I'm about to make a startling admission that isn't nearly so startling when you find out what I was up to this weekend. Here goes: I didn't watch a single lap of Daytona competition.

Go ahead, call me nuts. I have a great reason. I am a NASCAR fan second; I'm a racing fan first. I spent the weekend in one of the national hotbeds of dirt track racing -- western Pennsylvania. I attended near-rainout events at Dog Hollow Speedway, a small, well-run track that runs five divisions each week; and Thunder Valley Raceway, my hometown track in Central City, Pennsylvania. It was fun. It was great racing. And, for a combined $25, I got more enjoyment than I have at any $100-per-ticket NASCAR event at Dover International Speedway. More on that in a minute.

NASCAR is now a traveling circus. Yes, it's fun. But the quality of the racing is way down in recent years. Given the chance to see other forms of racing -- where the drivers' pure passion for the sport trumps any amount of money they can win or lose in a given night -- I'm going to jump on it. And until the powers that be figure out how to rein in the upward-spiraling costs of doing business in the sport, things won't change. Only when the smaller teams can afford to compete will the competition return to its glory days of the 1970s through the early 1990s.

A little background on western Pennsylvania's racing pedigree: it is to late-model racing what the midwest is to modifieds.  Some of the best in the business have come from that area, including guys like Tom Peck (who raced for about 10 years in the Busch series) and current World of Outlaws Late Model driver Rick Eckert, who won the 1999 Dream 100 at Eldora, as well as the 2001 and 2002 Xtreme DirtCar Series championships.  Oh, also some guy named Chubb Frank...

So I ventured into the wilderness that makes up most of the stretch between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg. Dog Hollow is a place so far back in the sticks that it makes my hometown of 1,258 people look like a megalopolis. The stands are nothing more than bleachers on the side of a dirt hill, with some gravel beneath to keep the mud and dust down. We (my brother and I) drove 50 miles through constant downpours to make our first-ever visit to the track. Literally a half-mile from the track, the rain stopped. As proof that God loves dirt track racing, the only clear spot in the sky -- I kid you not -- was directly over the track. All night long. The racing was as good as I've ever seen, with the pure stocks providing the most entertainment. It's not often a guy enters turn three in third place and a second and a half behind on the final lap and winds up winning, but that's exactly what went down. A hard-charging second place driver finally made a run to the outside in turn one as they took the white flag and made it stick, getting a nose ahead off two. He had half a car-length in three, gave plenty of room to the previous leader, and then...got clobbered. Clearly unhappy about the prospect of losing the race after leading from the green flag, the previous leader drove in waaaaaaaaay too deep and simply plowed the other driver across the track and over the berm (no walls at Dog Hollow). As entertaining as it was, it was painful to watch someone come from the back of the pack, take the lead on the final lap, and then not finish the race. The other guy should be ashamed of himself for what he did.

The following evening, we made another rain-soaked trip, but this time it was only a few miles. It had rained off and on all day long, but not on the side of the mountain where the track sat. Again, the skies threatened but miraculously remained clear above the track. This time, however, it was the "lowly" four-cylinder class that provided the best entertainment. Father and son...uncle and nephew...brother and brother...whatever it was, all we were really sure of was that the guys who battled for the win were family. One led nearly the entire event, the other had fought traffic for the first half of the 33 lap (yes, 33 laps in a four-cylinder race on a half-mile track; it was a long night). Similar story, really. This time, the hard-charger managed to get by briefly with about seven laps to go, only to get passed again. He spent the remainder of the race trying to get by on the outside, only to pull a Days-of-Thunder-esque move coming off turn four on the final lap, going low after faking high getting into three. The come-from-behind win was complete, with a margin of victory that couldn't have measured more than three inches. Of course, at the speed they were traveling, I would imagine he won by about two and a half seconds.

About the 33-lap feature: the night was known as the "Windmill 100" -- the "windmill" part had no significance to racing, but rather was a reference to the 14 newly-installed wind-powered turbines visible from the stands as if they were put there for the sole purpose of being seen from the race track.  The "100" consisted of 33 laps each per class being run Saturday night.  The final lap was actually a reference to the pace laps for each event, with the pole position being vacated in memory of track founder (and long-time family friend) William "Billy" Will, who passed on earlier this year.

What did you watch? Bad drafting and utter proof that Toyota just has too much horsepower? Suckers.

• Apparently, DEI is for sale.  This whole thing stinks like my daughter's diapers.  Last year, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. offered to purchase 51 percent of the company but was denied.  A year later, the company is up for grabs?  Hopefully, Junior can get the right kind of scratch together to make a bid -- and, given the lowly state of the company, he could do it on the cheap.  It would be a real shame to see that team fall into non-Earnhardt hands.  Theresa Earnhardt may know how to run a business, but she can't run a race team.  Now it's time to put it in the hands of someone who can.
• I read a columnist yesterday who was praising J.J. Yeley's performance as a sub for Tony Stewart, claiming that J.J. can perform in a winning car.  First, I hardly consider a top-20 finish "performing," and second, Yeley spent three years behind the wheel of the #18 car -- the very same team that has won one out of every three races this year.  Sorry, Mr. M...J.J. should stick to open-wheel.
• Dale Jr.'s eighth-place finish was a disappointment after he led the most laps, but it was good for a jump to second in points when combined with Jeff Burton's hard luck.  This is now the highest he's been since he led following his October Talladega victory in 2004, if memory serves.  Kyle Busch's dominance will be hard to overcome, but if this team starts to sizzle at the right time, the younger Earnhardt could make his strongest run at a championship yet.