Our First Weekend Without Racing

Well... here we are.  The first non-racing weekend outside the 2013 season.

Jimmie Johnson has won his sixth championship (across three different car types), Matt Kenseth seems to have adapted quickly to his new ride, and it seemed as if the Kevin Harvick/Richard Childress union is parting in under a wee bit of duress.  (If you can take that truck series incident as any kind of clue.)

We've seen new rules added to the fold that seem redundant, and yet, apparently, it's necessary to tell the drivers that they must race to the best of their ability at all times.  (That seems akin to launching your queen, bishops, rooks and knights first in a chess match,)

But most importantly, our TV landscape has changed drastically as SPEED has become FS1 (FoxSports 1).  And NASCAR fans suddenly have a huge void in their entertainment venue that we must adapt to.

It used to be that all we had to do was pull up SPEED to see what, if anything, is going on in NASCAR.  It seems, reflecting back, that any news was good news to hear.

Yet now there's this void that can't be filled until a daily 30-minute program of some other venue pops up under Fox or ESPN.

If you have Sirius Satellite Radio, you can get that fill on their NASCAR channel (Ch. 90).  But unlike other channels on the satellite provider, this channel runs full of ads.  But at least it's something.  I'm glad I have it.

But I feel the void with no TV coverage when and where I'd like to see it.  I'm forced to resort to the Syfy channel or some horrid movies on my pay channels.

But for the moment, I'm quelled by the idea that I am living in an era that is seeing another dynasty mark its name in the record halls of NASCAR, as, inevitable as it is, we'll be looking for Jimmie Johnson to attack the circuit in 2014, as we look on wondering if this will be number 7, or if someone else will steal the championship away for a season.  Like Kenseth.

I'll touch on a few more things in the upcoming weeks, as I try to add some filler content to keep the off-season a bit more tolerable.

It's 11-23-13 and it's roughly 91 days until the 2014 Daytona 500.  Sigh.
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