So I attended the Daytona 500 last night. Now, I've never attended a race before, I've sort of watched it on TV before. My two older brothers are both racing fans, my dad is a fan of all sports, and so I knew that if I didn't enjoy the race I'd enjoy watching the race in person with my dad and my eldest brother.

I enjoyed the race, however my ADD kept tugging at my sleeve as I was in one place for over seven hours without internet access. It's just... so... long. Thankfully I was wrong in a major way. The race is called the "Daytona 500" and I thought that meant 500 laps. So with 500 laps, each lap being 2.5 miles, I thought I was settling in to watch someone drive 1250 miles. Thank GOD that I was wrong and that it was 200 laps at 2.5 miles for 500 miles.

I think there are a few big things new racing fans need to know about this race:

1)  The race itself is actually very exciting. Sure driving in a circle sounds boring but when they get three wide going around a turn at 190 miles per hour and you know someone is trying to gain mere feet so that they can nudge ahead of the car next to them.

2) You do get excited from crashes, not necessarily for the explosions and chaos, but because it allows the racers to return to a single clump of cars rather than spread out around the track. So with the yellow flag they recompress and as soon as the green flag waves they hit the gas and the race is on, everyone in the arena rises to their feet to watch them come around.

3) Traffic after the race is absolutely unbelievable. Truly, horribly, disgustingly bad. First, there's traffic to get back to your car. Second, there's traffic to get out of the parking lots. Third, there's traffic on the interstates. It took us 5 hours to get from the race track, back to Orlando.  A trip which should have maybe taken 90 minutes took 3 times longer. Thankfully I slept most of the way.