Teams build special road-course cars and drivers attend schools aimed at teaching them how to shift, turn right, maneuver through esses and hairpins and all of that other stuff. And then Ron Fellows beats everybody in the Grand National race at Watkins Glen. He also beat everybody but Gordon when the Cup cars were there last year. Meanwhile, back on the left coast on Sunday, drivers are spinning out, slamming into tire walls and burying themselves hubcap-deep into gravel pits. So much for displaying the remarkable skills some believe it takes to race on road courses.
Many drivers say openly that their main desire is to keep their cars from running off the course.
That sounds like something I might say when playing a video game. And they'd build stands around it so people could actually see the cars, and perhaps occasionally see somebody make a pass. But it would take nine generations of track owner Bruton Smith's descendants to see such a project through California's regulatory process. From a business sense, that's true. But there are at least three other reasons the circuit will keep racing here.