NASCAR doesn't need you.

As I lie in bed sick listening to the Tony Kornheiser Radio Show on podcast while slamming O-Juice and wheat crackers with natural peanut butter (my usual routine, sans the natural peanut butter), I'm reaching my limit of "NASCAR has ruined itself with the Daytona 500 debacle last weekend" drivel. If you didn't see what happened, here's a quick recap. On lap... whatever, a pothole formed on the track like a melanoma on a nudist skier. And like a melanoma on a nudist skier, you can't be surprised that a pothole appeared. Apparently the track hadn't had a complete resurfacing since the 1970s. The race had to be stopped a couple times for a combined total of roughly 2.5 hours, while allegedly incompetent road crews patched the pothole with a mixture of sand and toothpaste. The whole thing was televised. Nationally. The race finished in the dark. The sports-voices have been crucifying NASCAR for mishandling the situation, embarrassing themselves on national TV during what was their Super Bowl event. "It was NASCAR's chance to connect with the general viewer and they ruined it."

Was it inexcusable that a pothole formed during the Daytona freaking 500? Yes. Once the hole formed, was the situation embarrassingly mishandled? Probably. But I have one message for the NASCAR-haters, those who think NASCAR's image is irreparably marred: NASCAR doesn't need you. Keep berating NASCAR. Keep criticizing. See if they care. I'll quote myself from earlier in this article (this needs to be done more often- quoting oneself from the very article in which one is still writing): "the track hadn't had a complete resurfacing since the 1970s." That means they've been racing since the 1970s. At this point, that's like 40 years. That's the better part of 51 years, which is the better part of 100 years! 100 years!!!!

Look, NASCAR has been kicking for a long time and has a deep (and more importantly, loyal) fan base who aren't going to be ultimately put off by a few extra hours of maintenance during a race. So to sports-voices having a hate-field-day over NASCAR and its forever-damaged image, you need to be cut off like a melanoma on a... you know.