I.Cannot.Help.Myself

You may or may not know this, but I am a really passionate NASCAR fan. I know this may come as a shock seeing as I have all of my teeth, a college education, and a home that does not require wheels or cinder block lifts, but I just LOVE NASCAR! I've followed races off and on for the past 4 years, but when my parents became season ticket holders at Texas Motor Speedway a couple of years ago, I became a serious fan. I don't care that a lot of people do not think of this as a sport. To me, a man or woman that can handle a car running 180+ miles an hour in a pack of cars, is an athlete. The skill it requires to handle the car and push it to the limits fascinates me. I am excited to get to do a "Ride Along" in a car very soon. I need to practice climbing in car windows.

Last night was the Daytona 500 (the season opener for NASCAR 2012) and it proved to be the wildest race I've seen ever. The race was supposed to take place on Sunday afternoon, but rain delayed the race to become the first prime time week night race in NASCAR history. The prime time slot would play host to some insane racing. Here's a little recap and some of the highlights (of which there are many I won't get to) from the race that started on Monday night and ended early morning on Tuesday.

On lap 2 there was a pretty massive crash that took out one of my favorite drivers, Jimmie Johnson. He took a really powerful driver side hit before he was finally able to get out of the car. Also involved in this multiple car wreck was Danica Patrick. In a show of incredible car control, she was able to save her car from making contact with the wall or other vehicles.

After 50+ laps out of the race, Danica was able to get back into the race. She actually stayed in the race until it finally finished shortly after 12am on Tuesday morning. As she pulled back on the track she thanked her team for their hard work to get her back into the race. She wanted to run as many laps as possible because she is new to NASCAR.

Jeff Gordon blew an engine before the halfway mark of the race. As a seasoned driver, he was able to wave the drivers behind him around to avoid a wreck. At Daytona very few wrecks are single car accidents, so I applaud Jeff for being courteous to other drivers and avoiding a massive pile up. The racing is tight at Daytona and almost all wrecks involve multiple cars.

Craziest thing I've ever seen in a race. Juan Pablo Montoya's car broke and he slid into one of the jet dryer trucks that comes out during cautions to clean the track. Think of it as a Zamboni for NASCAR tracks that carries a whole lot of jet fuel to blow the track down.

Both Juan Pablo Montoya's and the truck erupted in the massive inferno. Both drivers were okay, but it caused a HUGE mess that took nearly two hours to clean up.

And what did the drivers do for the two hours? They got out of their cars and visited. One driver, @keselowski, had his cell phone on him so he was tweeting from the track while they waited. I've never seen anything like this before. Eventually the drivers got back in their cars and were able to finish racing, but a lot of people are now wondering what more madness lies ahead for NASCAR.

Oh NASCAR, how I have missed you. If this race was any indication of how the rest of the season is to transpire, we're all in for a wild ride. The driver that won, Matt Kenseth, is a really funny guy. If you check out his tweets (@MattKenseth), you'll see what I mean.

I could go on and on about NASCAR, but I won't bore you with any more... for now.

((Getty Images))