Did you see the Nationwide Series race at O’ Reilly Raceway Park? Man, that baby had all the feel of a race on the local short track- for me, reminiscent of the Douglas County Fairgrounds Speedway up in Roseburg, Oregon. Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch battled and banged at the very front. Matt Kenseth, Brad Keselowski and Steve Wallace put on quite a show fighting over third.
It may have been a shorter event, but this race is a case of less being more. If there was a dull moment, I don’t know where it was. Even the extended green flag run in the mid-to-later race gave opportunity for strategy to come into play.
Let me also gives kudos to Steve Wallace and Trevor Bayne. It would have been easy to be be taken out of the game after quick entry by the pace car under caution bottled the two young front runners up. Wallace showed a newfound restraint to end up with a good finish and Bayne also put in a good night.
I’ve been critical of Kyle Busch for his behavior. As most of you know, the “Rowdy One” announced a new attitude. It would have been tempting to stomp off after finishing second and battling a less than stellar ride, but he stuck it out and offered his perspective on the race. Thanks Kyle.
Memo to NASCAR: unless I’ve missed my guess, I just witnessed the race unhappy fans have been clamoring for. While there’s no doubt the double file re-starts were a factor in the excitement, there’s no doubt the track configuration was a key ingredient as well.
Take the lesson Major League Baseball learned last decade and applay it to NASCAR. After years of playing in these sterile, cookie cutter parks- baseball turned a page after the 1994 debacle when baseball was stopped dead in its tracks by a labor dispute. The sport was in serious need of a make-over and parks like Camden Yards, the Great American Ballpark and Rangers Ballpark in Arlington arrived almost on cue. They brought back a certain sense of old school character to the game.
If I were NASCAR, I would announce plans to incorporate more short tracks into the schedule. It would be one more step in the right direction.
I’m a “variety is the slice of life” kind of guy, so I am by no means suggesting the doing away of superspeedways, road courses, and even some of the mile and a half tracks. What I am suggesting is that there are places where its time to reconfigure. Let’s take Auto Club for example. There are race fans there. There are people up the road and to the east who will make the trip if the racing’s good and thoughtful consideration is given to the schedule. I would love nothing more than to see a short track in southern California.
And I would drive 800 miles to see a race there.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Short tracks are what made the sport. Long before the super speedways were created, short tracks gave fans everything they wanted in a race all around the country. No two short tracks were the same. They all had their little quirks. But time has marched on with fans being the big losers in the march of progress. Cars went from stock, to stock looking, to looking like a used bar of soap to what we have today which resembles nothing on the street. We need more tracks like North Wilkesboro, Occoneechee, Columbia, and the old Nashville Fairgrounds. With the introduction of the cookie cutter tracks and cookie cutter cars, it’s become like the paper strip across the motel toilet seat. “Sanitized For Your Protection”.
While watching the race, I was struck by the fact that NA$CAR got it wrong.
They should have put the cup race at ORP. Put the overflow at IMS, & broadcast it on the big screens. That’s about the only way you can see much there anyway. Then agin with the COT, we wouldn’t have seen the side, by side, that we enjoyed.
As a native Hoosier who made several trips to IRP, I agree with #2 in saying that it’s too bad the Cup cars weren’t there. If the Nationwide series can race there, so can Cup. And you are so close to the action. IRP taught me what a track should smell like. It is famous in its own right. Not as much as its big sister in Speedway, obviously, but they could come there twice a year, sell it out, and race under the lights.
More short tracks?
Amen, bro’!