Nov. 27, 2007 - A New York Minute

Start spreading the news. I’m leaving today (well, tomorrow actually).

NASCAR’s annual New York City invasion has already begun with champion Jimmie Johnson making appearances throughout the city that never sleeps.

While the sanctioning body had considered leaving New York, the annual gala week returns to the Waldorf-Astoria and it is truly one of the most enjoyable off-season happenings in the racing industry.

While the banquet itself often drags on and has incredibly boring moments, the entire occasion is fun-filled and a splendid way to end the year.

Many will be honored during the Thursday afternoon luncheon and awards ceremony at Cipriani’s. When it ends, mid-afternoon attendees are then basically free to their own devices until the following night’s banquet.

Many take in the sites. Many go shopping. Many find the best food, drink and entertainment the city has to offer.

Simply taking a cab or riding the subway, can be an entertaining experience that no other stop on the NASCAR tour can quite compete with.

We look forward to New York almost as much as we do visiting tiny Knoxville, Iowa every summer for the Knoxville Nationals. The two places couldn’t be more different, and maybe their contrasts are what make both so interesting.

So it is with excitement we will head for the airport tomorrow, knowing it will all be over in a New York Minute.

Nov. 20, 2007 - By Any Other Name...

Well, I was struggling with a topic for this blog when a co-worker suggested I write about the Busch Series name being replaced by the Nationwide Series.

My response: “That would be a damn short blog.”

I promptly typed two words: Who Cares?

Why do I feel that way? It is simple. The series will be getting a new name because of its new sponsor, but what it really needs is a new identity.

Yes, everyone has beaten and will continue to beat the dead horse regarding Busch Whackers or Cup Suckers as one writer to this newspaper recently suggested, but that’s not the real problem with the Busch/Nationwide/Who Cares Series.

The problem is, and it is partially because of the glut of Cup drivers competed, is that the races are not interesting. There are no storylines unique to the series. It is all the same as the Cup Series — which Hendrick, Roush or RCR car will win and who will steal the leftovers.

Five or six years ago, the Busch Series was NASCAR’s most entertaining division. Drivers with short-track routes raced hard for victories on tracks like those where they learned their trade. The races were short. The racers were hungry and it was entertaining.

It’s not like that anymore. The racers are bored Cup drivers racing for teams with unlimited budgets. The follow each other around in line just like on Sundays, waiting on “the set up to come to them,” or their opponent’s tires to “go away.”

Yes, with the Cup Series going to the CoT full time next year, the cars will be different, and that may make a difference, though it seems unlikely.

We wonder exactly what is the Busch/Nationwide/Who Cares Series? It’s not a training ground for new drivers. It’s not a place for lower-budgeted racers like Jack Ingram and Tommy Houston, who built the Busch Series, to race. It is not entertaining. And it is not racing. What it is a playground for NASCAR to get a little richer.

Thus, we ask, who cares?

Nov. 13, 2007 - Like It Or Not, Johnson's Run Impressive

Say what you want about Jimmie Johnson. No matter what you say there is no way to belittle what he and his Hendrick Motorsports teammates have accomplished the last four weeks.

I’ll say what I want, and I am impressed.

And very little in NASCAR racing surprises me or impresses me these days. Yes, there is very little drama in The Chase for the Championship heading into Sunday’s Nextel Cup Series finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but Johnson’s run to the championship has been nothing short of dominant.

The Boston Red Sox swept the Colorado Rockies in four straight to win the World Series. In June, the San Antonio Spurs took down the Cleveland in four games to win the NBA Finals in June and Johnson roared to four-consecutive (with a chance to make it five) victories to open the final five races of The Chase.

Now, that’s making a playoff run, or in this case a Chase run. No matter how you say it — game over, check point, etc., it was a dominant run.

And 10 (possibly 11) victories in modern-day Nextel Cup Series racing, that’s extremely hard to believe. The last driver to win 10 or more in a season was Johnson’s teammate Jeff Gordon, who incidently Johnson has beaten like a rented mule the last month. Gordon won 13 races en route to the title in 1998. As well, Gordon is the last driver to have won four in a row, also in 1998.

No driver in any other major racing series has won four races in a row this season. Under the direction of master planner Chad Knaus, the Lowe’s No. 48 team has achieved its success despite the fact it’s had to use two different types of race cars this year.

Yes, Hendrick Motorsports has all the equipment and personnel that money can buy — but so do the teams Johnson has been beating up on.

Like them or not, it’s been a memorable run.

Nov. 6, 2007 - Going Out With A Bang

Yes, the season is winding down, but this past weekend was a great reminder of the splendor that has made auto racing so popular throughout the world.

Most of the race tracks and traveling series are finished for the season, but the remaining events are biggies. And certainly, the first weekend of November will be remembered as one of the best weekends of racing all season long.

NASCAR made its annual fall trek to Texas with entertaining races in all three (Nextel Cup, Busch, Truck) divisions, but with two races remaining the real intrigue came in the season finale for the NHRA drag racing series and in short-track gatherings.

The NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series came to a wild conclusion, with Tony Schumacher snatching the Top Fuel title from the jaws of defeat for the second consecutive season when he won the event, while Rod Fuller was eliminated in the first round.

It was validation for the NHRA’s new Countdown format, as Schumacher claimed his fourth straight series championship. But, it was certainly heartbreak for Fuller, who would have won the championship under the old system.

Several of short-track racing’s signature events and one new one, brought thousands of fans and hundreds of race cars to several storied racing facilities.

Three nights of non-winged sprint-car racing at California’s Perris Auto Speedway saw big crowds watch Bud Kaeding claim the $30,000 top prize in the Oval Nationals for the third time in his career.

Meanwhile, 48 winged sprint cars shared the stage with 82 dirt late models as the inaugural World Finals were a resounding success at The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway. More than 14,000 fans gathered on consecutive nights at the four-tenths-mile oval. What they saw was some of the best racing since the facility opened in 2000.

Just a few miles from LMS, Concord Motorsport Park hosted the fifth annual North-South Shootout for modifieds and supermodifieds. The event drew the largest crowd in the history of the half-mile race track.

Finally, one of the sport’s most legendary events, the All-American 400 for asphalt late models, was run at the Music City Motorplex in Nashville, bringing many of the country’s best asphalt stock-car teams together in one place — a place with significant history in the stock-car racing world.

A good way to remember the 2008 season.