This weekend the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to Martinsville Speedway for the sixth race of the season. It’s the shortest track on the circuit and a favorite of both fans and drivers. But did you know it’s the only track that has hosted Cup races every year since the beginning of the Cup series in 1949?
The ratings are in. They continue to sink, with anything not being raced at Daytona all down. Daytona was great, the rest were okay. There used to be a time when okay was good enough.
I like being nice. Sure, I can bitch with the best of them, but it is nice when one can say nice things about someone. For instance, I think NASCAR did the right thing by calling the race at Texas last week. Let me see, the race was already delayed by five hours and the skies really opened up with 40 to go. Damn right they should have wrapped things up when they did.
On Sunday, we will have one of those races, on one of those tracks, that provides must-see action. While we have no announcers covering NASCAR today who you might tune in just to hear their description of the action, to hear them enhance the excitement, even those we got can not detract from the spectacle we shall witness on Sunday.
NASCAR is in trouble. I hope that someone in the offices in Daytona Beach and Charlotte is working to fix these problems for the future of the sport we love.
Sixteen started the Chase with some hope. That is now down to 12 as they pull into Charlotte. If we relied strictly on the season tally to award the trophy, it would already be down to Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick. Just two points would be separating them. Both could have sat out Saturday night’s race and still have been one-two in the standings come Monday. Hence, the Chase.
As NASCAR swings into Chicago and begins the Chase, I can not help but notice that Denny Hamlin, and now Danica Patrick, have made mention that the season is too long. Reduce some races in length, reduce some altogether, run some mid-week are among their suggestions.
Michigan. A big track, a fast track. Sadly, not exactly a legacy event, like winning at Daytona or Bristol or Talladega or Indianapolis or Darlington or either road course. What it is, is a track where legends have celebrated since 1969. In fact, David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, Bill Elliott, Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin, Richard Petty, Dale Jarrett, and Bobby Allison have combined for 46 victories there. That is a lot of suds for a lot of Hall of Famers.
I still can't imagine that it has been 23 years since we lost Alan Kulwicki in a plane crash as he was headed to Bristol Motor Speedway. The sight of the No. 7 hauler taking the lap around Bristol before leaving the track still brings a chill up my back.
After the re-start, Johnson moved down to the line, hugged it tight, and came up to Harvick’s rear quarter-panel. A bit of side drafting tugged Luthor...ahem...Harvick...back enough to set Johnson sailing right by and into the lead.
