I know, “you might be a redneck” if you post about farming and nascar in the same week. Technically Sunday starts a new week so I think I’ll be okay… But I’ll admit it, I’m a “gear head”. I enjoy watching fast cars go around in circles. I understand stuff like “pit strategy” and being “loose” or “tight”. Hi my name is Don and I am a nascar fan, I am part of “Earnhardt Nation”. (Wait, maybe I am a redneck!)

To a nascar fan, one of the best races on the schedule is at Bristol, TN. Imagine cramming 160,000 rabid fans and 43 cars on a track probably smaller than your local Target parking lot. I think Bristol is what would have happened if the gladiators in the Colosseum had been given race cars to drive instead of weapons. Cars slide, wrecks occur, tempers flare, and excitement ensues…until last night.

This year they repaved “Thunder Valley”. They made it very smooth. They reconfigured the banking so cars would have plenty of grip and wouldn’t have to “beat and bang” their way to the front. Their new safer cars made it a much less dangerous place. In the pre-race show the commentators and the drivers raved about the new surface and how great the race would be now that it was so “smooth and easy to pass”. I fell asleep. Without the “roughness” of the track, without the difficulty, without the “drama”, the race became boring.

Sometimes I wonder why doing anything worthwhile has to be so difficult? Why it can’t be “Smoother”? Why do there have to be so many “bumps” and “wrecks” along the way? Maybe the Creator of history also thinks “smooth is boring”. Maybe (like everything else he does) HE desires to tell a “good story”. Maybe the one who has been “weaving” our human story since creation also enjoys the drama of conflict and danger. Maybe because I am created in his image, “smooth” racing puts me to sleep…

Or, maybe I am just getting “too old” to stay awake after 11pm…