We're learning there isn't much of a limit on what NASCAR will do when it comes to the schedule, cars, rules and tracks.
On Tuesday it was reported Auto Club Speedway in southern California would be converted from a 2-mile speedway to a half-mile track.
Reconfiguring tracks has not been unusual for NASCAR, like when progressive banking was added to Bristol and then reverted back five years later.
But this project is much more involved than was has been typical.
This plan isn't to reconfigure Auto Club, it's to essentially build a brand new racing facility.
Downsizing from a 2-mile track to a half-mile one accomplishes a couple things. It adds a short track to a schedule that has too many of the cookie-cutter 1.5-milers and large speedways that just don't produce quality racing on a regular basis.
Races at short tracks are generally better than those at 1.5-mile and 2-mile ones, so this gets rid of a boring race at a large speedway and adds a potentially exciting event to a schedule that still needs a lot of adjusting to appease the fan base.
The proposal for this new short track is to combine the straightaways of Martinsville and the turns of Bristol. It's a bit of a science experiment, but it's a risk NASCAR is willing to take and should take.
Auto Club Speedway is not a destination or really a well-known entity for NASCAR. It's certainly not a bucket list track and attendance isn't all that great for a sports facility within 50 miles of Los Angeles.
Building a small track on a large plot of land in southern California opens up an opportunity for more development around the track, which will draw more people to the area and in theory boost the relevancy and attendance to that race.
The fans will be happy to have another fun and exciting short track and NASCAR will certainly enjoy the added business.
III
The News Tribune sports staff bounced back from a lackluster Daytona race with much higher scores this week in the Riley Racing Challenge. Darlington proved to be a close one for the sports staff, with Tom Rackers winning with 726 points. I was close by with 716 points and Greg Jackson had 694 points. But we were still pretty distant from local winner Gene Patterson of Jefferson City, who scored 837 points. Patterson correctly picked Kevin Harvick as the race winner and added 50 more bonus points by selecting Kurt Busch and Aric Almirola to finish in eighth and ninth, respectively. It could be a fun conclusion to the first round of the playoffs with back-to-back Saturday night short track races coming up at Richmond and Bristol.