Holey Cow! What a day, what a race!

Just a couple of hours or so after the 2010 Daytona 500 ended, and I'm still not sure how it will be remembered in the years to come.

Jamie McMurray did exactly what he was supposed to do. Prepare well, run well, draft well, pit smart, keep your nose clean and your tires up, be up front when it counts, and then win. He and his team did all of those things to perfection.

Plenty of bloggers, writers, radio guys, podcasters, and TV guys will analyze Jamie's win, the trivia point about the Earnhardt name being associated with the win (Teresa), his emotional victory lane interview, and the "aww man, so close" 2nd place finish by Dale Jr. So I'll leave that part of the race to them.

Instead, I'll focus on the other aspect of the race - and the one I think will stick to the race more than Jamie's win. The hole.

With plenty of Florida rain, wide ranging winter temperatures, a low race groove, and some great Goodyear traction, a pot hole developed between turns 1 and 2 about half-way through the race. After taking about 90 minutes to fix it, the drivers raced another 36 laps before the patchwork came undone. A second red flag period of about 45 minutes was needed to fix it a second time. Thankfully, the patch then held to allow the race to end with the great finish.

I'm not going to dog NASCAR or the track for the pothole or the repair. That kind of stuff happens, and it takes a while to repair it. While mildly embarrassing for the sport when view by NASCAR Noobs, its nothing to worry much about in the long term.

Race fans excel at finding ways to have a good time and find humor in all tough race situations. Rain delays. Fence or SAFER barrier repairs. Or potholes.

Instead of being at the track, I was sitting comfortably at home building calluses on my fingers from participating on Twitter. Some fantastic, one-line zingers were tweeted about about the hole. Here's a sample:

• RyanMcGeeESPN - Just ordered "Holes" on NetFlix
• XIANITY - This year's Daytona 500 has more cautions than a Johnathan Edwards sermon.
• bobpockrass Dale Earnhardt Jr. has had so much free time today, he's shaved his beard and it's grown back.
• RyanMcGeeESPN If Tebow was still at Daytona he could've healed the hole with the water from his tears.
• bobpockrass Something tells me the word "D'OH" has been uttered more during the Daytona 500 than will be on The Simpsons tonight.
• TheDalyPlanet Hey, with all the folks watching, we could probably trend #holepacolypse"
• RyanMcGeeESPN Ordered my wife a dozen red roses from a Daytona florist for today. I may have accidentally ordered a dozen red flags. My bad.
• Kenneth_Douglas I thought the 24 hours of Daytona was a couple weeks ago?
• Jonathan_Howe Has NASCAR set up a number we can text to donate $10 to track repairs yet?
• brantjames This reminds me of time they had to stop the Super Bowl cause the field cave in. Oh, wait. That never happened
• TeamFordRacing Oh, it's looking like the Detroit highways.
• MartySmithESPN Maybe Courtney Love will come play a post-race concert. #Hole.
  

I even made an effort to join The Hole's Amateur Hour. At the risk of wrenching my shoulder while patting myself on the back, I thought these were pretty good:

• Waiting for next YouTube viral video Hole In The Ground / Looking like a fool / With your Hole in the Ground
• Boogity boogity boogity let's go pavin' boys!
• Daytona500 track repairs delayed as NASCAR awaits arrival of Recovery.org sign.

Did you hear or read any others? How about some fresh ones? Comment below.

Twitter may be silly. Twitter may be a trend. But during a long race day, Twitter sure was a place to have a lot of fun with friends, media, pundits, and even drivers. Join us for future races if you haven't already.

http://twitter.com/toomuchcountry

TMC