That's What it Was

It was what it was. It was a boring race. I am of course referring to yesterday's Auto Club 500 at the California Speedway.

There was some good racing going on though. And it was out of the parking lot after Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished blowing up his motor on lap 121. The 8 car was obviously the reason why there were around 10,000 empty seats in Fontana yesterday, and not the fact that the track has never in its 10-year history produced an epic race that people talk about for the next 3 months. The Daytona 500 was epic, it was dramatic, and people will be talking about it for years to come.

I am, and I'll admit this to anyone who asks this, a traditionalist. I think that NASCAR's roots are in the southeast and we should honor those who made the sport what it is today by racing in this area of the country. Let's take a look at the last race at the North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham, where NASCAR should have been racing yesterday.

Again, it was Matt Kenseth who went to victory lane in that race, after he battled it out with Kasey Kahne down to the line for the win. There was no single file racing for 300 miles. There was no random debris cautions that NASCAR made up so the field could get bunched up and the margin of victory wouldn't be two days. It was good racing. Have you ever seen a side-by-side run to the checkers at California? If you have, please remind me because I fail to recall once when that has happened.

I like Texas. I like Chicago. I'll even go as far as to say that I'll like the newly redesigned Las Vegas Motor Speedway when the Nextel Cup Series visits there in two weeks. But for the tracks that NASCAR has introduced since 1997, California is my least favorite. Maybe Cali should take a page from Las Vegas and do something to the track to improve the racing. Add banking, narrow the track up, or buldoze the entire thing and build a short track.

But for someone to say that race was exciting yesterday... well, you obviously missed the point.

I hope Brian France got to sleep in yesterday morning. I slept during the race.