The Hlog

It is what it is, which is upside down and on fire

NASCAR isn't immune to popular phrases of the day that mean absolutely nothing.

"It is what it is" has plagued America for the last year, and it dashed across Daytona over the last week.

"This is what it is, and that's it," Mark Martin said after he lost the Daytona 500 by not very many inches to Kevin Harvick.

"I think it's a good way to end a nice winter snooze,'' NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton said of the 500. "It is what it is for us."

Toyota had cars in a Nextel Cup event for the first time. Of the four, Dale Jarrett's 22nd-place finish was the best.

"OK, it is what is, and we keep working on our stuff,'' said Lee White, senior vice president of Toyota Racing Development.

The race had a rather insane ending. Harvick beat Martin by about a slim a margin as you ever see in a NASCAR event. Clint Bowyer's car skidded across the finish line on its roof after flipping over on the wild final lap. The car was on fire, too.

Poor Bowyer finished 18th. "If we were going to end up on our lid,'' he said, "we better end up better than that."

Since the driver wasn't hurt, I can say this about the car sliding down the straightaway while ablaze:

That was great. You didn't anything anywhere near that interesting at the NBA All-Star Game, though Wayne Newton's pre-game lip-synching of "Viva Las Vegas" and "Danke Schoen" were mighty bizarre.

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