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It occurs to me, with this off week looming before Bristol, that the rise in the importance of television proceeds in unison with the rise in the popularity of NASCAR road racing.

Road racing is great on TV. It's not so hot in person. In Sonoma, a few locations exist where one can see, oh, two thirds of the course. Watkins Glen has no high vistas, and visibility is limited to the part of the course in front of the grandstands or along the fences where fans wander over from their campsites.

Writing about a road race onsite is the NASCAR equivalent of covering a golf tournament. Everyone sits inside and watches TV. At home, it's impossible to stroll over to the garage and talk to drivers, crew chiefs, owners and other potentially valuable contacts. Without the proper credentials, it's impossible to do that at the track.

Fans spend half the month of July griping about that same state of affairs at Indianapolis.

The fans who love road racing, I suspect, are those who watch them on TV. By the way, I love road racing, too, but I always saw them as an interesting break. Once upon a time, when I was young and a fan, I think I'd have liked to make a visit to the Glen, but I expect a part of the allure would have been to camp out, grill steaks and, most importantly, drink. I expect it's an allure to many of the fans there. Particularly in the 1990s, I always thought of the Glen as sort of a NASCAR Woodstock. Sometimes the track would let me borrow a golf cart and drive around, watching all the folks party and feeling a little jealous.

For about a decade now, a hope, or desire, or demand, for a road race in the Chase has been rising. I always reserved judgment. Sunday's Cheez-It 355 at the Glen -- in addition to being one heck of a strange name for a race that consists of 90 laps around a 2.45-mile road course, amounting to 220.5 miles -- changed my mind.

In the past, I mildly wanted the Chase to be all ovals, but not so much that one road race would bother me, at least not as much as there being a Chase at all. I always thought the Chase was a travesty, but that's not the way the folks in charge feel, so just let it rip. Turn it into a pinball machine, a roulette wheel, an Ouija board, and a row of dominoes, all rolled into one. The race horse named Fairness has already left the barn.

This NASCAR has done and continues to do, as is its right because, in fairness, it has the data, the focus groups and the money to know what the fans want.

I, meanwhile, only know what I want. While the words are read by many, they are just representative of one. As the Romans were fond of saying, apparently, "E pluribus unum."

The main reason I changed, though, is that I used to be worried that an event on a road course might skew the competition in favor of drivers especially adept on them. Until the century turned, a few drivers tended to dominate the road races.

No more. No more than any other track. Thirteen drivers in Sunday's race have won at least one Sprint Cup road race.

Watkins Glen might be brisk in October. Sonoma would work. It's almost as warm there in October as it is in June. Or how about Road America? Or the Formula One course in Austin? Of dirt tracks, people always say there aren't any with enough seating capacity. No one ever says that about a road course. Sonoma and Watkins Glen don't have enough seating capacity, either. They've got ample Winnebago room, particularly the Glen.

Isn't it funny when TV announcers say it's a sellout for the second straight year without ever offering the slightest hint of how many that is? See no evil. Hear no evil. No one talks about the money anymore either. I'm just grateful the Empire still passes along which driver won.