Rain a problem last week

A NASCAR fan takes the meaning of "Don't tread on me!" to a new level. Photo by my friends at CIA Stock Photo

For the second time in as many weeks, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series suffered the wrath of Mother Nature and raced on, of all days, Monday.

It couldn’t get much worse for the ratings than running at noon on the first workday of the week. Many people think that NASCAR should implement the use of rain tires for events that take place on road courses, like this past week’s race at Watkin’s Glen. But what about races at ovals, tri-ovals and super speedways? While there are a few wack-jobs out there who think we should just turn the cars loose and see what happens, I have to disagree.

Maybe, I could see running rain tires on a road course but Texas, Bristol or California? No way. And don’t even get me started on racing in the rain at Talladega or Daytona.

I know the Nationwide Series runs rain tires, but if last year’s race at Cirque De Gilles Villeneuve in Canada was any indication of what we would see in the Cup Series, then I vote no — just too many torn up racecars and too much potential for injury.

And since we are on the subject of Watkin’s Glen, it was nice to see Tony Stewart pad his lead in the points with his third (official) win of the season. Whether you like him or not, Stewart is living the team owner/racecar driver’s dream. For all practical purposes, he was given 50 percent ownership in Haas Racing, renaming the team Stewart-Haas Racing, and he hasn’t looked back since. Sure, he had some bad luck early on at the Daytona 500 with some really crappy tires but he turned it around and won in July. That was after taking the Sprint All Star Race and a win at Pocono. Stewart could very well go on to become a three-time Sprint Cup Series Champion.

In other news, as I predicted, my ranking in the national media pool fell dramatically this weekend with a poor showing by all but one of my third segment drivers. Kurt Busch’s seventh-place finish was my only saving grace as David Reutimann came in 25th and both Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kevin Harvick finished 35th or worse. As I said previously, I have one driver who has lost his confidence, and another driver who is extremely unhappy with his current racing situation. Busch has been my shining star this segment and Reutimann is just trying to hold on.

If you are looking at races that you might want to attend next year, I got a sneak peak of the proposed 2010 Sprint Cup schedule. For the most part it is the same but an interesting note is that the spring race at Texas Motor Speedway looks like it will be in March — a week before Easter. Additionally, unless your spouse is a huge NASCAR fan, it doesn’t bode well for romance on Valentine’s Day. The 2010 Daytona 500 falls on Valentine’s weekend for something like the third time in five years. I sure hope my wife understands.

In other news, it looks like NASCAR might be loosing another sponsor. Several Formula 1 racing Web site are reporting that Best Buy is the likely sponsor for a new U.S.-based F1 team. I don’t follow F1 but I do enjoy watching them race when they are on.

Should Best Buy leave Richard Petty Motorsports and go with the new F1 team, it would leave that team in search of a primary sponsor for Elliott Sadler. With the economy still trying to fight its way back, it could spell doom for RPM.

And speaking of the economy, it appears that the fall race at Bristol Motor Speedway in two weeks is officially sold out. Last year, they didn’t sell out the race for the first time ever, so this could be a positive sign that things are turning around.

And finally, I wasn’t going to say anything about this but I would like to ask all NASCAR fans to send their prayers out to Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage, who is battling cancer. From what I have been told, he is doing well and will beat it. But there is no doubt it has been, and will be, a hard fight. Gossage is one of the greatest NASCAR figures that I have ever had the pleasure to meet, and I wish him a speedy recovery. And for those who do not know, Gossage’s wife is from Nederland and his brother-in-law works at one of the local refineries.