Ron Thornton

Some watch soap operas, but I once watched wrestling. I understood a rewritten biblical verse because Stone Cold said so, I smelled what the Rock was cooking, and Mick Foley had multiple personalities while making a star out of a sock puppet. While I loved the comedy of their sports entertainment, I loved the behind the scenes stories even more.

Juan Pablo Montoya, winner of the 2000 Indianapolis 500 among eight CART victories, winner of the 2003 Monaco Grand Prix among seven Formula One triumphs, but a winner of a single Cup race at Sonoma and another at the Glen in 239 starts. That, in a nutshell, is why Montoya was hired and why he will soon be fired as the driver of the #42 Target team of Chip Ganassi.

So what did we learn at the Glen on Sunday? Well, road course aces usually do not end up with the great finish the owner had hoped for when they made the change. Tommy Drissi drove for Joe Nemechek while Victor Gonzalez Jr got in a car for Tommy Baldwin.

Where there is Smoke, there is an ambulance. Three Sprint races, three wrecks. A 19-year old driver got carted away with a back injury after Stewart caused a July 16th crash in New York. He flipped five times in a race July 29th in Ontario. Now we have this one where the flashing lights were for Smoke himself in Iowa.

America has always had those who led them to the promised land. Daniel Boone blazed the Wilderness Road. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark followed the Missouri River enroute to the Pacific. Jim Bridger helped open the way to the wonders of Yellowstone.

We have been watching our sports on television for decades. Baseball, football, basketball, and (for Canadians, at least) hockey coverage began in the 1950's. NASCAR did not arrive as part of the national television consciousness until much later.

It was Jimmie Johnson's race to lose, so he did. The Brickyard 400 came down to a pit stop that took about four seconds too long, but more than three seconds more than pole sitter Ryan Newman needed to win.

Thanks. When I heard the news that you will be taking over the second half of the NASCAR season, beginning in 2015, I was thankful for what could be. We can only hope it is not a continuation of what I suspect will be coming our way this Sunday.

Time often rewards us with maturity, often only after we face some adversity. The man who won at New Hampshire Sunday is not the...

He is fourth in the standings, second on these charts, but Kevin Harvick is the epitome of hot right now as the boys and girl head to New Hampshire for Sunday. In the last ten events, the only race Happy failed to record a top ten finish was Talladega, where he crashed out early. In fact, had he finished 38th instead of 40th that day, he still would have managed to be our hot man.