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.

Start with who's going to practice and qualify which car at which location? Up until now -- and understandably so -- the Cup cars ruled. There was no question everything that needed to be done with the Cup cars would be done before any thought was given to the Nationwide stuff.

But this weekend was the known "X factor" -- and not the 600 mph kind. The neat thing is, with Road America being a completely new facility on the Nationwide tour, there is five-and-a-half hours of practice, in two sessions, on Thursday.

All the double-dip guys will be there, for that. And then they fly to the greater Sonoma area, where they'll have a single practice and Sprint Cup qualifying at Infineon Raceway. All three will do all of that, and then they'll all fly back to Sheboygan, Wis., arriving; according to Menard and Edwards' itinerary, about 2 a.m. ET.

After getting all the practice they did on Thursday, Keselowski's Nationwide points-leading No. 22 Dodge might not even practice on Friday, but if it does, his regular sub, Parker Kligerman, will be at the controls.

Edwards' regular sub, Roush Fenway's Erik Darnell, will do the honors. And with Brian Ickler being the latest addition to the RFR Nationwide group, and not having an abundance of road- course experience, Jack Roush will call on a former driver, former Indy car standout Michel Jourdain Jr. -- who had a cup of coffee in Roush Busch Series cars earlier this decade, doing the honors.

And the folly continues at Infineon on Saturday -- being enough to make a database manager old before their time.

Last week, Roush said Edwards, at least, was planning to practice on Saturday. That turned out to be as unlikely as it was impossible.

And now, the trivialities blossom as, at Infineon, Edwards' No. 60 Roush Fenway Ford plans to probably sit idle. Former Cup Series champion Bill Elliott, a very credible road-course driver who's not busy this weekend because his Wood Brothers Racing car isn't entered, will tune Menard's car on Saturday.

And Keselowski's Penske Racing teammate, Kurt Busch, supposedly will try to make a few laps in the No. 12 Dodge to do its fine-tuning.

All in all, it'll make for nary a dull moment, for sure -- no matter where you're watching from.

Gaming, anyone?

It's no surprise -- despite the huge amount of open testing available the day before official practice starts at Road America -- that guys would "go electric" to get their break-in miles in.

And of course it's no surprise that a disciple of Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- a well-known racing gamer -- would cite iRacing as his main source of experience, as Tasmanian Owen Kelly did this week on the eve of his Nationwide Series debut in a JR Motorsports car.

"I've done a million laps around [Road America] on iRacing and other than that, I've watched plenty of IndyCar races from there," Kelly said. "I know which way the track goes but I haven't actually driven around it myself."

Of course, given that IndyCar driver Cristiano da Matta had a near-fatal crash with a deer at Road America; Kelly can hark back to his experiences at the famous Bathurst circuit in Australia -- where dodging errant kangaroos are part and parcel of racing -- for part of his training.

"I don't think learning the track will be a huge deal," Kelly said. "Bathurst has got to be one of the toughest tracks in the world to get your head around and I can get around there OK, so I should be all right."

Savvy Stewart

Tony Stewart had a wry grin on his face at Pocono when a media member pointed out he'd had the best car many times and hadn't won, after Stewart was visibly distressed at finishing third with what he called a less-than-sporty car.

"You know about that drill so I appreciate you reminding us," Stewart said. "There's days like [Pocono] where you're not proud of how you get there -- but you take it anyway because you know for every one you get like this there's one that gets robbed from you the same way."

All I can say is "hear, hear" to that.

The opinions expresses are solely those of the writer.

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