Auto Racing Insider Pete Pistone Posted Sunday, August 30, 2009
A bit of an abbreviated edition of "Hot Laps" this week. We took the weekend to celebrate our eighth wedding anniversary (and they said it wouldn't last) so after covering Friday night's truck series race at Chicagoland, kind of checked out for a couple days. But did catch some of the highlights of the racing weekend:
If you needed another reason why NASCAR should not race in the rain, Sunday's Nationwide Series race at Montreal should have provided the answer. Look I think the intent by NASCAR is right in giving the fans a whole race and it's admirable to try racing in wet weather. But it doesn't work and Sunday's race wasn't a travesty but something I wouldn't hold up as a shining example of the sport. Cars slipping and sliding all over the place looked like a street stock feature at my local short track not a major event for the number two racing series in America. While the last d=lap drama between Marcos Ambrose and Carl Edwards was certainly exciting, it should never had gotten that far and I think the race needed to be called short because of the rain. It was unfair to a lot of teams and just a miserable experience to watch.
Since we criticize Kyle Busch when he conveniently blows off the media after races if things don't go his way we cannot let Marcos Ambrose off the hook completely. Although he did discuss his last lap problems later, his short answer and storming off routine during ESPN"s attempt to find out what happened wasn't very classy. I know, I know, sticking a microphone in a driver's face seconds after something goes terribly wrong is a tough deal to handle but Ambrose owed the national television audience a bit more than he offered in my opinion.
Saturday night's IRL race at Chicagoland was as expected one of the most exciting events of the season in any series. Ryan Briscoe's heart-stopping win over Scott Dixon in the fourth closest finish in series history continued the legacy of the IRL when the series competes on high speed ovals. The logic of the series moving away from these kinds of races and tracks for more street and road circuits is just mind boggling.
The truck race at Chicagoland wasn't stellar but there were a few flashes of good racing and three and sometimes four wide on display. Kyle Busch was the cream of the crop Friday night and had the field covered. Hopefully next year's race will be a bit more competitive but it was good to see the trucks finally racing at Chicagoland.
The news that The Milwaukee Mile could be back on both the Nationwide Series and truck series schedules next year was heartening. Nothing is for sure but it appears things are moving in the right direction which is great news for Midwest race fans.
Nothing for sure on the Danica Patrick re-signing with Andretti Green Racing but several sources told me at Chicagoland over the weekend the deal is all but done. The IRL was reportedly in negotiations to keep Patrick in the league, realizing the series needs all the star power it can get. Keeping here in the series, more great races like Saturday's and dumping the ridiculous 9 p.m. local start times fans had to endure at Chicagoland would be big steps in getting Indy Car racing a bigger slice of the motorsports pie.
Pete Pistone is the Senior Editor of RacingOne. Pistone is also the co-host of "The Morning Drive," which airs Monday through Friday from 7-11 a.m. ET on Sirius NASCAR Radio Channel 128. He also hosts the syndicated "SpeedJournal Report," heard on 100 radio stations nationwide and Pistone is a sports reporter/anchor for Chicago's WGN Radio and also hosts weekly auto racing segments on the station. Pistone serves as the national motorsports writer for CBS Sports.com.
