Cross' Words: Charlotte

Memorial Day Weekend has come and gone. The three-day get-away-from-it-all marked by an increasingly inconsequential open-wheel race and a 600-mile endurance race -- both physically and fuel mileage-wise. In the end, it (again) was a Mears celebrating on Sunday -- not by drinking the milk at Indy, but rather under the lights at Charlotte.

Casey Mears' victory can't be chalked up to another yellow or another break for a Hendrick driver. It was a smart win for the much-maligned No. 25 team -- first across the stripe and under the checkered flag, just like the good ol' days.

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Maybe it was fitting that Casey, the nephew of four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Rick Mears, won on Sunday. He brought the new kid on the block full circle, officially lapping the Brickyard event in relevance.

And while the pageantry of Victory Lane was showering down on Mears it occurred to me that NASCAR should take a page out of football's playbook: Hall of Fame Weekend. Imagine the Hall inductions, the All-Star race and the Coca-Cola 600 -- all at Charlotte -- throughout the month of May.

Yep, that means taking off Mother's Day, but I have a solution for Darlington, on Labor Day Weekend no less: Welcome home, Southern 500. It'll also mean reconfiguring the schedule but that wouldn't be an issue; there is fat that should be trimmed before drivers explore the feasibility of skipping races.

NASCAR makes no bones about its attempts to lure in new fans -- whether in California, New York, Colorado, Washington even Mexico and Canada. Global expansion is just over the horizon. But if that happens there will be many unanswered questions, all leading back to the sport's roots.

NASCAR cannot lose sight of its history, which is going to have a prominent place within the Hall of Fame under construction in Charlotte. NASCAR also needs to begin laying the foundation by using the sport's history to nurture the new fan base.

Stroll pit road, the place to see and be seen before a race. Take three 5x7 photos -- David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, Jeff Gordon -- and ask fans to identify the drivers. Gordon, they won't have any trouble ID'ing. Pearson and Yarborough ... not so much. Don't even try Bobby Isaac, Joe Weatherly or Rex White; their pics would get better play on milk cartons.

What's past is prologue, and if the sport does not more openly, more fully embrace its history then why should the fans care? Then again, maybe history repeats itself and it will be irrelevant. (Continued)