It’s mid-January and in most of the country it is just plain cold. For many race fans out there this is a very dull time of the year. You know the racing season is not far off, but the winter doldrums are still in full effect.

However, in a few locations there is some sort of speed and racing going on. There has been speed at Daytona at the end of last week in the form of “Preseason Thunder”, the annual pre-speed weeks January testing for the Sprint Cup Series.

In my opinion, this was one of the more interesting test sessions to occur. NASCAR and the Sprint Cup teams were working on several different packages in an effort to make the restrictor plate racing more exciting for all of us.

During the afternoon drafting practice session on Friday, there were two drivers with lap speeds over 206 mph (Kurt Busch and Regan Smith) with a total of 28 out of 32 drivers getting over the 200 mph mark. This also marked the first time that fuel injection was being tested in a more “racy” type situation.

One of the things I heard they found out about the electronic fuel injection was that if a driver hit the rev limiter and didn’t get fully out of the throttle; that the computer didn’t reset and was stuck there until the car was shut off. This could make for some interesting moments in-race if they don’t get that figured out.

Meanwhile, all week long in Tulsa, Oklahoma many eyes of the racing world were watching the scene unfold at this year’s Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals. 259 midget racers from 32 states and five countries came to Tulsa with one thing on their mind, to win the Golden Driller; the trophy awarded to the winner of the A-Main. Kevin Swindell won it for an unprecedented third year in a row. In the last four years unless your last name was Swindell; you haven’t visited victory lane, as Kevin’s father Sammy (five-time champion) won it in 2009. No one else has won it more than twice.

A couple of big name notables finished ninth and tenth, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Tony Stewart (also a two-time winner). On a sad note, Donnie Ray Crawford; one of the competitors was killed by his grandfather Saturday morning while the family prepared to go to the races. Seems like just a senseless tragedy from a domestic dispute, very sad.

Well Speed Weeks will be on us in no time, as all the NASCAR action starts with Bud Shootout practice on February 17th. Also don’t forget that all over Florida, the short track version of speed weeks is actually more like speed month. A few races run next weekend, while the national level dirt action starts at several venues as early as February 2nd. What a great time it would be to have immense wealth and be able to spend a whole month at Florida tracks!

Until next week, keep the shiny side up…..

 MORE NASCAR NEWS