{"id":152,"date":"2016-02-21T15:47:14","date_gmt":"2016-02-21T21:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=152"},"modified":"2016-03-13T08:12:31","modified_gmt":"2016-03-13T13:12:31","slug":"race-day-reflection-daytona-500","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2016\/02\/21\/race-day-reflection-daytona-500\/","title":{"rendered":"Race Day Reflection: Daytona 500"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am not a life-long race fan.\u00a0 I have become a race fan strictly through proximity.\u00a0 I married into it.\u00a0 When I said \u201cfor better or worse, in sickness and in health\u201d that included race day, race weekend, race season and all that comes with it.\u00a0 Granted, I didn\u2019t marry a driver, so I escaped the danger.\u00a0 What I did marry is a reporter.\u00a0 When Mike and I first started dating, he told me he wrote about motorsports.\u00a0 Every weekend during racing season he spent at the local circle track, San Antonio Speedway.\u00a0 I was unimpressed.\u00a0 Cars driving in circles?\u00a0 What on Earth could be so exciting about that?\u00a0 But, as women do who are interested in men, I tagged along.\u00a0 Little did I know the extent of the rabbit hole I was jumping into!\u00a0 I have met many incredible people, seen adults bicker like children, been awed by the sheer genius of technological manipulation, and experienced the thrill of the roar and vibration of being within feet of full throttle Sprint Cup cars.\u00a0 I have to admit that even though I continue to find the poetry and intellect of the sport, there is an elemental pull to motorsports.\u00a0 I don\u2019t complain as much about every TV in the house showing or recording a motorsports event for ten months out of the year.\u00a0 I even participate in fantasy sports some years and make the odd Vegas bet related to the Sprint Cup Series, but I am always looking for ways that an intellectual person like myself can thoroughly enjoy and participate in the racing culture.\u00a0 Over the years I have found many unique experiences that were only possible through the racing world.\u00a0 So, even though I began as a reluctant race fan, I have learned to embrace it over the years, even relish it.\u00a0 As the green flag drops on today\u2019s Daytona 500, I will be looking forward to the 2016 season.\u00a0 I will be excited to see how Jeff Gordon does as a commentator.\u00a0 I will watch to see how Dale, Jr.\u2019s positive outlook and renewed enthusiasm will translate on the track.\u00a0 I will await the latest interview with John Force.\u00a0 And I will attend some races in person.\u00a0 This year will be one to remember. . .like all the others before it.\u00a0 All in all, it ought to be a great race day!<\/p>\n

\"On

On the set of old Speed TV.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Buying

Buying a program from Mikey the Monkey at Texas Motor Speedway.<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Asphalt

Asphalt Chef Celebrity Cooking Competition at Texas Motor Speedway. That’s Guy Fieri!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Checking

Checking out Dale, Jr.’s car at Texas Motor Speedway.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am not a life-long race fan.\u00a0 I have become a race fan strictly through proximity.\u00a0 I married into it.\u00a0 When I said \u201cfor better or worse, in sickness and in health\u201d that included race day, race weekend, race season and all that comes with it.\u00a0 Granted, I didn\u2019t marry a driver, so I escaped […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[98,27,11],"tags":[34,32,16,33],"class_list":["post-152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dixiesracereflections","category-motorsports","category-nascar","tag-dalejrfan","tag-daytona500","tag-nascar","tag-racingwife"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/File-Feb-21-12-45-44-PM.jpeg?fit=264%2C256&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-2s","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":224,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152\/revisions\/224"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}