Polite Dissent

The Sunday before Memorial Day is one of my favorite days of the year.

Why?

Eleven-hundred miles of car racing excitement, that’s why!

It started off as a nice mild day. I was able to spend a couple of hours fixing up my herb garden and butterfly garden, both of which are coming along very nicely. I also started up the grill and slow smoked two racks of short ribs that I had slathered with a curing rub the night before. By noon, they were ready and perfect. A light smoky flavor added to the hint of spices from the cure, combined with fall-off-the-bone tenderness. I only cook ribs once a year and savor every bite.

The Indianapolis 500 was a good race. Most of the excitement was on Danica Patrick, a female racer. There have been other female Indy racers before, but never one as highly touted as Patrick. She did well and even led a few laps, but a couple of rookie mistakes cost her and she ended up fourth (but a very respectable fourth). England’s Dan Wheldon ultimately won the race. This gave Michael Andretti his first ever Indy 500 win (though as an owner, not a racer).

An hour or so later the Coca-Cola 600 started in Charlotte. This is the longest race of the NASCAR season and generally one of the most exciting. This year was no exception. Tonight’s race set the record for most cautions in a NASCAR race — ever. There was a time with about 150 laps to go where the Polite Wife and I would bet how long it would be before the next caution. She kept guessing 15 or 20 laps while I went with 8. It never made it past five laps before another caution came out. After three rounds of this, we gave up trying to guess. All the cautions did put Bobby Labonte in good position and with 9 laps left he was leading the race. Unfortunately he was passed in the very last turn by Jimmy Johnson and lost by two hundreths of a second. Still, it was Labonte’s best showing of the year.

And the best part is I still have tomorrow off!