Insider's View: Wally Dallenbach

Before we get to this week's race at Infineon Raceway, lets talk about the changes going on in NASCAR these days. Thursday's announcement that Nextel will take over as title sponsor of NASCAR's premier series next season is huge news. I expect the sport to become even bigger than it is right now if you can believe that because Nextel will be able to do things Winston just simply could not.

	Wally Dallenbach

Nextel has some pretty big shoes to fill in my opinion. This was a forced-upon change for Winston given the climate we live in now and they were a class act from top to bottom. Winston put NASCAR on the map and for that we should all be grateful. It's an exciting time in NASCAR right now and Nextel will hopefully take things to the next level.

But with all this excitement comes necessary change and I know some people just don't like it. The addition of a second race at California is absolutely the right thing to do. It's a great market; the second largest in the country and for NASCAR to grow it has to be in these major areas.

I applaud Bill France, Jr. for having the foresight to know that in order to be successful, you have to keep up with the times. He's an old-school guy, but savvy enough to know what needs to be done to make NASCAR even more prominent than it is today. Traditionalists are upset with the change for Darlington and the Southern 500 but I think it's all for the betterment of the sport.

So it's on to road course number one of the season Sunday for the Dodge/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway. I've raced there in a lot of events over a lot of years and like the track very much. I actually liked the original course better than the current layout, but it's still a challenging track.

There's a strong crop of road-course ringers in the mix this weekend and all are capable of turning some fast laps to Infineon. But I think it's really tough for someone to come in for one race and put the whole Winston Cup package together to get a victory. I think it's a tall order.

That said, I think of the road-course vets in the field, Ron Fellows might have the best chance to pull off the upset. He's a good driver, has Cup experience, is with a solid team and has good equipment. He's someone to keep an eye on.

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Tony Stewart is strong on road courses and scored a win at Infineon in 2001. He's been solid the last two weeks and should be a strong contender on Sunday.

Jeff Gordon turned himself into Mr. Road Course a few years ago and will be another tough customer on Sunday. Ditto for last week's Michigan winner Kurt Busch, who impressed a lot of people with a third-place run at Infineon last season. And finally Rusty Wallace has had a stellar road racing record over the years but he has struggled mightily lately. I know he wants to win real bad, but he really needs a good run to show everyone he can still be a force.

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