I've been watching Nascar since I was 5. My earliest memory of the 19 Daytona 500 was Dale Jarrett winning with his father cheering him on in the announcers booth in 1993. I also remember when Dale Earnhardt won the Daytona 500 and every one in the pits lined up to give him high five as he drove down pit road, pretty inspiring moment. Sadly I do remember when he died in 2001, which was a huge shock to me.
I pretty much love all forms of Auto Racing, (F1, Touring Car, Rally, Dakar, Le Mans, etc). This is my 25th year of auto racing being my favorite sport. I have had a passion for it since i was 2.
I do not watch because of the crashes, i watch because of the Intense battles, lead changes, and fighting for position in the point series.
I think it's cool that the Daytona 500 got some pretty sweet ratings this Monday, maybe they will think about going to prime-time more often, but that would be hard because if there is a rain delay, that might cause some trouble, they would have to figure out a way to get around that. There was also a lot of tweeting going on during the fire and the race. One racer tweeted a picture inside his car, which is unsual if you ask me but I guess that gave them some good rating, i would however suggest not doing it again.
Anyway, I will continue to watch stock car racing til the end, until they come up with a new series. To me, if it's got wheels and a engine (or electric motor or hydrogen. solar, whatever) , it gets my blood moving.