Now, this may seem a little bit premature, but am I the only one who's already looking forward to the 2008 NASCAR season??

Yes, I know this season is just getting good, both at the sharp end (boo Hendrick) and for the race to get into the top 35 runners for next season, which is of more interest to those of us who follow the Camry drivers of the Cup.

For 2008 NASCAR seems to be getting better and better. Not only as just about every other form of motorsport gets worse and worse, with the F1 parade ever increasingly run by lawyers and accountants, and the US Open-Wheel series, both Champ Car and IRL, imploding as far as the number of starters go as well as heamoraging big names to, yes, you guessed it, NASCAR.

Now, you can throw whatever accusations - cheating, favouritism, inconsistency - at the people behind the sport, but it's damning good entertainment. Where else in motorsport, nay, sport at all, can you think at the start of an event "I have no idea who will win". Where else do have more competitors than is safe entered into an event and have to send home competitors.

Anyway, to the point, why, I bet you're wondering is this English half-wit going on about next year??

Three simple reasons.

1) We get to see what Toyota are made of. Now, this hurts as a Toyota fan, but none of the current drivers or teams have the stuff to compete for wins every week, with the possible exception of Brian Vickers. With Gibbs going to Toyota next year the marque gets a championship team with three race winning teams. 

2) NASCAR goes worldwide. Well, ish. Recent races in Mexico and Canada show the powers that be are looking to extend outside the 50 States. Montoya has added a new dimension to the drivers and Cup careers for Australian Marcus Ambrose and Franchitti (if you believe the hype) are just around the corner. This can only be good for a sport which (outside the US) is still seen as a very redneck, backyard sport. If NASCAR want to come and run at the oval at Rockingham, UK, I'll be the first in the queue.

NOTE: In my opinion don't believe the hype, Dario will stay and defend his title, so won't jump head-long into a full NASCAR schedule.

3) Driver's merry-go-round. This silly season, which seems to have begun in about April this year, which may well be the silliest thing about it, seems to have seen more moves in personel in the top teams that most recent year. We've got Jr to Hendrick, We've to Busch to Gibbs, Yeley to Hall of Fame and Raines, Stremme, Marlin, Nemechek and Ryan Newman (I heard that Newman is out of Penske in favour of Hornish, but that may be a product of the American Sports vacuum that exists this side of the Atlantic) all in the hunt for new cars and new teams.

All this means that any resemblence NASCAR 2008 Sprint Cup bears to NASCAR's 2007 Nextel Cup is going to be purely coincidental

Roll on February!!

P.S. Kurt Busch for the title.