What's old is new again in rare NASCAR off week

It seems too early in the Sprint Cup season to have taken a weekend off already, but that's the way the schedule went down -- leaving us precious little that is new to talk about.

So after four races, let's take five quick laps around NASCAR and be done with it. Then it's on to Bristol for this Sunday's Food City 500.

The pace car lap

Ah, the pace car lap. This one is personal.

After several missed opportunities to climb into the pace car with former Cup driver and current pace car pilot Brett Bodine -- mostly because all those opportunities came too early in the morning on days when plans were to be at the track until way too late in the night -- I finally succumbed and made the sleep sacrifice prior to the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Let me just say that it was so early in the day that when we drove into one end of the track and the sun shone brightly into our eyes, Bodine was quick to point out that the sun was going to be a problem during the race later in the day -- at the opposite end of the track.

But the trip in early to the track was worth it. The pace car ride, which actually consisted of several laps, gave a real feel for what the drivers must deal with lap after lap after lap during an event. The surface was surprisingly old and cracked, which Bodine said the drivers like because it enables them to move around and race in multiple grooves. But while he took the car to a top speed of only about 145 miles per hour during our little tour, one has to remember that the Cup guys push it down the straightaways at much closer to 200 mph and then often glide up the slippery surface to within inches of the wall as they negotiate the corners at AMS.

Most striking was the difficulty drivers face when they must get their speed down to 45 mph as they enter and subsequently travel through pit road to their designated stalls. Think about how hard it is to get off the Interstate when you've been going 75 mph for several hours and suddenly turn off into a neighborhood where the speed limit is about 15 -- and times it by two, or maybe more like 22. Plus you know a police officer is sitting just inside said neighborhood EVERY TIME with his radar gun at the ready. It's not easy, and that's why so many pit-road speeding penalties end up being assessed during events. (Continued)