I'll admit it. Halfway through the Daytona 500 I turned off the TV.

I'm a big motor racing fan and I live for F1, regardless of its politics and extravagant budgets. Nevertheless I tune in to the Daytona 500 because at this time of the year I'm starved for motor racing. Except that NASCAR's version of racing isn't mine.

Drafting and bump-drafting is okay, I suppose, but there has to be more to motorsport than driving round-and-round in a squadron of so-called stock cars while waiting to join up with "friends" who are willing to get in line so that one or the other can grab the lead. Tony Stewart bitched, prior to the race, about dangerous driving and how bump-drafting might someday kill somebody. Then he went out and bumped, bashed, and pushed his way to a hapless finish.

Jimmie Johnson, who won the race, did so under a cloud of suspicion in a roller-coaster week that saw NASCAR kick his crew chief out of competition for cheating.

As a long-ago amateur road racer I have great respect for anyone who drives a race car. But this charade found me wondering why I was tied to the tube when I could be enjoying a lovely day in the Sidney sun. Thanks to Internet sites like USA Today the results awaited me when I returned and you know what? I'm not the least bit sorry I hit that "off" button.