Nashville
The fact that NASCAR's top series runs in Kansas and Chicago and just north of Boston but not the country music capital of the universe has always bothered me. The soundtrack to NASCAR, after all, isn't "Rock Chalk, Jayhawk" or Buddy Guy or The Cars. (What, you thought I was going to say these guys?) It's country music.
This long-ago thread elsewhere reminds us that NASCAR did use to race in Music City. Then NASCAR got mad and left. Busch and Trucks have one date each, but it's not on the Cup schedule and probably won't ever be. Which is too bad - it's a nice little track with an odd distance (1.333 miles) in a perfect NASCAR market.
Part two of this post: Look at the entry list for Saturday night's Busch race at Nashville. I know we're due for another round of Buschwacker-bashing, but who wants to see these guys race? It's a pretty grim field, with very little starpower and nothing to keep me home on a Saturday night. (Yep, ESPN2, you paid for this.)
The flip side of all this is there are some drivers who could, with some breaks and luck, could be racing in the Cup Series in 2-3 years. There are plenty of young prospects in the field and just enough experienced Cup and Busch drivers to make things interesting.
My ideal scenario is that Morgan Shepherd beats James Hylton by a half-a-car-length at the line. That would be mindblowing.
Comments (3)
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Well I'm hoping that "Concrete Carl" doesn't win another race and that a Busch regular gets a win.
Let's see John, your favorite whipping boy, Jason Lefler won one of these type of races two years ago and last year the Kentucky version of this race put David Gilliland on the map and into the Yates' ride.
Posted on June 6, 2007 11:47 AM
Barring someone hitting their setup exceptionally well, Carl's got it going away. I think Wimmer could make it interesting, or possibly Reutimann.
Posted on June 6, 2007 12:59 PM
Y'know, Wimmer's doing pretty well this season - 5 top 10s in eight races. It doesn't hurt that he has a Childress car under him. But he's keeping the fenders on it (and away from Leffler).
That's my last rip on Leffler, Mark. OK, one more - watch him get his car into the top 5 Saturday then do something dumb. He tears up an unbelievable number of race cars.
And, yeah, Reutimann's having a pretty good Busch season. Blaney, too. And watch Marcos Ambrose - he's eighth overall in a Wood Bros. car, of all things.
Posted on June 6, 2007 1:13 PM