I have the opportunity to work as a pit reporter on this year's ASA Late Model Challenge Series television broadcasts, which are being produced by my colleague Rick Benjamin's company Visioncast. The 12 race schedule, which began back in March, will start airing later in September on a variety of cable and satellite networks.

The "new" ASALM features crate engine late model stock cars and was the brainchild of Ron Varney, who started a circuit known as the USPRO Series out of Michigan a few years ago. With the demise of the "old" ASA National Tour, the ASALM was born and Ron and his wife Sandy put together a concept that includes noth and south regional tours as well as the 12 race National Challenge Series, which this year visits some of the most famous short tracks in the country - Nashville, I-70, Madison, Jennerstown, Oswego and Berlin to name a few.

This past Saturday, the series raced at the famed Milwaukee Mile and young Kelly Bires went to victory lane for the fourth time this season. Bires drives for the powerhouse Wal-Tom team, which won the ASALM title last year with Stephen Leicht behind-the-wheel.

Leicht has of course moved up to Robert Yates Racing and there are several others within the ASALM who could soon find their way up the racing ladder. The series is a necessary part of the stock car racing world and here's hoping it can grow into what the "old" ASA once was - a training ground for future stock car stars.

There are still three races left this season - Labor Day Sunday night at Minnesota's Elko Speedway, an October visit to the new Iowa Speedway outside Des Moines and a November return to Nashville for the prestigious All-American 400. If you have a chance to catch one of these races yet this year, you may see a future NASCAR star in the making.

NASCAR has another "Car of Tomorrow" test set here at Michigan on Monday and it will be the first time Toyota's configuration of the new model will take to the track. The bad news is the rules seem to have been set in stone with all four manufacturers and we can look for the wacky wing to stay.

The new design looks a lot like a Trans-Am car to me, unfortunately. I personally like the rest of the car and the idea, but wish they could lose the wing.

NASCAR officials told me Saturday the sanctioning body is looking to find a new name for the design, since the "Car of Tomorrow" monikor will soon not fit. I'm sure our RacingOne readers and community members can find a suitable name for the car, but please remember this is a family site.

Next week's race in Bristol will be the last at "Thunder Valley" for the current NEXTEL Cup design with the COT making its debut at the half-mile track next Spring. So tomorrow may not quite be here yet but it's knocking on the door.

My first trip to Michigan International Speedway is a bit foggy since I think I was 6 or 7 at the time. It was 1970, the track was freshly built, and the family truckster made the trek from the Chicago suburbs to the Irish Hills of Michigan. I remember it took more than five hours to get up to the track from just north of the Windy City, a ride that I made in about 4 Friday morning. Better roads and higher speed limits I guess.

I don't remember much about my first race at Michigan except that it was the biggest track I'd ever seen before. The short tracks of the Midwest were a long way from the brand new superspeedway.

The facility has changed a lot since then with its massive grandstands but the track remains smooth and wide, a favorite for drivers and fans.

And I bet there will be more than a few first-timers in the grandstands this weekend as well. Ah the racing circle of life.

This year's Knoxville Nationals were about as bizarre as I can remember. The week started off on a tragic note with the death of Steve King, which was surrounded by confusion when reports of his death surfaced early on Thursday, only to be refuted later. The announcement of Steve's death was finally confirmed by family members on Thursday afternoon, but the way the situation played out made the tragedy even more upsetting. All of our thoughts and prayers are with the King family.

Fast forward to Saturday night's activities which needless to say didn't put the sport in the best light. I'm a big fan of winged sprint car racing, but it's a sport that doesn't lend itself easily to live television. Stops, starts, red flags, push trucks, track watering - not exactly an edge of your seat telecast. In person a great show - live TV, not so much is how I sum it up.

The Danny Lasoski mess and subsequent theatrics worthy of the Jerry Springer Show was another black eye for the weekend. My view of what happened on track was that Lasoski at the very least should have been sent to the rear of the field after making contact with Kerry Madsen. As for the Brian Brown-Lasoski family feud that followed, I think those pictures speak for themselves.

But the family confrontation that took place afterward on national television was inexcusable. Think it didn't hurt the sport and further the trailer trash mentality stereotype many mainstream race fans and sports fans associate with sprint car racing? At least here in my homebase of Chicago, Lasoski's outburst made several of the local sportscasts with some not-too-polite snorts and giggles about the incident as follow-up.

Finally having all the best drivers and teams together for the Nationals - which we realize is a non-sanctionied event thank-you very much - shows how ridiculous the split between the WoO and NST is. Getting back together is essential for winged sprint car racing's future. Cleaning up its act a little is also probably not a bad idea.

NASCAR goes road racing again this weekend. And since I'm not at The Glen on duty, I guess I can look forward to a little naptime Sunday as I watch the race from my office. Those who have read my columns or heard me on radio know I'm not a big fan of stock cars on road courses. I'm not alone, Dave Moody or MRN, who has me as a frequent guest on his "Sirius Speedway" show, also doesn't understand why NASCAR bothers with the road courses.

I guess I'll have to live with it because neither Watkins Glen or Infineon, fine tracks by the way, will be losing the Cup Series from their schedules anytime soon. I'd rather just see open wheel racing or sports cars compete at these two tracks and keep the stock cars on ovals where they belong.

At least neither road course is part of the "Chase" portion of the season, which would be an even bigger mistake. Diversity in the championship run is necessary, but road courses are such a foreign animal to the norm they don't belong in the stretch to determine the season champion.

I would like to see one of the road course "ringers" win this week at The Glen. It would be cool to see Scott Pruett or Boris Said or Ron Fellows standing in victory lane rather than Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon or Ryan Newman.

But my eye is on next week when the series returns to Michigan and in my opinion, "real" stock rac racing.

Pete Pistone - RacingOne.com

A) How can it be August?, 2) Are they really gonna move the Brickyard to July next year? It's been a brutal summer heat-wise for most of the summer particularly in the Midwest where we saw temperatures in my homebase of Chicago soar over 100 degrees for a number of days. Some of my reporter pals tell me last week's Busch Series race in St. Louis was a scorcher of Hades proportions and as we sit in Indianapolis for the Brickyard and IRP action this weekend, we're broiling again.

Hey it's August and it's summer, I get it. So I guess moving things back a week here next year won't make that much of a difference. But it's been a brutal run lately. We're back on the road this weekend here in Indy and it's hard to believe it's the 13th time the Cup Series will race at IMS. I was one of those that thought it was a great idea when the Brickyard was first proposed, but I really didn't think it would grow into the race it is today. Believe me, if you've never made this trip, put it on your list for next year. The combination of what goes on at 16th street and the short track action at IRP make this a summer "Speedweeks."

On a personal note, thanks for hanging with us through our design changes and roll-out of the new R1. We're close to getting up to full speed and have a bunch of new stuff in the wings as well. Our R1 staff will be trackside at the majority of Cup races down the stretch and into the "Chase" so we're looking forward to bringing you the inside story.

Maybe it'll be a little cooler by October but I'm gonna stop complaining since a Chicago winter is no doubt quickly bearing down on me.

What a crazy weekend. No we didn't travel to cover a race this weekend, which is usually the case for a hectic few days, but it was nutty anyway.

As you know we rolled out at least phase one of our new RacingOne design and as Roseanne Roseannadanna would say, "it's always something." Our design and editorial crews have put in a ton of hours getting the new look up and running and working things out as the updated RacingOne was rolled out this weekend. My hats off to everyone and a pat on the back is well deserved.

As JWack pointed out, it is phase one and there's much more coming in the way of features and function, but from the cool look of the site to these awesome community features, we are psyched about what's ahead for RacingOne.

We've created a bunch of new features for our readers to interact on the new R1, from the message boards to your personal blogs to updating photos. It's unlike any motorsports website out there and we think it's the best one on the Internet.

We'll keep working to cover the racing world like a blanket giving you the latest news, stats, photos and more audio and video content. And we want to hear from you so let us know what you think, what you don't like, what we can add, etc.

It's hard to believe where we are today from where we started six years ago and it's all thanks to lots of hard work by a great group of dedicated people and of course to our readers who continue to make R1 the destination motorsports site of the world.

I'm pumped about having the blog as a another way to communicate in addition to writing, reporting and columns and look forward to sharing my semi-coherent thoughts.

Now if you'll excuse me, there's a frosty cold one waiting for me that's been on ice since Friday morning. Cya.

Peter P.