Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/44411
VIEWS FROM THE GRANDSTANDS Talking turkey A lot of racing to be thankful for, but there also are a few forgettable events each year Kentucky Speedway at sunset of Thanksgiving. N Motorsports are high on my list of things for which I'm thankful. But nothing is perfect; not even in racing. It's kind of like those distant relatives who arrive for the annual holiday dinner. You love them, but man do they get on your nerves. It's in that vein of affectionate constructive criticism that I bring you a menu of this year's racing turkeys. KENTUCKY'S TRAFFIC TROUBLES Let's start with the entree — a big, fat racing fowl, I mean foul: the parking debacle at Kentucky Raceway. When NASCAR Sprint Cup rolled into Sparta in July, it was supposed LOOSE LUGNUTS See you later Kudos to Formula 1 for coming to its senses and reshuffling its 2012 schedule to move the inaugural race in Austin, Texas, from mid- June to mid-November. The original schedule put Austin and Montreal in consecutive weeks to make travel easier, but while June is glorious in Canada, it's often stifling in Central Texas. The mid-November weather should be perfect for racing. The five-month delay also should give the Circuit of the Americas some welcome extra time to complete its track and facili- ties. And coming as the 19th race of the 20-race schedule, the showdown in Austin could prove to be, in the words of our most recent Texan in the White House, a real "decider" in the world championship. Crown for Brown Congratulations to Antron Brown, who made history in drag racing's marquee event a few weeks ago. Brown won the Top Fuel title at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis to become the first driver to win the big prize in both Top Fuel and Pro Stock Motorcycle. The victory gave Brown five for the season and a total of 30 for his career, spanning both Top Fuel and Pro Stock Motorcycles. Among his 36 TRUCKERS NEWS NOVEMBER 2011 16 Pro Stock Motorcycle wins were 2000 and 2004 at Indianapolis. Speaking of Indianapolis Things are going to be a lot busier at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway next year when it hosts the Nation- wide Series and Rolex Grand-Am Series for the first time. The Sprint Cup has been the only league with four wheels and fenders to run around the famed Brickyard, as the Nationwide cars have always raced at the nearby Lucas Oil Raceway Park along with the Camping World Truck Series. The announcement made no mention of money, but that's likely the driving force behind this change in tradition. The Brickyard lost its Formula 1 race after the 2007 season and will lose its Moto GP motorcycle race, which it landed to replace the F1 race, when the new Circuit of the Americas opens in Texas. That leaves only the Indy 500 and Brickyard 400 as reasons to open the gates, and the Speedway was eager to add a few more dates to its docket. The Nationwide cars will run the oval, while the Grand-Am machines will compete on the half-oval, half-road course. Those events will run the same weekend as the Brickyard 400. ovember is my favorite month, in large part because to be a grand entry. It turned out to be a giant traffic jam. Many of the 130,000 fans didn't make it to the track in time for the green flag. Some barely got there in time to see the checkered flag fall. And some found there was no parking once they finally arrived. This happened even though Ken- tucky spent millions to improve the roads around the track in anticipa- tion of hosting NASCAR's top series. Now I know traffic at any major event is horrible. I've been stuck in roadway tie-ups at Homestead and Daytona. But the Kentucky track should have learned from other tracks' mistakes and been prepared for its big-time NASCAR debut. Kentucky officials and Speed- way Motorsports Inc. executives say they'll have the problem fixed by the 2012 race. This year, though, they take the top racing turkey spot. INDY RACING'S ROTTEN RESTART Coming in a close second on the turkey list is the Izod Indy Rac- ing League's bungling of the New Hampshire race restart. It was a wet August Sunday in the Northeast. NASCAR had already postponed its Watkins Glen, N.Y., race until Monday. But Indy racing officials thought they had a win- dow to get in their race at Loudon, N.H. They almost made it — emphasis on almost. The last of many cautions for intermittent rain fell at lap 206. Instead of calling the race, IRL offi- cials decided to try to finish. Fin- ish they did, but not the way they KAY BELL CHRIS GRAYTHEN/GETTY IMAGES