NASCAR’s coming to Chicago next July, racing downtown on Sunday, July 2nd. It’s the series’ first street course race in modern history (I don’t know what that means either, and I’m having trouble finding out).
While there are qualms about the quality of the racing (given NASCAR’s road-course trouble with the new car), the removal of Road America from the schedule (given the great crowds there the last two years), and the timing of the event (given already-violent Chicago’s proclivity towards gunfire around the Fourth of July), there doesn’t seem to be any serious disagreement about this being a good idea. This is a good idea. A street course in Chicago can be incredible, a street course for NASCAR is the right kind of once-a-year gimmick, and even on the smaller, more inside-baseball side of things, reestablishing a toehold in America’s third city is a good thing to try to do.
I was personally hoping the race would take place in those skyscraper canyons in the loop, passing under L tracks and whipping past shimmering glass. That, I felt, was a reasonable hope. I’d given up on them just running an abbreviated version of the marathon course. I’d given up on them running the 90’s Bulls animated entrance video (note to self: tell one of those NASCAR graphics people on Twitter to mock this up). I was hoping for at least a little skyscraper action, but alas, none of that. Still, hard to complain with the Grant Park-centric course they did lay out:
If you didn’t watch the video, or if you don’t know Chicago and/or NASCAR to know what this will look like in practice, it’s going to be beautiful. It’s going to be the most beautiful racetrack in any motorsport ever. Monaco has cool old buildings and yachts. Watkins Glen and all those European F1 tracks have nature on their side. The Brickyard can be moving but most of that is history. Chicago will have both the shimmering waters of Lake Michigan (the section along Lake Shore Drive is going to be gorgeous) and straightaways flanked by one of the best skylines in the world. It takes place in a park, but it’s going to be a city race. The first of its kind, really, with so many other alleged city races run in parking lots or on airport runways. They better have a blimp.
On the topic of the new car’s road course woes: NASCAR has a Chicago Bulls car. It’s not explicitly that, but it’s a Michael Jordan-owned 23 car decked out in red and black. It’s a Bulls car. If NASCAR doesn’t give every inch of leeway to that car next year for this race, NASCAR isn’t doing its job. How many people know what’s going on with the inspection? Ten? Twenty? If it’s single digits, that’s a manageable conspiracy to pull off. Get on that now, Charlotte. You know. You understand Michael Jordan. This needs to be the biggest coverup since the gambling suspension.
R.I.P. Turnover Chain
Probably the right move.
This morning, at ACC media days, Mario Cristobal made clear that the turnover chain is done. What was once a new tradition emblematic of the swagger this nation wants from the Miami Hurricanes had become yet another icon of failing to get over the hump.
While Cristobal is the chain’s undertaker, we must remember it was Paul Chryst who killed it. Also, all the copycats should probably hang up their chains and planks and other things as well now. It may not be old enough to be too old yet, but it’s going to get there really fast.
Vacation’s Over
In great news for Fargo, our vacation has finished. We got back yesterday afternoon after Delta lost our connecting flight’s copilot for an hour and a couple obnoxious elderly folks clogged up the jet bridge back in Austin by refusing to use the wheelchairs brought down from the gate for their use because “there are wheelchairs waiting for us at the gate.”
It’s rare to get upset with the elderly, but holy cow, was I miffed. Never have I seen a woman as mean to her husband (and the world) as this one, and never have I seen an old man so loudly concerned about every little thing that crossed his path. The lone bright spot was that his response to this concern was always to just nasally groan really loudly. It sounded like he was being punched in the nuts. Maybe his wife was punching him in the nuts.
Hope they made it home ok.
Fargo, though: She’s loving life. Completely exhausted from eight days at the boarder, even with Sunday’s relatively restful schedule. Lots of couch time, lots of reuniting with her orange ball, some messed-up dumps but not so messed up that we’re worried yet. Best of all, no stays at the boarder for more than a single night between now and September at the earliest, if all goes as planned. Incredible summer performance by Fargo, but most of all by our veterinarians. God bless good vets. (She’s sleeping right now on her bed behind the armchair with her head poked out so she can see me if she wakes up. Also has her front paw bent all cute. She’s still terrified of the office for some reason, which was an issue earlier when she wanted to play but couldn’t get past the forcefield that is evidently the office doorway, but now that she’s sleepy I can blog from the kitchen and she can keep an eye on things. All is well.)
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Viewing schedule for the day:
Nothing, because Rob Manfred blacked out all Astros games in Texas and I’m trying to go to bed on the early side tonight so Giants/Dodgers is off the table. Congratulations on the record-low All-Star Game ratings, Rob. Please quit.
