Oct. 30, 2007 - Good Racing In Carolina

If you like auto racing and you are not ready for the winter sports season, Concord, N.C., will be the place to be this weekend.

Nearly 500 race cars are expected to be in action at three race tracks within about 10 miles of one another on Saturday (Nov. 3) alone.

The highest profile of the events is the World of Outlaws World Finals, which will be held Thursday through Saturday at The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Approximately 100 late models and 50 sprint cars are expected for the event on the four-tenths-mile dirt track.

The event, which will be show live on Speed on Saturday night, will be the first time the WoO late models and sprint cars have appeared on the same card. It will be the last race of the season for both divisions, with series champions crowned for both. Donny Schatz (sprint cars) and Steve Francis (late models) have virtual locks on the titles entering the weekend.

If dirt tracking is not your cup of tea, Concord Motorsports Park, a nifty half-mile asphalt oval, located less than 15 minutes from LMS, will host the fifth annual North-South Shootout. The event, which started with NASCAR-type modifieds, has grown through the years, and this year supermodifieds will be on one of the six divisions competing.

Finally, the stars of the future will be racing in the annual Spooktacular for bandoleros and Legends cars Saturday afternoon at the fifth-mile asphalt oval located on the grounds of Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

Oct. 23, 2007 - Foreign Substance

America. It’s the land where all men are created equal. That is unless they are foreign-born race-car drivers.

It all started with the British invasion at Indianapolis and continued with the arrival of Brazilian drivers, including Emerson Fittipaldi, Gil de Ferran, Tony Kanaan and Helio Castroneves, but a large number of auto racing fans simply detest foreign-born race drivers.

Now, it may because we cover motorsports and not other sports, but we don’t see too many NBA fans complaining about Yao Ming and Manu Ginobili not being Americans and playing in the National Basketball Ass’n. Nor do we hear baseball fans throwing fits about the hitting prowess of Ichiro Suzuki or the fielding expertise of Omar Vizquel. They are accepted and welcome additions to the sports landscape.

But in auto racing, it appears to be different. One NSSN reader wrote that NASCAR would be able to directly relate the hiring of Juan Palblo Montoya, Dario Franchitti, Patrick Carpentier and Jacques Villeneuve to a downturn in ticket sales among “American race fans.”

Like anything else, it is as much about the free market as it is giving young American drivers the opportunity instead of those “durn furinors.”

Personally, I couldn’t be rooting a little bit more for Dario, Juan and Jacques. I wish them all the success and I hope they break down a few more sterotypes regarding racers from diverse backgrounds.

I remember a time, oh about 15 years ago, when this young kid from Indiana, who drove open-wheel race cars got a chance to race in NASCAR. He was an outsider and among many traditional-type race fans, he still is, but today Jeff Gordon is closing in on his fifth NASCAR championship. Many felt at the time he came along that an open-wheel guy had no business in a stock car.

Then came Gordon and that changed. After him came Tony Stewart, who now has a pair of NASCAR titles on his resume. And there’s Ryan Newman and J.J. Yeley and Dave Blaney and a host of others.

For a while, open-wheel racers were somewhat of a fad in NASCAR, much the same way that international drivers with open-wheel experience appear to be right now.

Here’s hoping that Franchitti, Villeneuve, Carpentier and Montoya play a little role in proving you don’t have to be from the south, you don’t have to spit tobacco and you don’t have to speak Redneck as your first language to race in NASCAR.

Oct. 16, 2007 - Inquiring Minds Want To Know: What's Next For Open Wheels?

Through 16 years of covering auto racing, you meet a lot of people and when you attend an event there is plenty of conversation.

But was most interesting about this past weekend at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, was the number of stock-car oriented people that asked about open-wheel racing. Here are a few of the questions: Will there be Indy car racing anymore? Who’s going to be left to drive in Indy car races? Can Indy car racing survive without its stars? And so it went.

It’s just more evidence how people get caught up in a moment and make a big deal out of something that really isn’t.

Will the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series miss Dario Franchitti and Sam Hornish, Jr. next year when both are off racing stock cars? The honest answer is not that much. Hornish will be missed by a lot of the Midwestern fans that have adapted him as their own over the past 10 seasons, but few will even know Franchitti is gone. Though, some will miss his wife Ashley Judd’s fancy hats.

The most important thing is that the racing will still be the closest most-exciting form of motorsports on the planet. The finishes will be dazzling.

Both Team Penske and Andretti Green Racing will plug new drivers into seats in place of Hornish and Franchitti without missing a beat.

Are the stars all gone? Anyone who says that, obviously doesn’t watch ABC’s “Dancing with Stars.” For years, Helio Castroneves has been the most interesting and most entertaining driver in the IRL garage area, and now the whole world is learning about the outspoken two-time Indy 500 winner.

There are four IndyCar Series champions — Tony Kanaan, Scott Dixon, Scott Sharp and Dan Wheldon — that will still be competing in the series full time. And then there’s Danica Patrick and Marco Andretti. The series has stars.

And thanks to a couple of empty seats in quality race cars, it will soon have more stars. Creating stars is not the problem for the IRL, it is letting the world know about them before they go off to drive NASCAR, “Dancing with the Stars,” or become spokespersons for godaddy.com.

Oct. 9, 2007 - Is It Tougher To Be King?

First off, Steve Kinser is the greatest race-car driver I have ever had the privilege to watch. There will never be another like him.

That said, I now pose the questions that every sprint-car enthusiast in the land has been pondering: What is wrong with Steve Kinser?

The 20-time World of Outlaws champion lies sixth in the series standings with only a handful of races remaining. And in fact, has not been competitive for a good part of the season. Is it mechanical with his cars? Has he lost some of his drive? Has he lost some of his skills? After all, The King is 53 years old.

Kinser is the only one who really has the answers to those questions, and he may come out next season and win 30 races and his 21st title, but any way you look at it, the Steve Kinser era is approaching its end. We should all take a good look when we can because it is very clear there will never be another like him.

While Donny Schatz has dominated World of Outlaws competition the last two seasons, he hasn’t done it on a level like Kinser did in his heyday in the sport. No one ever will again.

And yes, I know, I’m talking about a driver who has won nine races this season, and a lot of drivers would give up their little finger to win that many WoO events in one season, but a lot of drivers aren’t Steve Kinser.

Steve Kinser is who Donny Schatz and every sprint-car driver who comes along the trail will be compared to — and fair or unfair — Steve Kinser is who Steve Kinser is compared to.

And those are some pretty big shoes to fill. Even for The King.

Oct. 2, 2007 - Please, Mr. UPS Man

Dale Jarrett, we need your help.

While it is easy to understand that you are enjoying driving your No. 44 Toyota at speeds slower than the Brown Truck drives through my neighborhood on a daily basis, you have a real mission in life.

NASCAR fans need you. And while the brain trust that runs the sanctioning body, may not realize it yet, NASCAR needs you to. And most of all the ABC television network needs you.

It’s time to hang up your helmet, buy some new ties and jackets and answer the call. You have been outstanding in your sporadic visits to the ABC/ESPN NASCAR broadcasts on days when you couldn’t quite muster the speed to make it into the race. ABC needs you to right its sinking ship.

The current three-man lineup for ABC/ESPN coverage of NASCAR Nextel Cup racing leaves a lot to be desired — well, everything to be desired.

With the drama king, Jerry Punch, on play-by-play and the self-proclaimed “greatest race car driver of all time” Rusty Wallace alongside, we hardly notice that Andy Petree isn’t all that great either. Punch mixes up his facts on a sport he’s been around for 25 years and tries to make every lap sound like the last lap.

Wallace never shuts up. He talks over his companions, babbling incoherently most of the time. Not a race goes by where Wallace doesn’t make hilariously bad statements such as this nugget Sunday at Kansas: “I don’t want to speculate. I am not here to speculate, but there is definitely something wrong with that car.”

I and many race fans like me, long for Mr. Boogity, Boogity, Boogity and his cohorts Larry Mac and Mike Joy. While they are sometimes annoying, the work of Punch, Wallace and Petree, clearly shows how good they are.

So, what do you say, DJ, call it a career, follow Gentleman Ned to the broadcast booth and give us all a calm and knowledgeable voice of reason on racing telecasts.

And you better do it before your team owner does. That, my friend, would be Rusty kicked up a notch.