2009 Schedule: Adios Amigos, Rebuilding the Chase, and More

Jeremy T. Sellers
Jerm's Joint
August 19, 2008

I'm going to speculate here, and I know that may come as a shock to you all (insert sarcastic comment here), but I do believe NASCAR has finally realized that its current chase set-up is less than exciting, and have taken their first step to rebuild it. Instead of having shitty tracks mixed in here and there with the chase, the sanctioning body as decided to put all four of the said shitty tracks as the first four chase events. So, even though the chase officially starts on September 20 at New Hampshire next year, it won't officially get exciting until October 17th when the circuit stops at Lowe's Motor Speedway. From then out, it will be a real hoot! NASCAR has decided to get New Hampshire, Dover, Kansas, and California out of the way because it's my belief they know they've screwed the pooch by robbing Darlington of its Labor Day event. Talladega moves to the seventh chase race. This might mean it's a little cooler for the fans down in the heart of Dixie, but I'm optimistic that the pay-off will be great. Six descent races in the end after suffering through the first four turds is a fair compromise...for now. Oh, and did I mention that a fourth off weekend will be added in 2009?

Como se dice, "See ya!"? Hmmm, the old Arnold quote "Hasta lavista", or "Hasta tarde", or, just the good ol' "Adios" would definitely suffice. I never thought that four years of spanish would ever pay off. NASCAR has figured out that three road courses in a season is way too many for the Nationwide Series, and Montreal is more accessible than Mexico City. This event will be replaced with a visit to Rusty Wallace's Iowa Speedway and thus move Cicuit Gilles blah blah blah, to August 30th, 2009. Isn't it winter up there by then? lol...however, this again, I believe is a good call. Instead of a boring road course, NASCAR has added some more short track excitment to choose from other than Bristol, Martinsville, and Richmond. (all good tracks by the way) Some good ol' bumpin' and grindin' is just what the doctor ordered, now if we could tickle the cup series' balls just enough...

Still trying to trying to bullshit fans into believing that Chicago is a good place to race, and therefore only kidding themselves, NASCAR has taken the second Atlanta visit away from the truck series, and in its place, a night race at Chicagoland...or, the abyss as I like to call it. To me, it was nice to have all three series' together during the last few weeks of the season, but NASCAR couldn't let us off the hook that easy, could they? The truck series only goes 25 events annually, if Chicago was THAT important that they had to stink up the schedule with it, they should have made it event number 26. Anway, my take on the changes for 2009, take it or leave it.