No NASCAR Sprint Cup this weekend? Whatever will you do…?
You could watch the Nationwide series race. Some of you will. Maybe not all of it. Maybe long enough to see a spin or crash and blame it on Danica Patrick…
However, you could expand your horizon a bit and watch Formula 1 from Germany and American Le Mans from Canada. You could also catch up with IndyCar, also racing in Canada, and see how they are getting along without Danica…
If you have not really given much thought to F1 because it is so European and foreign, perhaps you did not realize they race in America this year. The track is still being built in Texas. The paving is progressing as is the construction of grandstands and buildings and such. Hopefully, the plumbing in the bathrooms will be connected by race weekend in November.
American Le Mans is another non-NASCAR “stock car” series that gives a good show with much more variety in racing than Sprint Cup. Think about it. A Cup car, except for the color and a few stickers, is just like the next one. The templates they use for each manufacturer have very minor variations but strip the stickers and put them in primer side by side and take a look. Yeah…
ALMS racing offers special, low slung custom racing machines but several classes are showroom sports cars modified with suspension, engine and safety bits to make them race cars. It is actually much closer to what NASCAR once was except for many of the manufacturers being represented. They used to race stock cars built up a bit. Remember…?
That part has been passed on to sports cars. Porsche, BMW, Ferrari, Aston-Martin… Corvettes, Mustangs… More…
These are cars from the factories and showrooms which are then modified directly for racing. With that comes a variety and style of racing that is much more colorful than what is traditionally referred to as “stock car” racing. American Le Mans puts multiple classes of cars on the track at the same time creating a dynamic of strategy, position and passing. It is good racing.
So good, in fact, they don’t just wait for sunshine and bone dry tracks. They run in the rain and the wet with wipers and lights and treaded tires just like you do when you are 5 minutes late for work. The difference is they don’t have speed limits…
F1 takes it a step further. They will run in the wet but have open cockpits, open wheels, amazing agility and g-force speed.
IndyCar, of course, is also open wheel. However, they have changed the car a little for this year with a more enclosed rear wheel. It is still open on the top but the fore and aft of the rear wheel is now protected by some body shell bits. It looks a little odd if you haven’t seen Indy for a while but it does make some for some closer racing without the danger of wheel touch. The series is a good watch and the course at Edmonton will give some good speed and plenty of opportunities for chasing the lead.
Break the mold this weekend. Give the “Chase” a break and check out F1, ALMS and Indy racing this Sunday. It’s a fair bet some of your favorite Sprint Cup drivers will be. You’ll have to do some channel flipping but you should be able to get most of it in. F1 will be on FOX. American Le Mans will be on ESPN2 and IndyCar is on the NBC Sports channel.
If you really wanted to step out from NASCAR, you can even catch the final stage of the Tour de France as they roll into Paris and the Champs-Élysées.
Now – That is a lot of racing to fill the NASCAR Sprint Cup void this Sunday.
