This weekend I was very excited for the NASCAR race in Daytona. 43 cars moving at nearly 200 mph just inches apart makes the Daytona and Talledega race just a few of my favorites. So I sat down on Saturday night and watched everything from the beginning to the end, its the first time I've been able to watch the race at home and without doing something else at the same time in a long while. Saying I was disappointed might be an understatement. I found myself struggling to stay interested at times and it wasn't really because of just the racing.

Could anything be worse than the TV coverage? First off, I haven't met one person that has that channel in HD, but they act like everyone does. I have an HD TV, but not HD cable service so I was hoping the racing would be on an off air digital channel, but it wasn't. I originally liked the Idea that the people who don't have HD would still see the 16:9 format with statical information filling in the gap. However once the race got going it was obviously just another way for the television network to sell advertising space. Throw on that the terrible commentators (the only one worth anything was Kyle Petty) and the coverage itself made the race nearly impossible to watch.

Now the racing left something to be desired as well. The cars were very spread out and didn't really have that typical restricter plate racing feeling. I don't really support redistrict plate racing because it isn't real racing in my opinion. You just have to have a good friend too push you and you have a shot to win. However, it can be very exciting. Saturday's race was an exception to the typical excitement. Cars were scattered and basically stayed in a line with little passing. It left something to be desired.

Even though all of that was happening I stuck threw it, I knew that there was a chance I'd miss something spectacular if I turned the channel. Well I didn't miss anything, but wish I would have. For those of you that didn't see it the race ended under caution after the first attempt at a green, white, checkered finish. It was one of the most boring finishes to a race that I've ever seen. It had lots of build up, but was rather uneventful. There were a lot of wrecks at the end, but to me that's not what is exciting about racing. What is exciting is getting close to wrecking, but not wrecking and hanging on to a car inches apart from each other.

I've noticed a trend in NASCAR recently. Its almost like the teams ride around for 75% of the race, then make a call for 2 tires, take the lead and hope to hold on. In my opinion the problem lies in two separate areas. First off, NASCAR has made the cars so even that nearly 25 to 30 cars are contenders every weekend. They need to loosen up on the restrictions on the motors and the chassis and let the truly talented engineers and crew chiefs show their skill. Also, the amount of cautions and the lucky dog rule are big problems. Here's my opinion: Cautions only need to be thrown if a car is stalled somewhere on the track. If someone spins out and regains control then let the boys race. Also, if you're a lap down, then earn your way back onto the lead lap.

With the way things currently are any person can be a lap down and get that lap back easily. Then with a "gamble" of not changing tires or taking two tires they're right back to the front of the field. On top of that because five or six other drivers have tried the same thing you're safe because there's only ten laps to go and the person with the dominate car is way back in traffic. I think its unfair to the guys who have dominated the race to be subjected to a pit stop call making the difference in the race.

I also watched the IRL and F-1 races this weekend. I found both of those very exciting and the F-1 race didn't have one caution. Maybe I've just lost the interest in NASCAR for now because nothing really matters until the chase. I hope they can get back to being fair to the truly talented drivers and find a way to make these races more exciting.