With the NASCAR Nationwide Series and the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series traveling to Fort Worth's Texas Motor Speedway next weekend for their annual affair, I thought it would be neat to go back and talk about last year's Busch (now Nationwide) Series race. I was there to watch it from pit road, which makes it even neater.

Much anticipation heralded the start of this year’s IndyCar season, it being the first since 1995 under a united series. Qualifying got underway for Saturday’s 300 mile race on Friday night and it was quite surprising. It came as no surprise that 2003 IndyCar champion Scott Dixon qualified on the pole with an average speed of 213.341 mph. What did come as a surprise was a different qualifying format that was introduced Friday night and will be utilized the entire 2008 season.

In most sports, you just don’t generally see a major league player drop down to play in the minor leagues (except Roger Clemens for part of that one season). You don’t normally even see it in most racing series. However, it is prevalent in NASCAR racing. Scott Wimmer won the Nationwide (formerly Busch) series race this past Easter weekend at Nashville Superspeedway. It was his first win since July 2003 at the erstwhile Pikes Peak International Raceway in Colorado.

When most people think of auto racing in the United States, one word comes to mind: NASCAR. There are several reasons for this, one of which will attempt to be rectified Saturday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida. I am talking about the state of Indy Car-style open-wheel racing, which after 13 years of squabbling, infighting, lost fans, lost drivers, and lost money, will hope to salvage some of its dignity and maintain a viable place in racing history starting in the near future.