Sad City Travels: Daytona Beach Florida

Stock car racing is not something that is on the radar of most Hartfordites. In Daytona Beach, Florida it is a lifestyle. The biggest week of the year in stock car racing is "Speed Week" in February which culminates with the Daytona 500, the Super Bowl of stock car racing. 

Due to an unprecedented rainout, the Daytona 500 was pushed from Sunday afternoon to Monday night and we were not able to attend. We did get to go two races on the massive super speedway on Friday night and Saturday afternoon. There is no way to describe how big the track is, one barely even notices the lake in the track infield. It may not translate great to television, but watching dozens of cars going 190 MPH inches from each other is quite the spectacle. 

The Sprint Cup returns to Daytona International Speedway with the Pepsi 400 Saturday night on TNT. Below are some sights and sounds from the races in February. In closing Sad City would like to thank the fans, CT News Junkie, pay phones, the City of Hartford, Google, and everyone who makes the internet possible!

Car Trends In East Hartford

We don't travel to our sister city East Hartford too often. Maybe about once a summer to have a beer on the river at 125 Riverside or once every couple years to an early season (i.e. warm weather) UConn football game. Besides that, we just don't find ourselves compelled to cross the river too often. What we've been missing out on is what appears to be a return on the "car pickup" hybrid, a style first introduced by the Chevrolet El Camino in 1959.

That's Quite A Sleigh

We have to give this car owner credit for the Christmas spirit. We have to admit, it would be pretty cool if everyone drove around with a massive wreath on their grill and a candy cane on their antenna Christmas week. Not only would it be festive but it would have to cut down on road rage incidents right?

We could totally see 2006 Santa rocking this Excursion as his sleigh. Of course in today's post everything collapse, energy conscious society, 2011 Santa would have to rock a Prius as his sleigh. Sadly, that means smaller presents for everyone. It's a recession you know.

Hartford Rides

Fuel efficiency is totally overrated

Hartford isn't a car culture city like Los Angeles, but it is still a city where most resident rely primarily on their cars as the main source of transportation. People's attitudes towards their cars is always interesting. Some people insist in having cars they can't afford while others don't seem to care at all what they drive in. The vast majority of cars in the road are uninteresting and don't garner a second notice. We have a few that do.

Car Crashes Into Farmington Ave CVS

Drill Baby Drill!

She's back! When we last encountered the little old lady in the VW bug wanting to drill for American oil, citizens and the media were getting way too excited about some oil spewing into the ocean down near Louisiana. A little oil never hurt anything right?

 In fact the stance seemed so unpopular at the time we theorized that maybe the bumper sticker had been put on her car as some type of prank. Surely this isn't the message she was intending to send? Well here we are two months later. We've forgotten about oil, (that's sooooo summer!) today we care about bullying and Chilean miners (but not for much longer with these miners). 

Went Out of Style Faster Than the H2

Though the Gulf oil spill has lost its spot atop the news cycle this is still a quite a bold statement to make these days. I can't imagine the looks this thing drew a couple months ago. Then again as it was an old lady driving a VW beetle, it's possible the bumper sticker is a prank perpetrated by some young whippersnappers that grandma is woefully unaware of. First seen on Woodland. Tailed closely to Farmington for the shot.