O’Reilly Raceway Park in Clermont, Indiana produced some great races in this week leading up to the Brickyard 400.
Jason Leffler won the USAC Silver Crown race. Ron Hornaday jr. ran a terrific race to win the Craftsman Truck Series event. TOYOTA enjoys it’s first victory in NASCAR BUSH SERIES competition. Jason Leffler passed Greg Biffle with 2 laps to go to register the win for TRD.
The events at ORP were well run, exciting to watch and made for great TV. This is the kind of racing that gets you up on the edge of the chair as the field comes off turn 4 running 3-4 wide. The track is 6/10 mile. Multiple grooves make it fun to watch as drivers can run the high lane as Biffle did or if you have the grip, drop down low and get the forward bit coming off the turn as Leffler did for the winning pass. Great side by side racing all through the field.
Grumpy would pay to see these races. Many times, as the cameras panned the grandstands you could see everybody standing. That is what good racing does. This is exactly what NASCAR is missing when they choose to ignore the venues like NORTH WILKSBORO, currently gone to seed under the ownership of Bruton Smith (SMI), and Bob Bahre, owner of New Hampshire International Raceway. NORTH CAROLINA MOTORSPEEDWAY in Rockingham, also owned by SMI, is for sale. These can be viable tracks for several NASCAR divisions if not the NEXTEL CUP SERIES. Such a waste.
Compare the events at ORP to the recent snorefests at any one of several 1.5 mile tracks. Grumpy cannot just sit and watch a 400 mile event at those tracks. No wonder the TV ratings are down. On that note, ESPN kicks off their coverage of the NNCS beginning with the ALLSTATE 400. Best of luck to Jerry Punch, Rusty Wallace and Andy Petree as they step up for the rest of the season.
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