Monday's race at Chicagoland Speedway was only moments old and Kurt Busch was in such a hurry to get away that he didn't stop for interviews.

Not to go home after rain extended his stay by a day.

To go to a baseball game at Wrigley Field.

Outside of racing, the 2004 Sprint Cup champion has no bigger passion than baseball. He spent Monday night on a rooftop beyond the ivy-covered walls at Wrigley watching his beloved Cubs beat the Milwaukee Brewers 5-2.

[+] Enlarge
Otto Greule Jr/Getty ImagesKurt Busch threw out the first before the Seattle Mariners played the Los Angeles Angels at Safeco Field on Aug. 31.

Twenty-four hours later, he was at Toronto's Rogers Centre watching the Blue Jays play the Angels.

"I'm a big baseball fan," said Busch, who is fourth in points after Monday's sixth-place finish.

How big? The Toronto game concluded a 12-year odyssey that has taken Busch to all 30 major-league parks. So if you think these drivers don't have a life outside of the stock car, think again.

"I don't know what the initial trigger was to start it," said Busch, who began this journey at Wrigley Field in 2000 when he was driving for Roush Fenway Racing in the Truck series. "It was like, 'Hey, I can go to all these parks and accomplish something that is a personal goal in life.' "

Wrigley easily is Busch's favorite park. Beyond the ivy and history, this is the team he grew up cheering for because his parents were born and raised in Chicago before moving to Las Vegas.

Busch's favorite baseball memory came at Wrigley in 2003 when the Cubs were a game away from reaching the World Series before everything went awry with the infamous "Steve Bartman incident," with a fan attempting to catch a foul ball before it got into the stands.

"It was the week leading into Martinsville," recalled Busch, who played second base and catcher in Little League. "The Cubs have never in my mind been playing baseball when the ivy turns brown in the fall. That was a big moment for me."

Many of Busch's baseball trips have been planned around sponsor appearances or as a celebrity guest. He's thrown out the first pitch at Chicago, Boston, Arizona and Milwaukee. He's sung "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" for the seventh-inning stretch at Wrigley.

And, no, he didn't butcher it like Jeff Gordon and Danica Patrick.

"I'm a Cubs fan," Busch said. "I know it from the word 'go.' "

But most of Busch's baseball excursions have come as a fan.

"Just buy a ticket and go in," said Busch, noting he tries to sit in a different place each time he visits a park.

Along the way Busch began collecting the wooden mini-bats with team logos, albeit he's had to order many online because airport security confiscated them as potential weapons.

Busch also has befriended many players and managers along the way. Nothing has topped meeting childhood heroes Sammy Sosa and Ryne Sandberg.

Unlike his sometimes volatile demeanor in a race car, Busch is relatively calm and quiet while watching baseball. You don't find him screaming "kill the umpire" after a bad call.

"He doesn't have his helmet on at the baseball game, so there's a difference," team owner Roger Penske said jokingly.

No, but the passion is there.

And it will continue to be.

"It's been neat to cap this off, but to know they are always building more parks to go to," Busch said.

CHICAGO -- First, I'm not a huge fan of Chicagoland Speedway hosting the first race of the Chase, which NASCAR already has said will happen again next season, too.

The third-largest media market in the country is too wrapped up in the Chicago Bears to get NASCAR on the front page of the local paper.

Imagine if the Cubs or White Sox were contenders.

Well, it could happen.

I'd rather see the Chase begin somewhere such as Darlington or Bristol. They're smaller markets -- OK, tiny compared to Chicago -- but they would embrace the sport, and the style of racing at those tracks is more likely to create drama that captures the imagination.

But I love the Windy City, at least three months out of the year, when it isn't cold as heck.

And I loved Thursday's gathering of the 12 Chase drivers at the LaSalle Power Co. in downtown Chicago, the former site of Michael Jordan's restaurant.

The animosity drivers showed toward a few media members a week ago at Richmond was gone. Everybody, from 12th-place Denny Hamlin to first-place Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick, believes they have a chance to knock five-time defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson off the throne.

Check that.

Two-time champion Tony Stewart already has eliminated five drivers, scratching Hamlin, Kurt Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth and himself from the list of realistic contenders.

Kenseth laughed at Stewart's generosity with the media that he had berated a week ago for asking questions that weren't what he considered original.

"Stirring the pot," Kenseth motioned.

In case you haven't been paying attention, Stewart's list of contenders are Johnson, Harvick, Kyle Busch, Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon and Brad Keselowski, in no particular order.

"The winner of the championship will come out of that group," Stewart said.

And if Stewart is standing on stage, hoisting the championship trophy above his head 10 weeks from now at Homestead-Miami Speedway?

"Then I'll declare I'm a total bumbling idiot," Stewart said.

I thought he only said that about the media.

Anyway, there wasn't a driver among the 12 that wasn't in a good mood. Harvick took a fun stab at Kurt Busch, noting all the reporters during one interview session had laptops -- and not papers -- and didn't "leave me anything to tear up." Busch, remember, took a transcript from a reporter and tore it up in a heated moment after Saturday night's race at Richmond.

Newman cracked a similar joke, saying, "Keep all the papers away from me."

Yes, drivers pay attention to all the trivial stuff that happens off the track.

Kenseth took a joking shot at the reporter who at Richmond was shot down by Stewart, saying, "Ask me an original question."

There were a few. Gordon took advantage to push his conspiracy theory that Richard Childress Racing driver Paul Menard spun out intentionally to bring out the final caution at Richmond, allowing teammate Harvick to catch up and win.

Harvick pushed the theory that Gordon and other Hendrick Motorsports drivers bring out cautions to help Earnhardt get back laps.

It was that kind of entertaining day.

Hopefully, the racing at Chicagoland Speedway will be just as entertaining and give me reason to like opening the Chase here.

The odds are in and the favorite to win the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup championship is ...

Kyle Busch.

Hot off the press from sports publicist Jimmy Shapiro are the odds for the 10-race Chase that begins Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway. Busch, who begins this quest tied for the points lead with Kevin Harvick based on four regular-season wins each, is a 3-to-1 favorite.

Following closely is Jimmie Johnson at 7-2, which puts him five spots ahead of the driver (Kurt Busch) who thinks he is in the five-time defending champion's head.

But that's another story.

The rest of the 12-driver odds: Jeff Gordon, 5-1; Carl Edwards, 13-2; Harvick, 13-2; Matt Kenseth, 10-1; Kurt Busch, 11-1; Brad Keselowski, 12-1; Denny Hamlin, 16-1; Tony Stewart, 16-1; Dale Earnhardt Jr., 20-1; Ryan Newman, 25-1.

There were no odds given on how many bad questions Stewart would field from the media or how many transcripts Kurt Busch would tear up. There also were no odds on whether Earnhardt would win the most popular driver award again, but I can tell you that's where my money would be if I were a betting man.

I agree with the odds for the most part, although it seems Keselowski should be much higher with the momentum he has.

As for my overall pick, for consistency I'll stick with the driver I chose before the season: Kyle Busch. But I like the way Gordon is running and it wouldn't surprise me if he won his fifth title.

Let me know who you'd pick to win it.

WASHINGTON -- The 45-minute postrace "come to Jesus meeting" that Denny Hamlin and crew chief Mike Ford had a few weeks ago apparently has improved the outlook for last year's Sprint Cup runner-up.

Hamlin said during Wednesday's visit to the White House with five-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and others from the 2010 Chase class that the communication issues that sparked rumors of a split with Ford have been resolved.

That's not good news for the rest of the Chase field with the 10-race playoff set to begin next weekend in Chicago.

"I think it's great," Hamlin said of his relationship with Ford, with whom he entered the final race a year ago with a 15-point lead over Johnson only to see it turn into a 39-point loss. "Personally, from the inside perspective, me and Mike's communication is getting a lot better."

Hamlin still has some work to do to make the Chase. He ranks 12th in points and holds the second wild-card spot thanks to his win at Michigan, but there are several drivers with a chance to move ahead of him should one of them win Saturday night's regular-season finale at Richmond International Raceway.

Hamlin knows this is no time to relax.

The good news for Hamlin is he's won the past two September races at RIR, which he considers his home track, having grown up in nearby Chesterfield, Va. The better news for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver: Since his meeting with Ford, the team has finished seventh and eighth to stop a string of four finishes of 15th or worse.

Hamlin is so confident that he's talking championship again.

"If we can get in the Chase," Hamlin said, "we've got some good stuff coming in these next few weeks that hopefully will show the hard work we're putting in now."

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- You may be wondering why Thursday's official announcement that Dale Earnhardt Jr. has signed a five-year extension at Hendrick Motorsports didn't involve a huge news conference, a lot of hoopla, pomp and circumstance.

After all, HMS did lock up NASCAR's most popular driver through the end of the 2017 season.

The answer is simple: Earnhardt didn't want to bring attention to this.

So we got an email with a prepared statement.

[+] Enlarge
Jason Smith/Getty Images/NASCARDale Earnhardt Jr.'s new deal with Hendrick Motorsports will keep him in the No. 88 Chevy through 2017.

That's it.

From the time team owner Rick Hendrick told me he was working on an extension more than a year ago -- then with two years remaining on the current deal -- he said Earnhardt didn't want to make a big deal out of this. He reiterated that in May, when he told me all terms basically had been agreed upon.

This says a lot about Earnhardt. This says, as he mentioned last weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, that his focus isn't on contracts or making the Chase. His focus is on winning a title.

And he believes HMS is the best place to do that.

"Making the Chase is great and all, but as a person, you want to be the champion," Earnhardt said at Bristol. "Making the Chase doesn't really make you feel better at the end of the season if you don't win a championship … you are really disappointed. I don't really think about I need to make the Chase, personally. Those aren't my thoughts."

Some interpreted this as Earnhardt, ninth in points with two races left before the Chase is set, didn't really care about making the Chase.

Totally opposite. He was saying that it's not enough just to make the 10-race playoff.

Hendrick feels the same way, which in part is why he committed to a driver who hasn't won since 2008 for the long haul. That, and Earnhardt still brings in more revenue than any driver on the planet.

It he wins a race or two, that will only increase his value.

If he wins a title ... you get the picture.

"My feelings haven't changed since the day he first signed with us," Hendrick said Thursday. "I'm committed as ever to putting him in the best possible situation to be successful and compete for wins and championships."

It took a lot of guts for Earnhardt, 36, to leave Dale Earnhardt Inc., the company his dad built from scratch, after the 2007 season. But it was the right decision then and it is the right decision now to stay put, and possibly retire at HMS.

Earnhardt is like a son to Hendrick and Hendrick is like a father to Earnhardt.

Earnhardt gives Hendrick a challenge to win a title like none other he's faced in the business, and Earnhardt wants a title.

It's an ideal match.

This deal will end all the talk about Earnhardt moving JR Motorsports up to Cup and driving for himself. This deal will end talk of Earnhardt going to Richard Childress Racing, where his dad won six of his seven titles, and possibly drive the No. 3.

This will allow Earnhardt to focus on winning titles without worrying about long-term plans.

"It's great to have it all wrapped up so quickly and far in advance," Earnhardt said in the release. "Rick and I were on the same page from the first time we talked about it, so there wasn't any sense in waiting. There were never any questions or hesitations from either of us. It was just, 'Yeah, let's do it.'

"I'm really happy at Hendrick Motorsports and enjoy working with everyone here. The team's been very competitive this season, and we're all excited about the direction of things. I want to make sure we're giving our fans something to cheer about for a long time."

Earnhardt will address this in person on Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, but he won't make a bigger deal about it then than he did Thursday. He'll probably shrug his shoulders and say how he's glad to get it done and move on to the next chapter.

That's not the Chase.

That's winning a championship.

That, not a contract, is his focus.

A word of advice for Clint Bowyer: Don't procrastinate in contract negotiations with your current team when the boss' grandson is waiting in the wings.

Hey, it could happen.

Richard Childress' passion these days -- outside of getting back at Kyle Busch -- is getting his grandsons, Austin and Ty Dillon, to the Sprint Cup level. Austin is first in line, ranked fourth in the Truck series standings and poised to move full time to the Nationwide Series in 2012.

Austin Dillon already has competed in four Nationwide races this year and collected three top-10s with no finish worse than 14th. Fast-forwarding him into a handful of Sprint Cup races with another driver -- say, a Mark Martin -- handling the rest of the season for RCR's fourth car wouldn't be a bad option.

Martin needs a part-time ride for 2012, and if there isn't sponsorship to help him split the Cup season with Danica Patrick at Stewart-Haas Racing, this would be a good option.

Bowyer seemingly is feeling the pressure judging by his comments before Saturday night's race at Bristol Motor Speedway. He has to see the leverage he might have had two months ago when he was inside the top 10 is gone now. Only the top 10 drivers are guaranteed a spot in the Chase. Bowyer is 12th, but he is behind in the wild-card battle because he hasn't won.

Not that Bowyer doesn't have other options, but would any other team give him a better chance to compete for the title than RCR? Doubtful.

Here's what we know:

• Bowyer wants to stay at Richard Childress Racing, where he has driven all 205 of his Cup races since entering the series in 2005. How do we know that? He says he does.

• Bowyer has talked to almost every team in the garage and has had several offers, including Red Bull Racing before that company announced it was leaving the sport in 2012, Richard Petty Motorsports with a current offer and, of course, RCR. Joe Gibbs Racing also is interested, but only if sponsorship can be found.

• Money and sponsorship are factors. If they weren't, Bowyer would have re-signed with RCR more than a month ago when Childress said he hoped to have a deal done in two weeks.

Here's what we don't know:

• Can RPM or anybody else really offer Bowyer more money than RCR? And if they can, is Bowyer willing to take more money for perhaps a less competitive ride?

• Has Childress become disenchanted with Bowyer to the point he would consider going back to three cars? Or better yet, would he put Austin in the fourth car with somebody like Martin? Childress may have an easier time selling Dillon and Martin, particularly if he were to look at bringing back the famous No. 3 Dillon drives in the Truck series.

• How much does Bowyer's stock rise if he slips into the Chase? He needs either a win or for Brad Keselowski to get into the top 10 to be in position for a playoff spot.

Something should happen within the next two or three weeks. My gut says Bowyer will wind up back at RCR. Look at how many times Kevin Harvick seemingly has been out the door in his past two negotiations.

But the longer the negotiations take, the more skeptical I become. Until then, as Bowyer told a few members of the media at Bristol, "I'm wasting my time talking to you."

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- "Want the special?" the man at the hot dog stand outside the North Carolina District Courthouse of Iredell County asked on Tuesday.

I politely said no and asked whether there was a nearby restaurant where I could work and eat while waiting for Kyle Busch to appear in court for the speeding penalty he received in May.

"Sure you don't want it?" the man asked, pointing to a sign.

Sometimes you miss what's staring you in the face. You know, a "can't see the forest for the trees" sort of thing.

David Newton/ESPN.comOnly in America: A hot dog vendor outside of a North Carolina district courthouse was offering a special meal deal in honor of Kyle Busch.

But there in big black-and-red handwriting on a whiteboard was the "Kyle Busch 128 mph special" -- two hot dogs, chips and a drink for $5.

You couldn't help but laugh.

A few hours later, NASCAR's Sprint Cup points leader was fined $1,000 and had his licensed suspended for 45 days by Judge Thomas Church for going 128 mph in a 45 mph speed zone down a rural road near Mooresville, N.C.

Case closed.

"This is it," Busch said outside the courthouse, adding that the hearing for him brought closure to the incident.

It did from a legal standpoint, but Busch still has this image thing to deal with. So does NASCAR.

First, Busch. As long as people such as the man running the hot dog stand are making jokes about Busch, there'll be a certain part of the NASCAR fan base who won't take the 26-year-old superstar seriously -- even if he goes on to win the Cup title.

There will be a certain part who will consider Busch a punk no matter how much good he does -- and he is doing a lot of good, supporting the B.R.A.K.E.S (Be Responsible and Keep Everyone Safe) program that NHRA dragster Doug Herbert began for teenage drivers and other charities through his foundation.

Busch wants people to realize that as a driver, he's special -- not to have specials named after him.

Which brings me back to the "can't see the forest for the trees" phrase. Perhaps fans are so caught up in Busch's past mistakes that they can't see what's staring them in the face -- that he has changed.

Jimmie Johnson, the driver Busch wants to knock off the throne, nailed it after finishing second to the Joe Gibbs Racing driver on Sunday at Michigan. He reminded us that he didn't come into Cup full time until he was 26, the same age Busch is now with almost seven full seasons under his belt.

"At the time I thought that opportunity had passed me by, and I wasn't sure I was ever going to get a shot," said Johnson, the five-time defending Cup champion. "But looking back, I'm very thankful getting my late start. It helped me mature in a lot of ways. I made my mistakes more on the lower levels instead of in the spotlight with the pressure of the Cup series.

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John Harrelson/Getty ImagesSprint Cup points leader Kyle Busch has put the infamous speeding ticket in his rearview.

"He's getting into that in his mid-20s now. So he's getting into his sweet spot, I think."

Perhaps it is time to look at Busch for what he is now, not what he was coming into the sport. How many people would like to be judged on what they did during their first few years in business? Probably not many.

Yes, Busch made a big mistake when he sped 128 mph down a winding rural road in that bright-yellow Lexus LFA that he had on loan for a day. Yes, he endangered lives regardless of what his attorney, Cliff Homesley, argued so eloquently in court.

Yes, he also deserves a chance to prove that he has changed so the jokes will stop.

Now for NASCAR: If the governing body really wants to send a message that will make its stars think twice before doing immature things, how about making it mandatory that you have a driver's license to compete in the top three series?

I understand there are arguments against it. NASCAR officials will note that driving on a racetrack has nothing to do with driving on a highway and that there are ways to lose a license that have nothing to do with speeding or reckless driving.

And they would be right. You can lose a license in North Carolina for being delinquent in child-support payments or failure to appear in court. You can lose a license for accumulating a certain number of points on your driving record from numerous minor violations.

But as Busch's attorney repeatedly said, his client is looked at differently because of his celebrity status. What he didn't say is with that comes a responsibility, and if the way you make a living is threatened because you don't have a driver's license, the line would be clearer.

Maybe Nationwide Series driver Michael Annett would have called a cab instead of climbing behind the wheel when he was three times the legal level of intoxication, which cost him his license for one year.

Maybe that's one of those "can't see the forest for the trees" things as well.

It happens to all of us, whether it's specials on hot dogs or hot dogs that are special.

With apologies to Bob Barker -- Maryeve Dufault! Come on down! You're the next contestant on the "Spice is Right."

In case you missed it, Danica Patrick is not the only female driver in Saturday's Nationwide Series race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.

She's also not the only female driver in the road course event who has posed in a bikini for a national magazine.

Dufault, a former "Barker's Beauty" on the television game show "The Price is Right," will make her NASCAR debut Saturday in the Napa Auto Parts 200 (2:30 p.m. ET, ESPN), in which Patrick will make her NASCAR road course debut.

This isn't some gimmick. The former Hawaiian Tropic model/Lingerie Bowl contestant/Maxim model has made 12 starts in the ARCA Series this year with a 10th-place finish at Chicagoland, her best so far.

She's so serious about this racing gig that she reportedly used money from modeling to purchase tires and other equipment needed to get her career off the ground.

The 29-year-old Canadian will be in the No. 81 for MacDonald Motorsports in Montreal. She won't get the attention Patrick will, particularly with the IndyCar Series darling ready to announce next week her plans to enter NASCAR full time next season.

But Maryeve isn't doing this for the attention. She has been racing since she was 8 years old, competing in motocross in her teenage years before migrating to go-karts and open-wheel racing.

"Even at a young age I needed powerful rushes of adrenalin, speed and even danger," Maryeve says on her website, Maryeveracing.com.

Perhaps one day having a female or females in a NASCAR event won't seem like a novelty. Perhaps one day a woman will compete at a level to which posing in FHM, as Patrick once did, and Maxim, as Maryeve has, won't be a part of the resume, or if it is won't be mentioned so prominently.

Perhaps one day a woman will prove she can compete consistently with the good ol' boys and we won't make such a big deal when one makes a debut.

Until then, it is a big deal.

There is attention.

It's almost like a game show.

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. -- Kurt Busch did a nice job of stirring the pot on his feud with Jimmie Johnson Saturday at Watkins Glen International.

He didn't take any personal shots.

He didn't get emotional.

Busch knows he's in the head and under the skin of the five-time defending Sprint Cup champion, so he played it cool in a smug way that has to infuriate Johnson even more.

Ok, Johnson would call Busch's demeanor "smart ass" instead of smug, as he did during last week's postrace pit road confrontation about the way Busch raced him for third place on the final lap.

But you get the point. Busch is going to use this as much as he can to give him an edge, should the championship come down to the two former champions.

"I learned from one of the greats about how to keep a memory on who does you right and who does you wrong," Busch said. "And that was Jimmy Spencer. He taught me a lot."

How times have changed. The driver who in 2003 at Michigan punched Busch in the nose apparently has become Busch's role model.

Busch mentioned Spencer several times Saturday, including in his opening remark when asked what he thought of Johnson's comments in the same room Friday.

"When you said Jimmie was in here I didn't know if you meant Spencer or Johnson," Busch deadpanned.

Johnson was direct with his attacks on Busch, referring to the way the 2004 Cup champion has bad-mouthed his crew and owner Roger Penske over the in-car radio, basically calling Busch a coward for fueling last week's postrace confrontation with comments only after Johnson had turned to walk away and only after a crowd had gathered.

Busch was more subtle.

Granted, Busch had an advantage since he had a day to digest Johnson's comments and plan a rebuttal. That was most obvious when he brought up Johnson's explanation of trying to break a side draft the first time the two got into each other on the final lap.

Johnson, by the way, said he didn't touch Busch.

"That's not a move of a five-time champion," Busch said. "That's a move of a guy who has an issue with a guy like me."

Busch knows about having issues with a guy like him. He learned from one of the best in Spencer, who in June told SceneDaily.com he "made a better person out of Kurt by punching him."

There's some truth to that. Busch realized a feud of that magnitude makes it tough to win a championship because your focus isn't solely on the championship.

That doesn't mean Busch won't stir the pot with Johnson, realizing that "if I'm in his head, then he's got to worry about us" in the Chase.

So far, he's doing a nice job of that.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Another sad day for NASCAR.

Officials at Dover Motorsports Inc. announced Wednesday they are shutting the doors at Nashville Superspeedway and won't be hosting a Nationwide or Truck series race there next season.

That means Sam Bass can stop painting those cool guitars, arguably the best trophy in the sport. That means Kyle Busch won't have an opportunity to at least attempt to smash one like he did in 2009.

Sad, sad, sad.

"We have to go back to when we decided to put our footprints down at Memphis, Gateway and Nashville,'' said Denis McGlynn, the CEO of Dover Motorsports, which already has shut down two of its three tracks -- Memphis and Gateway -- in the past three years. "NASCAR and the economy was in a whole different state. NASCAR was rocking and rolling, and they got into a big expansion mode.

"The [Nationwide] Series was rocking and rolling with Little E [Dale Earnhardt Jr.], Matt Kenseth and the Burton brothers stirring up the series and bringing in big crowds. It was an easy decision to expect that growth to continue and put our footprint down in markets where NASCAR likely would consider expanding into.''

The world changed shortly after that. Dale Earnhardt was killed, then came the 9/11 tragedy and then came a sagging economy that continues to sag.

But let's not focus on the negative here. Let's look at the bright side of Nashville shutting down. Let's look at the doors it could open for other tracks to host a Nationwide and Truck event.

I went to Twitter and asked the fans what they'd like to see. Rockingham Speedway, otherwise known as "The Rock,'' was the overwhelming choice to host one or both of NASCAR's lower series.

Rockingham hasn't hosted a Sprint Cup or Nationwide race since 2004 when it became a pawn to get a second race at Texas Motor Speedway in the Ferko lawsuit.

But the 1-mile track has hosted the ARCA and other smaller series since Andy Hillenburg purchased it in 2007. It remains the track's goal to host a Nationwide or Truck event, but the addition of SAFER barriers at a cost of about $1 million will have to come first.

"It's always been our goal to return Rockingham to the NASCAR fold,'' said Robert Ingram, the director of operations at Rockingham Speedway.

After The Rock, the voting was close among Myrtle Beach Speedway, Martinsville, North Wilkesboro and Lucas Oil Raceway, which recently learned it was losing its Nationwide date to Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2012.

The common denominator is all these tracks are shorter than the 1.5-mile cookie cutters that dominate the schedule.

I even had two votes for Eldora Speedway, the dirt track owned by Tony Stewart. Wonder how much "Smoke" paid to sneak that one in?

Others receiving votes were Pocono, Milwaukee, Texas World, Disney, Sonoma, South Boston and Road America.

My votes went to The Rock and Martinsville, although Martinsville seems quite content with a Truck race so I could be swayed to go with LOR.

It's a sad day that Nashville lost a race, but maybe something positive can come out of this.

Maybe we can get another short track on the schedule.