Last week, I made my once-a-year trip to a World of Outlaws sprint show. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a real big follower of the winged wonders, but I do know the difference between Craig Dollansky and Terry McCarl. On the other hand, I’m fairly clueless about most of their race procedures.

So when the 10-car dash rolled onto the quarter-mile Limaland Motorsports Park oval, we began asking the folks around us how the drivers qualified for the dash and what it’s purpose was. MORE

We’ve all got a racetrack or two we grew up going to that’s no longer running. Maybe it shut down prematurely. Maybe the city grew around it. Maybe poor promotional decisions led to its demise. Or maybe there are still unanswered questions about its closure.

I’ve always been fascinated with old, closed racetracks and I’m not sure why. I guess it’s because I like to think back to the track’s glory days and imagine what it was like back then. Or maybe it’s because a small part of me MORE

With my headset on, I’ve got the Lucas Oil radio in my left ear and the RACEceiver radio in my right. I push the button on the right headset and ask the top five starters — Pearson, Jacobsen, Owens, Covert, and Richards — to give me a thumbs up if the track is ready to go, or a thumbs down if it is still too greasy. Of course, the moment I cue up the RACEceiver to talk, someone is barking out some sort of command in my left ear. Meanwhile, the track’s scorers are asking about lapped cars MORE