Can fans accept the ever-changing landscape of NASCAR?

   In many respects, advances in technology bring positive, beneficial changes.

   That is also true in NASCAR, particularly in the area of driver safety. The use of the HANS device and extensive work done on car chassis to make them more durable and help prevent serious injury – or even death – has been seen in countless examples over the last 10 years.

   But at its heart, NASCAR was always a simple sport.

   Build a car and engine that’s durable, run fast, outrun your competitors. Try to find an advantage others don’t have or ‘slip’ something by the track officials.

   Hopefully, make enough at the race to pick up your stuff and take it to the next one.

   It’s worked for over 60 years.

   These days, however, NASCAR – at least in competition terms – has been battling technology more than it has benefited from it.

   With changes in competition, technology and even society, rules have been changed or added in the sport affecting how races are run or even how drivers may act.

   The addition of a multitude of millions of dollars in corporate sponsorship has imposed greater demands on drivers and teams and greater responsibility, sometimes to the detriment of the once rough-and-tumble operation of the sport.

   The development of car technology has made them far more durable – thus eliminating the attrition factor once a part of 500-mile races – and also created unexpected problems in areas like aerodynamics.

   There are more big tracks than short ones, a trend which only adds to the aero problem and thus the cost of correcting those issues.

   NASCAR tried to keep its engines in line with its origins, but next year carburetors will yield to fuel-injection. Is there anyone who doesn’t think a whole new line of unpredicted issues will develop as a result in the years ahead?

   Yes, technology has done wonders for NASCAR competitors and fans, who now have access to more information than ever before about the sport they love.

   Yet, technology has also changed that once simple sport forever. I do not doubt that in some ways that’s occurred in every sport, but in NASCAR – where many argue equipment has more influence than the competitor – it’s far greater.

   The question remains: In the long term, will that be for the better?

   The answer is likely yes, but only if the sport’s fans are willing to accept the ever-changing landscape.

Chase would be great, but Dale Earnhardt Jr. wants a championship

   Dale Earnhardt Jr. would certainly like to end his career-worst winless streak. And making the Chase for the Sprint Cup after missing it for two consecutive seasons would be a plus, too.

   But does Earnhardt really want? A Cup championship.
  
   Earnhardt was asked Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway how important was to make the Chase and his take was very telling:

   "I don’t know how important it is. It is probably all professional really. You have a lot of race fans; a lot of sponsors and me as a driver; my car owner; everybody. That is your ultimate goal to get in the Chase at the start of the season. It is important to us all on a professional level. On a personal level, I don’t really know how much it matters to me.," he said.

   "Making the Chase is just an afterthought. I really want to win the championship, you know. Making the Chase is great and all, but as a person, you want to be the champion. Making the Chase doesn’t really make you feel better at the end of the season if you don’t win a championship, you are really disappointed. I don’t really think about, I need to make the Chase, personally, those aren’t my thoughts. I think more about what could we have done last week? What do we need to go into Bristol? What did we do last time we raced here?

   "I’m thinking more about the particular day-to-day stuff and I want to win a race. How can we put ourselves in position to do that? Things like that. The Chase stuff, the points and everything sort of takes care of itself. You try to do the best you can throughout the year to put yourself in the best position there, but, I miss the Chase, I’ll probably catch a lot of s*** about it. It will save me a lot of s*** if I make the Chase so that is probably the only thing personally that I have to worry about."

No pulling hair in NASCAR

   NASCAR fined crew chief Jerry Baxter $5,000 on Tuesday and placed him on probation until Dec. 31 for pulling the hair of driver Steve Wallace as Wallace drove down pit road following Saturday's Nationwide Series race in Montreal.

   Baxter was crew chief for the No. 99 Toyota that competed in the race with driver Patrick Carpentier.

   As Wallace was driving down pit road after the race with his helmet off, Baxter reached into Wallace's car and had pulled Wallace's hair. The incident was caught on Wallace's in-car camera and shown on the ESPN broadcast.

   Wallace and Carpentier had been involved in an inicident on the track early in the race.

   On Monday, Baxter issued an apology for his actions.

   "I'm sorry for what happened after the race on Saturday and I take responsibility for my own actions," Baxter said in a statement. "I was just very frustrated and let my emotions get to me. That was Patrick's last race and we wanted to make it special.

   "We really thought he had a shot for the win and everything boiled over when that chance went away in the wreck. Everyone was just racing hard and there was no intent to wreck anyone. There's no excuse for what I did after the race and I apologize to everyone."

Truck series driver Shane Sieg suspended by NASCAR

   Shane Sieg, a driver in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, was indefinitely suspended from NASCAR for violating the sanctioning body's substance abuse policy.

   Sieg, a 28 year old driver from Tucker, Ga., has been fielding his own entries in the Truck series this season. He has started 12 of 15 races so far with a best finish of 12th on March 12 at Darlington, S.C.

   In his NASCAR career, Sieg has made 68 starts in Trucks and two in the Nationwide Series (both in 2004). His career best finish is an eighth at Milwaukee in Trucks in 2004.

   Also, NASCAR has reinstated Denise Harmon-Mixon, a crew member in the Nationwide Series, following her successful completion of the Road to Recovery program. Harmon-Mixon had been suspended July 5 for violating the substance abuse policy.

Kyle Petty on Danica Patrick: "Do they give out trophies for 25th?"

    Former Sprint Cup Series driver and Speed analyst has been pulling no punches lately in discussions about IndyCar fan favorite Danica Patrick making a fulltime move to NASCAR next season.

   During Sunday's "NASCAR RaceDay" Petty reiterated his opinion Patrick is not ready for a fulltime Nationwide season or a move shortly thereafter to the Cup series.

   Here's Petty's exchange with NASCAR RaceDay co-hosts John Roberts and Kenny Wallace on Sunday morning:

   On the expected announcement Patrick is coming to NASCAR fulltime in the 2012 NASCAR Nationwide Series:
   Petty: “I really don’t have much to say on this. So, finally marketing is coming to NASCAR because we know driving isn’t coming to NASCAR. Let’s be serious about this. She ran 12 races last year. She’s made an improvement this year. To run the Nationwide Series, she’s basically going to have to run two full seasons during one. What I mean by that – the IndyCar season is only 15, 17 races. NASCAR Nationwide Series is a tough, freakin’ series. I don’t think she can be competitive. Was she competitive yesterday (Saturday in the Nationwide Series race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal)? Do they give out trophies for 25^th? No, I ran 25^th my whole life. I never got a trophy for 25^th.”

   Roberts: They don’t give out trophies for 25^th but she was running up near the front when the car broke … in the teens …
   Petty: “In the teens! Oh my gosh, Danica’s in the teens (joking). She’s not ready for Cup by any stretch of the imagination. I’ve said this before. I don’t think people realize how good a driver Joe Nemechek, Travis Kvapil, David Gilliland – how tough they really are. She can come up, she can bring marketing, she can sell t-shirts. These people out here (fans) can scream for her and pull for her but she’s going to have to do something on the race track at some point in time and she has yet to do anything on a NASCAR track yet. Give her a chance. I’m all for chances.”

Michigan: What to watch for

What to watch for at Sunday's Pure Michigan 400:

-- The one-week statistical oddity -- Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch tied for the top spot in the Sprint Cup standings with 752 points each – will certainly come undone today. Will one of them emerge alone in first place – or could it be Jimmie Johnson (six points back) or Kevin Harvick (eight back)?

-- Here’s another strange stat: Five-time champ Johnson has never won at Michigan in 19 starts. He’ll start 19^th today.

-- Brad Keselowski says his broken left ankle continues to bother him. But Keselowski has won and finished second in the two races since he was injured.

-- Two drivers – pole-winner Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth – qualified with speeds in excess of 190 mph. But Biffle doesn’t think that’s too fast. He points out that qualifying is a one-off run, and tires wear down on each successive lap during the actual race. Speeds, accordingly, lessen the longer a car is out there.

-- Denny Hamlin’s lone victory of the season came in Michigan’s June race, but he has just one top-five finish since then. Since he’s 12^th in the points and has that victory, he’d qualify for the Chase as a wild car (with Keselowski) if the regular season had ended this week. But he doesn’t have much wiggle room.

-- Dale Earnhardt Jr. starts eighth today, his best qualifying effort since he was sixth at Daytona in July. And, yes, Michigan was the track where Earnhardt last won, 115 races ago in 2008. -- David Scott

NASCAR season preview coming to hall of fame

The NASCAR Hall of Fame's 2012 induction ceremony, already moved to January from May, will now have an even more fan-friendly feel to it.

The Charlotte-based hall of fame announced Tuesday it will combine the induction of the five members of its third class -- Darrell Waltrip, Richie Evans, Dale Inman, Glen Wood and Cale Yarborough -- with a 2012 NASCAR season preview the weekend of Jan. 20-22.

The preview, similar to a preseason fan-fest held in Winston-Salem from 1990-2003, will allow fans to get  autographs and attend Q&A sessions with drivers at the Charlotte Convention Center (which is adjacent to the uptown hall of fame).

The induction ceremony will be Friday Jan. 20, followed by the day-long preview on Saturday, Jan. 21. On Sunday, the hall-of-fame displays of the five inductees will be unveiled inside the hall.

Waltrip, one of the inductees, looks forward to the return of the preview. He remembers the 14 years it was held in Winston-Salem, where it was put on by then-NASCAR sponsor R.J. Reynolds. And he thinks it will help with the hall's struggling attendance.

"In Winston-Salem, the fans got to see everything first," said Waltrip. "If a driver has a new sponsor or new team, the preview always gave you the opportunity to see that, and it made it special. The hall should be a destination, and this will help with that." -- David Scott