By Rob D'Amico and Michele Rahal from Race Day on Fox Sports Radio

True Champions have attributes that separate them from the rest of the world. Earnest Hemingway embellished a famous misquote between himself and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Hemingway said simply, “The rich aren’t like you and me”, to wit Fitzgerald replied, “They have more money”. Racing car drivers aren’t like you and me, they have more talent and if the stock car racing world wants to crown a true champion then one would do well to find what that true talent really means. NASCAR needs to add a road course to the Chase for the Championship.

Since NASCAR decided to use the new “chase” format, which is a 10-race shootout with the top twelve drivers in points resetting their points to 5000 each and additionally giving them 10 bonus points for each win during the first 26 races, a road course has not been a part of the equation for the championship. Why?



In all corners of the globe, in almost every form of racing a road or street course is part of the championship. NASCAR should be no different. In a sport that prides itself on history and tradition, road racing has been hand in hand with the boys from the South in every step of NASCAR’s ascension. If we are going to consider NASCAR’s drivers the best in the world then adding a road course to the Chase isn’t an option, it’s a requirement.

If you were to scan the garage and ask the question, should a road course be in the Chase for the Championship you would get many mixed results. “No, I don’t think one belongs in the Chase”, Jeff Burton, driver of the #31 Chevy said. “I think the Chase should have a fair representation of the race tracks we run the majority of the time. I’m a proponent of the fact that we have 36 races a year and two of them are road courses, which is a small percentage, so the Chase shouldn’t have a road course in it because it would be unfairly represented in what we currently know the Cup Series to be.”

Ask anyone outside the United States who the best racing car drivers in the world are and 9 out 10 won’t mention a NASCAR driver. Some say that it’s because NASCAR isn’t very popular outside the U.S. but the truth is, these detractors just don’t take ovals seriously. The rest of the world doesn’t believe that ovals require skill. On the other hand, now that the so-called open wheel invasion in NASCAR has slowed and the drivers who were part of that influx have seen how difficult it is to compete on a level with the stock car racers, that mindset may be beginning to change. A road race would be a significant step towards that change.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races on two road courses a year, Infineon, in California, and Watkins Glen, New York, but neither are included in the all important last ten races of the season. NASCAR has road raced from the day it was created from the beaches of Daytona to Riverside, California to the backwoods of North Carolina where the sport was born.

Ask Junior Johnson if when, in moments of youthful indiscretions, he could only turn left. The police would have merely had to stand there until he ran out of gas. He had to hone skills that all racers do; Up-shifting, downshifting, four wheel drifting, heel and toe braking techniques all the while doing it better than Johnny Law. It’s what made him a legend.

Next comes the question that, if you are going to add a road race to the Chase then which should it be? The answer is obvious. Watkins Glen, New York. “The Glen is just a great racetrack with a lot of history”, Kyle Petty, driver of the #45 Dodge said. “It’s one of the few places in the country where we get a chance to race where Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda and Emerson Fittipaldi competed. My 1992 win there is one of my favorites.”

No other tracks in America, other than Daytona and Indy, have more history and prestige than this magnificent piece of real estate in upstate New York.

It started as a somewhat selfish endeavor in 1948 when attorney Cameron Argetsinger, who is recently deceased, dreamt of bringing European style, street racing to his favorite vacation spot. The 6.6 miles course consisted of asphalt, cement and dirt roads that ran through the middle of this sleepy little town and around the state park, which is listed in the New York State and National Registers of Historic Places.

Labeled “The Day They Stopped The Trains”, it was the first post-World War II road race in the U.S. and for the next five years brought the biggest names in American sports car racing to this small town, but after a car left the road in a 1952 race, killing one spectator and injuring several others, the race was moved to a new location on a wooded hilltop southwest of town.

By 1956 a 2.3 miles permanent circuit was built and the following year the NASCAR Grand National Stock Car Series made their first stop at the circuit where it was Buck Baker finding victory lane. It didn’t last long though for NASCAR as they only raced at The Glen in ’57, ’64 and ’65.

It was 1958 when the true international competition began with the Formula Libre’ race. In 1961 Formula One made it’s mark with the first Watkins Glen U.S. GP and for the next 20 years it would bring in the biggest names in the world such as Jimmie Clark, Graham Hill, Sir Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda and Mario Andretti, just to name a few.

As the seventies ushered in a greater variety of competition and an expansion to the circuit itself, Throughout this period The Glen added Can-Am, Trans-Am, Endurance races, Formula 5000, CART and the Indy Car Series. NASCAR, never to be left behind in an era of opportunistic expansion, would return to the “short” course in 1986 when Tim Richmond started from the pole and won the race for team owner Rick Hendrick.

The NASCAR Sprint cup drivers today have shown that they possess the skill, technique and passion to race left and right, and yes, even in the rain as evidenced by the recent, historic Montreal Nationwide event. Bill France, Sr. believed in road racing having participated in several himself with sports cars.

It should be evident to all how important road racing is to the international racing community and NASCAR is achieving a degree of success in reaching the Global market with its unique product. But in order for the drivers in NASCAR to be taken seriously abroad as truly world class, NASCAR must make that step forward by adding Watkins Glen and it would be sheer folly not to make a huge deal to the world that their champion got there by racing on a road course.

A true champion should be able to say ‘I can win on short tracks, intermediate tracks, superspeedways and road courses’. Precious few other drivers in the World could say that, could they? 2008 marks the 60th Anniversary of the first race held in the streets of Watkins Glen. Let’s make 2009 the year that the World sat up and truly took notice.

Listen to Race Day on Fox Sports Radio with Rob D'Amico and Michele Rahal Sunday mornings from 6am-9am eastern on 216 Fox Affiliates, XM Radio Channel 142 and streaming LIVE 24/7 at www.FoxSports.com