auto racing

When the long ribbon of Sprint Cup Series trucks, car haulers and transporters pulled out of Michigan International Speedway in the fading strands of light on Sunday evening, Tony Stewart should have been riding shotgun in the lead vehicle.

The NASCAR fans that dislike Kyle Busch -- and they are legion -- are still buzzing about the driver's poor Pete Townshend imitation last Saturday night in Nashville, Tenn.
As everyone who follows stock car racing knows by now the sport's reigning bad boy took the trophy for winning the Nationwide race -- a hand-painted Gibson guitar -- and smashed it.

NASCAR's "regular season" has hit its halfway point and the season has been fairly memorable so far.
Here are some highs and lows from the Sprint Cup season.

-- BIGGEST SURPRISE (team)
Stewart-Haas Racing: It's amazing what happens when a team gets a little star power.

As NASCAR continues its 2009 struggles, both at the gate and with a declining television audience, her name is starting to come up with more regularity.
This league covets Danica Patrick like the proverbial golden calf. Ask any power broker in the sport what it would mean to have the driver with the looks of a model driving one of their Car of Tomorrow models, and they light up.

For years NASCAR seemed untouchable.
Bill France Jr. ran the show like a dictator (maybe a benevolent one, maybe not) and with TV ratings through the roof and attendance continuing to swell, any and all complaints were dismissed out of hand.
Those days are gone -- perhaps forever.
NASCAR is a major sport, and now it's experiencing some major problems.

OK, be honest -- do you really enjoy NASCAR qualifying?
Does watching a lone car on a track take two laps around asphalt provide the ultimate thrill?
Of course not. I think most of us simply accept it because, well, that's just the way they do things in stock car circles -- you qualify, you practice, you race, you go home.
Rinse and repeat.

OK, be honest -- do you really enjoy NASCAR qualifying?
Does watching a lone car on a track take two laps around asphalt provide the ultimate thrill?
Of course not. I think most of us simply accept it because, well, that's just the way they do things in stock car circles -- you qualify, you practice, you race, you go home.
Rinse and repeat.

Some 55 years after his first visit to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the most recognizable man in American auto racing will be part of the 33-car field for the 93rd Indianapolis 500 on Sunday.

I'm starting to think NASCAR is a little like the "Skull and Bones Society", that secret organization at Yale University. For some reason, officials of stock car racing's governing body feel the need to keep things under the tightest of wraps, even when the greater good is served by being open.

He takes a pronounced bow and thousands of fans -- sometimes hundreds of thousands -- boo.
He jumps on top of his car, and the boos get even louder.
If Kyle Busch had a thin skin, the 24-year-old would probably spend much of his down time hiding in his hauler, sniffling as tears well up in his eyes.