Given all the promotion that was leading up to Nascar's inaugural street disaster, I was expecting that the media would be working overtime to call it a success if cars managed to see the checkered flag. But I'm kind of shocked at just how out in force the shill brigade is in these subsequent days.
First of all, the race itself. Was it better than expected? Yes. Was it a good race? No. There were single-car slides into the tire barriers every lap and the maximum speed rarely topped out over 75. It was the exact same kind of low-speed parade that I was expecting, and the guest driver dominated the race due to being the only person in the entire race that actually knew how to drive a track of this sort. I'm convinced that the only reason why we didn't see a gigantic divebomb on the final lap was that the cars were going too slow to actually cause any real damage.
From the reaction on the internet, though...you would think that this race was the second coming of the '79 Daytona 500. Tons of articles crowing about this being a "fantastic win" for Nascar and how they're gaining so many new fans. The media I can understand. The comments from so-called "fans" about the racing being great, I can't. It's to the point where I'm seeing these people gush about the "fantastic racing", and I'm wondering, were we watching the same race? David Land is usually fair to call out Indycar and other sanctioning bodies for dumb decisions, but he immediately slobbered all over Nascar's knob. The comment sections of anything Chicago-related are filled with seal clapping about "what a great race it was". Gluck's poll is averaging one of the highest results ever. I genuinely don't understand this.
