STOCK CAR PIT PASS - Race News Without A Restrictor Plate

May 29, 2007

1100 Miles of Racing for the Tire Wars
By Dennis Michelsen
After nearly 1100 miles of racing between Speedway, Indiana and Concord, North Carolina one startling truth was revealed. The Greatest Spectacle in Auto Racing might have lost some of its allure, but the tires on those cars are far superior to those raced in NASCAR on Sunday night! Perhaps the real winner after a Memorial Day weekend full of racing was Firestone. Race them on Sunday buy them on Monday might not hold true for the cars any more since no one can tell them apart. But the tire performance was not hard to judge between on Sunday!

Greatest Spectacle in Auto Racing
The ninety-first edition of the Indianapolis 500 lived up to its billing as the Greatest Spectacle in Auto Racing. Despite heavy rain over night, in the morning, and during the race itself the cars and stars of the Indy Racing League put on an amazing show! Fans saw three thrilling passes for the lead in the first five laps of this 500-mile marathon event. Drivers Tony Kanaan and Helio Castroneves treated the event as if it were a twenty-five-lap dash instead of a two hundred-lap marathon. Can you imagine the racing we might have seen if the top groove had time to come in during the race? Rain would ruin the race from being a classic, but driver Dario Franchitti came home with his first win ever and the Firestone tires did there job!

Long Days Race Into Night
Promoter Humpy Wheeler is well known for putting on an amazing pre-race show to dazzle the fans. As the heavy duty military vehicles take part in their mock attacks, one has to wonder if racing Hummers and M-1 Abrams tanks at Lowes Motor Speedway would be preferable to watching race cars compete on these tires Goodyear keeps bringing to the track! Ever since the repaving the geniuses at Goodyear can't seem to find a tire compound that will work. Instead they bring tires made by Barney Rubble that are so hard they lack the proper grip. Despite that handicap the best stock car drivers in the land put on a terrific show on Sunday night. The gas mileage winning strategy we saw would not have been possible if Goodyear brought a better tire instead of these bricks! Driver Casey Mears deserves credit for having a soft foot on the accelerator but race fans want to celebrate MPH not MPG!

Hands Down Winner
Both races on this wonderful Memorial Day weekend were terrific. Each event brought us a first time winner of sorts. But the real winner was the Firestone tire company! Goodyear proved once again that they couldn't find the right combination to let the stock cars go fast while wearing the tires evenly. For years the car manufacturers used to brag about their car winning at Indy or Daytona. This week Firestone gets to do all the bragging among the tire manufacturers.

Tuesday on Race Talk Radio
8 pm Eastern-ASALMS Radio and Down on the Farm-Each week the best in minor league racing is profiled including the news from the cars and stars of the ASA Late Model Series. Host Dennis Michelsen interviews the drivers, series promoters, and others making news at local short tracks all over the country.

9pm Eastern-Inside the ARCA RE/MAX Series-Host Mike Harper brings you the news from inside the ARCA RE/MAX Series. Since 1953 the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) has featured some of the best stockcar racing in the country! Meet the drivers making news in the ARCA RE/MAX series every Tuesday night.