Trevor Bayne, Reegan Smith, David Regan, and now Marcos Ambrose, all first time winners in Cup racing this year. Brad Keselowski won last week at Pocono after breaking an ankle in testing earlier in that week. Seems like the stories good for NASCAR Cup racing have been rising this year. Add to those feel good stories the brush ups between Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch and now Boris Said and Greg Biffle and you have more news that attracts attention of the sports reporters around the country. Good or bad, it gets NASCAR in the news and gives sports shows some good highlight reels. Then add those awful crashes at The Glen with Reutiman, Denny Hamlin, and Kurt Busch and more good highlight reels with the question lingering as to where the safety is at the track in the Finger Lakes section of New York. Oh, and let’s not forget the drug bust in the Montoya team with enough marijuana, from what I’m told, to almost derive the funds to sponsor at least a competitive Nationwide ride. Then add to that the rumor that these two guys had their $30,000.00 dollars bail paid by a well known and very popular driver in Cup NOT affiliated with the 42 team. Already, from what I hear, the rumors are running rampart as to why that particular driver would pay the bail. Then the rumor that the weed came out of Colombia, and I’m not talking about the Columbia where my Lair is located. Quite a story for publicity value.

Then, throw in the new points system that is supposed to be more competitive and some convoluted formula for drivers in the top twenty but NOT in the top ten but who win races and can qualify for one of two wild card spots for the chase. And the way the points are awarded! And I never was any good in math.

Wow, in one paragraph there is enough to keep tv and radio sports talk shows in heat for at least two months. What gives here? I’m not sure, but I like the things that offer the positive side to the sport. I don’t like the bad publicity but I guess that comes with the territory. Unfortunately, the bad publicity is going to get more play than the fact that Jeff Gordon’s Foundation has contributed a small fortune to relief in the drought stricken portion of Africa where kids are starving to death. One thing I have noted from watching the national news in that regard is the fact that there needs to be some birth control education disbursed to those folks. National news made a big deal of the 18 year old woman who had three of her five kids die of starvation. I cry for the kids, but really, five kids by 18? And just last night there was a mother of 23 who had 8 kids. So, although Jeff Gordon’s foundation is helping out as it can, there is yet more to be done. Why did I bring that up? Just wanted to show there is more news out there than what the sports reporters have to talk about with the negative side of NASCAR. And I didn’t even mention the Debt Ceiling or anything to do with Washington, D.C.

So, what else got my attention this week? A conversation with a friend who absolutely hates road course racing. I admit that at one time I was not a huge fan of non-oval racing but at some point I began to appreciate the skill it takes to go right and left and do it well. I attended the ONLY race ever run at the 3 mile road course in Augusta, GA in 1963 which was the last win by Fireball Roberts. I loved watching the cars make those turns left and right. I never made Riverside, Watkins Glen nor Infineon although I have watched most all those races on TV. When I really got to thinking about it, if it is true, and I believe it is, that stock car racing got its start with the moonshiners outrunning the revenuers, those were road races, most often down the mountain roads of northern Georgia or Western North Carolina or maybe even eastern Tennesee. Those were the races for life, so to speak, as the moonshine runners, most times, not exactly out RAN, but out DROVE the revenuers on the twisty, narrow mountain roads. So, it was actually the road racing that got it all started. Think about it.

Which brings me to something that has really come to bother me, more this season than before. I didn’t get to see the Glen as I was working but I did watch the highlights on tv and on NASCAR.com. After suffering through a season filled with the mile and a half cookie cutter tracks or the two point five or two point six mile tri-ovals with push me/pull you racing it was nice to see the difference. I loved Charlotte Motor Speedway when I started going there for the first 600 in 1960. I watched it grow, I watched it change, I watched it become Lowes Motor Speedway and then back to Charlotte Motor Speedway but the track always held may attention because it was Charlotte. Then along comes Texas and a half a dozen other tracks built just like it. Where is the beauty of that? And Atlanta? I went there the first time for the 1963 Atlanta 500 and then hardly missed a race there until sometime in the early 90s. That was a beautiful mile and a half with high banks and nice straightaways. I loved the racing there. Now what? Another mile an a half cookie cutter track that happens to be the fastest track ( I think it still holds that distinction) on the circuit. Why? Is the racing so good on those type tracks that all need to be built that way? I think not. Look at Richmond. Good racing there and it’s not cookie cutter. What about Darlington? That will always be my favorite track because of all the stories from there that are a part of my life from 1957 on. In spite of the fact that NASCAR decided to declare there is no value to tradition and take away the Labor Day Southern 500, that track is MY home track. I always said that if I could have driven in just one Cup race, it would have been my choice to have that race at Darlington.

And while we are on the subject of tradition and NASCAR’s devaluation of it, let’s talk about North Wilkesboro and Rockingham. Both of those tracks were awesome venues for very special races and indelible memories for many race fans. Where is the thrill of Loudon, NH? I find nothing exciting about that track. For the most part, I’m not even sure New Hampshire is not a part of Canada rather than the U. S. But I absolutely detest that track.

I guess the whole point of this tirade is knowing that we’re coming up on Labor Day weekend and Darlington will lie silent. Oh, NASCAR did bring the Labor Day weekend back from that God-forsaken sin hole in California to the east, but still it’s not Darlington. Heck, Jerry Lewis is not even on the MD Telethon this Labor Day weekend. Maybe I’ll just sleep the entire weekend and pretend it never happened.

I was at The Historic Columbia Speedway last Friday night for outdoor movie night. Quite an enjoyable night with not a race car in sight. The company was excellent and the movie was good but I left with the nostalgic feeling that I should be smelling racing fuel and burning rubber rather than buttered popcorn. And I didn’t even get dirty! Spent the entire evening there and not one speck of red clay on me anywhere. Just another memory brought back to taunt me with what used to be but will never be again. But, you know what? I have an excellent memory, at least for those things, and I have this Racers Reunion site and my Racers Reunion Friends that keep those memories shining bright.

So, no cookies for me tonight. No Oreos, chocolate chips, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Texas Speedway, Chicago land., well, you get the picture.