Thursday, January 16, 2020

Hitting the road at last

This is why you promote a Captain to a general, in case there was any remaining doubt.

You do it because he sees things the generals before him didn't see. You do it because even if it was right there in front of them -- if it was, in fact, staring them square in the mug for a whole pile of years -- they were completely oblivious no matter how many people were screaming at them to just open their damn eyes.

Enter the Captain. Enter Roger Penske, and the dropping of scales from those eyes.

Maybe you missed it, but mere days after officially assuming control of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Captain made a change which has been a long time coming. For Brickyard 400 weekend this coming July, he announced the Speedway would be moving the Xfinity NASCAR race to the infield road course.

Granted, it's not what the Blob has been advocating for years, which is to move the 400 itself to the road course, at least in alternate years. That way maybe you'd have a fighting chance, at least every other year, not to bore people into a coma. Or to put more than echoes and small wilderness settlements in all those thousands of seats.

Still, it's a start. And it's a comforting indication that Penske does indeed see a whole lot of untapped potential others have missed.

At the very least, it will give what audience is left for NASCAR at the Speedway a different look that doesn't involve more country bands and some IMSA sports cars going around and around. And then the usual Tournament of Roses parade that the main event of the weekend inevitably turns into.

Bravo, Captain. Bravo.

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