iNSIDE SCOOP: Dirty Thoughts

INDIANAPOLIS – It’s time to contrast and compare the last week’s NASCAR action.

On Wednesday, a week ago almost, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series was taking a flier. They shed the slicks for siped Goodyear tires, sacrificed aero concerns for traction on the right rear tire, got down and dirty and went racing at Eldora Speedway.

Full house, big interest, heck of a race…it was a throwback to an earlier age, and if you overlook the fact that they were Silverados, Tundras and F150s, it could have been 45 years ago. Nothing but raves for the Trucks on the dirt, and they had a ton of interest in doing it again.

There was even talk of putting the Nationwide Series on the dirt. It’s not like there’s a shortage of dirt tracks in the country. Anything that’s a half-mile or more is a candidate, with some banking to boot. I’m for it. Sign me up.

Fast forward to Saturday’s race at Indianapolis, where the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series raced. Not a full house, though it’s a touch much to expect 200,000 fans in this era. This is a track I love more than any other, and have since I knew what a race track was, and I want it to do well.

Saturday’s Nationwide race was a study in watching Kyle Busch just whip the field into submission. Kyle led 92 of 100 laps, though he had to struggle to regain the top spot after getting snookered by Joey Logano on the final restart and losing first place to Brian Scott.

Compare. Contrast. Side-by-side, slideways, hammer and tong racing at Eldora versus single-file, one-leader racing at Indianapolis. 

It’s not a fair comparison, really, since the two styles are different as can be, but it’s a good way to see what resonates. The true test will be next year, if NASCAR decides to get dirty again. If the crowd is stout and the excitement level is close, then it’s a trend. 

 It’s a head-scratcher, true. Yeah, a Truck race in the wilds of northern Ohio is not directly comparable to a race at the World Capital of Racing, but it can serve as an object lesson. 

Short-track racing, especially as practiced by Roger Slack and Tony Stewart at Eldora, is wide-open. I’ve never seen a bad race at Eldora, and that includes sprint cars, stock cars, midgets, modifieds and Silver Crown cars. Sure, they’re open-wheel cars, and they race differently than stock cars, but a lot has to do with the innate ability to DRIVE the car, rather than tip-toe around aero and grip and all the other stuff that the stock cars do,

The way NASCAR has been built since the boom in the late 1980s and early 1990s is the larger the event, the better it is. Unfortunately, larger events require more money, and once the TV deals are done and the sponsors pony up, the only place left to get it is…the fan.

Talking to a lot of people who were at Eldora and Indianapolis, there’s about a 50-50 split between shorter, smaller, simpler and bigger, better, faster.

This one conundrum will be the one upon which the future of the sport overall will rest.