#nascar homestead

[sortanonymous]

I don't know who feels more like this watching Reddick and 23XI make it to Phoenix, NASCAR or RCR.

Meanwhile, Denny Hamlin's reaction to choking yet again in a big playoff moment, yet it ultimately being to the benefit of his employee who may or may not be screwed out of a stable ride next year, was probably like this.

[emuchipmunk]

This is my contribution to nascar

[trendynewsnow]

NASCAR Suspends Conner Jones for Intentional Crash at Homestead-Miami

NASCAR Suspends Conner Jones for One Race Following Intentional Crash NASCAR has taken decisive action by suspending Truck Series driver Conner Jones for one race after he deliberately crashed into fellow competitor Matt Mills during a race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. This reckless incident left Mills hospitalized for two days due to the injuries sustained from the crash. During the race on…

[crip-card]

Such a happy lil guy

[whipplefilter]

Homestead 2024

NASCAR "DON'T DISAPPOINT ME" CHALLENGE

[constanze-1782]

Boogedy, boogedy, boogedy!!!!

[duck7]

NASCAR Cup Series ʳᵒᵘⁿᵈ ³⁴ Homestead-Miami 🇺🇸

Kyle Larson slams into the barriers at the entrance of pit road.

JJ Yeley crashes hard into wall.

[go-fast-turn-left]

Well, none of the races this past weekend went the way I wanted but it was still a blast to be back at the track! Hopefully it won’t be long before I can go again.

[alonsoings]

TYLER REDDICK

[coimbrabertone]

Martinsville Cooked...Until It Was Cooked

Now, I will go ahead and admit this: I think I'm the polar opposite of a NASCAR boomer when it comes to tracks. I like most of the 1.5s, while I generally find the little bullrings like Bristol and Martinsville to be more demo derby than good racing. That being said...I think the Martinsville cutoff race yesterday delivered.

At least until the playoff shenanigans soured the end of the race.

One step back though, because let me set the stage for all this first.

I missed stage one of the race, ironically enough - I needed a bit of a break from racing after the Brazilian Grand Prix went from a chaotic wet race to the worst guy in the sport running away with it - but when I tuned in early on in stage two, it was already looking surprisingly good.

Chase Elliott was leading off strategy, Byron was gaining on him, but then behind them it was a pair of Fords battling with Brad Keselowski ahead of Ryan Blaney. Now, the way things were going, Byron could point his way into the championship four, as could Christopher Bell in the #20 Toyota, but...

Chase Elliott in the #9 Hendrick Chevrolet, Kyle Larson in the #5 Hendrick Chevrolet, and Ryan Blaney in the #12 Penske Ford were all heading towards a must-win scenario.

Thus, we had two Hendrick teammates battling and potentially knocking each other out of the playoffs, while behind, a pair of Fords were reeling them in.

Brad Keselowski was out of the playoffs, but he was racing for pride. He wanted to win at Martinsville.

Ryan Blaney, however, won at Martinsville the previous year to advance to Phoenix and won the championship that way.

Then Byron gets ahead of Elliott.

But...a caution comes out for Burton spinning, and it immediately breeds another when Truex also goes around. For a moment, I thought "ah crap we're getting into the short track nonsense part of the race" but no, not quite...instead, it led to a crucial strategic choice.

Byron and Elliott both pit off the Truex caution, Blaney and Keselowski stay out, along with Hamlin and Bell who are also sniffing the chance to advance.

And to add insult to injury, Elliott has a slow stop and drops to the back of the fresh tyre cars.

Keselowski gets out ahead and manages to win the second stage ahead of Blaney, Hamlin, Larson, Byron, and Bell.

This stage makes it official that Blaney and Elliott are must-wins, and Hamlin is more or less in the same boat. With non-playoff car Keselowski in the lead, as they run:

Logano is locked in from his win at Vegas.

Reddick is locked in from his win at Homestead.

Byron is 15 points above the cutoff line.

Larson is 6 points above.

Bell is 6 points below but can win tiebreakers off of previous results.

Hamlin is 17 below.

Ryan Blaney must win to advance.

Chase Elliott must win to advance.

Bell, however, can clinch a spot no matter what so long as he finishes 13th or above, therefore, Byron and Larson are in a points battle for the fourth and final spot. A points battle that becomes a moot point if any one of Hamlin, Blaney, or Elliott win.

Stage three is quite literally 200 laps long, so it turns into a bit of a lull for awhile as cars need to knock off laps, but then...Ryan Blaney begins his charge.

He overtakes Larson, goes hunting down Byron.

Catches Byron as William is lapping Shane Van Gisbergen, so Ryan Blaney bumps SVG up and into Byron, slipping underneath the both of them to take position. This is the kind of move that they say Martinsville is all about, bumping, banging, ruthless, but smart. All three cars continue.

Blaney again catches up to Keselowski but the #6 is a wily old fox and makes it hard to pass.

Fast forward to 117 to go, and it looks an awful lot like stage two; Elliott is leading after an earlier pitstop gave him the undercut, Byron is faster and is hunting him down, while Keselowski and Blaney in the Fords are also entering the picture.

A spin by Carson Hocevar gives all of them the chance to pit.

Meanwhile, Byron, Larson, Ryan Preece, and Austin Cindric stay out, making a play for track position.

The green flag comes out, Larson overtakes Byron, Cindric overtakes Preece, and the yellow comes out again as Kyle Busch lost a wheel on the restart. Byron is angry because he feels they shouldn't have restarted at all given a car lost a wheel, but NASCAR declares that Larson is the leader.

And in the following stint, things start to fall apart for Byron.

Elliott gets him off the restart, Blaney follows not long after, and even the likes of Cindric and Hamlin start pressuring him.

So at this point, it's Larson, Elliott, and Blaney the top three and each of them are in must-win scenarios given how Byron is running and how Bell has a points advantage.

Elliott forces his way inside of Larson to take the lead with 24 to go and completes the pass in turn one, keeping Larson out wide as Blaney grabs the draft and tries to follow him through.

Larson gets down in front of Blaney before turn three, but Larson is maybe a foot higher up in the lane than Blaney is, and that's all Ryan needs as he bumps Larson up in just the right way and then barges through to go side-by-side onto the start-finish straight, completing the pass in turn one.

Larson tries to bump Blaney up and retake the position, but Blaney keeps enough traction in the upper groove to come out ahead onto the backstretch. Now, he starts reeling in Elliott.

Ten laps later, Blaney sends it up the inside in turn three, gets a nose ahead through four, and comes onto the start-finish straight ahead of Elliott to take the lead with fourteen laps to go. Blaney restarted behind Cindric and Hamlin, overtook them both, overtook Byron, and charged through Larson and Elliott as well.

He literally moved through 3/4ths of Hendrick Motorsports to move into the lead. A hell of a drive.

Unfortunately...this is where the shitshow began.

Hamlin and Cindric moved ahead of the struggling Byron as well by this point, so Byron is sixth, the worst position he can be in and still advance. Ross Chastain, Austin Dillon, and Brad Keselowski are all behind Byron and are all faster.

Now, William Byron drives for Chevy, as do Chastain and Dillon.

Joey Logano, locked into the playoffs already, is a Ford driver.

Tyler Reddick, also locked in, drives for Toyota.

Ryan Blaney, about to win his way in, is in a Ford.

Larson and Elliott are out of it with Blaney winning and pulling ahead, while Christopher Bell with the points advantage is in 19th in a Toyota. Byron needs to finish 13 places ahead of Bell to advance, and 6 is exactly 13 ahead of 19.

If Chastain or Dillon pass their fellow Chevrolet, they'd be knocking their manufacturer out of the final four.

So instead, Dillon plants himself on the bottom, Chastain on the top, and they effectively block for Byron, keeping him in sixth place regardless of how slow he is.

So, Chevy is making sure that Byron doesn't lose points.

Now, what does Toyota do?

Well, Bubba Wallace starts reporting with three to go that he feels like a tyre is going down. He is off the pace, and Bell starts gaining on him, passing him in the final corner of the final lap.

Pause now, because what happens next flips the script.

At this moment, with Bell going around him, does Bubba Wallace really have a tyre going down? Technically speaking, it doesn't even matter, because he doesn't say he for sure has one, just that it feels like he has one. There's no penalty for thinking your car has a problem and driving accordingly.

And from his onboard, he does definitely seem to be struggling, and you can see cars going past him and establishing a gap.

That being said, as far back as ten to go, Bubba's onboard does show his spotter keeping him informed of the points situation between Byron and Bell.

And here's an interesting thing as well: at the start of the final lap, Wallace is forced high as Byron, Dillon, Chastain, Keselowski, and Logano, that whole group of cars, goes underneath him to put a lap on him. So he clearly sees the two Chevys behind Byron protecting him from the pair of Fords behind.

The #20 of Bell, also a lap down, tries to take the opportunity to slip under Wallace as well, however, he has a wobble in the middle of it, loses control, and hits the wall. Bell panics, throttles it, and rides the wall to the finish, crossing the line in 18th place.

This ties things with Byron, thus, Bell advances off the back of a tiebreaker.

The problem here is...you smell that smell? Yeah, that's the stench of bullshit.

You quite literally have two cases of race manipulation to gets drivers into the final four. Byron had two other Chevrolets blocking for him in a move which the fanbase has already memed as either Byron's Armada or the Chevy Motorcade - let me know which one you think is funnier in the comments - while with Toyota...

The generous interpretation is that Wallace had a genuine problem, was slow, and his spotter was keeping him informed on Bell just to keep one Toyota from taking out another.

The less generous interpretation is that 23XI informed Wallace that Bell was behind and needed one more point to advance, so they had Wallace fake a problem and deliberately slow down to make sure that Bell got through.

Bell did get through, however, he slipped on the marbles as it happened and wound up in the wall and decided to ride the wall to the finish. This is problematic, as the Martinsville wall ride was explicitly banned after 2022 when Ross Chastain used it to propel himself into the final four.

There is a bit of a distinction, in that Bell was initially attempting the corner instead of full throttling it into the wall, however, the end result is the same as Bell was full throttle against the wall at the end.

And that wall ride, I think, gave NASCAR an easy out as we unpause, because it makes what Christopher Bell did go from dubiously legal to definitely illegal.

You see, without it, you had Chevy definitely doing some race manipulation to keep Byron in the playoffs, while Toyota very likely had race manipulation as well to get Bell into the final four, so this was going to be a very sticky situation as NASCAR would have to figure out how to put an end to these manufacturer games.

Manufacturer games which have already flared up twice this season. First at Daytona, when RCR got pissed off at Parker Retzlaff for pushing Harrison Burton in an attempt to win the race, rather than helping Kyle Busch in another Chevrolet take the win.

Secondly, at Talladega, where Kyle Larson didn't push the Ford of Brad Keselowski to the win, instead allowing the fellow Chevy of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to take the victory.

These races have decided who goes to the playoffs and who advances in the Round of 12, and now, we've seen two manufacturers manipulating the cutoff race for the final four.

And at least in the case of Chevrolet, we know for sure that there was a coordinated effort to help Byron.

Why? Well, remember Austin Dillon's spotter from Richmond? The guy who yelled "wreck him!" over a monitored radio channel as Dillon took a swipe at Hamlin to win the race? A bit of radio that caused NASCAR to strip Austin Dillon of a playoff berth?

Well, Dillon's spotter, henceforth known as Loose Lips, said the following things over the radio:

LL: "The #24 is two points to the good, if we pass him, he'll be out."

AD: "Does the #1 know the deal?"

LL: "Trying to find him to tell him...Justin, can you tell the crew chief also, clear off."

AD: "Does the #1 crew chief know the deal?"

LL: "Yeah, he should"

Like...Jesus Christ you amateur, watch what you say when you're doing something borderline illegal. You'd think he'd learn his lesson after the whole Richmond thing but evidently not.

So yeah, Chevrolet was definitely helping Byron, and as for Bubba Wallace, his car is currently being torn down by NASCAR. According to Bob Pockrass, the expectation is that there will be some sort of penalty if NASCAR finds nothing wrong with the car.

Oh and, because of how toxic the NASCAR fanbase is, I have to say this part: Bubba Wallace did what his team and his manufacturer expected him to do. The fact that he is black does not make him any more guilty than Austin Dillon or Ross Chastain.

Unfortunately, if Bubba Wallace is found to have helped Bell, I expect he'll receive the blunt of the criticism from a certain subsection of the fanbase. Don't be like them. Wallace is not the problem, Chastain is not the problem, Dillon, as dumb as he and his spotter are, is not the problem either.

Chevrolet wants a Chevy to win the championship, Toyota wants a Toyota to win the championship.

This is an inevitable result of the increasing amount of manufacturer alliances and tiered support.

So yeah, Chevy was stinking up the show, Toyota was probably stinking up the show as well, and that little wall ride by Bell gave NASCAR a way of ruling on the issue without addressing the core issue.

Both Byron and Bell benefitted from cars of the same manufacturer, so you can't punish one without punishing the other, however, Bell is the only one to benefit from a wall ride, therefore, NASCAR sends him to the back of the field based off that, and Byron advances to the final four with none of the manufacturer stuff addressed.

We'll see this week if NASCAR rules on either incident, but I'm not holding out hope.

NASCAR is not going to do anything that might piss off a manufacturer, not when nobody new has entered the sport since 2007.

Anyway, I feel bad for Blaney in all this, because he had this heroic drive to overtake all these other playoff cars and advance to the final four, getting the chance to defend his title. And instead of talking about that, everyone's just talking about this Chevy and Toyota drama.

So of the championship four: Tyler Reddick's team is suing NASCAR, Joey Logano is fifteenth in regular points and only got this far because Bowman was disqualified at the Charlotte roval, and William Byron advanced off the back of all this bullshit.

I really hope Ryan Blaney wins the championship, because anyone else would lead to an unbearable amount of offseason discourse.

[james-is-nasqueer]

NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying @ Homestead Miami

Group A top 5 (advancing to round 2)

Reddick

Wallace

Truex Jr

Hamlin

Haley

Group B

Bell

Stenhouse Jr

Larson

Elliott

Hemric

[sortanonymous]

Uhhhhhh, NASCAR Trucks on FS1, you sure you aren't having a nuclear meltdown or anything (at least any more than you normally do)?

[devilbarista]

some of the best years in my NASCAR watching life also coincide with some of the worst years of my personal life so you couldn't pay me to go back in time and live through any of that again. but I would kill to feel the emotions I felt while drunk off my ass 2019 Homestead race aka Kyle Busch championship #2

[dystini]

Indycar Driver Lore

Indycar Driver Lore Masterlist

George Dario Marino Franchitti

Birthdate: May 19, 1973 Hometown: Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland Residence: Scotland Height/Weight: 5′ 9″/172lbs

Rookie Year: 1997 (CART)

Team: Ganassi (advisor)

Follow him on: Instagram Twitter

Career Stats

CART 1997 Hogan Racing - 22nd Overall 1998 Team Green - 3rd Overall 1999 Team Green - 2nd Overall (lost the title on a tiebreaker) 2000 Team Green - 13th Overall 2001 Team Green - 7th Overall 2002 Team Green - 4th Overall

Indycar 2002 Team Green (Indy 500 only) - 44th Overall 2003 3 races with Andretti Green Racing - 25th Overall 2004 Andretti Green Racing - 6th Overall 2005 Andretti Green Racing - 4th Overall 2006 Andretti Green Racing - 8th Overall 2007 Andretti Green Racing - 1st Overall 2008 Chip Ganassi Racing (Only competed in an exhibition race) 2009 Chip Ganassi Racing - 1st Overall 2010 Chip Ganassi Racing - 1st Overall 2011 Chip Ganassi Racing - 1st Overall 2012 Chip Ganassi Racing - 7th Overall 2013 Chip Ganassi Racing - 10th Overall

NASCAR

Sprint Cup 2008 Chip Ganassi Racing - 49th Overall (partial season)

Nationwide Series 2007 Chip Ganassi Racing - 95th Overall (partial season) 2008 Chip Ganassi Racing - 35th Overall (partial season)

appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2014

is lefthanded

currently serves as advisor/diver coach for Chip Ganassi Racing

started go-kart racing at age 10

won more than 100 races and 20 Scottish, British and World karting titles

raced in British F3 in 1994

made a cameo appearance as a racing driver in the 2001 film Driven

appeared on the US television shows Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson three times each in the late 2000s and early 2010s

voiced a Scottish news anchor and a male tourist in the 2013 animated film Turbo, for which he provided technical consultation

served as a television co-commentator and driver pundit on Formula E's world feed since its inaugural season in 2014

is a member of the "Brat Pack", an international group of CART drivers composed of Dario, Tony Kanaan, Greg Moore and Max Papis, who shared a desire for enjoyment, attending all-night parties, discussing life and staying in close contact with one another

Prior to the 2000 CART season, Franchitti was hospitalised after a crash during pre-season testing at Homestead–Miami Speedway; part of the car's suspension hit his head, and he sustained displaced fractures in his left hip and pelvis, and multiple minor brain contusions

sustained an anterior stable compression fracture of the lumbar vertebrae in an motorbike accident during a trip to West Lothian in April, 2003

requiring season-ending keyhole surgery to strengthen his back, missing the second half of the 2003 season

had a minor left-ankle fracture in 2008, after a crash in a NASCAR Nationwide race

Before the season-ending 2011 IZOD IndyCar World Championship at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Franchitti led Will Power in the championship standings by 18 points. The race was abandoned following a 15-car accident on the 11th lap that involved Power and caused Wheldon's death, meaning Franchitti won his fourth championship win; his third in succession.

suffered a concussion and two spinal fractures, plus a fractured right ankle in the second to last race of the 2013 season

retired from competitive driving in 2013 after doctors advised him his most recent injuries and those from previous accidents put him at risk of permanent paralysis and brain damage in the event of another major crash

Iconic/memorable moments

Shopping at Target with Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon IndyCar: Scott Dixon, "We got hosed again" by Will Power IndyCar Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon Interview (part 2) RACER: Franchitti, Kanaan, Dixon Prank 20yr old Teammate Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon, part 1 Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon, part 2 3 motorsport legends compete at Goodwood Revival! | Goodwood Revival Special IndyCar drivers Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti robbed at Indy Taco Bell RACER: Dario Franchitti ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Thank You Dario Dario Franchitti: A hacksaw to Tony Kanaan’s bike Dario Franchitti: People think I have OCD Dario Franchitti: Royal Automobile Club Talk Show in association with Motor Sport Dario Franchitti: Regrets NASCAR move? Behind the Bricks: Dario Franchitti, Part 1 Behind the Bricks: Dario Franchitti Part 2 Dario Franchitti: Five weeks of my memory lost in crash Dario Franchitti: Devastated by Dan Wheldon's death Dan Wheldon Memorial Service, Part 3

Dario Franchitti Press Conference 11 in 11 with Dario Franchitti Dario Franchitti gets pied 2012 Indianapolis 500 Finish - Dario Franchitti Wins (Interviews Included) RACER: Robin Miller Dario Franchitti and Tony Kanaan IMS Tire Test 2013 Dario Franchitti Press Conference Drivers React to Wheldon's Death Road to the Championship: Close Competition 2011 Indycar Toronto - Will Power and Dario Franchitti controversial incident Dario Franchitti is 2010 Champion Dario Franchitti Indy Means Everything Concussions in Racing: A Case Study - Dario Franchitti & Dr. Stephen Olvey Dario Franchitti: Garage full of Ferraris, Porsches Dario Franchitti: Lack of recognition in Europe is disgraceful Dinner with Racers Episode 59: Dario Franchitti Greg Moore At 20, with Dario Franchitti, Paul Tracy, Max Papis, Mike Zizzo, and Marshall Pruett. Dario Franchitti - McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award winner 1992 Remembering Greg Moore: Champ Car’s Brat Pack having the time of their lives Dario and Greg Moore and Seibkins in Elkhart Lake

Dario Franchitti book Romance of Racing (out of print, can be found used, although not cheaply. Try your library)

The "Brat Pack" Max Papis, Tony Kanaan, Dario Franchitti, Greg Moore

Dario is now a senior member of the paddock, an advisor for Ganassi and coach, often more like a father/uncle figure, to their new young drivers. But in his youth in the 1990’s he was a wild child, a member of Cart’s “Brat Pack”, prone to staying up all night partying yet still winning races. He almost won the championship in 1999 but lost in the finale only to be told after the race that his best friend, and fellow member of the “Brat Pack”, Greg Moore had died.

He made the switch to IRL which became Indycar, in 2003, although injuries and recovering from those injuries kept him out of the car most of that year. He recovered and then began the epic prank era at Andretti Green races with his teammates on the way to his first Indy 500 win and his first Indycar championship in 2007. He decided to give NASCAR a try in 2008.

(We don’t talk about the NASCAR year)

He came back at Ganassi in 2009 and proceeded to win three championships in a row (and two more Indy 500s) while becoming the elder statesman of the series. But all of this success was not without sorrow and near disaster. The loss of Dan Wheldon hit him hard. He and his former teammate were still close friends. Another crash and the subsequent injures forced him into retirement in late 2013

He is a prime example of why we don't leave decisions on their fitness to race up to the drivers anymore, suffering more than his fair share of injuries in his career (see list above) and continuing to race when he definitely should not have.. One might call it a lack of survival instinct, which to be honest, most drivers lack, but Dario lacks it to an alarming degree. He is at risk of permanent paralysis and brain damage in the event of another major crash, yet still races vintage/historic cars on occasion, particularly at Goodwood.

I would be remiss not to mention his Scottish accent, thick dark hair that is silvering at the temples and still fit physique. He’s lost none of the charm of his youth and perhaps gained more now at the age of 50.

Fanfic Lore

Paired/grouped with the “Brat Pack” Originally comprised of Dario, Tony Kanaan, Greg Moore and Max Papis. Various later iterations included Scott Dixon, Bryan Herta, Dan Wheldon and sometimes Marco Andretti.

paired with Will Power during the height of their rivalry though they’ve became very good friends since Dario was forced to retire

sometimes used as supportive dad figure for younger drivers (sometimes as more of a “Daddy”)

Dario and TK

More Dario and TK

Even more Dario and TK

Brat Pack

Dario and Dixon

[heelcody]

I'm gonna be real the NASCAR championship race hasn't felt the same since it left Homestead...the nighttime champion vibes were immaculate at Homestead and they just took that away from us for what. for Phoenix?????

[ricounterwegs]

USA – Florida und der östliche „Deep South“ der Staaten - II

Was wäre ein Besuch von Florida ohne den Besuch der Everglades - des bekannten tropischen Marschlandes! So fuhren wir am kommenden Tag von Homestead (bei Miami) bis Flamingo. Wir sahen viele Alligatoren und begingen die typisch für US-Nationalparks gut ausgebauten Wanderwege, um dieses einzigartige Ökosystem kennen zu lernen.

Am Abend fuhren wir entlang der nördlichen Parkgrenzen zur Westküste von Florida. Wir entschieden uns gegen eine Fahrt mit den typischen „Airboats“, den sehr flachen Booten, die hinten einen riesigen Luftpropeller befestigt haben. Weil sie nicht gerade günstig und auch sehr laut sind, hätten wir von der Tierwelt nicht so viel zu sehen bekommen. Lohnend war der kleine Abstecher abseits der Hauptstraße entlang der „Big Cypress Loop Road“. Auf dieser zum Teil nicht asphaltierten Straße konnten wir nochmal einige schöne Sumpfabschnitte mit Alligatoren und anderen Tieren sehen.

An Floridas Westküste hielten wir uns insgesamt nicht so lang auf. Von den vielen schönen Villen und dem schönen Strand Naples fuhren wir von nun an immer gen Norden.

Dramatisch und unerwartet waren hierbei die riesigen Schäden, die Hurrikan „Ian“ im letzten Herbst hinterlassen hat. Besonders entlang von „Estero Island“ war die Zerstörung gigantisch.

Etwas Strandzeit gab es für mich noch am Bowmans Beach in Sanibel Island, bevor wir Ford Myers erkundeten und den Abend mit einem schönen „Riverwalk“ in Tampa ausklingen ließen.

Am nächsten Tag folgte ein weiteres Highlight: Es ging auf eine Schnorchel Tour zum Crystal River zu den bekannten Manatee‘s. In den kälteren Wintermonaten halten diese Seekühe sich in den kristallklaren warmen Quellen im Fluss auf, weil es dort schon etwas wärmer ist. Ende März ist der Fluss schon warm genug, so dass wir sie nur noch im trüberen Flusswasser antrafen. Es war trotzdem gigantisch direkt über und neben diesen friedlichen großen Tieren im Wasser zu schweben!

Von hier aus verließen wir wieder die Westküste und fuhren nach Daytona Beach. Hier besuchten wir eine der bekanntesten NASCAR Rennstrecken und fuhren weiter nach Norden entlang der Küste. Im historischen Ort St. Augustine bestaunten wir die spanische Kolonialarchitektur und kamen am Abend im verregneten und wenig spektakulären Jacksonville an.

Den kommenden Tag verließen wir Florida, um die schöne Stadt Savannah in Georgia zu besuchen. Hier werden viele Filme gedreht – unter anderem „Forst Gump“. Wir nahmen an einer interessanten Tour durch die Stadt teil und ich bestaunte besonders das Spanische Moos, welches fast überall märchenhaft von den Bäumen hängt. Ein fast unerwartetes Highlight folgte mit dem Besuch des Hunting Island State Park. Hier liegen z.B. unzählige Bäume kreuz und quer am Ozean und wir unternahmen einen schönen Spaziergang. Auch die kleine Stadt Beaufort – ganz in der Nähe – bot einen schönen Ausklang des Tages.

Mit Stationen in Charleston (ebenfalls eine wirklich schöne Stadt), Columbia und schlussendlich Charlotte endete die Reise nach etwas über 3800 km.

Am nächsten Tag folgte ein weiteres Highlight: Es ging auf eine Schnorchel Tour zum Crystal River zu den bekannten Manatee‘s. In den kälteren Wintermonaten halten diese Seekühe sich in den kristallklaren warmen Quellen im Fluss auf, weil es dort schon etwas wärmer ist. Ende März ist der Fluss schon warm genug, so dass wir sie nur noch im trüberen Flusswasser antrafen. Es war trotzdem gigantisch direkt über und neben diesen friedlichen großen Tieren im Wasser zu schweben!

Von hier aus verließen wir wieder die Westküste und fuhren nach Daytona Beach. Hier besuchten wir eine der bekanntesten NASCAR Rennstrecken und fuhren weiter nach Norden entlang der Küste. Im historischen Ort St. Augustine bestaunten wir die spanische Kolonialarchitektur und kamen am Abend im verregneten und wenig spektakulären Jacksonville an.

Den kommenden Tag verließen wir Florida, um die schöne Stadt Savannah in Georgia zu besuchen. Hier werden viele Filme gedreht – unter anderem „Forst Gump“. Wir nahmen an einer interessanten Tour durch die Stadt teil und ich bestaunte besonders das Spanische Moos, welches fast überall märchenhaft von den Bäumen hängt. Ein fast unerwartetes Highlight folgte mit dem Besuch des Hunting Island State Park. Hier liegen z.B. unzählige Bäume kreuz und quer am Ozean und wir unternahmen einen schönen Spaziergang. Auch die kleine Stadt Beaufort – ganz in der Nähe – bot einen schönen Ausklang des Tages.

Mit Stationen in Charleston (ebenfalls eine wirklich schöne Stadt), Columbia und schlussendlich Charlotte endete die Reise nach etwas über 3800 km.