Sports is the ultimate reality show. History can be defined by a split-second decision made in the heat of the moment. It can make a career or break career, franchise, team or sport.
Think of the great moments in Super Bowl XLII. What if Bill Belichick had kicked the 48-yard field goal on the 4th-and-13 in the first half? What if Eli Manning had taken the sack on the pass play to David Tyree that setup the Giants Super Bowl-winning score? Either one of those plays could have resulted in a 19-0 season for the Patriots.
"What if" is the ultimate question, because the answer changes history, be it for the individual, team, sport or nation.
The outcome of the 50th Daytona 500 has left me with the ultimate question: what would have happened if Tony Stewart had stayed on the high side (and no, smart asses, I don't mean *high*)?
Think about it. Tony Stewart had the lead coming out of turn 2 on the last lap of the Daytona 500. He was on the high side. One third of the way down the back stretch, Tony made one of those defining decisions -- he decided to switch lanes to the low side to draft with teammate Kyle Busch.
The rest was history as Ryan Newman stayed true to the high side and was pushed to his first Daytona 500 win by teammate Kurt Busch.
Why switch?
Why switch?
If Tony had not changed lanes, would he have won? The answer is "we don't know", but what if he would've won? He would no longer have to answer the "are you ever going to win Daytona?" question. He would have crossed off the last item on his NASCAR to-do list; the Daytona 500 trophy is the only thing missing in an otherwise full NASCAR trophy case.
If he had won the Daytona 500, what would happen to his career? Would he choose to stay in NASCAR beyond 2008, or would he leave greener pastures to chase the real American racing Holy Grail, the Borg Warner trophy? Or would he retire to his Columbus, Indiana compound and go back to dirt track racing?
The fact is that we don't know the answer. And we never will. We now will have to wait until next year to see if Tony can finally do it. It's like Peyton Manning was with the Big Game ... will it ever happen?
I reckon that's the beauty of sport, right? We just don't know how things will work out.
2 comments:
When watching, I personally thought it was a bad decision. Keep your "enemies" where you can see them: in your rear view mirror.
Who knows.
Impressive finish though.
I wonder if he thought Newman would try to get him on the low side. I got the chance to listen to Stewart's scanner chatter on Sirius, and he mentioned a couple times his car worked better on the low side.
That being said, Kyle Busch was too far back to help.
It was a great finish. It's too bad that the best NASCAR has to offer is already finished.
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