Good Racing Weekend

Two great racing stories this weekend:

NASCAR had a rain shortened Coca Cola 600 in Charlotte. As a result, I watched 20 minutes of non-racing with cameras trained on David Reutimann. He and his much older teammate (and team owner) Michael Waltrip were leaning on their draped faux-Chevys parked on pit road while a jet-engine clad emergency vehicle caravan tried to dry the track. Then it started raining harder and NASCAR finally called it. The win represents the first for Reutimann and the shortest Coke 600 ever run. Reutimann broke into NASCAR at 39 when Waltrip hired him and hasn't won in 76 starts. This one isn't perfect, but it certainly shows that is pays to lead.

Then there's Indy and Helio Castroneves. 7 weeks ago he was acquitted of 6 counts of tax evasion. 6 weeks ago he was cleared to race. 5 weeks ago he got back in the car. 2 weeks ago he qualified on the pole for Indy. And Sunday he was number 1. He was beside himself, which is fine if you can draft from that position at 220 MPH through the turns. Sorry, couldn't help it. You can't make this stuff up.