The BORE-TONA 500!

Anyone who knows me knows I LOOOOOOOVE Nascar, and especially with the rule changes this year that are designed to allow drivers to mix it up a little more and bring stock car racing back to the "contact sport" it always was, I was STOKED for the start of the season this weekend. On paper, yesterday's Daytona 500 was a GREAT race... broke the record for lead changes, a few wrecks, and a fantastic final 20 laps with an unexpected and incredibly grateful winner.

Unfortunately, I found the majority of it fairly BORING! The drivers didn't really take advantage of their newfound freedom until late in the race, making the first 130 laps rather mundane, despite the frequent lead changes. Waiting around through TWO HOURS of POTHOLE REPAIR didn't help (as I remarked on the air this morning during the Hot Button, Nascar is considering changing the name of the event to "The Rothesay Avenue 500"!)

You can't blame the drivers. In ANY 500 mile race, the name of the game is to be around at the end. I think NASCAR needs to look at some rule changes to make these races more exciting from start to finish. Making a WIN worth FAR more points than second place and on back would be a help, but the real issue is making things more exciting early. Nascar USED to award points to the person leading at the halfway point, which was helpful. I'm not sure why they got rid of THAT rule, but I think they need to bring IT back and perhaps go a step further.

What if, in a 500 mile race, points were awarded for the person leading at the 100, 200, 300 and 400 mile marks? In addition, instead of just giving bonus points for leading the most laps in the ENTIRE race, what about giving additional bonus points for the person leading the majority of the laps in each 100 mile segment? This would give drivers the incentive to "go for it" from the drop of the green, instead of hanging around at the back of the pack and waiting until the final few laps to give it everything they've got.

Mind you, I think yesterday's race would have been a LOT more exciting if they'd actually listened to a lot of the drivers who jokingly said that they should have just put a cone over the pothole in turn 2 and told everybody to go around it!

So, in THAT spirit, here are my TOP FIVE WAYS TO MAKE NASCAR RACES MORE INTERESTING...

5- Switch from the "Car of Tomorrow" to the "Beater You Owned In High School"...

4- Make every second event a RELAY RACE...

3- Two words.... TRAFFIC LIGHTS!

2- Install speakers behind driver's seat that constantly blare "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"

and the number one way to make Nascar races more exciting...

...do a lap... chug.... do a lap... chug....