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VIEWS FROM THE GRANDSTANDS KAY BELL Racing chool’s out and summer’s here, but the midpoint of the rac- ing season seems like a good time to take out the red pen and assign some grades to the new rules in the various racing series I love. Well, I declare: Before the sea- son started, NASCAR drivers had to declare whether they were running for the championship in the Sprint Cup or Nationwide series, a move made to keep Sprint Cup stars from again dominating the Nationwide point standings. Returning the Nationwide’s focus to developing young drivers is a great idea, but I’m not sure this does the trick. S LOOSE LUGNUTS Multi-tasking I’m a big fan of drivers like Tony Stewart and Robby Gordon, who love to compete in a variety of racing series on a number of surfaces. My new favorite is NHRA Funny Car pilot Ron Capps, who loves to drive anything and everything. Capps, one of the few straight-line drivers who competes in Stewart’s popular “Prelude to a Dream” all-star event at Eldora each summer, has spent part of his downtime this spring competing in an IMCA Modified car on a third-mile clay oval and a Super Late Model car on a dirt track near his Southern California home. He loves mixing with the fans, he says, and especially appreciates that driving these different cars helps him become better prepared for anything he might encounter in his Funny Car. Where is every- body? Because of the econ- omy, we’ve all gotten used to seeing empty seats at racetracks large and small in recent years. But I have to say I was shocked at the sheer number of unoccupied seats at the Sprint Cup race at Dover in May. I swear, the place looked less than half full. The weather was a little iffy that weekend, and of course gas 36 TRUCKERS NEWS JULY 2011 prices are high. But Dover is a great track that always produces compelling races, is close to a lot of big cities and even has a casino on the grounds! With the worst of the recession behind us, I’ve been expecting better crowds for all the race series this year, but that sight really has me wondering whether motorsports as a whole has bigger problems to address. Happy ending In this column, I’ve beaten up on the Sprint Cup’s new practice-qualifying rule, questioned its changes to the Nationwide Series championship eligibility and pointed out that Dover had a lousy turnout. But I love NASCAR racing and want to end this month with some great news, especially for us longtime fans. STP, long known as Richard Petty’s pri- mary sponsor, is returning to racing in a big way this summer, starting with sponsorship of the Sprint Cup races in Kansas and Chicagoland. This new promotional program also touches a variety of racetracks and series including NHRA and World of Outlaws, but it warms my heart to see the company that forever transformed NASCAR sponsor- ship returning to the Sprint Cup to build on a groundbreaking 40-year legacy. Report Card At mid-season, things aren’t looking so great for all your favorite racing series’ grades Sure, Cup standouts like Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin can’t win the championship anymore, but they still can — and do — win races. In fact, through the first 11 races of the season, Sprint Cup stars had won all 11! That’s good for the sponsors and maybe even for the fans, but it devalues the champion- ship. Grade: C It’s the pits: In the Indy- Car Series this year, pit selec- tion is determined not by qualify- ing or point standings, but rather by how a driver finished in the last race at the same type of facility — meaning street course, road course or oval. Some might view this as change for change’s sake, but I say what the heck. The IndyCar Series is trying hard to play up the different styles of racing it offers, even going so far as to crown a road course champion and an oval champion along with its overall champion. This is just another small way to accentuate those differences. Grade: C The case is closed: New rules in the American LeMans Series have reduced the capacity of the engines in the top-of-the-line LMP1 category and cut the number of over-the-wall members to two per