ESPN to launch stock-car venture
I want Chris Berman as one of the track announcers!!
ESPN, jilted by NASCAR in 2000 after helping to raise Winston Cup to the popularity it enjoys today, has a new and innovative stock-car-racing league to nurture.
The Team Racing Auto Circuit (TRAC) will begin racing in May 2004, on Saturday afternoons and evenings, with its races televised by ESPN. The season will have 12 regular-season races ending in August and one all-star event.
TRAC plans to begin with six teams of four cars each. Races will involve all 24 cars, and victories will be determined on the combined order of finish of the entire teams, rather than individual victories. Franchises will be located geographically -- say, Charlotte, Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Los Angeles, etc. The cars will be modified Chevrolet Corvettes, Ford Mustangs and Dodge Vipers.
Most of the tracks used will be Speedway Motorports Inc. facilities. SMI has tracks in Charlotte, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Fort Worth and Bristol, Tenn. Tracks such as Daytona and Talladega will not host events. Those facilities are owned by International Speedway Corp., which is controlled by NASCAR.
The drivers are expected to be those who can't find rides in the Busch or Craftsman Truck series, or lower-tier IRL competitors, road racers and sprint car drivers.
Gordon's near miss
Jeff Gordon's victory Sunday in the Virginia 500 would have been a lot harder to pull off if NASCAR officials hadn't been gracious.
They called for Gordon's crew chief, Robbie Loomis, twice at the start of the drivers' meeting before Loomis finally materialized, barking ``Here'' as he stormed into the meeting and took a seat.
The rest of the drivers and crew chiefs joined in a chorus of ``Oooooooh'' and laughed at the near miss. NASCAR could have sent Gordon to the back of the field if Loomis had been late for the mandatory meeting.
``I was getting a little nervous,'' Gordon said. ``Usually it's the other way around -- he's looking for me, going `Where's Jeff?' -- and I show up just in the nick of time. He was just getting me back.''
Kanaan recovering
IRL driver Tony Kanaan was released from Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis on Wednesday after surgery on his broken left arm. He could return to his race car during the first week of practice for the Indianapolis 500.
Kanaan was injured in a crash Sunday with Scott Dixon at the Japan Indy 300.