Wednesday, November 25, 2009

NASCAR Camping World Series West Offseason Musings

NASCAR Camping World Series West Offseason Musings
By Steven Blakesley


The NASCAR Camping World Series West is a series that many would consider the top series in the western United States. Hearing NASCAR announce at the regional awards banquet that the tour has only six confirmed races for 2010 sent a shockwave throughout the racing world.

I have had conversations with many people who have said "Did you hear the west series only has six races?" or "Why bother with the west series; it only has six races."

The confirmed dates for the NASCAR Camping World Series West are Phoenix in April, Iowa in May, Infineon in June, Irwindale in July, Portland in July, and Phoenix in November.

There is no way that anyone can actually think that this is the full 2010 schedule, yet by announcing this partial schedule it made many in the west series very worried.

What NASCAR needed to say was that flying to the west coast multiple times to make a west schedule is a big expense. There is no longer a person like a Ken Clapp managing the west coast operations. The important meetings with Roseville, Roseberg, Colorado National, Stockton, Madera, and others will take place in Reno next week during the promoters workshops.

I predict a 10-12 race schedule and I think that's what we will get once its all announced.

On the drivers front, news already announced is that Lakeside, Calif.'s Auggie Vidovich will run full-time for Cass Racing in the #50 car. Unconfirmed but strongly rumored is that Luis Martinez, Jr. is taking over the #6 Bruncati entry from 2009 champ Jason Bowles. Bill McAnally Racing has not made any driver announcements but it would not surprise me to see 2009 NASCAR Whelen Rookie of the Year Jacob Gomes bring funding to the table for a seat. Perhaps even Johnathan Hale could end up in a BMR seat? The status of Moses Smith and 2008 champ Eric Holmes is unknown at this time.

Stay tuned for a full 2010 NASCAR Camping World Series West schedule, coming soon.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.