Starting this weekend, Joshua and Cheryl will be offering up their own personal sets of HeartRacers~HeartBreakers for each race. The moments that stirred them for whatever reason will fall in the HeartRacers category, and anything that makes them wince, cry, or throw stuff will be HeartBreakers. All cawsnjaws readers are invited to add on their own to share with everyone.

The race that has started the second half of this NASCAR season, the Pepsi 400 in Daytona, was filled with moments that were splendid, and some that inspired sighs of frustration.

HeartRacers:

  • For the last time this season, fans heard Darrell Waltrip holler his famous phrase, ‘Boogity Boogity Boogity, Let’s go racin’ boys!’ That energy-filled expression always sends our already-fast-beating hearts into hyperdrive. This time, though, he added on, in his sweetly bemused way, ‘Every time I say that they take off!’ While we know our racing warriors will still know precisely when to hit the gas for the rest of the races this season, we’ll still miss that.
  • Having our country’s Vice President, Dick Cheney, on-hand was very appropriate for the Fourth of July holiday weekend. So was his non-partisan answer for the question of which driver he thought would win the race (which basically meant, ‘I’m not sayin’ out of respect to all of the drivers’). Vice President Cheney joins past-Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and current President George W. Bush, as a participant in the pre-race festivities at Daytona.

That, combined with having ‘Superman’ (actually the actor, Brandon Routh, who plays the super-hero in the new movie) give the command to start engines, was pretty impressive.

  • Having crazy-maned road-racer Boris Said out front to the lead the pack had to give his fervent fans a kick, however short-lived. We certainly hope none of them went home early, thinking that’s all there was. We think that Boris should be pretty happy with himself right now.
  • Elliott Sadler’s fans ought to be proud, after enduring his shuffle to the netherlands of the pack, only to wind up with a fifth-place finish.
  • Seeing an exhausted but jubilant Tony Stewart climb the fence, wave the checkers, and then dive into a quicksand of fans was a sight to see. More and more Joshua and I feel lucky to have been in the stands to see him win his first win at Richmond in 1999.

HeartBreakers:

  • The bouncy beach ball that brought about the caution on lap 8 was amusing, but only for a moment. One has to worry that the ease of which such an otherwise innocuous object can be tossed onto a racetrack to make such an impact on a race will plant some very rotten seeds in some very devious minds.

On the plus side, though, at least we didn’t hear about any untimely seagull deaths interrupting in any way the procession of the race.

  • The tangled web that Jeff Burton and Casey Mears wove with each other on lap 16 that was similar to the pre-race practice scramble of Thursday was a great disappointment to their respective fans.

Kudos to them both, though, for managing to be among the top 15 at race’s end.

  • Speaking of fans, the satisfaction level of those that fervently follow Dale Jr. had to be low, especially after his win in the Busch race the night before. While 13th isn’t a shabby finish, it is when your expectations are high.
  • While Kurt Busch finished third, we’re still thinking that it’s going to be kind of a downer of a Monday at the Hendricks’ shop.
  • The biggest heartbreak had to be the sudden end to Bobby Labonte’s otherwise great run on lap 148. What NASCAR fan out there didn’t let out a huge sigh of frustration as he became the unwitting middleman between Jimmie Johnson and the wall?