How will NASCAR's annual All-Star affair morph this weekend?

  A million dollar scream: Tony Stewart, the 2009 winner (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

  
(Updated)

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   CONCORD, N.C.
   Now, where we were? Oh, yes, dealing with All-Star week – once an easy Friday-Saturday drop-in 'NASCAR' picnic, with a down-home touch, maybe a pig-in-the-ground from North Wilkesboro folk, and crazy drivers with wildly painted cars, all the better for die-cast sales (remember that piece of nostalgia?), all courtesy of the folks at R. J. Reynolds up in Winston-Salem.
    Well, look at how this thing has morphed.
   Now it's all about, well, what is the All-Star thing really all about?
   This time around it looks like it's mostly about selling NASCAR's new Hall of Fame, in downtown Charlotte.
   Of course with $200 million on the line, nothing wrong with a little hard-salesmanship.
   Just who might be buying into all this, well, let's watch.
   Bruton Smith and Company have their hands full, certainly: 140,000 seats to sell for Saturday night's Sprint All-Star race, and another 140,000 seats to sell for next weekend's Coke 600. If they can pull this off, Smith himself should be in the Hall of Fame.
  
   Stock car racing's annual All-Star deal has already started out on some strange notes...not to mention questions about why what was originally planned as a two-day Friday-Saturday 'picnic' affair has morphed into a week-long ordeal, and with all the Coke 600 hoopla still to come.
   First, Brian Vickers, off to a good start this season, has been sidelined indefinitely with blood clots in his veins.
   Second, the judge in the Jeremy Mayfield case abruptly dismissed the whole thing, saying Mayfield had signed away all his rights to sue when he signed NASCAR's annual driver-owner papers. No word from Mayfield's latest lawyer on what might happen next, if anything.
   Third, NASCAR put Clint Bowyer on probation until June 16 for deliberately ramming Denny Hamlin's car under yellow in last Saturday's Nationwide race at Dover, Del. Hamlin was running second at the time; he finished 12th after Bowyer's hit. (Does that mean in the season Cup finale one driver can just knock another one out of a good finish, and the offended driver simply loses those points, without appeal?)
   On the TV side from Dover, ABC's Dover Nationwide race earned a final national rating of 1.3, down from last year's 1.6 rating, also on ABC. The network says that means last weekend's show 1,973,066 viewers. Fox's Sunday 400 came in with a 3.6 overnight rating (major markets), which will likely bump up to a 3.9 or 4.0 when the full country reports in; that's about on par with 2009.
   And then here's a curious note too: that Formula One's Bernie Ecclestone may be looking at this New York state road course  http://bit.ly/aqsEd3     http://www.drivemmc.com/  as potential site for a future US Grand Prix. The USGP, which ran at Indianapolis through 2007, has lately been a major missing link in the Grand Prix tour. Monticello Motor Club? A place nobody's much heard of; but it's only 100 miles from New York City (three hours from Watkins Glen).  F1's Joe Saward: http://bit.ly/aLLGY7
   Vickers is to be here at Charlotte Motor Speedway Friday to talk about his situation. While the particulars of his case are not yet all known, generally blood clots in the veins is a serious enough problem to require blood-thinning medication for perhaps as long as three to six months. Of course, medication like that makes bleeding a significant potential side effect, which could preclude him getting back in a race car for a while.
    For Saturday night's All-Star race NASCAR officials have given the Red Bull team the go-ahead to let Casey Mears substitute. "Given the extenuating circumstances we have dealt with this past week regarding Brian's health, we would like to thank NASCAR for their assistance and understanding of this unique situation by allowing us to compete," general manager Jay Frye said.

  While we await the next round of induction ceremonies from the new Hall of Fame, let's briefly look at which stock car racing legends have already been inducted (over the past 40-some years) into the National Motorsports Press Association's Hall of Fame, at Darlington, S.C....and consider how long – if NASCAR only inducts five men a year into the new Hall of Fame – it would take to get all these Hall of Famers inducted again.
  ...and consider what might happen to men who may well deserve to be in the Hall of Fame: like Ricky Rudd, Ernie Irvan, Sterling Marlin, Tiny Lund, Terry Labonte, Dale Jarrett, Jerry Long, Les Richter, Herb Fishel, Robert Gee, Waddell Wilson, Hal Needham...
  ...and consider how to handle future inductions into the new Hall of Fame. One suggestion is to vote in at least three men from each of NASCAR's six major era – one driver, one crew chief/car owner/engine builder, and one otherwise notable figure.

  The men inducted in NASCAR's National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame at Darlington, S.C., since it opened in 1965
  (Here's a good bar bet: How many can you describe?)

  -- Bobby Allison.
  -- Davey Allison
  -- Sam Ard
  -- Buck Baker
  -- Buddy Baker
  -- Cannonball Baker
  -- Neil Bonnett
  -- Harold Brasington
  -- Red Byron
  -- Bob Colvin
  -- Jerry Cook
  -- Darel Dieringer
  -- Junie Donlavey
  -- Clay Earles
  -- Dale Earnhardt
  -- Ralph Earnhardt
  -- Chris Economaki
  -- Richie Evans
  -- Bob Flock
  -- Fonty Flock
  -- Tim Flock
  -- Ray Fox Sr.
  -- A. J. Foyt
  -- Bill France Sr.
  -- Bill France Jr.
  -- Harry Gant
  -- Barney Hall
  -- Ray Hendrick
  -- John Holman
  --Tommy Houston
  -- Harry Hyde
  -- Jack Ingram
  -- Dale Inman
  -- Bobby Isaac
  -- Ned Jarrett
  -- Junior Johnson
  -- Carl Kiekhaefer
  -- Alan Kulwicki
  -- Houston Lawing
  -- Butch Lindley
  -- Joe Littlejohn
  -- Fred Lorenzen
  -- Banjo Matthews
  -- Paul McDuffie
  -- Ralph Moody
  -- Bud Moore
  -- Billy Myers
  -- Ed Otto
  -- Cotton Owens
  -- Marvin Panch
  -- Raymond Parks
  -- Benny Parsons
  -- Jim Paschal
  -- David Pearson
  -- Roger Penske
  -- Lee Petty
  -- Maurice Petty
  -- Richard Petty
  -- Pat Purcell
  -- Tim Richmond
  -- Fireball Roberts
  -- T. Wayne Robertson
  -- Jack Roush
  -- Paul Sawyer
  -- Wendell Scott
  -- Ralph Seagraves
  -- Jack Smith
  -- Bruton Smith
  -- Marshall Teague
  -- Herb Thomas
  -- Speedy Thompson
  -- Curtis Turner
  -- Red Vogt
  -- Rusty Wallace
  -- Darrell Waltrip
  -- T. Taylor Warren
  -- Joe Weatherly
  -- Bob Welborn
  -- Rex White
  -- Humpy Wheeler
  -- Glen Wood
  -- Leonard Wood
  -- Cale Yarborough
  -- LeeRoy Yarbrough
  -- Robert Yates
  -- Smokey Yunick

 

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 A $1 million check is nothing to sneeze at....but suppose next year's All-Star winner also got a 100-point Sprint Cup bonus? Image how that last lap might go.....(Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)