Oct. 28, 2008 - A Good Day

Today was a good day.

I got to see the daughters I never had — Julie and Maggie, who are the actual daughters of my best friends, Mike and Amy. Julie is a teenager going on 30, and Maggie is an ever-precocious pre-teen who will someday run the world. They were accompanied by Christianne, a German exchange student who, like Julie, was looking at colleges during a break from high school. Christianne also knew a little something of Michael Schumacher — but Michael Waltrip, not so much.

On their way back from a visit to Davidson and Wofford (mine and their father’s alma mater), they stopped by to see “Uncle John.”

As a longtime sports writer and columnist, I know that I work in life’s toy department. Since I shifted to the high-horsepower division of the department, the goings on in my world have been a little more mysterious except to the most ardent auto-racing fans.

But today, I got to welcome my girls inside for a glimpse at what all the noise is about.

I asked the folks at Lowe’s Motor Speedway if I could bring the girls over after lunch for a quick little tour of the infield around the media center. Roberta Hood, from the LMS communications department, very kindly signed off, and we headed to the speedway after lunch for the quick JC Tour.

Luckily, the Richard Petty Driving Experience was revving up for the day. There were no cars on the track, but that may have been even better.

Several race cars were parked around pit road and Kasey Kahne’s No. 9 Dodge was right outside the media center as a welcome to the Petty drivers.

But I pretended it was for the kids as I reminded that Kahne was the guy from the Allstate commercials, and there was an “ohhhh” of recognition.

So, I got to talk about racing, tell a couple of stories about the track and how all this vast openness teems with people and haulers and becomes a city unto itself when the “circus” rolls into town for the weekend.

And the girls finally got a little glimpse into the toy department and why Uncle John tends to work a lot of weekends.

Sept. 24, 2008 - Martinsville Moments

Burt Myers showed me something this past weekend in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Series Made In America 300 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.

First, he won the race, beating a very strong, large contingent of Northern tour drivers, who have owned the event in its current format over the past three years. (Note: Myers was disqualified by NASCAR Wednesday for running an illegal gear. The victory was awarded to Ryan Preece.)

So, there is Myers, celebrating and wondering where to put the grandfather clock all Martinsville winners receive — and he apologized.

Not for becoming the first Southern Tour driver to win the event and not for notching what is perhaps the biggest victory of his career.

He apologized for an incident that happened several weeks ago at Bowman Gray Stadium between himself and driver Junior Miller.

Everybody, he said, has seen the video on Youtube (see it here) and he wasn’t very proud of it.

Thanks to the Internet and a news crew on hand at Bowman Gray, the world saw Myers during one of his worst moments. So, he took one of the better moments as he had the stage to make an apology.

The video shows Miller spinning out Myers for the lead late in the race and then Myers retaliating after the checkers, ramming Miller’s car several times before track officials and police separated the two drivers.

“That’s not the example we want to set, and that’s not the way we want to race, so I apologize for that,” Myers said. “But when a bully knocks you down four nights in a row, you have to push back.”

Taking that opportunity to make that heartfelt apology — not one demanded by NASCAR or anyone else — was one of Myers’s better moments.

Of course, that Saturday’s race at Martinsville was a day filled with good moments. It started when motorcycle riders completed the Brian Pack Memorial Ride Saturday in Martinsville in honor of Pack, a modified driver who was killed earlier this summer in a motorcycle accident. The ride, which started at Curly’s Harley-Davidson in Winston-Salem, raised money for the Brian Pack Memorial Racing Scholarship at Fayetteville Technical Community College.

Sept. 11, 2008 - Not-So Bitter End

It was great to see the IndyCar Series end on a high note — with a great race and the crowning of Scott Dixon as the first champion since open-wheel racing’s reconciliation.

Helio Castroneves edged out Dixon by .033 second for the race victory at Chicagoland, but Dixon’s second-place finish was more than enough to secure his second series title, the one he watched get away last season.

By far the best race of the weekend, the IndyCar event left fans wanting more, which they will get when the series fulfills its pledge for a non-points race in Australia, which was always one of the more popular stops on CART’s schedule.

The IRL won’t return there next year as it expanded its schedule to 18 races. Even though the Gold Coast event was popular, it may have been the smartest thing to skip Australia for the immediate future as the newly combined series attempts to gain ground in the North American market.

There are a lot of nay-sayers out there, especially now that excitement over reunification of America’s two warring series has subsided somewhat, but I believe the future is bright enough to put colored visors on our helmets as the IRL goes forward.

Yes, the economy is struggling.

Yes, the series needs to look hard at the hiring of American drivers — look at the drives of Alex Tagliani the past two races. It says a lot for an

American who was overlooked just because an owner went with the potential of a foreign driver (and probably some sponsorship dollars) over a more established talent in Tagliani.

But this year’s end at Chicagoland, I believe, is the signal for a much bigger beginning for the IndyCar Series.