As I write this entry, Regina and I are in our campsite inside turn 3-4 of the Daytona International Speedway. Posting comes courtesy of my Palm Treo.

Tomorrow begins the Rolex 24 at Daytona. This is our 3rd year at this event and again our first race of the year.

Yes, we camp out and yes it can get chilly at night....by our standards at least...but nonetheless it's a great weekend.

We expect to see some IndyCar drivers here among the generally three or four driver teams (about 50 teams this year.

So, I may post here over the weekend or check my Twitter feed (see sidebar right) for updates.

Ok well not really.

IndyCar at Kentucky

Scott Dixon wins the Kentucky IndyCar race, with Helio Castroneves finishing second for the 7th time this year. Of course Helio could be as unlucky as Vitor Meira who started 2nd and led a fair number of laps, trying to get his first series win this weekend. And yet again, it wasn't meant to be.

Vitor's comment afterwards, something to the effect that they need to consistantly be starting up front to have a chance certainly has weight. As he said, you can't have 1 or 2 chances each year and expect to win. You need to give yourself more starts up front to position yourself for the win.

We were happy to see Sarah Fisher out there this weekend, and I suppose no one expected too much considering she hasn't been on track since Indianapolis in May. Al told though I'd say she did reasonably well, passed cars, didn't wreck and finished.

One note on the new TV deal for 2009.

NASCAR at Watkins Glen

Ok first off, NASCAR...figure out how to put wets & wipers on your cars and run them in the rain. The Nationwide race in the rain was pretty cool. Why can't they do that with Cup? Canceling quals on a road course because of rain is just pathetic. If anything should be on their list for 2009 things to fix, that's right there as #2 with the whole tire issue and Goodyear.

We're happy to see that Sam Hornish Jr. is OK after his car slid sideways, driver's-side-first, into the barrier of sand barrels dividing the rack from pits. Pretty wild stuff. The wreck on Lap 83, started by contact between Michael McDowell sent David Gilliland's Ford spinning out of control into the guardrail. This promptly caused all hell to break loose with something like 9 cars involved. Bobby Labonte limped away from the wreck and was transported to a local hospital for a look-see.

So Kyle Busch wins at the Glen....his 8th win this year. Those who don't like "the shrub" better get used to him.

It's been something like 15 years since NASCAR first came to the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In that time we've seen some great races, despite the opinion of many who live near the track that they should never have been there in the first place.

Of course financially it makes sense for IMS to host more than one event a year, but purists say the Indy 500 is it, and no others are necessary.

Once again yesterday, NASCAR had tire issues while running at Indianapolis. The apologists like to blame IMS. As D. Waltrip quoted last night on Wind Tunnel, an article that claimed "it's not the race, but the place" that's the problem.

Seriously?

The blame seems to be levied at the diamond grinding process that IMS has used in recent years to even out the surface of the nearly 100 year old oval in Speedway, IN. This process has been used several times in recent years, and each year NASCAR comes to The Brickyard, there's a problem. So what do we get? A pathetic, every 10 laps or so "competition caution" filled snoozer that took from 2 PM- almost 6 PM to run. Granted I love racing but there's something to be said for IndyCars taking less time than that to run 100 more miles. Of course they're also running a good 40-60 MPH faster than the cup cars.

Now for the real reasons for the tire issues. Part of it had to do with the very little testing they've done at IMS with the CoT. Frankly it is partly the same issue Michelin ran into at IMS with F1 - although part of that was the teams running the tires under pressure. For some reason NASCAR thought the same tire they've used before would work. Bad call. And, the bit of testing they did have (three cars), Goodyear said they had the same results as in the race.

Gee. Learn much? Guess not.

A few years ago Charlotte (IIRC) ground their track but didn't tell Goodyear. Honestly, if Goodyear didn't know IMS ground the track they've got their heads somewhere dark and it is plainly silly for Jimmy Spencer and all the rest of the usual NASCAR apologist puppets to simply let this slide and claim that NASCAR and Goodyear "did the best they could."

Tony Stewart has it right, Goodyear is a joke.

How many thousand miles has Firestone & Bridgestone run on that track without any issues? Sure, IndyCars are lighter and have a far different footprint on the track. They also generate a TON more downforce than a Cup car. But when was the last time we heard of tires failing on IndyCars at Indy?

It isn't like Goodyear hadn't raced there before.

If NASCAR is supposed to be so great, and Goodyear such a solid supplier they'd figure this out and get the thing right. I'll take all of the caution flag finishes in IndyCar this year to this performance from NASCAR.

Don't blame the track. Man up for getting it wrong, and fix it.