Swizcorner: Minneapolis
It’s nice to see the “midwest” get another “east coast” race. You know what other race has been off the schedule since the last time they raced in Minneapolis? That’s right, Detroit. I’m not going to grind the axe on Detroit because in all honesty, I much preferred the racing at the Silverdome in Pontiac. The double-header schedule was pretty crazy by todays standards. We always hear about how stubborn the teams are when it comes to Feld wanting to implement changes; can you imagine the friction if Feld attempted to re-introduce a Saturday night race followed by a Sunday afternoon race now?! As a fan, I think it would bring an awesomely intriguing twist into the series. I’m a logical person though, so I won’t be holding my breath to see it anytime soon.
The last time the series visited the Mall of America, I mean, the Metrodome the indoor series looked very different, though oddly falls inline with many things we saw this year and also what we may be seeing in a few short weeks. I’ll hit on that last point first. You see, 2008 was the birth year of the “J-Law in Dungey’s head” theory. Remember J-law started the series strong but scored no points in round 3. Following that wake up call, J-Law railed off three straight W’s followed by two 2nd place finishes to obtain the title, all the while Dungey was floundering from rounds 4 through 7. If you don’t have the 2008 Bar to Bar DVD (well if you don’t have them all, your priorities are a little jacked up), maybe you don’t remember the peculiarity of Dungey’s races in those rounds. It was like watching Wyle E Coyote continually get the anvil dropped on him in a Looney Tune. He would make the most absurd mistakes, one on top of another, even the casual fan would wonder what the hell was going on. “Brandon’s First Race” is how some refer to this four race stretch in 2008 for Dungey… (Ok, maybe that’s too far but you see my point). So it’s 2008 and no, J-Law isn’t racing the Metrodome because he was racing the West Region, but he was racing nonetheless; and now as we near Hangtown 2013, J-Law is planning to return to the sport after an extended hiatus. That’s parallel one.
