Heart Of The Matter

I picked a most unfortunate time to have a massive heart attack, and thus disrupted the opening Wednesday night of the 2008 Knoxville Nationals. On the other hand, lucky for me I had my incident perhaps 150 feet and 45 seconds from the best trained and equipped professional safety crew any track in the country provides for any event this track hosts.
Their quick recognition of my situation and immediate treatment is why I am able to write and commend them for stabilizing me and getting me rapidly out of the infield and on a helicopter to the heart specialists at the Des Moines hospital.
During the biggest event Knoxville Raceway holds, many Knoxville track officials took time out of their important daily schedules to come visit me in Des Moines — an hour away — daily until my release nine days later.
I was visited by roughly another 100-plus members of the sprint-car community and cannot possibly thank you all in this letter individually, but you all know who you are, and I thank you all.
I can never express in words what you all mean to me. Just know your professionalism, kindness and visits were what kept me fighting and on my way to recovering.
Bill McCroskey
Chariton, Iowa

Bristol Boredom

Just returned from Bristol.
After spending several hundred dollars and driving 1,300 round-trip miles, here is what we saw: Friday night’s 250-lap Nationwide race, consisting of three lead changes. One was under race conditions; Saturday night we watched 469-plus laps of go-karts (CoT) play follow-the-leader.
This is the third race with the new pavement at Bristol and the new car. It’s not even close to the former racing. The track announced that this was the 53rd-consecutive sellout. I don’t think they will see 54.
With more than 100 laps remaining, the turns three and four grandstands were half-empty. So, as the crowd was saying as they were walking away from the place, will Bruton (Smith) or someone please start a stock-car racing series?
Richard Johnson
Metamora, Mich.

CoT Can Take A Punch

The Watkins Glen big one was one of the worst accidents of late, but it showed one thing: These new cars will take a crash and protect the driver. This is one good thing I can say about the high-center-of-gravity, snow-plow car.
Now that the Stewart-Newman duo is complete, it will be interesting to see what they can do against the Chevy teams of Hendrick and Childress.
I hope Mears, Stremme and Riggs wind up with a good team. Each one has shown what they can do with good equipment and deserve the chance to do it again.
Mike Rudderham
Griffin, Ga.

Sprint Car Notes?

Knoxville notes (page 37, Aug. 13, 2008) was a great read! How about a Sprint Car Notes column every week like you do for F-1 and NASCAR?
There are a lot of us grassroots sprint-car fans out here who would really enjoy this. If that’s too big a group to feature, a WoO Notes — sprints and late models — would certainly be of interest to a lot of dirt trackers. Food for thought. Keep up the good work.
Cam Austin
Randolph, Ohio

One Lousy Race

I’ve been going to Michigan Int’l Speedway since the days of the winged wars. And the racing up there now has gotten really lousy.
In the past years, they’re getting spread out immediately at the start and during the race. It’s amazing that with 43 cars on the track, not even two cars can stage a side-by-side battle for one-two laps. I’ve seen more fans cheering with excitement at a Toledo Mud Hens minor-league baseball game. Here, we’ve got 100,000-plus fans drenching in the hot sun, just sitting there saying nothing. Amazing.
All they want to see and hear are loud, colorful cars going around and around for 200 laps, and they’re content. Amazing. Changing to the CoT did nothing with the aero competition. Blame the tires, mostly.
Gary Romp
Sylvania, Ohio

Sprint Cup Bullies

Can someone explain to me why the media is so enamored with Kyle Busch winning so much in the top-three NASCAR series? Cup is one thing, but the Nationwide and Truck series are another.
Take a Cup driver backed by a 400-employee Cup team and race him against several under-funded teams, and what would one expect? When Busch or other Cup drivers pilot the No. 91 Nationwide car or No. 74 truck to victory lane, then I will be truly impressed.
And why do Cup teams feel they need to intrude on every other series in the first place? If Joey Logano is so great, why does he need the No. 20 Cup pit crew for an ARCA race? So they can beat a whole lot of part-time pit-crew members? Very impressive — they must be so proud.
Cup teams should stick to Cup racing.
Joe Muha
Pittsburgh, Pa.

Watching Ed

I read the article, “Ed Carpenter Building Something Strong,” and being a member and USAC crew chief since 1998, I have seen Ed race numerous times.
I have also seen other USAC drivers race at the same race tracks. Several of those drivers have a lot better start-to-finish statistics than Ed. Not taking away from Ed’s driving ability, but a lot of names come to mind who have a better résumé than Ed. For example, Brian Tyler, Dave Darland and Tracy Hines, to mention a few. 
Because their dads do not have deep pockets, they are still racing at local tracks on Friday and Saturday nights.
I understand that the IRL was formed to advance the “Cream of the Crop” in USAC to the next level (being the IRL), therefore, I don’t understand why the aforementioned drivers plus others are not racing on Sundays.
This shows me, as a loyal USAC member and crew chief, that NASCAR has done a much better job of picking top American drivers for its series than the founder of the IRL.
Roger Harshbarger
Crawfordsville, Ind.

Racing In The Rain

Gary, Gary, Gary (London). I always read your articles, and whether I agree with your views or not, I find them interesting. But your comment about racing in the rain is so track operators and sanctioning bodies can take the money and run because rain dates are expensive misses a very important point.
Not everyone lives within driving distance of a major track. So, we have to put in for our vacation time with our employers and make all kinds of arrangements. If they were to postpone the race (we’re talking road courses here, of course), is my boss going to be understanding and say, “go ahead, take more vacation time, and we’ll pay you?” Very unlikely.
Are the area hotels and restaurants going to say, “come on back, you can have a room and meals for free?” Definitely not. Are the sanctioning bodies and tracks going to refund my ticket price if I can’t make the rain date? If you think so, then I suspect you don’t actually live on planet Earth. Besides, I’ve had many great experiences at rain races around the country, the rain is a great equalizer, anything can happen.
As far as it being dangerous is concerned, what have you been drinking? Most fatalities occur during dry races. Besides, I hope you’re not one of those who want to make racing safe. It’s just never gonna happen. Look at the protective gear pro football players wear, and they still get busted up all the time. Some things are never safe, and I suspect if you eliminated the danger aspect, even you wouldn’t care anymore.
Dave Smith
Bloomingdale, N.J.

Foreign Feelings

I sent a letter before bad-mouthing Toyotas, and it was not put in. Why?
Now a new letter about NASCAR: Does anybody else in the world believe that NASCAR means National American Racing? Does anybody else leave the room and stop watching TV when the Toyota-car is leading? Does anybody else turn off the TV when the “Ferin”-car wins?
Is The Chase just for laughs and something to talk about?
Keith H. Willford
Findlay, Ohio