NASCAR Themed National Doughnut Day

Today, June 7, is the 2013 edition of the annual National Doughnut Day. Don't let anyone kid you. You can't spell doughnut as donut. Taking a principled-stand for the proper spelling of doughnut is a must. Otherwise, just have fun, and celebrate by enjoying doughnuts with those around you - friends & foes, in-laws and outlaws.

I love doughnuts. Fortunately, I've backed away from eating as many of them as I once did - but I still love them. As a kid, our mother treated us occasionally at a local bakery in Donelson, Tennessee - a suburb of Nashville. After she dropped off my dad at work, she would sometimes stop on the way back home and allow the three of us to buy two doughnuts each. More often than not, I'd get a chocolate-topped, glazed doughnut or a lemon-filled one. Sometimes though I'd step forward with an order for an apple fritter. I'm not sure a fritter actually qualifies as a doughnut. But it was the best value for my mother's generous offer, and DADGUM it was good.

NDD got me to thinking about how I could tie racing to doughnuts, and I realized two of my favorites have a pretty close connection.

First, the smell. The scent of a doughnut is hardly the same as a race track. But both are unique and create a lasting impresssion. Nothing is more heavenly than walking into a bakery or doughnut shop at the very time hot doughnuts are coming off the line as a fresh pot of coffee finishes brewing. Similarly, nothing quite gets one's adrenalin pumping and pulse accelerating like the smell of NASCAR fuel and heated Goodyear tires.

Next, the circle. While I've always had a fondness for fritters, eclairs, filled doughnuts, and such, a true doughnut is simply round with a hole in the center.

An analogy can be drawn from a doughnut to certain race tracks such as...

Dover...

Nashville...

Hickory...

And especially the long-lost, one-mile, dirt circle known as Langhorne Speedway.

One could even suggest the logo of Ontario Motor Speedway that once stood near the site of today's California Speedway somewhat resembles a doughnut - albeit a smashed one.

A handful of drivers and cars have a loose connection to National Doughnut Day such as...

Young Gray Gaulding who has Krispy Kreme as a sponsor. How awesome would it be to have unlimited access to those glazed sliders.

Delma Cowart - This driver once quipped "I've never won a race, but I've never lost a party."

Dan Gurney - This legendary driver has had a success in just about every form of motorsports. But is it possible his greatest accomplishment was piloting a car with a doughnut-like zero on the side of it?

Credit: Ray Lamm at RacersReunion.com

Ward Burton perhaps?

And these two drivers kind of remind me of my mother's offer of letting my brother, sister and me buy two doughnuts.

David Reutimann...

 ... and Buckshot Jones.

Remember folks - brush those pearly whites, perhaps with Aquafresh, after you eat your doughnuts. There's no sense in ruining National Doughnut Day by developing tooth decay.

TMC