Confessions of a Racing Junkie Part II

Originally Posted on December 15, 2005 on Foxsports.com

I realized I had a problem when I watched the 1999 Daytona 500 _Qualifications_ on TV.  I was craving a racing fix, and the winter without a race had been tough.

Tony Stewart was a rookie in 1999.  He earned lots of money racing; I spent lots of time watching racing. 

It was a small addiction then.  Missing a race didn't bother me (especially in the summer stretch).  Sometimes I wouldn't even know who won until a week later.  Nascar racing was available most of the year - no worries on missing a race.

Eventually, that changed when I moved and didn't have cable or satellite TV.  As the weeks went by, I missed racing again.  I needed the high of seeing stock cars race.  So, like any junkie, I found a new "dealer" = the radio.  It got me through the part of the schedule when I couldn't get the race on TV.

Years had gone by since I discovered this euphoria called racing, and I thought I had been hiding my racing problem well.  I didn't discuss racing because no one knew or cared anything about it.  I realized I had failed at hiding the amount of time I was spending on  racing when my brother bought me tickets to a race for Christmas.  "You should probably see one live sometime." he said.

My persistant- yet almost manageable - addiction was about to get a lot worse.