Itinerant racers rule the weekend, log the miles

I don't know about you, but what's coming up this weekend for Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski and Paul Menard sounds like a lot of fun to me.

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You see, this hardy trio is competing for championships in both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series. And if you know anything about NASCAR's top two national tours, you know the summertime is frequent-flyer time for anyone trying to double-dip.

It's enough itineraries to make your head spin.

But then again, you know I'm always all over those frequent flyer miles, whenever I can get 'em.

But wait a minute. Even though, between the three of them they're gonna pile up about 33,000 air miles this weekend, from mid-week until they get home some time Sunday evening; they're doing it all in private planes.

So they lose on having to do a coin flip to see who'd get the free trip that'd be earned via that total mileage.

But trust me again -- they don't care about such trivialities. The rest of us, on the other hand, can just revel in all the trivia these two-venue weekends create.

You've got to like the intrigue, drama and pure adrenalin rush of hustling from high-powered race cars to helicopters to jet airplanes -- including, in Edwards' and Menard's case, the fastest civilian aircraft available, at a little better than 600 mph top speed; if they indeed end up using John Menard's Citation X.

But if you're watching from any variety of distances: From your sofa at home, to anywhere at the race tracks; there are all kinds of things to look at. (Continued)