Sports Illustrated: Full Throttle: 2004 Nascar Preview - From Daytona To Darlington

The Story

Why Do We love NASCAR? Maybe it's because it is a sport that loves us back, working overtime to engage its fans in many ways. Foremost among these is the racing itself, with its split-second, high-decibel, tire-screeching dance of risk and reward, as a collection of larger-than-life stars bang, bump and feud at jaw-dropping speeds on the high-banked ovals at Darlington and Talladega. There are, of course, other reasons. Unlike most sports, in which fans can see only dim reflections of themselves -- when was the last time you hit a 450-foot home run, or carded a 63 at Medinah, or tomahawked a dunk down on Shaq's head? -- NASCAR is at once death-defying and prosaic. When was the last time you drove?