Inevitable as it may be, it's certainly over hyped in typical fashion

"Change is inevitable -- especially in stock-car racing, where the roots of the sport are deep in innovation. And now even that has changed with the full-season implementation of the Car of Tomorrow in 2008."
-NASCAR.COM

The Nextel Cup is no more, a new more locked down car has been introduced and we're still using 1950s technology. Can anyone other than NASCAR call that innovation? Despite the hype NASCAR's premier series bears little difference between now and what it was five years ago. Sure the names have changed and teams have come and gone, but can anyone really make a claim that stock car racing has moved ahead by leaps and bounds?

NASCAR is a racing series directed at the mass market, lowest common denominator audience. To present the series as anything less is disingenuous. NASCAR maintains it's king of the hill status because of easy to understand technology and an emphasis on driver personalities. There is nothing wrong with this strategy but to claim than change is driven by innovation rather than corporate strategies and "leveling the playing field" is ludicrous.

Fans continually lament how the sport has changed and that things were better in the "good ole days". Oddly enough most of these fans readily admit to having watched NASCAR for five or six years. That's a relative blink of the eye in respect to the decades long history of the series. Having watched for over twenty I can say that the more things change the more they stay the same. Changes are made, usually for the benefit of the show, but many things stay the same. NASCAR is still about team work, rough and tumble door to door action and flawless pit stops.

The point is that there is one defining characteristic about NASCAR that has made it a successful enterprise and a fan favorite for all of these years. That's the predictable nature of the technology, teamwork, and for the most part the rules coupled with the unpredictable nature of the personalities and the on track action. Things may have changed but the Sprint to the Cup Car of Tomorrow will still deliver the same entertaining races that fans have come to expect.

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Weird morning... I woke up and didn't know who was World Champion. At first it looked like Kimi Raikkonen was champ by one point. However upon review the race stewards may have to disqualify the second and third place cars, vaulting Lewis Hamilton ahead of Raikkonen. During Wind Tunnel analyst Peter Windsor said that though a final decision had been made by the FIA team Mclaren would appeal the decision. It looks like another fine legal mess for Formula 1. Won't someone please make it stop!

A quick run down of the tenth annual event at Road Atlanta

Today I'm tired but happy because after four days of racing I may have had my fill. It's hard to believe what one extra day makes a difference but in the case of hilly Road Atlanta is makes all the difference. Overall I'd say that this year's camp out crowd was no greater if not a bit smaller than last year's. This is most likely because of Aston Martin's absence this year along with mix weather forecast for most the weekend.

The weather made for an exciting Speed GT race on Friday after a brief storm flooded the track and sent cars careening through the grass. Ron Fellow made a blistering run on rain tires and took the lead for team Cadillac and everyone in turn 10 cheered when he made a daring pass near race end. The sun returned on Saturday for the tenth annual Petit and everyone was very level headed for the duration except for a few incidents most notably one that removed the #3 Corvette from the event in the first hour.

Two bad omens may not make a recession, but it undoubtedly increases the likely hood.

The National Association of Realtors reported a 4.3% drop in existing home sales in August, the lowest since 2002, while the Conference Board said that consumer confidence fell six points between August and September, and the largest decline in two years. Together these two statistics do not paint a rosy picture for the economy.

Without doubt the recent credit crunch has contributed to real estate sales. The article cites an increase in number of "jumbo loans" which have failed to close. Jumbos are loans in excess of $417,000 and are not fully guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. In many real estate markets, such as California, jumbo mortgages have become increasingly common as home prices have skyrocketed.