I wanted to title this one "Gearing Up For The Toilet Bowl", but wondered how it would be perceived by people in the future who are going through the archives.
Christine and I took our annual "Escape from Winter" trip this past week and, since we were on a ship cruising to and from the Bahamas, I missed the final few nights of Speedweeks including the demolition derby tripleheader at Daytona International. Wow, did they tear up a lot of equipment there last weekend! I have to say that I much rather watch NASCAR now on my DVR than on live television.
I was actually familiar with 18-year-old truck winner Kaz Grala as I saw him compete at the Snowball Derby in 2015 and, not only does he have a memorable name, the kid impressed me that weekend as well. Look for him to be in contention at many of this year's races. I love my dirt track graduates, but it sure seems like Christopher Bell is a wreckers or checkers phenomenon in the Truck series.
Great to see Ryan Reed prevail over the Cup Series interlopers in the Xfinity race and, if not for Chase Elliott and the Kyle Larsen running out of fuel each while leading, I have to wonder if the 500 would have been a single-file snoozer in the closing laps. Oh well, it is becoming more apparent each year that I am not the only one that has lost all except a passing interest in the "top level" of our sport. When someone finds out that I am an avid race fan I am quick to point out that it is on the short track level.
I have read with interest how Monster Energy will be doing things to get more younger fans involved with the sport and the first three examples, I suppose, came during Michael Waltrip's pre-race grid walk. First, there was Rob Gronkowski now serving as a pit reporter. Second were the scantily clad young ladies that Gronk chose to interview instead of drivers, and third was the curse word that was clearly said on live television when Larry The Cable Guy asked Waltrip what it felt like knowing that he had no chance of winning. I can hardly wait to see what is next!
Wet weather played havoc with the dirt racing as the Saturday finale at East Bay was rained out for the first time in the forty-one year history of the Winter Nationals and rain washed away two nights at Volusia while Friday's show ended early as the fog rolled in. Still it was an interesting couple of weeks with both the World of Outlaws and the Lucas Oil series setting the stage for what should be a very competitive season for each.
Brandon Sheppard won more races, but Tim McCreadie's consistency was the best and that has the two drivers tied atop the Back Stretch National Dirt Late Model points coming out of Speed Weeks. I can't remember the last time that someone other than Richards, Bloomquist or Davenport was on top as we moved into the month of March when the regional tours kick off their campaigns.
One of those is the newly expanded MARS series, under new ownership in 2017 and now with both an East and West region as both will run the Friday and Saturday night at the Clarksville Speedway in Tennessee. The event known as the Tuckasee Toilet Bowl Classic should draw a solid field of Late Models with a nice mix of drivers from each region and I plan to be there perhaps with the newly crowned Super Fans of 2016, Ed Reichert and Gary Lee.
Once again we are saddened this week by the passing of a legend in Ralph Capitani. I had the honor of working for Cappy back in 1998 and I was never more surprised and thrilled when he called me that March and asked if I would be one of his announcers for the season. It was also the first year that I had started the NKF Tour and he completely understood when I told him at the end of the season that I wanted to concentrate on that going forward. In fact, he said, let's have one of those races here. Ralph Capitani commanded respect and he more than earned it. For more on Cap, please read the tribute by my colleague Bill Wright at www.openwheel101.com
Check back soon for news from Clarksville!
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