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Category: Motorsports

NASCAR back in Michigan, but not so close to Detroit anymore

That's not what Detroit needed. Toyotas on the front row at Michigan International Speedway.

While I was covering the Red Wings loss of the Stanley Cup to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday, Brian Vickers was winning the pole for today's NASCAR Sprint Cup race. Kyle Bush is right next to him and David Reutimann is in the second row beside the first Detroit brand, Jimmy Johnson's Chevrolet.

But not all is lost. While the Pittsburgh Pirates were drubbing the Detroit Tigers in baseball Saturday (notice a couple of trends here?) Collin Braun was setting things straight in the NASCAR truck race. Braun put Jack Roush's Ford into victory circle at MIS by passing Kyle Busch's Toyota.

There is still hope this weekend for salvaging some of Detroit's pride. I hope.

A kid who won't graduate from high school until next week won the ARCA race here on Friday.

While I was busy with the Red Wings, the now bankrupt General Motors is cutting funding to NASCAR's Nationwide and Truck teams. What else did I miss?:

Johnny Benson lost his truck ride, then crashed on Saturday night driving in a late model race at his home track, Berlin Raceway near Grand Rapids.

The threat of getting hurt in motor sports is a constant. Even one of the pilots in the Red Bull Air Races over the Detroit River Today, Peter Besenyei, got hurt in an emergency landing in Canada earlier this week. The qualifying rounds were held Saturday and the finals are today in a terrible scheduling conflict for Detroit motor sports fans. The races are beautiful and thrilling over the river.

Kirby Chamblis, the defending champion of the Detroit race, is the top qualifier .

Brian France, head of NASCAR's ruling family, just spoke to us in the media center about the challenges faced by the series in these tough economic times. The surprise was that he said NASCAR has spoken with "other manufacturers" about future participation in the series.

"We have spoken to others, yes," France said. "I'm not going to mention names, but we have companies interested in developing the North American market as robustly as they can. They are manufacturers like Toyota who are building cars in North America and want to develop this market."

I think you can read Honda into that statement. But, he said talks like this can't result in changes overnight. But, when the new companies join, it will be easier because of the generic nature of the "New Car" which basically is the same for every manufacturers, except for the engine block.

France said the goal of the new car was to improve safety and cut costs, but it also is generic enough to help teams through changes in manufacturer no matter what happens to GM and Dodge. Forget the fact that fans are turned off by a car that bears no resemblance to the cars we find in showrooms.

"The new car will solve that particular problem well," said France.

So NASCAR is planning a future without the former Big Three. I guess it only makes sad practical sense.