NASCAR/Racing Blog

• NASCAR/Racing Blog RSS
• Email Headlines
• Text Alerts
• On Your PDA

• Enlarge

Category: Motorsports

Belle Isle has become Indy Car's Bristol

DETROIT -- Every race track develops its own character, and it's obvious that a hot day behind the wheel of an Indy Car within the tight confines of Belle Isle's street circuit is beginning to look a lot like NASCAR's infamous Bristol Motor Speedway.

It's narrow. There are few places to pass cleanly -- so the passes often are rough. There are two blazingly fast straights and 14 sharp turns that provide a physical and emotional challenge.

And still, the drivers say they love the place, just like NASCAR's stars and fans adore the half-mile oval in Tennessee that bends so much sheet metal and boils so many tempers.

"Yes! That's a very good one. It is like that," Helio Castroneves said Sunday about the Bristol comparison after expressing his frustration and disappointment with the race track's second controversial finish since open wheel racing returned to the island last season.

The usually upbeat Dancing with the Stars champion led most of the day, but lost his chance to close on championship points leader Scott Dixon before next weekend's finale at Chicagoland Speedway.

And Castroneves wasn't the only one nursing wounds and choosing his words carefully at the end of the day in Detroit. A lot of race shops are repairing battered Dallaras. Dan Weldon, Mario Moraes, Bruno Junquera, and Jamie Camara crashed. Danica Patrick's famous temper erupted in language on her pit radio that I will not repeat after she managed to hit both cars that attempted to pass her simultaneously. Vitor Meira had gone to one side and E.J. Viso to the other.

Forget the gentility of road racing through this 113-year-old island sanctuary with pretty views and landscaping by the same man who designed New York's Central Park. This is the Motor City. This is a street fight. It's like letting thoroughbreds run inside your house. Something's going to get broken.

Competition in the American LeMans race here on Saturday and the SCCA Speed TV GT Challenge series event earlier on Sunday both had a decidedly NASCAR look -- and plenty of cars at the end with body damage and round black wheel marks on their sides. Last year's Indy Car race also ended in surprise, controversy and carnage.

Buddy Rice suddenly slowed when he ran out of fuel in the closing laps while running third and caused a chain reaction collision that took out the two drivers dueling behind him for the 2007 season championship -- Scott Dixon and and Dario Franchitti. That crash gave Patrick her first podium finish in Indy Cars and caused a very NASCAR-like conspiracy theory that Dixon deliberately backed into Franchitti during the wreck.

"It's a tough place, a great track, but physically challenging and, yes, frustrating," said Castroneves, who finished second Sunday after being accused of illegal blocking and ordered by Indy Racing League officials to let Justin Wilson pass him for the lead 13 laps before the checkered flag.

It was a rare and swift decision from IRL President Brian Barnhart, whom Castroneves complained should have simply issued a warning and then let Wilson pass in competition because his car was suddenly faster anyway. Nice guy Helio even suggested it might be something personal with Barnhart. This island pressure cooker is creating all kinds of NASCAR-like feuds.

"It's true that this is a place where tension builds because it is so tight, so technical and so hard to pass," Wilson said. "You are on the edge the whole time and you can't make a pass like that unless you take a risk."

Wilson, who drives for the Newman Haas Lanigan racing team that dominated the Champ Car World Series before its merger this year with the rival Indy Racing League, claimed his first victory in the IRL series Sunday.

And Dixon was just as frustrated at the end of the day with his fifth place finish caused by a pit strategy mistake that put him back in the pack where he was unable to pass cars that he said were clearly slower than his.

"I was very frustrated when he (Castroneves) made me back down with that move he made," Wilson said. "When the call came that he had to let me pass him I could calm down again. I really like driving this track, but it can get pretty frustrating inside the car when you are actually trying to race someone. It's just that kind of race track."

The beer-drinking, blue collar, NASCAR crowd says "rubbin' is racin'" down in Bristol's Thunder Valley. Well, the wine and cheese set appears to have found its own place to throwdown for a serious street fight on Detroit's Belle Isle.

• More Images

Category: Motorsports

Sports cars on Belle Isle aren't called exotic for nothing

DETROIT -- A couple of weeks away from earning his driver's license, Nick Hunsanger walked with his father Joel Saturday among the exotic sports cars gridded on the front stretch of The Raceway at Belle Isle for the start of today's American LeMans race.

"We had no idea we'd be allowed to walk on the track like this today," said Joel Hunsanger, who works for a company that makes the high performance shocks and clutches in some of the race cars. "This is awesome!"

They joined thousands who had purchased tickets with additional $20 paddock passes that let them mingle with the crews and drivers preparing on the track for the start of the race.

But while dad drooled over the Ferraris, Porsches, and Corvettes, his 16-year-old son from Rochester Hills, who is on the verge of entering the ranks of those blessed with Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land's authorization of motoring freedom, was checking out the attractive models assigned to hold an American flag in front each car.

"I'm really looking at the girls. Normal, right," he asked.

Not necessarily.

Patrick Katoc, 30, of Farmington Hills, spent several long minutes staring like a lover at the left rear wheel on one of the Compuware Corvette race cars in Chevrolet's product display in the Meijer Family Fun Zone inside turn three. Race cars were circling him on the track and he was admiring a parked car's huge disk brakes.

"I love this car," he said as he gave a mock shiver. "This is it, man!"

Women, they come and go, Katoc said. But this is the ultimate Corvette. And he was close enough to touch it.

"Those are carbon fiber ceramic brakes," Katoc said, then turned back to the bright yellow machine. "Just you and me, alone on the track. Just once. Yeah."

And then there was Cully Hawkins of Ferndale, standing with a small crowd outside Danica Patrick's hauler with his wife Mary, 4 1/2-year-old daughter Aurora and 20-year-old son Zack.

It wasn't the little girl who was waiting for her chance to see the "girl-power" figure of the Indy Car circuit.

"We wanted to walk around, but my husband is the one who wants to see Danica," Mary Hawkins said with a laugh. "He's using our daughter as his excuse."

Out in the new rows of white corporate chalet tents between the river and the Scott Memorial Fountain, volunteer course marshal Wayne Pigeon, 54, of Sterling Heights, had another set of priorities.

"Last year on Labor Day weekend I was in Troy Beaumont Hospital because by gall bladder decided to go to war with me," he said, explaining that after two weeks and many surgeries, his doctors declared him a celebrity for surviving. "I'd been to some races before, Indy and Mid Ohio, and out here on the island in the old days. But I hadn't gone to any in a while. Too busy."

Part of his plan for a complete recovery included joining more than 1,000 volunteers, all of them wearing bright yellow shirts that say "guest services" and spend the entire weekend on Belle Isle. He was smiling and giving directions and watching the cars as they thundered past the rows of corporate party tents.

"It's not just about my health," Pigeon said. "It's important for Detroit. Roger Penske wants the city to be portrayed in a positive light for a change and I wanted to be part of that."

• More Images

Category: Motorsports

Servia is a tiger, but is he a Detroit Tiger?

DETROIT -- Catalunyan-born Indy Car driver Oriol Servia would appear to have little or no connection with the city of Detroit.

Ah, but anyone who takes the time to discover their inner gearhead realizes all roads lead to the Motor City. Even if your British-built race car is powered by a Japanese engine, our DNA is linked.

The fact that Servia claimed his first Indy Car podium finish at Belle Isle in 2000 was only a start.

Servia's moment of clarity came in May, after a visit to Detroit that came as a welcome break in the month-long routine in Indianapolis that leads up to the 500.

Servia tagged along on the trip to watch KV Racing teammate Will Power throw out the first pitch at a Tiger's Game. Servia helped do some promotion work for the Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix people, and he thought the most important accomplishment was his chance to look over the tight 14-turn street circuit on Belle Isle. He likes it.

After all, Servia grew up playing soccer. Power got picked to toss the first pitch because the Australian's experience playing cricket allowed him to throw a ball acruately enough to be caught. Servia said his test pitch sailed over the top of a tent on the infield at Indy. The Tigers were polite and gave Servia a cap emblazoned with the old English D.

But when Servia got home to Spain, it was the visit to Comerica Park that brought about a change.

The man who custom paints Servia's racing helmets saw deeper meaning in the connection with our Major League Baseball team -- and created a new design that features an orange tiger on the crown.

"I was born in the year of the tiger, according to the Chinese," Servia explained.

Chinese mythology claims Tiger people are sensitive, deep thinkers and capable of great sympathy. They also can be short-tempered. They are courageous and powerful and cause others to respect them.

"Any advantage I can get against you guys," Servia told fellow drivers including Scott Dixon, Helio Castroneves and Danica Patrick at a gathering Wednesday on Belle Isle where he showed off the new helmet.

So far, the driver with the tiger on his helmet is ninth fastest among the 27 Indy Cars preparing for Sunday's race. But, as one Detroiter asked Servia, if he's really a Tiger, can he pitch?

• Enlarge

Category: Motorsports

Even Dario is here on Belle Isle

DETROIT -- We all come to Belle Isle for our reasons. Thousands streamed across the MacArthur Bridge this morning for a sample of this weekend's Indy Car and American LeMans races at "Free Prix Day."

Like me, most are probably here to fix their need for speed by just getting close to these exotic racing machines. And, the price was more than right.

Practices for Sunday's Indy Car and GT World Challenge sedan and sports car race were taking place today along with qualifying for the exotics of the American LeMans race on Saturday.

Indy Racing League points leader Scott Dixon and his Target Ganassi teammate Dan Weldon, turned heads as they swerved and darted on their motor scooters through the crowd. Australian Will Power, who came here in May to throw the first pitch at a Tiger's game, got stopped on his BMX bike by a knowledgeable fan who wanted an autograph and picture of the up-and-coming Indy Car star.

And what was Dario Franchitti doing in the Newsman Hass team tent? Last year's Indianapolis 500 winner and IRL champion made switch to NASCAR this season, but car-owner Chip Ganassi ran out of sponsor money and closed down the team -- laying off 70 workers and offering Franchitti a few drives in NASCAR's second level Nationwide series. With Reed Sorensen leaving Ganassi's Target car in NASCAR next year, the rumor had been Franchitti might get the seat -- but what is he doing here. I couldn't get close enough to ask, but I suspect it has something to do with wanting to watch his brother, Marino Franchitti, who drives in the American LeMans series.

The Crutchfield brothers, Martaz, 14, and Martin, 7, were dropped off by their parents on an entrepeneurial mission. They were selling earplugs in the parking lot for $1 each. Business was slow until the first Indy Car practice at this morning.

"Man, I love the way they drift through this turn, " said Martez standing outside turn tghree. He's a wrestler from Highland Park with Olympic dreams. "I'm raising money so I can afford to go someday."

Little brother wasn't thinking so long term. "I like the noise," Martin said.

Acting Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Air Force, Kevin Billings, had come for a meeting with the Firestone Tire Company and the Environmental Protection Agency for a conference on eliminating lead weights for balancing tires.

"Lead tire weights are an environmental hazard in how they fall off and work their poison into the ground water. Lead is an insidious and powerful pollutant," Billings said. "The Air Force is a charter member of the initiative and it's exciting to be involved with these racing teams."

The Air Force is the military leader in trying "green energy" and innovations, according to Billings, including trying out ethanol fuel blends like those used by the race cars here this weekend and switching all of its ground transport vehicles to the same 3M-coated steel weights that the racing teams use.

Besides that, the Assistant Secretary and uniformed adjutant, a young major, got a ride from former Indianapolis 500 champion Johnny Rutherford around Belle Isle's twisting circuit in one of the event's safety cars. Billings and his service may be working on a reputation for going "green," but he couldn't hide the Air Force penchant for wanting to go very fast.

• Enlarge

Category: Motorsports

My favorite view of Belle Isle is a blur and a blast

DETROIT -- Now I know what it looks like, what it feels like, what it sounds like to ride in an Indy Car being hustled around the tight street course on Belle Isle.

Vitor Meira was at the wheel when the specially-built two-seater Dallara fired up Thursday on pit lane at The Raceway at Belle Isle Park. I had just been strapped into the tiny back seat, my knees pushed against the back of Meira's seat. I looked through my own helmet window at the back of his blue helmet and felt the vibration of the Honda engine as it snarled to life behind me.

On Sunday, Meira will drive the Panther Racing number 4 Indy Car, sponsored by Delphi and the National Guard. On Thursday, he was giving rides to media representatives and VIP guests for a company called the Indy Racing Experience. You can actually buy a ride like this at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for less than $500.

"This program gives you the feel for what it really is like for us out there, the sound, the stiffness, the vibration, the G-forces, the aero effects," Meira said later.

The awesome acceleration of the outmoded 3.5 liter V8 in this demonstration car was immediately apparent as Meira rocketed upward through the gears. The sound was like hearing my favorite song performed live on stage for the first time.

Most impressive were the brakes that slowed the car with such force it hurled me forward into my shoulder harness at the entrance of every sharp turn -- and there are a lot of them on Belle Isle.

This is an aggressive and violent machine. And Meira made it dance.

The track immediately looked very narrow and I got the sense that this was a thoroughbred animal trying to run as fast as it can inside the house. Meira made maximum use of the short straightaways, blasting up through the gears and then stabbing the brakes and quickly downshifting. It felt like he threw out an anchor.

We swung wide toward the looming concrete barriers and dove inside every corner without hitting the candy cane striped curbs. After cresting the bridge by the carillon tower, we hit 160 miles per hour on The Strand. I could feel my helmet trying to lift off my head. The Detroit River was on the left when I saw those swan boats flash past on the lake on the right. As we approached the Casino, Meira drained the speed and I plunged forward in the seat, then slammed against the left bulkhead as the car rotated through a 90 degree turn.

"These are oval track brakes. Nice ones. Carbon fiber and all, but you should feel the road course brakes," Meira told me later. "Much stronger."

The new Indy Racing League engines are smaller and less powerful than the old motor being used in this car, but Meira had 200 pounds of ballast in the back seat. We averaged 81 miles per hour for the two laps we covered in less than three minutes. Last year's pole speed was 103 miles per hour. Still, I got the picture.

Back and forth we switched around the Scott Fountain, which will be turned on this weekend for the first time this summer, now that all the copper pipes have been replaced that were stolen by thieves.

Corvette Racing Team driver Johnny O'Connell is right. You can actually see the Ren Cen from the cockpit of a race car on this track, You can see the beautiful tree-lined streets and the sparkling water of the Detroit River. You can see the fans in the stands.

I'm not saying Meira saw all of this. He was pretty busy behind the wheel. I was sightseeing.

"It is always good to get more time on the track, even if it's not in your race car. Even if it is just walking," Meira said. "It gives you more time to learn the track and see the bumps."

I've heard from drivers that this is a bumpy track. Even Bud Denker, Roger Penske's man in Detroit, promised the drivers at Thursday's opening press luncheon that turns 7 and 8 will be repaved within two weeks so there will be no issues or off-camber turns next year.

I didn't notice the bumps when I later drove the course, thanks to Saturday's race sponsor, Bosch, showing off a dozen new clean-burning diesel powered vehicles that contain the company's technology. I kept getting back in line. If somebody offers to let me drive around a race track, I'm staying until closing time.

The Volkswagen Jetta diesel performed as I expected, but the instant fuel economy readout on the dash told me no mater how hard I pushed the thing -- it was getting more than 44 miles per gallon.

I pushed the BMW 123d to 84 miles per hour on The Strand backstretch. And to think, that's right where a Detroit cop stopped me once for going 30 mph. Bosch engineer Jan Bahlo rode with me, telling me about the amazing horsepower and torque and reminding me how quiet the car is. I really started listening when he told me about the guy who wrecked one on a test run here last year.

Meira called Belle Isle a "technical track."

"That doesn't mean bumpy. It means it's full of corners," Meira said. "When your car is good (set up well) here, it's a fun track. When the car isn't good, it's a long day."

Katrina Hancock, sports anchor for WDIV Channel 4 TV in Detroit took an Indy Car ride with Davey Hamilton just ahead of me.

"It was an awesome experience and I would do it every day if I could," Hancock said when she got out of the car. "The fans don't know what these drivers go through. There are huge forces at work on them. I was only out there for a couple of laps so I know they go through a real workout."

Hancock was a college basketball player at Bradley so she knows about workouts. I asked, does that mean she believes race car drivers are athletes?

"Yes they are," she said. "There is no doubt."

• Enlarge

Category: Motorsports

For race drivers, it's important to be seen in Detroit

Everywhere you go in Metro Detroit this weekend, you are very likely to run into a race car driver. There are a lot of them in town for this weekend's sports car and Indy Car races on Belle Isle -- and they are making appearances all over.

The importance of being seen in Detroit has made this stop on the American LeMans and Indy Racing League calendar one of the most important of the year, according to Johnny O'Connell, who drives one of the General Motors Corvette Racing thundering yellow machines, sponsored by local computer software giant Compuware.

"We all know we are under a microscope with the economy, with the impact it is having on the auto industry," O'Connell said. "For us, winning the 24 Hours of LeMans is our Super Bowl, but this is the only race where I can actually see my boss's window. I can see the Ren Cen from the race car while on the track. It's important to us that they get to see this weekend what we are accomplishing."

Everyone in the racing world heard the announcement that downsizing at General Motors will include cuts in the motor sports budget. Ford, Chrysler and even Toyota also are reeling and the auto racing world is holding its breath.

"Since July 15, I have had to concentrate on justifying my existence," said Steve Wesoloski, manager of GM's road racing group. "The big bosses have been so entrenched in the warfare of survival that there have been no opportunities for them to take a trip to a race. We can tell the story of why we race, but this race, here, at home, in Detroit has become so important for us to show them, to let them see the excitement, the image and the fact that our fans get it."

O'Connell and teammate Oliver Gavin were signing autographs Wednesday in the towering atrium lobby of Compuware's headquarters in downtown Detroit.

Milka Duno and her teammate Buddy Rice were at a street fair in Grosse Pointe Farms Wednesday evening, helping raise the spirits of sick children and raising money for a local group called Racing for Kids. She and fellow Indy drivers Enrique Bernoldi and Jaime Camara were to be at Michigan Children's Hospital at the Detroit Medical Center on a similar mission today.

The stars of the IndyCar and American Lemans series will be at a luncheon Press conference on the island today at noon, and many will be at a fundraising gala tonight at the Henry Ford Museum. Danica Patrick, Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon, and Tony Kanaan, along with American Le Mans Series drivers Emanuele Pirro, Gil de Ferran, Patrick Long, Paul Drayson and O'Connell will be at the Grand Prixmiere II which benefits the Henry Ford Museum and the Belle Isle Conservancy.

Audi of North America is headquartered here and there is a big "Stars and Cars" reception planned for this eveneing in Rochester Hills.

The pressure is definitely on to show the value of motor sports. Chevrolet's General Manager, Ed Peper, told SportsBusiness Journal, "Where we don't see a direct return we aren't going to do."

At Autoextremist.com, Peter De Lorenzo, wrote, "The Detroit manufacturers have been dissecting their involvement in NASCAR with a fervor not seen since, well, ever."

But, Ford's Motorsports spokesman Kevin Kennedy has said 56 percent of all Ford owners are motor sports fans, and that group is more likely to buy another Ford and is more likely to buy new vehicles more often. Toyota's Lee White has said his company plans stay in NASCAR and other forms of racing because the promotion to loyal buyers is a clear advantage.

But how much can a company that is losing money afford? Wesoloski believes plans will be announced for GM's 2009 motor sports involvement in four to six weeks. And he's making no predictions, except to say he believes all of the manufacturers still believe auto racing helps sell cars.

"There are meetings going on every week and what we are seeing now in GM is that no one is immune. We are putting a dollar figure on everything we do. We are inventing formulas to determine the value of promotional programs, like auto racing. For the first time, we won't be participating in the Academy Awards with cars and promotions that didn't generate an appropriate return on the investment. We are asking how many cars did we sell because we invested in golf, in Tiger Woods? We are looking at everything."

Whenever you provide your name in a GM survey at an event, like the Buick Open or the NASCAR races at Michigan International Speedway, the company checks a few months later to see if any new vehicle identification numbers have been registered in your name -- and whether they were GM products.

While there may be an air of panic in the auto racing world, Corvette driver Oliver Gavin has another perspective. Born and raised outside London, England, he said he's watched his nation transform its economy as manufacturing struggled and left.

"The auto industry in the UK has struggled for many, many years. We don't really have any major industry left, but it's really different here. We've moved on from all of that, but this country still has great prospects for manufacturing. Detroit is seen, still, as a the place where cars come from. I believe this is a blip before you return. It's a time to retool and learn better ways to do it, but there is going to be a turning point and Detroit will be back."

Way more than a race

When you arrive at the Belle Isle Grand Prix track entrance, first, you have to walk through a gauntlet of concession stands where you will find every form of motor sports souvenir -- like the T-shirt I wish I'd bought last year that said, "The older I get the faster I was."

Off to the side is the Corvette coral, where local owners will display more than 250 examples America's sports car. WDFN's NASCAR talk show host Rob Pascoe stood there staring -- uncharacteristically speechless -- until some of the Corvettes drove away and a producer tricked Pascoe into following them back toward the tent where he was doing a live broadcast.

Cross the track on the elevated pedestrian bridge and you enter the Meijer Family Fun Zone. It's a wooded area skirted by the race track on two sides and where a stage, a new food court and interactive displays are set up by General Motors, Nintendo's Wii and Xbox 360.

Drivers from all three of the racing series -- Indy Racing League, American Le Mans, and the SPEED World Challenge GT Championship - will host autograph sessions in the Fun Zone on Saturday.

On stage you will find everything from kid-friendly acts like the Radio Disney D-Tour Stage Show and the Brighton Jumpin' All-Stars Double Dutch Demonstration Team along with some to serious national music acts.

Sugar Ray will take the XM Stage stage at 6 p.m. Saturday and Everclear plays at 1:35 p.m. Sunday.

The GM display features a live band and many local groups with big followings also will perform on the XM stage between live radio interviews with race drivers. The Earworms bring their Beatles-like music to the stage 11:15 a.m. Friday, followed by the Polish Muslims performing their original music and parodies -- including "That's Why God Invented the Polka," at 12:20, 3:30 and 4:45 p.m. Friday.

Natalie Kathleen Myziuk will sign at noon Saturday. The Second Ebenezer Baptist Church gospel choir gets Sunday started the right way at 9 a.m., followed by the Claret Jai Group and her blend of rock and gospel at 10:15 a.m.

FiftyAmpFuse will bring the weekend festivities to a close with their sound and light show at 6:00 p.m. Sunday.

Red Bull Air Race to return?

It's nice to see that while Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is preoccupied with his legal problems and grounded by a court-ordered GPS tracking tether for bad behavior while awaiting trial on numerous felony criminal charges, Windsor's Mayor Eddie Francis is working hard and globetrotting to repair our community's sagging image.

The leader of the city on the other side of the river held meetings with key players in the recent and largely successful Red Bull Air Race, like the Detroit River Conservancy and General Motors, and also flew to London, England to try to talk Red Bull into bringing the air race back next year.

The Windsor Star says Red Bull had expressed no interest in returning after complaining about the security and other red tape hurdles of organizing an event on the international boundary. Francis said things will be smoother with a year to plan the next race instead of the few months it took to bring this year's amazing event together.

• Enlarge

Category: Motorsports

Fast or slow, Michigan International is a thrill ride

BROOKLYN, Mi. -- I hope you all notice when you get to Michigan International Speedway today for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race just how nice and clean the track surface is.

While you were sleeping at 6:30 a.m., Duane Barnes and I were riding around the big tri-oval in a roaring jet dryer, blowing all that dirt and rubber off the wide track from yesterday's NASCAR Nationwide race.

Those of you on the infield heard us. I saw your camper lights flicking on after Barnes fired up the old military J36 jet engine strapped on a trailer behind the one-ton Chevy Silverado. But you were expecting us, weren't you? It's a tradition here at the track that pioneered the use of jet-engined dryers to blow the surface clean.

"Let's give the wake-up call," Barnes said as we climbed into the truck towing the engine named "Uno." Two more jets followed in our noisy wake. The track has seven and they have names like Thunder, Spitfire, Ace, Tremor and Wolverine. No Spartan yet, but there are two more sitting in the maintenance garage off the backstretch waiting finishing touches.

There were more than 100 workers gathering there before dawn, preparing for the tasks of cleaning restrooms and pickup up trash. Elsewhere around the big track there were gatherings of firefighters, traffic cops, ambulance EMTs and wrecker drivers. NASCAR and track officials were also arriving for the big day.

There was a full moon hanging above the fourth turn when Duane pulled onto the long backstretch and flicked a bank of switches on a white metal box between the front seats that started a loud piercing whine. Suddenly there was a belching rumble and I saw flames spew out of the jet's exhaust nozzle.

With the windows up, the truck sounded no worse than a taxiing airliner, on the inside. Outside was a different story. A man and woman standing in the first row of the empty stands between turns three and four had their hands clapped over their ears.

Barnes only had the engine running at 60 percent capacity and we were move at 10 miles per hour just inches from the wall. Sand and dirt danced in the headlight beams as a small jet mounted on the front bumper dislodged stuff close to the wall.

You can see black skid marks on the pavement that go straight into the wall at several spots, but a crew was out last night freshening up the white impact cushioning safer barriers and signs with new coats of paint.

Any higher on the jet's throttle and the left rear wheel lifts off the ground. Push it higher and the jets thrust would spin the truck around, said Duane.

Michigan International Speedway was among the first to use jet engines to replace tractors with roller brushes back in the 1980s.

"We went to the Tim Arfons (the son of jet drag racing pioneer Art) for help back in 1987 when the track got repaved and we needed to melt some snow in the spring to finish some work," said Dan Salenbien, director of facilities at the speedway. He's now in his 31st year with the track. "We've built 17 of them since and the machines have evolved and improved."

Now, Michigan International's staff drives the jets for use at Daytona, Talladega, Chicagoland, Kansas and Watkins Glen.

"At first NASCAR resisted using them. Back in the 80s, the guys at Daytona preferred to use shovels and brooms, even when we showed up. Roger (Penske, former owner of MIS) liked them for the open wheel cars for cleaning the track. Then, one time at Daytona we helped dry a wet track and we were in."

The air coming out of the nozzle is between 850 and 950 degrees. They burn 200 gallons of jet fuel per hour. The tiny jet engines that power the front end unit come from the back of airliners, where they are used to power electric generators and air conditioning.

Michigan is the only track with the front end jets. Selenbein designed the units by drawing plans with a soapstone on the cement floor of the big maintenance garage.

Although the track's banked turns seem steep to me, they are a relatively mild 18 degrees.

"When you drive around Daytona where it's 31 degrees, you're against the door like this, Duane said as he flopped against the driver's door. "Talladega's even worse at 33 degrees. This track is also a lot wider than those other tracks but these jets can sweep it in a hurry."

And then I went faster

A couple hours later, as the first of the expected crowd of more than 100,000 spectators began to arrive, NASCAR offered a ride in the pace car -- driven by Brett Bodine. I jumped at the chance.

Bodine was the development driver of the Car of Tomorrow and I was anxious to ask questions about how he feels the car has turned out. Then, while traveling at 120 miles per hour through the tri-oval, our conversation turned to something I'd forgotten -- this is the track where Bodine suffered his career-ending crash back in 2003.

"It is sort of tough for me to come here," Bodine said. "You never forget it."

He explained that Michigan is a driver favorite because it is so wide and there are so many racing lines. But that comfort zone belies the fact that this is a very fast race track. Others have died here.

"You can really move around on this track, but there's so much momentum. It's not that it lulls you to sleep like Daytona or Talladega. But when something goes wrong, it happens at a very high speed.

Bodine made his NASCAR public relations handler in the back seat nervous when he decided to give us a recreation of his crash. He had been following Christian Fittipaldi in one of Richard Petty's cars when Fittipaldi's flywheel exploded entering turn 1, the fastest point on the track. A tire exploded and Bodine headed up the track toward the wall.

"The front is faster than the back because it's actually longer with the curve in it. You enter turn one much faster than turn three," Bodine said as he pointed the p[ace car up the hill toward the looming white wall."

"I hit this wall going 160 miles per hour and it knocked me out. I was out but my foot was on the gas and the car continued through the turn at speed," Bodine said, swinging the pace car down the banking toward the wall on the inside of the track at the bottom of turn two. "I hit this one almost head-on going about 140."

The NASCAR PR rep in the back seat is now on her Sprint walkie-talkie telling the tower that we are OK, even though we probably have dropped out of their sight.

You know, if we had had these safer barriers back then, I wouldn't have been unconscious after the initial impact and I wouldn't have suffered the injury in the second collision," Bodine said.

And now it is crystal clear why he worked so hard on the larger, safer Car of Tomorrow. He said he takes no offense when others badmouth the new car's performance.

"I'm very proud of what we have accomplished," Bodine said.

• More Images

Category: Motorsports

Life is hectic inside ESPN's race production truck

BROOKLYN, Mi. -- At the moment I might have jumped out of my seat back home and cursed at the television screen during Saturday's NASCAR Nationwide race at Michigan International Speedway -- so did the crew in ESPN's production truck.

It was gratifying to learn that the unseen people who decide what we get to see on race day are race fans too.

Clint Bowyer and David Reutimann had sideswiped each other on the track and you were being shown a replay when Reutimann's tire exploded and the No. 99 Toyota hit the wall. Viewers missed the moment live and the reaction in ESPN's nerve center at the speedway was brief but loud.

"You saw my frustration," said producer James "Shifty" Shiftan, who made the split-second decision. "There was smoke. I saw it and knew there was a 50/50 chance that tire could go. There are a lot of other sports that are more predictable. Football, baseball, you get breaks, time for replays. I didn't grow up being a racing guy, but after 12 years, the more you do it, the better you get."

I had driven 65 miles from Detroit on a beautiful, sunny day into the picturesque Irish Hills to watch the race from inside a darkened semi-tractor-trailer.

This is the workspace of a dozen people who coordinate the efforts of 10 on-air-personalities and 250 technicians and photographers working from a compound of 15 semi-tractor-trailers. Sliders roll out from the sides to expand the trailers into studios where teams work on graphics, replays and audio. The production truck is at the center, linked by miles of cables and wires.

I was given a headset and a seat at the end of one of two rows of workstations facing a wall of 20 television monitors projecting multiple split-screen images from more than 65 cameras. I was warned to not touch any buttons. The trailer is parked close enough to hear the cars roaring past on the front stretch. But it is in another world.

I've struggled to find words to describe what happened inside that elaborate electric room. Pressure cooker doesn't seem enough. Picture one of those hot air popcorn poppers where everything swirls around and explodes -- except more confusing.

Although everyone wore headsets and spoke through microphones, all twelve voices often called out instructions, suggestions and exclamations simultaneously. Countdowns and directions for graphics and camera selections intermingled with frequent voices booming in on loudspeakers from spotters and even suggestions from the on-air personalities. Rusty Wallace and Allen Bestwick chimed in often. Southern drawls and East Coast affectations blended with California TV announcer tones.

And it was all aimed at Shiftan.

Pit Producer Patrick Perrin calmly pitched story angles from his four wandering reporters. Spotter Kevin Clark constantly radioed descriptions of the hottest action on the track from his perch on the roof of the press box. Director Rich Basile called out directions that set up cameras in advance of their use by Shiftan. Associate Director Lynda Schulz counted down to commercial breaks and helped calculate the speed of the pace car when the caution flag flew, to see when and where commercials would fit. Everything is about timing in this trailer.

Over the whirlwind of information, Shifty called out final instructions. His voice also was the one being heard in the earpieces of the booth and studio announcers, including Dr. Jerry Punch, Dale Jarrett, Brad Daugherty and Andy Petree.

There are more cameras in use this weekend at MIS than at a Super Bowl. ESPN uses 33 cameras at Monday Night Football games, and 18 at college football games. At MIS Saturday there were eight in-car cameras, aerial shots from a helicopter, robot cameras mounted in the grass and on the crash walls. There were cameramen and spotters on rooftops, in crane buckets and mobile units wandering the pits. On the TV monitors each camera was labeled with a number and the shooter's nickname, like Duffy, Pony, Turtle and Jimbo. Graphics were selected and previewed on other monitors along with pre-race interviews.

Many were selected and never shown. Race drivers stood waiting for long minutes with pit interviewers before breaks in the action allowed them to appear on screen as though the interviews had been spontaneous.

Most often, the camera choices were correct, sometimes from instinct and other times from luck. When Steve Wallace crashed shortly after the start, Shiftan calmly called for cameras to follow the long spin all the way to impact with an inside wall. He had somehow judged the car's trajectory like a baseball player's familiarity with a fly ball's bounce out of the corner in his home park. Later, Shiftan simply laughed when another spin was captured live from the in-car camera of a trailing car.

The most hectic moments came as pit stops approached. Three numbers were called out, usually the leaders, and a countdown started to estimate arrival of the first in his pit box. Pit reporters were assigned, in order, to describe the action as images from three cameras showed the cars being serviced in a triple-split screen. All of this happened in seconds.

Before the race, I also got an enthusiastic tour of the ESPN Tech Center from former crew chief Tim Brewer. No, the slick studio with a cutaway car and a vast collection of parts and pieces to demonstrate what just went wrong out there on the track isn't back at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut. It's in another of the semi-tractor-trailers in the compound behind Michigan International's main grandstands.

Brewer, who wrenched Darrell Waltrip's winning car at ESPN's first NASCAR Cup series telecast on March 21, 1981 at Rockingham, reflected obvious pride in his stage. He has collected most of the props himself. Two technicians travel with him across the country and carefully place every pry bar, every carburetor, every carbon fiber widget in exactly the same place on the studio's lighted shelves so Brewer will know where to find them in seconds. The parts are real. Many collected from wrecks. Some were specially built by racing specialists.

The cutaway Nationwide car in his studio Saturday was a 10-year-old race car that has been cut open like a medical school cadaver. Right after Saturday's race, it was wheeled out through the trailer's disguised back door, right behind it in the television shots, and a cutaway Sprint Cup car was wheeled in from the hauler next door.

"That one is a brand new Car of Tomorrow I got from Richard Childress Racing when it didn't meet specs for some reason or other," Brewer said with a wink. "It's still got $40,000 worth of brakes on it. All I'd have to do is put new sheet metal on it and it could go racing."

This was a level of enthusiasm I hadn't expected to find. I'd come to believe that Big American corporate enterprises are all about sucking the life out of everything they touch. Maybe it's only because that's the atmosphere we live in here in Detroit these days.

But I got the clear impression ESPN and the elaborate electronic circus it has following the NASCAR circuit is populated by people who love what they are doing.

Neil Goldberg, ESPN's senior motor sports producer who will oversee Sunday's Sprint Cup broadcast, said, "It's like a big jigsaw puzzle with a thousand pieces in it -- and it keeps changing shape."

Shiftan said the job is difficult at Michigan because the big wide track usually provides a lot of side-by-side racing and few breaks. And, next week the game changes when all of this equipment moves to the half-mile track at Bristol, Tennessee.

"You roll the dice every time and that's when the race fan has to take over," Shiftan said.

• Enlarge

Category: Motorsports

Fan dedication at Michigan gets downright romantic

BROOKLYN, MI. -- The sound of NASCAR's stars reverberated throughout the Irish Hills during Sprint Cup practice at Michigan International Speedway, but the autograph-seekers were paying no attention.

Shelly Smart, 42, of Toledo, was holding down the prime spot against the low fence beside the road that leads between the garage area and the heavily secured compound on the infield where NASCAR's drivers park their motor homes.

This is the gauntlet the drivers walk between practice and qualifying sessions -- and they indulge their fans by stopping to talk and sign, well, sign just about anything.

Despite the fact the cars and drivers they adore were circling the track, the autograph hounds stayed at their posts, lined up three deep at the fence. They couldn't see the track from this spot, but they didn't dare give upo their positions.

"Been here since yesterday," Smart said, showing me the backpack containing food, water, a change of clothes and a camera with extra lenses. She and her friends brought magazines, die cast cars and photos for drivers to sign. "I'll be here tomorrow too."

"I love it here. I love the sound. I love the smell. The cute guys don't hurt."

She has autographs today from Jimmy Johnson and others, but she is wearing a Matt Kenseth shirt.

"That's the one I'm waiting for," she said. "I'm going to have it copied as a tattoo. I've got a spot picked out."

She wouldn't reveal the location.

Joe and Vicky Miller of Rhinelander, Wisc., drive 12 hours to attend all the races at MIS because it's their favorite track. They waited beside the fence with die cast cars, hoping to get Dale Earnhardt Jr. to sign them.

"Chicago (the NASCAR track near the city) is closer to our home, but this track is so much better. It's more open, and the people are really nice here," Vicky said.

Driver-turned-broadcaster Rusty Wallace stopped to sign a special die cast car Joe collected three years ago of the last car Wallace drove before retiring.

"Joe told him he had been waiting all this time for the chance to get him to sign it. He was shaking he was so excited. Rusty laughed."

Tammy Duggan, 37, of Ludington, got Kyle Busch's autograph waiting at the fence on Friday. She was back there again today hoping to see Dale Earnhardt Jr.

"I know people boo Kyle, but I don't boo any of them," she said.

Her husband, Rich Duggan, had been a winning stock car driver at Winston Speedway, a dirt track in West Michigan. He was killed three years ago in a motorcycle accident.

"I know what it's like to hear the boos when you win, but racing people can be the nicest too," she said. "My husband had always wanted to meet Junior, and the year after he died, Junior came right up to me at this fence. I was crying because it was what Rich had always wanted."

She said Earnhardt stood there patiently listening to her whole story.

"I got his autograph and I'll never forget it."

The dedication of fans for this sport sometimes get's downright romantic.

Before the Nationwide series qualified this morning, Joe and Barbara Bauman of Port Huron took their marriage vows on pit road. A local minister, Otis Lang, did the chore as they stood at the spot where the start/finish line crosses the pits.

Barbara wore a long white gown. Joe was in a black tuxedo. And so was Bobbyjoe, the 22-month-old grandson they are adopting.

"You see, we got married 12 years ago, but it turns out it might not have been legal," Barbara said. "We lived in Kentucky then and we got married here and... well we needed to get it done again. We can't afford a big wedding so we called the track and they helped make this happen. This was a pretty big wedding!"

Category: Motorsports

Hornish will get hands dirty

So you want to see a NASCAR Sprint Cup driving get his hands dirty? Sam Hornish Jr., driver of the #77 Mobil 1 Dodge and native of nearby Defiance, Ohio, will be at Bruce Campbell Dodge in Redford (14875 Telegraph Rd.) on Wednesday to give fuel-savings tips and will give two race fans -- get this -- a free Mobil 1 oil change. The two-hour event begins at noon.