Parks Pit Report: Duck Commander 500

Being a writer is fun especially when you can write about something you enjoy, especially in my case when that is about racing.  I spend every Sunday watching 43 stars go nearly 200 mph within inches of each other.  Then after the checkered flag, I spend hours going over stats to do articles for my own blog as well as on here.

And then come days like this past Sunday, where things were a literal wash.

Rain delays are no fun for anyone on race day.  There are many reasons why, but I’ve narrowed it down to just two that make it hard on me as a writer.  The first is time.  The reason being is because when a race happens at a certain time during the day, you can plan on when to submit certain pieces.  On average, a race lasts about three hours, and then goes the task of analyzing statistics, and putting results to paper, or in today’s case to keyboard.

When a race gets delayed by rain, it prolongs that.  I love this sport, but also have duties outside of it as we all do.  Waiting out a delay often means hours of time passed, and not much getting done.  When you’re at the track it’s different, because at least then there are many people there doing the same thing I would be doing, and we can pass the time doing something fun, or at least keep up great conversation.

At home, there’s not much going on.  Once the race goes back green, the timetable to get things done is reduced, and you feel rushed.  Often it means less quality work, which I don’t like.

Second, if a race is postponed, most of the time I miss it.  We all have our duties on Mondays to get done, such as jobs or school.  It means I can’t watch what happens.  That’s not exactly great because I have to rely on results and photos to tell a story, rather than see it live.  Unfortunately, that’s just part of the deal.  The worst part of it is having to rely on others just to get results and do so the same way we do in this day and age, look to Twitter or the internet just to get the finishing order, or at the very least who took the checkered flag.

It means that my Monday column goes to Tuesday, and I have to write a rain-delay piece for everyone, which is never fun.

Already twice this year two races have gone late because of Mother Nature.  Daytona got pushed to an 8 p.m. restart after only about 50 laps of action, and then a few weeks ago Bristol had the same thing happen, giving them two night races this season, except one rather unexpected.  Just makes for a long night of writing, and makes for a long day on Monday, or in this case Tuesday.

In the end I missed a great battle with Joey Logano and Jeff Gordon, with Logano becoming the seventh different winner in as many races.  Still, just wish I could have seen it rather than find out about it later.

Rain delays, a race fan’s worst enemy.

RESULTS:  1-Logano  2-Gordon  3-Kyle Busch  4-Vickers  5-Larson  6-Biffle  7-Kenseth  8-Bowyer  9-Menard  10-Stewart

NOTABLE FINISHES:  14-Edwards  15-Keselowski  21-Dillon  27-Patrick  39-Kurt Busch  42-Harvick  43-Earnhardt Jr.

CAUTIONS:  7 for 49 laps.  Lap 1-10 (Green/Yellow start to race), 14-24 (#88 Accident-T1), 50-53 (Competition), 177-183 (#41 Spin-T4), 220-226 (#41 Spin-T1), 256-260 (Debris-FS), 334-338 (Debris-T1 and T2).

LEAD CHANGES:  18 among 9 drivers.  Stewart 1-24, Harvick 25, Stewart 26-50, Sorenson 51, Stewart 52-76, Keselowski 77-96, Gordon 97-98, Keselowski 99-121, Hamlin 122-140, Gordon 141-142, Kyle Busch 143-152, Gordon 153-183, Keselowski 184-225, Logano 226-299, Hamlin 300, Bowyer 301, Logano 302-334, Gordon 335-339, Logano 340.

TIME OF RACE:  3 Hrs, 48 Mins, 2 Secs.

AVERAGE SPEED:  134.191 MPH

MARGIN OF VICTORY:  0.476 Seconds

POINT STANDINGS:  1. Gordon, 259 points; 2. Kenseth, -4; 3. Edwards, -12; 4. Logano, -24; 5. Kyle Busch, -28; 6. Earnhardt Jr, -31; 7. Johnson, -31; 8. Keselowski, -41; 9. Vickers, -54; 10. Menard, -56