Great Day of Racing?

Racing is my first sporting love.  I grew up watching races at the Avilla Motor Speedway.  My early heroes ranged from locals Moose Myers and Vern Schrock to Jonny Rutherford and the Unsers to Richard Petty and David Pearson.  Formula One came to my consciousness when Mario Andretti went there because he couldn't win Indianapolis.  He took a while to beat Nikki Lauda.  If it went fast, I wanted to watch it and, in the absence of in-car cameras, imagined what it would be like.  It was going to the limit, and sometimes beyond, that captured me, a shy, nerdy little kid of the 60's and 70's.

Memorial Day Weekend lets me do a one day overdose of speed and daring.  It was especially heightened by the addition to network TV of the Monaco Grand Prix.  Each race is iconic in it's discipline.  Monaco has run the same circuit for decades, a tight, high speed challenge.  Indianapolis had a full page of story-lines, and Charlotte had NASCAR's rolling circus nearing the halfway mark.

Monaco is a throwback track for Formula One.  A tight street course where your strategy consists of getting track position and maintaining it.  This year, the tight course lead to many crashes, dashing any chance for pit strategy to make a difference.  It was cool that Nikko Rosberg won thirty years after his father Keke did on the same circuit.  First time father and son have won on the same course.  You can't do that without history.

Indianapolis had a sentimental winner in Tony Kanaan.  A fan favorite, Tony ran a great strategic race and KV Technology's crew did an exceptional job in the pits.  The race was historic for a number of reasons: more than twice the number of lead changes, fastest 500 in history, and a highly popular winner.  Gotta love the comment, "I finally got my ugly face on the Borg Warner Trophy!"

The situation called for NASCAR's Green-White-Checkered rules.  All that great racing should have had a full speed finish.

Charlotte was a circus, where television possibly interfered with the outcome.  Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch had strong, capable cars, but were damaged by a cable holding a television camera.  I hope all spectators injured by the same malfunction are well.  The best car of the weekend, driven by Kasey Kahne, was undone by pit strategy, leading to Kevin Harvick's victory.  The finish was more of a relief than a climax.

NASCAR is king of the masses, but IndyCar and F1 are a real show.  F1 is incredible for the speed, the variety of courses, and the cutting edge of technology.  IndyCar puts on a great show everywhere, incredible passing, technology producing high speeds, and cars so equal, it takes a special button to produce a whole new strategy to pass.  NASCAR has incredible appeal, created by very fan-oriented drivers.  The show needs more technology, less interference from the governing body.  Up the speed, lose the WWE.

So...am I off base?