I'm heading over to Roseville, Calif., for tonight's racing program at All-American Speedway.
It is Mackena Bell's last late model race of the season, as well as the season finale for the Camping World West series. Since I've been invited to the Camping World West banquet next Saturday, I figure I ought to be around when it decides its champion. It will also be an interesting evening because it will be drag racer Ron Capps' stock car debut. Capps, who is more at home in a Funny Car on a 5-second run, will have his work cut out for him muscling a late model stocker around a 1/3 mile oval for 100 laps. If you don't have anything else going on this evening, Roseville is only a 2 hour run, and it should be a great show.
As the NASCAR Sprint Cup season winds down, it's looking more and more like a Jimmie Johnson threepeat. Crew chief Chad Knaus has kept his nose clean this season, after being set down last year for messing with the COT bodywork at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma. Knaus has been known to stretch the rules to the breaking point on more than one occasion. After all, that's his job.
But another crew chief, Kevin Hamlin of the number 83 Red Bull Toyota, fell afoul of the NASCAR COT rulebook big time after last week's Martinsville race. The car was randomly picked for inspection, and the sheet metal was found to be a bit thinner than specified, with acid dipping suspected. Acid dipping has been around to my personal knowledge since the old Trans-Am road racing series for Pony cars 40 years ago, when race cars actually started out as street machines.
Hamlin and car chief Craig Smokstad have been suspended indefinitely, driver Brian Vickers and owner Dietrich Mateschitz were docked 15 driver and owner points respectively, and the team has elected not to appeal the penalties. I would hope not, as maintaining that the bodywork had accidentally fallen into an acid vat would strain the credulity of even a NASCAR official.
Johnson doesn't have a dead-solid lock on his third Cup championship in as many years, but his competitors have an uphill battle to try to unseat him. As the Sprint Cup series heads into Atlanta this weekend with only four races left, second-place Jeff Burton would have to pick up an average of more than 37 points per race and third place Greg Biffle needs 38 points per race average to catch Johnson " not impossible, but highly unlikely. Johnson has caught a break from Mother Nature in recent weeks, starting on the pole after qualifying was rained out, at tracks where he might otherwise have started much farther back. Yes, the fat lady isn't singing yet, but she's warming up.
Despite all the bad economic news of recent weeks, a couple of companies have stepped up to the plate in NASCAR. Ford Motor Company, reeling from slumping sales, plant closures, and a 25-year low in its stock price, has renewed its contract with Roush-Fenway Racing for a reported five years. And NASCAR's Truck Series, orphaned after the 2008 season by long-time sponsor Craftsman, has been adopted by Camping World. The company, who also sponsors the Camping World feeder series, has signed on for a seven-year exclusive deal to sponsor the Trucks.
There wasn't much F1 officials could do about Lewis Hamilton at last weekend's race in China. Hamilton's McLaren started on the pole, and nobody saw anything but his rear wing and exhaust pipes for the entire race. Going into the season finale in Brazil Next Sunday, Hamilton only has to finish fifth or better to lock up the championship that barely eluded him in his rookie season last year.
However, McLaren is 11 points behind Ferrari for the Manufacturers Championship, which means that both Hamilton and teammate Heikki Kovalainen have to finish well ahead of the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen in order to score both titles. Hamilton, whose engine is on its second race weekend, can't afford to race conservatively, so F1 fans should anticipate an entertaining race next weekend.