Young: Racing would be more fun with more short tracks, Earnhardt suggests

Seven races in, some usual and not so usual suspects are at the top of the Sprint Cup standings. Storylines are popping at an amazing rate.

To begin, though, don’t you find it curious that we’re already enduring a second off weekend? I’m not suggesting working on Easter weekend, but this would be the perfect week for that first break of the season. That, of course, may well happen if the NFL expands its season and NASCAR is forced to lengthen or shorten its year to avoid bumping heads with the Super Bowl.

On the subject of the schedule, Dale Earnhardt Jr. spoke up for a lot of folks recently when he was asked what’s wrong with the racing. Junior doesn’t believe the racing is all that bad, but he does believe what makes it seem that way are too many races on the mile-and-a-half tracks, where they all seem to look alike.

His solution? Simple. Just build more short tracks.

“We put on some really good races at those tracks, but we keep cutting them from the schedule,” he said, referring to the loss of tracks such as Rockingham and the rumored demise of one of Martinsville’s two annual events. “We keep racing at every mile-and-a-half that we can produce in a big market, and we keep getting the same kind of racing.

“We need more short tracks. It would be fun to race on more short tracks. I think they put on good races and we can put good crowds in those seats. They’re cheaper to build. It’s easier to build a half-mile track than a mile-and-a-half for sure. It’s exciting. Maybe we’re going to swing that direction.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself. Maybe Bruton Smith should take the advice to heart and reconfigure the Atlanta Motor Speedway into a Bristol clone.

— As it will all season, the sagging economy is this year’s biggest NASCAR story, and the news got worse this past week when the No. 8 owned by the AIG of NASCAR, Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing, was shut down due to lack of sponsorship.

How the mighty have fallen. Not so long ago this was NASCAR’s most popular car and Dale Earnhardt, Inc., was pulling in considerable dough. You know the rest: The internal spat between Teresa Earnhardt and Junior killed the team and, for all practical purposes, the organization.

Unfortunately, this likely won’t be the only team to shut down. If you don’t have sponsorship now, there’s little or no chance to get it any time soon.

— On the plus side is the performance of Stewart-Haas Racing. Few doubted Tony Stewart would eventually get this team up to speed, but to do it so quickly is truly a tribute to his management ability.

Sure, the Hendrick-built equipment should be good, but as Stewart points out often, it’s people who make the difference in this sport. What he did right was to put his considerable ego aside and hire terrific racing minds such as Darian Grubb, Bobby Hutchins and Tony Gibson and let them do their jobs.

“I don’t think any of us knew exactly when this organization was really going to start hitting its stride and start clicking,” said Stewart, who hits the off week a solid fifth in points, with teammate Ryan Newman climbing to 17th after a slow start. “But it has right off the bat from Daytona on. I mean, obviously with Ryan’s side, we had four weeks of bad luck in a row before he got on track. I feel like we’re really getting on track. I think it’s clicked a little sooner than we all anticipated it would.”

What he’s also done well is switching from owner to driver mode rather seamlessly. Though he admits to worrying about Newman during a race, he’s been able to shut out most owner issues and drive. He also hasn’t lost any competitiveness, as seen after a solid run at Texas last week that he thought could be better.

“The car owner is happy. The driver is ticked off,” he said after the race. “I wanted to win this thing. I felt like we had a shot at it, and we did.”

— The most puzzling issue early on is the dizzying amount of pit road troubles we see every week. I mean, has Earnhardt had a race yet where he or his crew didn’t look utterly amateurish on pit road at least once?

And what happened with the Roush Fenway Racing teams last Sunday? Three veteran, successful teams threw shots at victory out the window with horrific stops. Carl Edwards was in line to challenge Jeff Gordon for a third consecutive Texas win when a fouled-up stop sent him out of the top 10.

Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle also had great cars, yet each went backward because of pit issues. You can bet the Cat in the Hat has issued some mandatory practice for this off week.

— And, finally, it’s nice to get to stop writing about Gordon’s slump. The Texas win not only ended his year-and-a-half drought, but it really legitimized his place atop the point standings. Anyone who thought Gordon’s best days were behind him are a bit humble right now.