Rain in Texas

Yet another NASCAR event has been postponed for the sake of rain, as the Samsung Mobile 500 will be raced at noon tomorrow and the scrubbed Nationwide race at 5:00 pm.

There must be some mystical vortex created that when 43 cars cranking around 850 horsepower are running even in reality arid landscapes, something in nature must be thrown out of balance causing rain. Examine the NASCAR schedule the last couple years and see how often qualifying has been rained out or races have been substantially disrupted or delayed a day or two, for the sake of rain. It almost defies any logic or reasoning.

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In that same line of thinking, considering fans often travel thousands of miles at great expense to enjoy the pleasure of NASCAR racing, it simply is not fair to them to postpone races until Monday when many of them must be back home hard at work. At a time NASCAR is struggling to sell out its seats for races, this is especially a matter of concern. The television networks are losing too as many fans cannot watch races on a Monday afternoon. That's not good for sponsors.

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What we do know is that when NASCAR puts its mind to something, how quickly it gets results. After the horrible death of Dale Earnhardt, soon every driver was wearing HANS devices, SAFER barriers were installed, and ultimately the "Car of Tomorrow" a much safer design was rolled out.

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In that spirit, it's time for Brian France to summon race track owners, Bruton Smith, and all the rest, and develop a plan to install retractable roofs over all Sprint Cup race tracks. If they can provide lighting for the Daytona race track, a feat once considered impossible, but now look at all the tracks that are capable of night racing. Surely, an effective retractable roof system can be developed.

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It is time for NASCAR ingenuity to strike again. While we're at it, we'll assume they'll consider heating and air conditioning for such facillities. That way they could extend the schedule through December and all those tracks like Kentucky could be assured a date on the calendar.

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Big thinking produces big results.

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