Slow drive aside, races do matter.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

FORT WORTH, Texas _ Watch a movie.

Mow the yard. Take nap. Mow the neighbors' yard.

Conduct a statistical analysis of A-Rod's salary as it compares with the GNP of Puerto Rico.

That's just the short list of things I could've accomplished Sunday morning instead of crawling on Texas 114 traffic for 2 { hours en route to the Texas Motor Speedway.

To win the NASCAR Winston Cup Harrah's 500, Dale Jarrett drove 500 miles in 3 hours, 31 minutes. To get to the track on time, I covered the last 22 miles in a brisk 97 minutes.

"With a crowd this big, you're going to have traffic," said TMS general manager Eddie Gossage. "Seems like it went pretty smooth. Of course, when you're the last guy in or the last guy out, you're going to be unhappy."

Call me a NASCAR neophyte or an April Fool, but it's not just the gridlock that drives me lug nuts. Fans drive their cars really, really slow to a track so they can watch other people drive their cars really, really fast? Makes about as much sense as speeding down the back roads to get an unobstructed view of rush-hour traffic. Guess it's an acquired taste, like Jerry Springer, sausage-on-a-stick and the WWF, each of which had strong representation in the NASCAR Nation of RVs.