Memorial weekend a time to celebrate and honor

Every weekend in creation is a massive shuffle, but let's pray that the primary reason for this weekend -- honoring our military veterans -- doesn't get dealt to the bottom of the deck in the process.

The weekend coincidentally happens to be a massive motorsports celebration for NASCAR, the IRL and Grand-Am particularly. It's probably a good thing Formula One's Monaco GP was run a couple of weeks ago.

And it's no surprise that a number of Sprint Cup teams, most notably Hendrick Motorsports, via its Nos. 24, 48 and 88 Chevrolets, Michael Waltrip Racing with its No. 00 Toyota, and Richard Petty Motorsports with its No. 9 Ford have stepped up with special paint schemes honoring our service people.

Of course, Bill Jenkins' Latitude 43 Motorsports Ford still carries its paintwork honoring the Air National Guard, and I'm sure it's no coincidence that Stewart-Haas Racing's No. 39 Chevy (U.S. Army) and RPM's No. 19 Ford (U.S. Air Force) are wearing military colors this weekend.

Good for all of them.

Chip Ganassi and Roger Penske have both had big NASCAR victories this season; each now turn their attention to a big double-header.

Lost in the shuffle

Is it just me, or does the fact that crossover owner Chip Ganassi has the chance to make a significant bit of motorsports history this weekend kinda been lost in the proverbial shuffle?

In the lengthy histories of NASCAR and Indy car racing, only two owners have won both discipline's signature events: the Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500; namely Roger Penske and, with Jamie McMurray's victory earlier this season for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, Chip Ganassi.

But neither has done it in the same year and obviously, this weekend Ganassi can do the trick.

Penske's history at Indy -- 15 victories and the fact he has the defending champion and three of the top-four positions on the grid -- aside (holy cow, after I typed that I can't believe I'm saying this), Ganassi has a better than 50-50 shot to win Sunday considering both of his drivers, third starter Dario Franchitti and sixth starter Scott Dixon, are former Indy 500 winners.

The neatest aspect to the story is this: The perennial trophies for each event, the Harley J. Earl Trophy that goes to the Daytona 500 champion and the Borg-Warner Trophy for the Indy 500 champ, are sharing a room at the Brickyard's museum this weekend.

According to an EGR spokesman neither Ganassi nor Penske, who'll have a news conference on Friday to discuss the feat, are aware the trophies are both in Indy.

And if you thought Ganassi, who without question is one of the more intense -- but genial at the same time -- owners to grace any motorsports paddock in the world, is stressing over it, forget about that.

Ganassi's other NASCAR driver, Juan Montoya -- who coincidentally owns one of Ganassi's two Indy 500 victories -- Wednesday was asked on a NASCAR video teleconference what his owner's state of intensity was leading up to his big triple-play weekend, which includes a Grand-Am Rolex Series event on Monday at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut.

Montoya laughed and said Ganassi was behind the camera, making faces at him. So much for that alleged case of nerves.

• Harley J. Earl trophy takes rare trip to Indianapolis (Continued)