MONTE DUTTON – NOBODY LIKES A COPYCAT

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I’ve got some friendly advice for NASCAR. If there’s a race on the schedule that is uniquely appealing, keep it unique.

The “roval” at Charlotte Motor Speedway is uniquely appealing. The fall race previously paled in comparison to the sport’s longest race, also unique, there on Memorial Day weekend. Running on a course that circled most of the oval, then snaked through the infield, gave the Double-R (roval race) a niche.

Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be, speaking words of wisdom, let it beeeeee.

Ken Burns just aired his latest brilliant documentary, Country Music, for two weeks and eight episodes, and the last time I was that transfixed, Willie Nelson was playing at a farm near Columbia, S.C. If I were Burns, I wouldn’t launch into another documentary on, say, bluegrass.

I would love to see Auto Racing, by Ken Burns.

Last year the checkered flag had barely waved when officials of other tracks, seeking to bask in such reflected glory, started saying, “Hey, what if we ran a roval race at our track?”

No, no, no. Don’t close off the infield, take paradise and put up a parking lot. One is perfect.

Don’t line up throwback color schemes other than at Darlington on Labor Day weekend. Don’t hold twin qualifying races before Indianapolis.

By the way, more than a decade ago, when the annual Charlotte all-star race was starting to lose its luster, I suggested that one way to restore interest would be to run one segment on the CMS road course, which then was a “roval” without the existence of the name. By gosh, that would give the engineers something to do on race night.

What little reaction this idea got was mainly satirical.

It doesn’t seem so radical nowadays, though I’m not proposing it anymore.

There’s already a Double R. There’s already more than enough “follow the leader” on the great speed palaces of the land.

 

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