Editor's Note: I can't believe this thing censors the word spelled out in the title. Shame I had to do that to get a point across...

I'm not writing this from Dover. That would amount to something sort of workish, and work is not allowed while tailgating. Thankfully, the tailgating actually ended around 8:00 last night. Had this been a previous year, I would have drank enough to make it feel like this guy was trying to break out of my skull by way of my forehead:



Dover is a wonderful racetrack. It would be a crying shame if it was to lose a race date, because it's definitely one of the most unique venues on the schedule (old-timers: did you ever think you'd see the day when a true oval would be considered a unique track style in NASCAR? Damned cookie-cutter tracks...). Realistically, the ideal situation would be to remove 600 miles from Pocono -- kill off one race and then another 100 miles from the remaining one, and it would become somewhat tolerable. But that's a different post. I digress...

Well, this photo pretty much sums up the race: one big wreck up front, with nothing exciting left to see at the end.




There was plenty of passing in the early portions of the race. Three cautions in the first 100 or so laps actually had me thinking in the stands, for the first time ever, "wow, this is a long race." It could be related to the fact that Dale Earnhardt, Jr. once again found himself in the back of the back because of someone else's miscue -- in this case, Elliott Sadler. The best line of the day came from Tony Stewart, who "claimed" 100 percent of the blame for being caught up in the accident, and adding that, "it's my fault for being anywhere close to Elliott. If I'm within a half a lap of him, I expect that to happen." Zing!

Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards and, ultimately, Kyle Busch proceeded to stink up the joint. Biffle led 151 of the first 157 laps (and then some more, but that was what I could hear over the loudspeaker in one of the few moments of the day when my scanner headphones were not holding up my broken sunglasses). Edwards led for a while, then Busch took over. Honestly, "there was a wreck, three guys led the bulk of it, and Kyle Busch led after going so fast he almost lapped himself" pretty much sums up the day. Makes me wish I bothered to drink more beer during the event.

This time last year, the race was just finishing up. That's because we sat through a cold, windy, rainy day on Sunday only to have to return on Monday to actually witness a race. I'm not entirely sure which year was a worse experience, to be brutally honest.

Yours truly heads out tomorrow for the first of his two annual treks to the pro circuit tracks, and will be tailgating at Dover International Speedway come 7:30 a.m. Sunday morning in the lot across Delaware Route 1 from the track. We park by the hill next to the road -- look for the beat-to-death red and black Chevy Suburban circa 1903 (not mine) and the green GMC (also not mine; I'll stick with my Zoom Zoom).

Predictions? Dale Earnhardt, Jr. breaks his losing streak -- but then, I'm biased. As for fantasy, I've got Jimmie Johnson, Greg Biffle, Martin Truex, Jr. and Sam Hornish, Jr. Call me crazy for that lineup, but I've been hovering between second and fifth in a league of 15 the whole season so far. Not bad for a guy who historically starts the season slower than Smoke, the King of the Summer Streak.

See you at the track!

With a child nearing one year old, a career that is now in its 16th year in the Big Leagues and more money than his grandchildren will ever be able to count, it's no secret that Jeff Gordon is closer to retirement than ever.  But he may have telegraphed his intentions with the recent announcement that he has signed a two-year extension with sponsor DuPont.

In the past, Gordon's extensions -- both with the team, prior to signing a lifetime contract, and with his sponsors -- have been for five years or more.  By signing a two-year re-upping, and combining it with the addition of remarrying and having a child, is he telling us the end is really near?

Far be it for me to tell NASCAR what they should be doing, but that's the point of this blog.  NASCAR needs to hear it, and I've nominated my screwed-up self for the task.  Introductions aside...

Beginning at some point in 2009, the Nationwide Series will move to a varied form of the Sprint Cup Series' "CoT" (a bit of a misnomer at this point, but one could make the argument that it should stand for something a bit more generic, like posing the question of "Car Or Truck?" given the blunt front ends these things have).  I don't have the specifics in front of me, and I don't feel like looking it up.  But NASCAR is doing a disservice to itself and its fans by keeping with the status quo and not, at the very least, using a different automotive platform as its base for the NNS CoT.

There was a time when the Grand National division was distinct from the Cup series, even as recently as the early 1990's.  Generally, a driver spent two, three, sometimes five or more years in the lower division as prep work for the Cup series.  Someone reaching the top level of NASCAR competition before they turned 27 was pretty much unheardof except in a few rare circumstances.  It started with Jeff Gordon, but didn't really gain momentum until about the time guys like Kenny Irwin, Jr. (RIP) and Adam Petty moved up.  Now it seems like the owners have a bet to see who can be the first to get a kid into a car before he (or she) is potty-trained.  Does Joey Lagano even shave yet?

The benefit of the old system was that once guys "graduated" they usually stayed put, aside from running one of the bigger Grand National events here and there.  What once was a handful of Cup veterans running in a given GN race has now become a 50/50 split between guys who are too young to be racing on a national level and guys who should have been disqualified from running the feeder series years ago..

This is where using smaller vehicles, like the Ford Mustang, Chevy Camaro and Dodge Challenger would make a world of difference.  First, it eases the young drivers into having to drive a 3,400-pound tank by putting them in lighter, lower-powered cars in a more gradual step up from the light-weight sprints and late models they likely came from.  Second, it gives the Cup vets less of a reason to race on Saturday, because it gives them less of a feel for what their Sunday cars are going to do on the race track.  As it stands, GN races are largely just a bonus practice session for those Cup guys who choose to participate.

NASCAR has argued that the Cup drivers are a large selling point for the lesser series; while I agree to some extent, it's only because NASCAR hasn't given us any other reason to watch.  If the cars drove different and the action was more exciting (which is something a lighter car will inherently provide), it would be more of an incentive to watch.  Right now, the only difference is the drivers and about 100 horsepower, sans the shapes of the cars.  And that's just not good enough.