Miles and miles... of desert

The first Western Swing - this isn’t Asleep at the Wheel we’re talking about -- comes to an end in Las Vegas on Sunday.

Once upon a time, back in the 1960s, NASCAR held an annual Northern Tour - not a series but a series of races within what was then called the Grand National division - that took it to places like Bridgehampton, Islip and Watkins Glen in New York and New Oxford in Maine.

Nowadays, multimillion-dollar race teams travel pretty heavy. They could hold consecutive races at the same track and the moneyed teams would probably send transporters crisscrossing the country between them. It’s not the same at the 1960s, when, say, the Pettys would leave Level Cross towing a single Plymouth on a trailer and use it in four consecutive races.

The benefit of going out west for a couple races in a row doesn’t make much difference for the teams - the pit crews and mechanics, anyway - because all they do is pile up frequent-flyer miles, those that don’t travel on private, team-owned jets. California and Las Vegas are back to back. In April and again in November, there are Texas and Phoenix. Dover and Pocono in June represent kind of a throwback to the old Northern Tour. Richmond, New Hampshire and Dover are paired together in September, though it would make more sense to have Richmond and Dover back to back than to throw the Loudon track in between them.

Much of the schedule doesn’t make much sense from a logistical standpoint. For instance, the Sprint Cup Series holds a race in Michigan on June 15, then roars off to California a week later, back to New Hampshire the week after that, then south to Daytona and back to the Midwest to Illinois.

Jet fuel is going to cost a lot of money in the summer.

The current stretch is fun for the drivers, though, particularly the Californians. Jimmie Johnson and Casey Mears have been roaring around the desert in “off-road sand cars” (dune buggies apparently aren’t high-tech-sounding enough).

“Other than racing, this is it,” said Mears. “The sand dunes are such a huge part of my life, and it's just so much fun that I want everyone to experience it. I just know that no way anyone could go out there and not have fun. I want everyone to catch the bug like I have.”

Who says they don’t do it in the dirt anymore? Sand’s a form of dirt, right?

You may reach Monte Dutton at mdutton@gastongazette.com.