Kansas, math problems and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Random thoughts heading into the race weekend at Kansas Speedway:
• Some critics wonder why Kansas Speedway hosts a race in the Chase For The Sprint Cup. Let me count the reasons, in no particular order:
1. It’s a first-class facility, with good fan amenities, including exceptional traffic flow in and out of the track. Plus, it’s a city that fans, competitors and sponsors enjoy visiting, with plenty of entertainment, dining and lodging options. Anyone who has complained about spending $175 per night (with a four-night minimum) to stay in some fleabag hotel 40 miles from Talladega Superspeedway would be happy to know they can find first-class lodging 15 miles or so from Kansas Speedway for a fraction of that price – with no minimum stay and no advance reservations.
2. Kansas City is an important market for NASCAR. By holding a playoff race there, NASCAR continues to show it has moved beyond its traditional Southeastern U.S. base. I’m intrigued by the thought of Darlington one day hosting a Chase race, as some fans suggest. Other fans think Bristol Motor Speedway should be among the Chase tracks, but I’m not sold on that, simply because I like that race where it is on the schedule.
3. The Kansas race draws fans from throughout the Midwest, where many of the sport’s stars past and present (Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace, Clint Bowyer, Carl Edwards, etc.) cut their racing teeth. Yes, NASCAR was born in the Southeast, in the foothills of the Appalachians and on the beach at Daytona, but there are many, many hard-core fans in the Midwest, too.
• Every so often, some newspaper or education agency will report on how American students are falling behind their counterparts in other countries in the study of math. I would guess some of these mathematically challenged school kids grow up to be motorsports reporters, many of whom are now claiming that any driver more than 100 points behind the leader after only two of 10 Chase races probably won’t win. In truth, that margin can disappear in one pit stop. This Chase is still mathematically wide open.
• In case you missed it, Charlotte Observer sports columnist Tom Sorensen had a great line in his Sept. 26 column. Writing about the Carolina Panthers’ prospects of winning their football game last Monday night against the Dallas Cowboys, he managed to trash not one, but two sports icons in his lead: “The Dallas Cowboys remind me of a mannequin in a store window or Dale Earnhardt Jr. in his Chevrolet. They look good. But they don't do anything.”
Not saying I agree with Sorensen on the Earnhardt Jr. analogy, but you have to give the guy points for stating a strong opinion, with some humor thrown in. As it turned out, the Cowboys proved Sorensen wrong last Monday, thrashing the Panthers. Maybe Earnhardt Jr. can do the same.
