The New Short Track

What does it say about NASCAR racing these days when road courses provide more action than Kansas or Michigan?

Infineon Raceway, considered the more technical of the two road courses that NASCAR’s top division competes on, provided short-track fireworks on Sunday, which helped detract from the fact that Kurt Busch led 76 of the 110 laps they ran.

I’m on record as being a road course fan, in almost any capacity. I love oval racing, grew up watching ovals in the Midwest (Winchester Speedway in Indiana is still my favorite of them all) and work in an oval-dominated segment of the sport.

Still, I’ve watched racing on road courses almost as long, and I like the technical aspects of it as well as the unpredictability of them just as much. An old friend, road-racer-turned-oval-tracker, told me the good thing about road courses was that if you missed a corner on one lap, you had to wait a minute or so to see if you could do it right.

That’s kind of fun, don’t you think?

Now, I like road courses where you can pass, and where, if you need to, you can move a guy to advance without sending him through the tulips. You can do that at Sonoma, especially if you have fenders, and those were handy appliances on Sunday.

Brian Vickers got Tony Stewart fired up and earned a trip to the marbles—and the garage. He went in, got it fixed and returned the favor, leaving Stewart’s car sitting with its rear wheels off the ground atop a tire barrier in Turn 11.

Smoke said he knew it was probably coming, and accepted it with good grace. He said he punted Vickers because he was blocking, and vowed to punt anyone he considered blocking from here on out.

That’s a big promise, and one I’m sure he’ll delight in enforcing. After all, it seems to work for Kevin Harvick.

The interesting thing is, it’s different. It’s not an oval. It’s left and right and up and down, and it’s the different that makes it great.

It also offers a lot of chances to hit or be hit. Vickers and Stewart were just one example. The winner, Kurt Busch, said it’s NASCAR’s roots showing: you know, door handle to door handle, rubbin’ is racin’ and all that jazz.

He’s right. Last year’s race was as close to demolition derby as a non-plate race can get. Cars were flying around the course, in the traps, in the grass…they looked like mini-Pigpen’s from the Peanuts comic strip. There were so many feuds born that day you needed a calculator and a scorecard to keep track.

Busch beat Jeff Gordon to the line this year, and took great satisfaction in it because Gordon was the one that sent him sliding off the course last year, mowing the grass in the Blue Deuce.

Compared to what we’ll see Saturday night (two-by-two, push-me-pull-you) at Daytona, it’ll be like watching Harry Connick Jr. a week after taking in Lady Gaga…

On a different note, has anybody noticed that TNT is making the news more than Hendrick Motor Sports? I’m sure the good folks at TNT try to put on a good show…they just haven’t yet.

The commentary is as good as FOX or ESPN, especially Kyle Petty, in my opinion. The camera work and the constant commercial breaks are KILLING me…and you, from the comments. Split screen works for other sports, why not NASCAR?

Taking a deep breath and channeling the Dalai Lama…

Tune in over the weekend for updates at the Noah’s Ark 400 from Daytona! Er, I mean the Coke Zero 400 from Daytona!