** As disappointing as it is to see the racing season coming to an end, it has been an especially interesting year for championship battles.  We talked a couple posts ago about the great battles at the local tracks.  Now the focus goes to some of the national series, where there is still a lot to be decided...

** The tightest battle, at least as of this moment, is the one to be decided this coming Saturday afternoon at Homestead.  In IndyCar, Scott Dixon leads Dario Franchitti by 5 and Ryan Briscoe by 8.  With a slim spread among 3 drivers, the potential point scenarios are nearly endless.  But let's make it very simple.  The way these guys have dominated, there's a decent chance that one of them will win the race.  There's a ten-point differential from 1st to 2nd in race points.  Win the race, win the title.  It will probably come down to the final turn of the final lap.

** In the WoO, only three events remain, with the World Finals at Charlotte being a multi-day deal.   Not many opportunities left, and I have to think that, despite a nice recent run, Joey Saldana is going to be just a little too far back (-40) to challenge Donny Schatz.  Jason Meyers, however, is a different story at -14.  With the small differential in points for position, he still needs to finish at or near the front every night out to have a shot.  Schatz would need to either have 2 or 3 mediocre (for him) finishes or 1 total disaster.  But it's a very real possibility.  And to be saying that about the WoO this late in the season is pretty exciting...

** In Cup, most of the late-season talk was about either Tony Stewart or Mark Martin.  And with Martin still leading and Stewart getting a win to pull back into contention, I want to talk about a couple of  others:

** Jimmy Johnson - After 3 straight championships and his past dominating performances in the playoffs, how did the focus slip away from him?  With a win already in the Chase and only 18 points back, I still think the road to the title goes through him and Chad K.  These guys use the regular season as a tune-up and preparation for this 10-race stretch.

** Juan Montoya - JP says that they point-raced literally all season just to set themselves up for the Chase.  I thought that was a little bold at the time, but look at how it's playing out.  He's in 3rd, only 51 pts back, and he's consistently racing up front, just like he did in the late races of the regular season (perhaps pushing a little harder when he needed to solidify his playoff position??).  I originally was a bit surprised that they made the Chase, and certainly never thought it would come to anything further.  But I'm slowly starting to think the "C" word...contender.  OK, no I don't really think it will last 10 races...but I also didn't think they'd make the Chase...

** It's kind of ironic, if you think about it.  The 4-Crown Nationals is NOT the Eldora event where the winner wears a crown.  It's probably just as well, as we'd be there all night waiting for FOUR guys to go through that crazy ceremony...

** I was glad to see Jason Sides get the WoO win.  He's quietly had a tremendous breakout season.  Not a lot of wins, but frequently right there.  Many forget that he had perhaps the best Florida speedweeks performance of anyone, any series.  And after many said he should have an asterisk after his King's Royal win a few years ago (the right rear tire nightmare night...), it's good to see him get a higher profile Outlaw win at Eldora.

** Even though the WoO are now officially the first "crown" of the weekend, USAC is still the headliner in my book this weekend.  There were no first-time crown winners this year (midgets-Brad Sweet,  sprints-Jerry Coons, Jr.,  champs-Dave Darland), but you wouldn't know it by the excitement shown by all three.  Of particular note, Darland took the checkers with his left fist pumping the air, come back around to do a backward ("Polish") victory lap, then threw his arms into the air on the victory ramp climbing out of the car.  Darland has been down victory lane quite a few times in his long career and is not generally so demonstrative.  It was nice to see, and the crowd responded in kind.

** Pretty good crowd, especially considering the threat of rain in the area.  The track, normally very smooth, was pretty choppy, especially in T1, where the layers were "peeling" up in several places and in different grooves from the middle to near the top.  The fast groove here is usually against the fence, but many drivers avoided the top half of the track, especially before the sprint and Silver Crown features.  Brad Sweet figured it out early in the midget event, or at least had the intestinal fortitude to chance it to victory.

** The car counts continue to show a negative trend in the midget and Silver Crown divisions, with midgets at 22 and champ cars at 24.  The trend from 2006 to the prersent:  midget:  38-31-28-22;   sprint: 54-48-48-49;  champ: 32-28-28-24.  Of course, the bulk of the talk this year has been about the cost of midget racing threatening the long-term existence of at least the "high-powered" division.  While the "winnings-to-purse" ratio of any racing division is not very positive, it is especially brutal in this division.  To be competitive, some teams are reported to be spending $40-60K for an engine and often running for $2-3K to win.  You don't have to be a math major...

** Brad Sweet will be running a lot more winged events in the coming year.  I couldn't coax a lot of details out of him, and prefer not to report just the speculation / rumors I've heard.  The reason given was that they had sponsors that wanted to see them run more winged shows.  That suggests him staying with the current team.  I guess we'll learn more as time goes along...  He did say to expect him at some ASCoC events, as well as some of the bigger USAC events, which suggests a full-time WoO deal is apparently not in the works.  Again, I guess we'll just have to wait and see...

** With a backdrop of NASCAR leveling the playing field this week to manufacture a battle for their points title (2nd place WAS well over 200 points back...), the local speedways have turned in the best collective local championship battles I can remember.  It would take far too long to list the intricate (but very interesting) scenarios and story lines surrounding the final races, but check out this sampling of the final point totals:

At Attica:

410:  1) Andrews   2) Reed -11   3) Linder -19

305:  1) Weaver   2) Brubaker -15

At Waynesfield:

360:  1) Allison   2) Stewart -18

Mods:  1) Babcock  2) Post -12  (still a race to go, I believe...)

At Limaland:

360:  1) Stewart  2) Allison -18  (a bit ironic, after checking the WRP result...)

Mods:  1) Babcock  2) Sherman -6)

Stocks:  1) Anderson  2) Bowen -4

and at Fremont:

410:  1) Mayes  2) Reed -3  3) Mintz -10

305:  1) Heurman  2) Weaver -1

** Must be something magic in the air with open-wheel racing...  (Even aside from the local scene)Usually by late July, the last hope for a point battle in the World of Outlaws has faded away.  But this year in mid-September, the battle is really starting to heat up, as Donny Schatz is only 17 points up on Jason Meyers and 54 up on a red-hot Joey Saldana.  Wouldn't it be fun to watch the World finals from Charlotte with the title actually up for grabs?  And in IndyCar, the point leader has changed after 13 of 15 events so far this year.  Ryan Briscoe holds a 25 point lead over Franchitti and 33 over Dixon, in what is one of the "largest" leads of the season, with 2 races to go.

** I know it's hard to feel too sorry for Byron Reed after all the track titles he's won recently at both Fremont and Attica, but that is tough to miss doubling up on the championships at both places (yet again...) by a combined total of 14 points!  And despite not winning as many races as he's become accustomed to, that still says a lot about just what a force he still is in local 410 sprint racing.

** As much as I enjoy the World 100 weekend each year at Eldora, I am bummed that I missed last week's show at Fremont.  Aside from the tremendous championship battles, history was made with Page Polyak becoming the first female to win a sprint car race (305).  And at age 15 (I believe), she is also the youngest feature winner.  And she had to fight off Paul Weaver, who was perhaps the hottest 305 driver this year, to do it.  Move over, Danica...

** The World 100 really is a great event.  I'm an open-wheel guy, but this event is one of my most-anticipated events of the year.  I've missed only one since my first in 1983.  This year, 172 cars showed up, a rather "small" field by event standards.  (Probably at least half of the 26 races I've seen have had 200+ fields...)  It took almost an hour and a half just to hotlap everyone!  After qualifying, 120 cars make the field for Saturday night.  This year, 52 cars went home without running a heat race!

** And what heat races!  Six heats of 20 cars, at 15 laps each - all would make a great feature event on almost any other night.  That was followed by 2 20-lap B-Mains, then the 100-lap feature.  Even with the pre-race pomp and circumstance, the winner was on the victory ramp at 11:05pm!

** Looking forward to seeing non-wing sprints at Millstream for the first time since the Reagan Administration.  Hope to see you there...!

** I know the A Main is where all the money's at, and most of the fan interest, as well.  And sure, we want to see the heats to see who's going to make the A.  But the B-Main is often just an afterthought.  A time to chat, get a hot dog, or make a last lap through the pit area.

Most of the "big" guys are already in the show.  And if a couple of them haven't made it yet, well that's even worse because now they'll start up front and really stink up the show.  Yes, the "dreaded" B-Main (as the TV commentators put it, because the drivers don't want to have to run it) doesn't usually get a lot of respect.

After the past few weeks, I have a new perspective on that...   A few weeks ago at Attica, I watched a race that reminded me (yet again) of what I love about this sport.  It had everything you could ask for...  2-wide, 3-wide, slide jobs, young guns trying to prove they can get the hang of this game, veterans trying to show that they still have it...  It was a great show beginning to end.  The only thing missing was, perhaps, the "big" names...  Kevin Lee pulled off the win, followed by Cap Henry and David Harrison.  Duane Zablocki was right in the mix until something broke a few laps from the end.  They couldn't celebrate because they had to hustle up to get ready for the feature.  It was, after all, only the B-Main...

If you didn't attend the night's event, you'd pass right over the above results, looking to see who won "the race."  All I was thinking was "what a race!"  Had that been the feature event, the entire crowd would have still gone home with a smile on their face.  Great job, guys...

** I had a similar experience this past Saturday night at Waynesfield at the 1st Annual Jack Hewitt Classic.  It was the 2nd of two B-mains, and what a show it was.  I don't get to see these guys that often so I'm not as familiar with them, but I can tell you this - Moffat, Williams, and Burkin (among others) were nose to tail and side by side (by side) for the lead and win most of the event.  I was by myself that night, but as they came around on the cool-down lap, I came to my feet without even thinking about it to applaud the great show I'd just seen.  As I looked around, there were several others around me doing the same - and I was in the pit stands.

I didn't know these guys well, and I knew they probably wouldn't be a factor in the main event, but once again I was reminded what a great sport this is.  And that you don't have to have a name like Darland or Kinser to put on a great show.

** Speaking of Waynesfield, the Hewitt Classic was a really good show, as well as (I would assume) a financial success for Dean Miracle and his crew.  I think (and hope) that in time this will be looked back on as Waynesfield's "coming out party." 

Despite a lot of well-run events, so far it's been a struggle to get attention and a solid fan following.  This event had both.  There was a bit of a "buzz" about this event in the past few weeks, and the night itself had more of a "special event" feel.  The pit area was packed with 45 sprint cars and the stands, while not full, held what Dean Miracle declared as the best crowd he'd had there.  And those fans saw a well-prepared track with great racing all night long.

I heard a lot of positive comments from fans, along with talk of several cars owners / drivers who are considering running the non-wing cars regularly at Waynsefield in the coming season.  The tide may be turning for the WRP crew, and this first Hewitt Classic may be the event that history credits as a major turning point. **

Well, they haven't disconnected my ability to post here again, so apparently the weekly blog will continue (at least for another week...).

** There are apparently some gremlins to be foiled yet in the web site set-up - I have some photos to post in the gallery and it still won't let me do it.  Until then, see the end of this post for a shot of Racing World's "head hen," Lisa Hammer, along with her Pit Stop Challenge team at Fremont.  There are many more shots from that day waiting to be posted.

** I need to again commend the staff of Fremont Speedway, along with Lisa and the many others who put the "Salute to the Military" event on.  The Pit Stop Challenge was only one of many enjoyable activities.  How typical that dozens of the very military men and women who the event was to honor actually spent several hours of their day serving their community by erecting and manning the many displays. 

I know there were a lot of veterans that took advantage of Fremont's invitation to attend the night's racing action free of charge.  I also know that for many of them, the real treat was hearing the many accolades from people in the crowd, the handshakes, and the sincere words of thanks.  I talked to many of them, some just home for a short while before returning to active duty.  I was truly humbled by their character, love of country, and pride in serving their community.  And I was so glad to see the community reach out to them the way they did.  Great event!

** I was at Limaland this past week, watching Dale Blaney beat up (again) on the NRA 360s.  I know he's a high-calibre veteran, and I know Ron Hammons has good equipment...  But I also know that this guy is special.  He won both NRA events the week before at Eldora, and he raced against very good equipment and drivers, including several All-Star and Outlaw cars.   Oh yea, and but for an ill-timed caution, might have come away with a $50K King's Royal win.  Not bad for a one-engine / little trailer / 1-man pit crew team.

Since they blew their one engine a few nights later at Lernerville, they became a no-engine team.  Wow, that $50K would have come in handy...

** I'm heading to Kentucky Speedway this weekend for the IndyCar Series.  I'm just hoping that the new aero package changes due this week help cure the illness that's been spreading.  It's been almost like the cars are fearing a swine flu epidemic...they can't stand to get within 50 feet of each other.  The league's solution - give them more downforce.  I'm not an engineer, but even I know they've already got too much downforce (and not enough power...).  

We had a lot of cars getting up in the air a few years ago, so I understand the desire to slow them down, tweak the aero, and keep them in the ball park.  I also understand that people don't want to watch boring racing.  (Just ask the people in Richmond, who may not have a race next year)  I'm not smart enough to know the answer, but I do know that not long ago this series  had a reputation of having some of the most incredible racing on the planet.  Now I have to watch a Toronto street race to see close racing.  No, they can't pass there either, but at least they run together in the same zip code...

** Well, the NASCAR event at Indy wasn't exactly a thriller either, but it did have a few moments.  I'll bet the biggest exitement for many involved Juan Pablo Montoya.  Not the dominating performance for the first 3/4 of the race, but for the pit speed penalty that threw all that down the drain.  Now be honest...I know there were a bunch of you out there cheering, saying "yea, ya dang furriner, that's what ya get!"  I was at the Prelude at Eldora the first year Montoya ran.  Wow, let's just say that he didn't have a lot of fans in the stands...

** August is upon us, so sadly the season is winding down.  But there's still time to bring a new fan to a local race track.  We hear all the time how lucky we are to have so many good tracks and good events so close.  Yea, I know we're spoiled.  I just want to keep it that way...!

** A preview of photos to come: