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.

• Send Duane your thoughts

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.

Say what?

"I think I had a 10,000-pound gorilla jump off my back."
-- Casey Mears, who posted his first Cup Series victory in 156 starts. His best previous finish was as runner-up in the 2006 season opener at Daytona and at Kansas last year.

Figuratively speaking

9.561 -- Margin of victory, in seconds, for Casey Mears over J.J. Yeley. That'll skew the metric when comparing finishes for the current model vs. the Car of Tomorrow, Agent Mulder. ... The last time a winner had a larger cushion at the checkered flag: Oct. 1, 2006, at Kansas, when Tony Stewart gambled on fuel to beat Mears by 12.422 seconds.

Up Next

Autism Speaks 400 | Dover | 1 p.m. ET Sunday on FOX
Race No. 13 of 36 | Get tickets | Book travel

• Defending race winner: Matt Kenseth
• Most victories at the track: 4 -- Bill Elliott, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and Ricky Rudd
• Best average finish (minimum five starts): Tony Stewart (8.9 in 16 starts)
Active drivers only

Mailbag

The mailman doesn't deliver on Memorial Day. Petty complaints and taking umbrage with a sport -- and it's really nothing more, in the grand scheme -- are not worth bickering about on this solemn day. ... Take a moment to remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for this country; their unselfishness should not be forgotten. The gardens of stone dotting the landscape are more than cemeteries. They are memorials to the men and women who left behind family and friends so that we can enjoy freedom.

• Next week at Dover marks the halfway point to the Chase. With 13 down and 13 to go, make your predictions for who will be part of the Dandy Dozen -- and pick Unlucky 13, the driver who will just miss the championship cut. If anyone chooses all 13 in order, I'll send you three options from which to choose from the NASCAR.COM Superstore.

Six of one ...
Drivers with momentum heading to Dover:

• Ricky Rudd -- He posted his first top-10 finish since Oct. 15, 2005, at Charlotte -- and now trails fifth-place Mark Martin by five on the all-time list.

• Bobby Labonte -- Don't look now, but he's lurking: finished 13th at Charlotte and now is only 89 points outside the top 12. He also hasn't finished outside the top 20 in the past five races.

• Carl Edwards -- Among the drivers in the top 12 in points, he made the biggest move -- up two spots, to eighth. And he finished second at Dover in last year's fall race.

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- He has four consecutive top-15 finishes, the team's best run since Race Nos. 10-15 last year. Could the end to the 38-race winless streak be near?

• J.J. Yeley -- Since the bar was upped for Yeley, his average finish in the past two races is 10th. The guy who upped the bar -- Driver 8 -- his average finish is 8.0. ... Not saying that Yeley got the message loud 'n' clear, but ...

• Casey Mears -- C'mon, the guy just won his first race; you know he's stoked! Bring on Dover ... and a 25.6 average finish in eight previous starts. And big ups to crew chief Darian Grubb.

Half a dozen of the other ...
And six drivers who need a jump start:

• Greg Biffle -- Only 12 races into the season and he has as many DNFs (2) as he does top-10 finishes. Welcome to the Titanic, Greg Erwin.

• Ryan Newman -- Another pole ... another thirtysomething finish, his fifth of the season. His 39th-place finish -- the team's third DNF this year -- ended a streak of three consecutive top-10s.

• Elliott Sadler -- Believe it or not: three consecutive finishes outside the top 20 and only two lead-lap finishes in the past eight races.

• Juan Montoya -- He hasn't finished on the lead lap in the past five races. ... Eso no es una buena cosa, tipo. (That's not a good thing, dude.)

• Reed Sorenson -- He finished fourth! Why does he need a jump start? The only other time Sorenson posted a top-five (June 18, 2006, at Michigan) he followed it up with a 29th-place finish at Sonoma. Consistency, grasshopper.

• Michael Waltrip -- Fans and detractors alike need you back behind the wheel. ... One non-racer is enough on Inside Nextel Cup, which should be reason enough for NASCAR to change the qualifying rules.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.