason, the Daytona 500 always holds a deeper sentiment for me. I never doubted Earnhardt’s ability, but I never really expected him to win the race again in his career because of its unpredictable nature.

After weeks of waiting for the race, the green flag finally flew Sunday morning (which happened to be on my birthday). However, the excitement was short lived, since the race soon went into a rain delay. What did I do during that six and a half hour rain delay? I did what every other hardcore fan did… I turned on the weather channel and watched the weather radar. Rain was not going to stop my excitement. Finally, the race restarted at around 8:30 p.m, and I was expecting tentative single file racing until the very end.  Much to my surprise, the drivers were going all out, and there was three-car-wide racing until the checkered flag. It was the type of racing that would’ve gotten anyone excited, even if you’ve never seen a race in your life.

When Earnhardt crossed the finish line first, I literally couldn’t believe it. There had been so many things that had stopped him from winning races in the past, such as getting wrecked on the last turn or running out of gas on the last straightaway. I would give you a play-by-play of my celebration, but it’s a little too embarrassing to tell the public.

Earnhardt’s win was not only important to me, but it was also a monumental moment for the sport. NASCAR’s most popular driver won the sport’s biggest race. Throughout the week, I’ve never heard the media discuss a race this much. It brought the sport into the attention of the public which is exactly what it needs. It helps show people that the sport is much more than driving around in circles. NASCAR has never had a week with this much publicity, and it hopes to ride this momentum all the way through the season.

I never usually write NASCAR articles because I know most people at the school aren’t interested at all in the sport, but I had to let it all out. Don’t worry guys, I’ll go back to writing my lazy half page basketball articles next week. All I’m asking is to give the sport a try. I’m telling you that if you give it a chance, you will enjoy it. If you don’t, I promise a full refund for this article.