Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog

Sorry I haven’t been around in a while, there has been some sort of flu-like illness going through the family this week and it was my turn last night. I’m feeling better, but still not 100%.

Anyway, the other night I was channel surfing and I came across this old movie with Annette Funicello, Frankie Avalon, and Fabian called “Fireball 500″. Other than the fact that the main character, Avalon, was drving Richard Petty’s car I found the movie to be pretty good for the time in which it was made (1966).

Avalon was even driving a George Barris original as well, which was cool. One thing to note about the Barris creation was the wrap around head rest that most NASCAR drivers now have in their race machines, although I’m sure the Barris version is more cosmetic than anything, but still interesting to see.

So I got thinking about this movie and thought that this movie had some similarities to the 1990’s movie “Days of Thunder” starring Tom Cruise.

To be honest, I thought that the Fireball 500 was a better movie. I know it was not a well polished as Days of Thunder, but I thought the story line was pretty good and it certainly didn’t have a “Top Gun” feel to it. O.K. there was some singing in it by it’s stars, but I’m sure if Tom Cruise could sing anything else other than “You Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” they would have had him singing as well.

What’s your take?

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