Jimmie Johnson Wins 2 Chase Races In A Row & I Sort of Missed It

With NASCAR hitting up Texas this last weekend, a mere three weeks left in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Season, I chose to head out, snag a RugDoctor carpet cleaner and get some things done around the house.

Sure, I could have turned on the NASCAR Sprint Cup race and had it on in the background.  And I was tempted to.  But I have to say, except for the big words that say "TEXAS" on the track walls, I'd never know they left Charlotte and having one more mile and a half race kill three or four hours of my day didn't seem like it was worth it.

Most of these mile and a half tracks tend to have races that spread out and then the coverage focuses on everything but the exciting stuff.  Sure, follow the name drivers who are lined up single file.  I get that.  But I sure would like to see who is four-wide going into turn one in the middle of back of the pack myself.

But don't worry.  I Did Catch the Race.  Sort of...

I have my Twitter feed and I funnel a few select feeds into a filtered channel.  That cuts down the noise of all the fans and reporters and gets me pretty succinct information on the race.

And what I did notice on Twitter were a few cautions.  Cautions that later, the network coverage seemed to be catching heat for because no one showed the cause.  But I did see that I missed the typical dog-leg 1.5 extravaganza of underwhelming excitement.

But then, when I was wasted from pushing and pulling my carpet cleaner back and forth, I finally settled down to watch the last 15 laps or so.  And I have to say, wow, what a blast of a race!

The Last Impression is the Best Impression...

I don't know if you noticed lately, maybe you have, maybe you haven't.  But no matter what happens from lap 1 to lap 10 befor the finish doesn't seem to matter.  What matters is the final few laps.

I've seen NASCAR races where awesome racing takes place during the race.  But if the last few laps has the leader outpacing everyone, and the top-ten finishers are all strung out with no side-by-side action, fans (the social network vocal fans) seem to always call it boring or a bad race.

Yet when the race winds down with strung out racing and the last few laps have the leaders exchanging numbers (AKA, paint from their numbers) on their fenders, folks get pretty jazzed up about "The race."

It's Like They Say...

To be honest, I've been a NASCAR fan for more years than I can remember.  Back from before the days of cars getting new colors every weekend. (Gads, that first special "Silver Select" scheme from Dale Earnhardt definitely set a trend!)

But then I would tune in, watch the first few laps, doze off, then, in some weird biological fashion, I would wake up with 10 to go.  I then decided to stop wasting time and started getting some house work done.  (Take Note:  Points with the wife when she thinks I'm bailing on NASCAR to help her out!  BIG POINTS guys.)

Sure, I tune in to some of the races still.  Restrictor plate, short track, and the last race...   if the points are close.  (Tricky, how the new points system makes it look pretty close, huh?)

But you have to admit, life is like racing.  The most memorable impressions made are the first impressions and the last thing you did.  Nothing in between holds water for much longer than the day is long.

Don't Get Me Wrong...

Hey, I still love NASCAR.  I still totally appreciate the tactics and effort that go into creating a winning race team/driver.  (What is up with Carl Edwards this year???)  I have a personal appreciation of what it takes to keep one of those cars under control.

But hey, when my wife, who doesn't watch the telecast, can magically quote each and every race winner without see it... ("I'd like to thank (sponsor) and (other sponsors) and my (race team owner) and the guys (in the pit crew) and ...."),  Well, she creeps me out a bit but she also made me think about it.  It sure is the same thing, every weekend.  Isn't it?

It's the core fans who can appreciate the process that stick through thick and thin.  But the sport, on TV, is geared to catch the newbie and keep them around long enough to maybe become core fans.  If they don't, well, the sport on TV is geared to catch the newbie and keep them around...

Well, I think you get why some long-term fans are fading.

(This piece inspired by The Daly Planet's piece, The Spin Room. )

Psst:  No, you didn't catch me watching the race via the header image.  I only turned it on to get a pic of the carpet cleaner being present in the house during the race...