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A portion of a very long article........I will title it WHY WHY WHY???

So it was nice Wednesday, with the sun shining and a slight Sonoma breeze cooling the world-class 16-turn track at Infineon Raceway's Karting Center, for Earnhardt to escape it all, climb into a hopped-up Go-Kart and take some turns.

He went five laps against an aspiring racer, Andrew Wolocatiuk, 11, of Petaluma, hitting 60 mph in the straightaway midway through to overtake the younger driver at the finish.

To be brutally honest, it goes down as Earnhardt's first race victory of the season.

As a dozen TV cameras focused in for a postrace chat, Earnhardt leaned over to Wolocatiuk and quietly handed him his racing gloves under the table, away from prying eyes.

"Hang on to these,'' he whispered to the youngster. "You'll grow into them. They're pretty good gloves.''

Then he turned to face the media questions once again.

Why isn't he winning? Why did DEI decide to swap crews, cars and crew chiefs with teammate Michael Waltrip in the offseason, a move that ultimately proved fortuitous for Waltrip (14th overall) by giving him the faster, more aerodynamic cars and better management?

Why cut the cord with his longtime race crew, headed by his cousins the Eury's, Tony Jr. and Sr.?

Why, after only 11 races into 2005, did he dump his new crew chief, Pete Rondeau, in favor of an interim chief, Steve Hmiel. Since that change, Earnhardt has not finished better than 22nd.

In times like these, amid family squabbles on his race team and blown tires and bad engines, Earnhardt knows he could really use his old man.

"I think I miss him more during the hard stuff than when we're winning,'' Earnhardt concedes. "You know, say I was to go out tomorrow in Alabama and bag a 17-point buck, I think my dad would say, 'yeah, that was cool.'

"When you're thinking about, 'Man, I've got to make this decision, and is this the right thing to do, when I'm thinking about doing this with the company, what would he think?' That's when you need him.

"That's when he was really handy.''

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/06/23/SPG47DDH1R1.DTL&feed=rss.sports

Thnaks!

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New Washington site chosen for NASCAR racetrack

http://sports.yahoo.com/nascar/news?slug=ap-washingtontrack062305&prov=ap&type=lgns

By Associated Press
June 23, 2005

PORT ORCHARD, Wash. – International Speedway Corp., thwarted last year in a plan to build a NASCAR racetrack about 30 miles north of Seattle, announced Thursday that it has chosen a new site across Puget Sound.

Officials of the auto racing development and promotion company based in Daytona Beach, Fla., told a news conference they want to build an 80,000-seat track on 950 acres near Washington 3 south of Bremerton National Airport along the Kitsap-Mason county line.

Financing plans were not released at the news conference, but Grant Lynch, Vice President of ISC and project team leader estimated $120 million in annual economic impact from the $250 million track and said no new taxes would be required to foot the bill.

"This project carries its own water," Lynch said.

He said the biggest race at the track would have the economic impact of the Super Bowl.

Lynch said the track's sunken bowl configuration would contain some noise and help the project blend into the natural beauty of the area.

He acknowledged that transportation issues would be among the challenges for building the track and said he hoped the state ferry system, which transports Seattle drivers and passengers to Bremerton and Port Orchard, would be part of the plan.

If the Legislature grants approval and county permits are issued, construction could begin in 2007 or 2008 on a track of 7-8 of a mile to 1.2 miles surrounded by parking and camping areas with a tiered grandstand offering views of Mount Rainier in clear weather, the Kitsap Sun reported.

Last September, company officials announced the selection of a site by Interstate 5 near Marysville for a 75,000-seat NASCAR track, promising to spend $50 million of the $250 million cost and cover any overruns in exchange for $200 million of public financing.

ISC then reopened the site selection process across much of western Oregon and Washington.

"I think they learned a lot from the Snohomish deal," said state Sen. Tim Sheldon, D-Potlatch. "That whole deal was a debacle. I don't think they did enough homework on the site, and too much of the negotiating they did was in the public, which backfired."

One advantage of the new site, officials said, was that only one landowner is directly involved, compared with 30 at the Marysville location.

"I've had a feeling from day one that we would have an opportunity at this," Kitsap County Commissioner Janice E. Angel said. "Even when Snohomish County was picked the first time, I felt that we'd get a chance."

Despite the potential cost, economic development agencies throughout the region have competed in efforts to lure the track, which could generate $87.3 million to $121.8 million in business a year, mostly from out-of-state tourists, according to a study commissioned by supporters.

ISC owns most of its 11 tracks outright, but the proposed track near Marysville would have been publicly owned and leased to the company for three car races a year _ the same number contemplated at the Bremerton National site.

Company officials said Wednesday it was too early to say how much they would seek from Washington state and Kitsap County but indicated a similar partnership is part of the plan.

ISC officials said they were eager to build a racetrack in the Pacific Northwest, which now has at least 11,000 ticket-buying fans, because the Southeast market is well-saturated and the nearest West Coast track is in Sonoma, about 40 miles north of San Francisco, Lynch said.

"When you look at the map, there's basically a quarter of the country that we're not serving," Lynch said.