A Little Jagermeister for Thanksgiving

Photo by Matthew Lowell Thompson

Here's a little Jagermeister to go with your Thanksgiving meal. Matt took this picture at the IndyCar weekend at the Glen in 2006. This was one of the cars in the F1 vintage support race.

Here's wishing you and your family a happy and healthy Thanksgiving!

Remembering Dan Wheldon

Photo by Matthew Lowell Thompson

Each Wednesday, Matt, my in-house photographer, provides me with a photo from his extensive archive to share some motorsports-related adventures and memories.

I was never lucky enough to meet Dan Wheldon.  But from all the stories I've heard and read the past couple of days, I wish I had. I did have an opportunity to see him race twice. The first time was at the Firestone 225, which was the last race ever at Nazareth. The second time was at inaugural race at Watkins Glen in September 2005, which is where this photo was taken. Here's Matt's thoughts on his photo:

"As newscasters talk about Dan Wheldon's tragic passing, they keep repeating the fact that he is a two-time Indy 500 champion, which is an amazing feat. But they keep overlooking the fact that Dan was the 2005 Indy Racing League Champion with an impressive SIX victories during the season! I shot this image on September 25, 2005, the day Dan Wheldon clinched the title of CHAMPION!"

There's not really much I can say that hasn't already been said this week. Rest in peace, Dan Wheldon.

NASCAR v. Mother Nature

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NASCAR may need to renegotiate its deal with Mother Nature because she certainly hasn't been playing along these days. Rain has delayed three of the last six Sprint Cup races. And things are looking iffy for New Hampshire this weekend.

Unfortunately, the last two NASCAR races I've been to have been rainouts at Watkins Glen (pure coincidence -- I'm sure it has nothing to do with me). We traveled a couple hundred miles to see the races and had planned to travel home on Monday. So we could stick around to see the race. But for many of the fans, sticking around or coming to the track the next day just wasn't an option.

Here's the frustrating thing. Walking through the pits, we could see stacks and stacks of Goodyear rain tires. Rolex and Nationwide were fully prepared to run in the rain, but it was nothing but blue skies for those races. On Sunday, the rain started just as the National Anthem was ending, but for whatever reason the Sprint Cup cars would not be running in the rain. It's almost like carrying an umbrella with you and it never rains, but it pours when you don't have one.

While at the Glen race, I went to Q&A sessions with Matt Kenseth and Brett Bodine, who now is the Director of Competition for Research and Development for NASCAR (and the pace car driver). I asked them both whether we ever would see a Sprint Cup car running in the rain at Watkins Glen. Neither gave a definitive yes, but neither really gave a definitive no either.

The question of whether Sprint Cup cars should run on rain tires really only applies to the road courses, and there are only two of those on the schedule every year. But maybe rain tires are something that Sprint Cup should really start thinking about for the road races. At the very least, it's two races where NASCAR wouldn't have to worry about a rainout (as much).

Until then, I'll see what I can do about working something out with Mother Nature.