Daytona 500 Finish as Good as it Gets

I don't watch much NASCAR on TV. I can usually find other ways to fall asleep.

My dad's been watching NASCAR for years. In other words he's taken a lot of Sunday afternoon naps. Half the time he will ask me who won the race because he slept through the finish.

On Sunday, I actually forced myself to watch the final few laps of the Daytona 500. The end is the only part that matters anyway. When it comes to sports, I am always interested in a good ending.

I can watch any game that comes down to the final ticks. If the Monmouth-Winthrop comes down to the final shot, I'm going to watch. If Air Force is tied with BYU with a minute left, I'm there till the end. I went into the final laps of the Daytona 500 the same way.

I waited through about five laps, one wreck and a ridiculously long caution, but in the end it was worth it. The result was one of the best NASCAR finishes I've ever seen. This one came down to the final lap.

With veteran Mark Martin holding a comfortable lead, Kevin Harvick charged out of nowhere to make a run. The two were locked into a battle heading into the final turn when they hit the homestretch, nearly every car behind them was involved in a spectacular wreck. Cars were rolling, colliding, spinning and even burning. All the while Martin and Harvick were side by side ahead of the fray.

It was chaos and calm all mixed together. It was great. As a viewer I didn't know what to watch, the two battling it out toward the finish line or the absolute mayhem going on behind them. FOX couldn't have asked for much more. The entire race - both the cars driving home and everyone crashing behind them was in one camera shot. It was the stuff movies are made of.

"The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" or "Days of Thunder" - take your pick.

As Harvick and Martin closed in on the finish line, they were neck and neck. In the end Harvick edged just ahead of Martin's car to win by two one-thousandths of a second. That's roughly the time it takes a cheetah to sneeze.

Luck of the draw decided the rest of the field. Clint Boyer's car actually crossed the finish line on its roof. When the car rolled over flames lapped onto the windshield. A spectacular crash, a great finish and a flaming car. What else could you possibly want? I figure I'm done with NASCAR for this year because nothing's going to beat that finish.

Of course with every good finish comes the sore losers. Mark Martin fans said that their driver - racing in his final year - should have been declared the winner because a caution flag should have been thrown. To those I say, "Get real."

The multi-car pileup behind the two frontrunners had nothing to do with either Harvick or Martin. Both were immune from the demolition derby going on behind them. Why ruin a race to the finish line with a meaningless caution that had no effect on either driver? The best car won, hands down. Harvick passed Martin and won by the cheetah sneeze.

Had Martin won it would have been because of a technicality, not because of what he did on the track. Maybe NASCAR was supposed to throw a caution, but they shouldn't have. I'm not too up to date on NASCAR rules, but if they judge these things on a race-by-race basis, the Daytona 500 ended just like it should have.

I don't think the rules were designed to cheat a driver out of a win. You can have your rules. This time they got it right. I for one would rather have my sporting events decided on the field, or in this case the track.

Winning due to a caution is the equivalent of deciding a tie football game with a coin toss. It wasn't a caution that won this race for Harvick. It was speed, driving and a little bit of luck.