I will be knee deep in cooking for the Superbowl. Go Saints!
Menu for Superbowl: Large pot of Gumbo; Spaghetti and Meat Sauce; Chicken Wings; Baby Back Ribs; Potato Salad; King Cake and Rice.
Right now I am getting ready to watch Danica Patrick in her NASCAR debut. She will be starting from the 10th position in the 200 mile ARCA Race at Daytona.
Mark Martin and Dale Jr. just qualified for the Daytona 500 at #1 & #2 pole positions. The rest of the field will be set by the order of finish in the twin 125 mile races this coming Thursday at the speedway. I have seen these races in person. They are very exciting.
Being from Daytona Beach, I grew up attending the races on the old beach-road course down at the inlet. Those races were really exciting. I always sat in the car at the North Turn on the beach, in the infield, and would run from the beach side over to the road side to watch the cars come off of turn two. My dad was a Daytona Beach policeman and always got “Press Passes” for the race.
One month later, I would be right back at the track watching the Motorcycles compete in the 200 mile motorcycle event. All of this took place back in the late 40’s to mid 50’s. I entered the Navy in 1956. I just happened to be home for the 57 race, which was won by a Pontiac that year.
I have only been to one Daytona 500 at the present speedway, I think it was 1973, Richard Petty won when Kale Yarbourgh’s car blew up during the last few laps, after leading all day. When Kale’s car let out a big puff of black smoke, the crowd cheered because they knew King Richard was in 2nd place and would go on to win the race. The people in Daytona loves Richard and always cheered him to victory. He remains as popular today as he was when he was driving.
I attended the twin 100 mile races in 1990 (before they changed it to 125 miles). That is the most excitement that you can pack into a little over 30 minutes, well, almost…