Larry Hypes
So you think the Super Bowl is bigger than the Daytona 500? Think again.
There were 74,059 fans in the Miami stands. More than 200,000 will jam Daytona International Speedway for the 51st running of “The Great American Race.” Twenty-two players were on the Super Bowl field at any given time — there are 43 drivers in the first Sprint Cup event of the 2010 season.
Not even the New Orleans Saints’ Reggie Bush can run more than about 23 miles per hour and that for only a few seconds. Mark Martin starts on the pole and he will be doing more than 190 miles an hour after about the first five miles of the race. Every member of the Saints received about $83,000 for being on the winning team in Super Bowl XLIV. The winning driver Sunday will take home about $1,600,000 and nobody will make less than $100,000.
And you say the Super Bowl has a rich history, certainly more than a bunch of people running around in circles? Even before the first AFL-NFL Championship game in 1967, there had already been eight Daytona 500s and none of them had any problem selling all the available seats. That first football game in Los Angeles, won by Green Bay 35-10 over Kansas City, had a few thousand empty seats, by the way.
Instant replay and booth review was a big part of Super Bowl XLIV, especially on the two-point conversion from Drew Brees to Lance Moore. It took almost four minutes to determine that Moore had control of the football. NASCAR has that beat, too. In the first Daytona 500 back in 1959, Lee Petty was not declared the winner over Johnny Beauchamp for three days. “Big Bill” France, the stock car racing boss, solicited photographs from press people, fans, anybody who had a camera. So, don’t talk about your photo finishes or reviewing a play. Nothing can top the ’59 Daytona race, Mr. Commissioner Goodell.
Speaking of the NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell, he was all of three days old when the first Daytona 500 was run on February 22, 1959. Incidentally, the Super Bowl is played in February but it took the NFL more than four decades to make February while NASCAR got there more than half a century back.
The No. 48 team, with driver Jimmie Johnson, is going for what would be a record fifth consecutive championship this coming season. Only one National Football League team has won more than back-to-back titles, the Green Bay Packers of 1965-67. Contenders include the Chicago Bears (1940-41), Philadelphia Eagles (1948-49), Baltimore Colts (1958-59), Miami Dolphins (1972-73), Pittsburgh Steelers (1974-75), Pittsburgh Steelers (1978-79), San Francisco 49ers (1988-89), Dallas Cowboys (1992-93), Denver Broncos (1997-98), and New England Patriots (2003-04).
Now that the Super Bowl begins in the daylight and ends under the lights, one might think that sets a trend. Well, the 500 does, as well.
The big game has been played on turf, grass, and maybe a few other things. The Daytona 500 is usually run on asphalt but with plenty of grass mixed on lots of heavy action. Speaking of heavy action, it is generally noted that a lineman on a professional football team suffers the equivalent of a medium automobile crash during the course of a game. Any driver who wrecks in the Daytona 500 will suffer — and a lot more than “medium sized” wreck, too. You can bet that hitting a helmet is not as bad as smashing into the concrete. Did anyone say that a race car travels the length of a football field in less than a second?
OK, OK, you can relax — just making a point that NASCAR is a big deal, too. After all, not all of you punt, pass, and kick, but you either drive in or ride in automobiles almost every day. So the next time you say you have nothing in common with that NASCAR stuff, think again.
Almost all Americans do more driving than playing it or not, stock cars are in your blood, friends, and probably in the garage and the driveway, too.
