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Guest Column By Cathy Elliott

Thirty-five weeks a year, one of the most fun and challenging things about this column is the fact that it can often be quite speculative in nature.

Based on what happened the previous week or month in NASCAR, we have the luxury of utilizing what has gone before in order to predict what might happen next. Each week is an important link in a chain that begins when the season is tossed overboard in February, and ends in November when a champion lands to anchor it for the next 12 months.

But this is Week 36. As of this writing, mere hours separate us from the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and NASCAR’s championship anchor is dangling so close to the ocean floor that the sand is already swirling. After the closest and most exciting year in recent memory, all that stands between this moment and the end of the 2012 season is the simplest of toddler math, countable on a single hand: one race, two drivers and three points.

Continue reading “Giving Thanks For NASCAR Now And Next Year”

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Guest Column By Cathy Elliott

Anyone who was on the fence about the appeal of road course racing leading up to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event at Watkins Glen International on August 15 must now have surely cold-shouldered the “road courses are boring” side in favor of the side simply known as “wow.”

Early on, the outlook was cloudy as the race, scheduled to be run on Sunday afternoon, was postponed until Monday morning due to wet weather.

In NASCAR, rain dampens more than the ground; it dampens the general spirit of things. Speedways rely heavily on volunteers and temporary workers to keep event weekends running smoothly, but many of those helpers must return to their “real” jobs on Monday. Fans have the same issue; some of them simply can’t stick around for a Monday race. And the teams lose a critical work day which would normally be spent getting ready for the next stop on the schedule.

Continue reading “Column: One for the Road Warriors”