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Back Flips and Bows
By admin | August 16, 2008
By Jayson D. Henry
NFL players have end zone dances. Basketball players have stylish dunks. And now, celebrations have made their way to NASCAR. This season has been one to bring those celebrations to prominence.
It used to be that all NASCAR drivers ever did to celebrate a win was a long, smoking burnout. That’s OK I guess, but almost every driver did the same thing. Sure, some drivers may have added their own flare to it like spinning through the grass or putting the nose of the car against the wall to hold the car in place in place. Still, a lot of smoke and noise but not much variety.
Now, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch have brought some new twists to the victory celebration.
Edwards has what is the most difficult and unique of all with his back flip off the side of the car. It’s really kind of hard to believe that after sitting in a hot, cramped car for 500 miles that he can pull that flip off without breaking something.
After getting out of a car following a long drive my main objective is usually to find the nearest restroom.
Are there any of you out there who secretly hope he misses one of those flips?
Kyle Busch takes a safer route with his celebration. He likes to take a bow after he wins. There’s not as much risk in knocking yourself unconscious doing a bow as there is with doing a back flip. But still, it’s something different.
Back flips and bows sound like something you might expect to see in the coverage of the Olympics.
The originator of the unique celebration, at least in modern times, was probably Alan Kulwicki. His “Polish Victory Lap†was pretty cool and it was something that he thought up and made his own. Of course, others copied it in honor of him after his death.
So far, there have been 8 bows and 4 back flips this season. I know there are a lot of people out there who don’t like this kind of stuff and think it is too showy. Well, that may be but it is just something that sets each driver who wins a race apart from the others.
When a driver wins a race he ought to have the right to do something fun.
Jayson D. Henry is a guest blogger for RacingWithRich.com.
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