Nothing boring about this weekend at Indy

Until 2006, this was always an exciting weekend for me because it meant it was time for the NASCAR Busch (Nationwide) Series race at PPIR. That excitement stays with me to this day, as a matter of habit, for there is no more race at PPIR*.

There is, however, still reason to get excited, because it is now Indianapolis weekend. With the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, and the Nationwide and Craftsman Truck Series races at O'Reilly Raceway Park, there is plenty of exciting racing in store.

O'RP is a 0.687 mile oval that is home to some of the most exciting short track racing we have seen in the Nationwide and Truck series. It seems to breed a lot of cautions, because the drivers feel like they have to go for broke here, maybe because it's near Indianapolis, or because it is just that kind of track. That kind of track is the classic Saturday night circle burner, where it's every man, or woman, for him or herself. With a tight championsip points competition between the CTS drivers, we can expect Friday night's race to feature plenty of action and drama.

Last year's Busch (Nationwide) Series race was an absolute wreckfest, to the point of frustration for both the fans and the drivers. If we want to see a demolition derby, as that "race" was, we would go to a demolition derby. But many of the drivers in the race last year had little experience at O'RP. Most of those drivers are back this year, and, hopefully, they remember from last year what not to do. If you want parity, there will be parity here, because on a short track like this, horsepower doesn't matter.

Every driver has had a period in their career racing at tracks similar to O'RP, but there are some who are masters at such racing. Joey Logano comes to mind, as do Denny Hamilton, Jason Keller, and Clint Bowyer. Kyle Busch will also be on hand, which will likely mean plenty of action and drama for Saturday's Nationwide Series race as well. July isn't over yet, and there should be plenty of fireworks on the track.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway is arguably the most well-known American racing venue in the world. The 2.5 mile rectangular speedway provides a special challenge for the Sprint Cup cars. Only for teams tested at IMS earlier this year, other than that the new car has not seen the track.

Even in the older car, the track was a challenge for stock cars. Nearly twice as heavy as the open wheel cars, and not nearly as responsive in handling, NASCAR's machines do not seem fit for the for separate ninety degree turns on the track. To this day, drivers and crew chiefs alike wonder how it is even possible for the heavy cars to make the turns. And that is the challenge of the track. If a driver and car negotiate the corners as near perfectly as possible, they can hit the long straightaways at speed. A missed set up, a bad pit stop, or taking the wrong line through a turn can spell the end of the day for a team, or, at least, a very long day.

That is why there is so much preparation for this one race. Most of the teams build a special car for the Brickyard. This has never been a race known for a lot of passing and position changes--old car or new car, it is very difficult for the stock cars to pass one another. This is a race about pit stops and adjustments, as well as perfection of the driver in hitting his marks. That by no means indicates a boring race. The competition is stepped up for the Brickyard, because of the sheer prestige of winning at IMS. The broadcast crew at Speed TV brought up an interesting statistic indicating what it takes in talent to win a race at IMS--every winner, with the exception of Kevin Harvick in 2003 and Ricky Rudd in 1997, has been a NASCAR Cup series champion. That says a lot.

Tony Stewart is by no means a "lame duck." In spite of what we have written here previously--for which we apologize, because that was a purely emotional reaction--the #20 team has had a winning attitude all season long. The races at Daytona, Las Vegas, Bristol, Lowe's, Loudon, and Talledega were all wins for Tony Stewart had it not been for misfortune. We also apologize for forgetting about Jimmie Johnson's 2006 Brickyard win, but if Smoke can pull off a victory it will be three out of the last four, not three in a row as previously written here. This blogger has never claimed to be perfect, but mistakes make us seem human. We only regret that we are so darn human.

The competition at an especially high level here this year, because some of the drivers who have performed the best at IMS have yet to win a race in 2008. Jeff Gordon's team has been improving all year, and he is every bit as poised to win at the Brickyard as are Stewart and Ryan Newman. Newman, who did win the first points race of the season at the Daytona, is an Indiana native who has yet to win at the famed speedway.

However, and please don't shoot the messenger, since this is the first race at IMS for the Sprint Cup car, don't rule out a win by Kyle Busch. He seems to be the one driver who can consistantly take the car to its first win at any venue. It would not be surprising if he were to win Sunday. We hope the fans can remember that it is very wrong to throw beer at the Hallowed Grounds of Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

*As I was getting ready to post this, I received news that PPIR will be reopening, and will be running a National Automobile Sports Association (NASA) event on Labor Day weekend. ISC decided to relax the requirement that the buyer not use the facility to host automobile racing, and reworded that stipulation to mean no NASCAR events. However that doesn't mean we won't see ARCA/Remax back here in the future. Why ISC is so certain that they will be able to build a track near Denver, and why I think they are wrong is subject for a whole new post, but for right now, I am doing a happy dance at the news that PPIR will have racing again.

"We Don't Like Your Kind"

In 1990, give or take a year, the city of Telluride, CO, was up in arms, trying to keep out “undesirables.” An event was about to happen that promised, to many unenlightened individuals, an influx of unwashed hippies, panhandlers, pickpockets, con-artists, and drug addicts. The event that caused the furor was a four day long Grateful Dead concert. The Telluride Chamber of Commerce and some members of the city council saw it as a boon to the city, but many of the wealthy “liberal” elitists who lived in that town saw the introduction of over 100,000 Deadheads to the home of the prestigious Telluride Bluegrass and Jazz festivals as disaster. They started petitions urging that the concert be cancelled, and they called for boycotts of the local businesses that were sponsoring the concert.
Happily, the Chamber of Commerce won out, and the show went on. The Dead, and the Deadheads came to Telluride, treated the locals with respect, spent their money, behaved themselves, mostly, and when they left they cleaned up their campsites and parking places, leaving less litter than was there when they arrived. The locals were impressed, even those who had opposed the concert, and the Dead was booked for a similar event the following year.

Washington State wants these fans...

If this were my political blog, I would point out that the same people who had prejudices against the Deadheads were purported “progressives” who supported Jimmy Carter, Richard Lamm, Gary Hart, George McGovern, and Bill Clinton, and I could point out that, as one of the aforementioned “Deadheads,” I learned that progressives were no less bigoted and narrow minded than conservatives. But, this isn’t my political blog, so I won’t do that.
A similar situation has arisen in the so-called “Blue State” of Washington. “We don’t want those kind of people here,” said one member of the Washington State Legislature.
What “kind of people” was he referring to? “Toothless, beer-bellied rednecks,” he said, referring to NASCAR fans.

...But not these fans


He didn’t stop there--he went on with derogatory comments about the drivers, calling them “Southern criminals,” and “trailer trash.” When a reporter asked if he knew who Greg Biffle was, he replied, “You mean the guy who got the DUI? He isn’t a member of the State Legislature.”
For those who don’t know, Greg Biffle is one of NASCAR’s top drivers, and a native son of Washington. As far as I know, he has never had a DUI.
I may be toothless--I have a metabolic abnormality that caused my body to absorb the roots of my upper teeth as if they were “baby teeth” making way for the permanents to grow in. But I’m not trailer trash , and I don’t have a beer belly, and I don’t think of myself as a redneck. I know a lot of NASCAR fans, but I personally have never met any who fit that description. I know that there are some fans who do fit that description, but I feel offended by the comments by the state representative whose name I didn’t get.
The Honorable Whatsizface somehow didn’t feel as though it would be enough to say that he didn’t think it would be appropriate to allocate $683 million of the taxpayers’ money for a NASCAR track. He had to make the derogatory comments and stereotypical remarks. After all, it isn’t as if NASCAR fans were a cultural minority. We can’t sue him or call for his impeachment. All we can do is laugh at him for being so ignorant. If this were my political blog, I would point out that his remarks illustrate how far out of touch with consensus reality many politicians are. But this is my NASCAR blog, so I won’t.
I will also laugh at International Speedway Corporation (ISC), the track ownership branch of NASCAR. They met with the same problems in New York, and will more than likely find them in Denver. I see it as well-deserved bad Karma for buying Pike’s Peak International Raceway (PPIR) and shutting it down. Colorado Springs and El Paso County had plans and money approved for the expansion of PPIR, and for the road improvements that would be necessary for expansion. ISC closed PPIR thinking they would be able to build a track closer to Denver. But the people of Denver don’t want “those kind of people” there. And the politicians whom ISC has to ask for funding and permits know enough to realize that building a NASCAR track doesn’t necessarily mean there would ever be a Cup race there. They learned their lesson from PPIR. Even though race fans drove from as far as Amarillo, TX, Oklahoma City , and Salt Lake City to see a Busch Series race at PPIR, very few would make the seventy minute drive from Denver to Fountain. What made ISC think that they would drive across Denver to see a race? Just something else to illustrate the stupidity and ignorance enough to make the politicians think of ISC and NASCAR as “redneck trailer trash.”

This doesn't surprise me

ISC scraps plans to build NASCAR track on Staten Island. You can read the Foxsports.com article here
Trust me, you do not want a new NASCAR track in your town, if it is owned, in full or in partnership, by ISC. Colorado Springs and El Paso County already had the plans and the money in place to expand accessibility and traffic control, if ISC was to expand Pike's Peak International Raceway (PPIR). Instead of expanding it when they took full control of the track last year, ISC closed it and sold it, with the stipulation that the new owner would not have racing events of any kind on the property. There was really no good reason for this, except that they thought they would be able to build a track in Denver that would draw more people, at the site of the old Stapleton International Airport. That didn't happen.
ISC has a tendencey to count its chickens before the eggs are laid. PPIR hosted the Busch series race every year from 1998 until 2005, and, though the 42,000 seats were never sold out, attendence was usually 37,000-40,000 fans each year, and this was before the influx of the double duty drivers in the sport this year. Needless to say, I am very disappointed in ISC, and I cheer when they have failures such as the one in NYC.