Stewart Solves Sprint Scuffle, New Yorkers Mis-Trust Meteorologists

The big news of the day is that Tony Stewart has settled the battle between the All Stars and the new Renegade sprint car series before it even started by purchasing both and merging it into one. Obviously this is great news for sprint car fans who were concerned that fields would be split with both series not living up to their potential due to the direct competition. For me though this announcement goes even deeper and shows that Stewart has not allowed the tragedy of last August to make him pull away from his love for dirt track racing. And that is a good thing for all of us.....Sprint Car, Late Model, Modifieds, Street Stocks, Midgets....race fans.

The newly merged All Star schedule will be released in "the coming days" and it will be interesting to see if the Wednesday July 29th date at the West Liberty Raceway remains.

Since it was east of our common coverage area I had not really paid that close of attention to the emergence of the Renegade Series so for a much more informed "take" on Stewart's purchase of the series I refer you to Positively Racing's Eric Arnold and T.J. Buffenbarger who is better known as T.J. Slideways.

As further evidence that our society is going insane, many New Yorkers are upset with meterologists after predictions that as much as 24 to 36 inches could fall on the city came up short. Only eight inches of snow actually fell and that made millions mad. "Only" eight inches of snow? That still seems pretty significant to me and it wasn't like the storm didn't happen as predicted, it just happened up the road a bit in Connecticut and Massachusetts. So they missed it a bit, big deal!! I might understand some grumbling if eight inches were predicted and 24 inches fell, but this is ridiculous.

Doesn't it give you some kind of inner peace to know that despite all of our advancements in science and technology that we still have difficulties predicting the weather more than just a few hours out? Ah Mother Nature, how we love you, yet curse you......

Don't look now but meteorologists are saying that we could get a significant snowfall in our area this weekend. He's not perfect, nor do I ever expect him to be, but Terry Swails is my "go to" guy. (Note: As I went to create the link I see that even Terry, an admitted snow lover, is disappointed in how the new models have taken the snowfall out of the forecast. See how quickly things can change?)

In yesterday's entry I talked about how drivers from both Bloomfield and Tipton should have no trouble finding reasonable alternatives to compete at weekly in 2015 and almost as if on cue promoter Mike Van Genderen today announced a "Tow Card" incentive for both Oskaloosa and Donnellson.

A few days earlier the Darkside announced that they would be admitting the drivers in both the IMCA Hobby Stocks and the 4-Stocks into the pits at the Jackson County Speedway in Maquoketa for free the entire season. It is kind of sad, although likely needed, that they had to qualify the announcement by saying "before any other drivers complain about this".

There is definitely some promoting going on here in the offseason and that is a good thing.