Can we get some cars on the track, please?

I don't know about you, but I'm really looking forward to this weekend, when NASCAR might start looking a little more like a racing organization than a politics and public relations combine for a short change. I'm confident that getting to see a little racing will be good for my soul, even if it is at Michigan again already.

Yeah, sure, I understand that a certain amount of politicking and schmoozing is inherent in running a multimillion-dollar sports enterprise. And I suppose that's especially true if you're a multimillionaire and want to spend other people's money instead of your own to make more for yourself. But all this hall of fame stuff is such a distraction from the racing.

Not that the hall of fame cacophony will subside real soon. There are more cities to visit, more bids to "evaluate" and all that. Then, when NASCAR announces its decision, there will be the celebrations in one city and all the hand-wringing in the rest.

I do better when I can focus on the amusing side of NASCAR's five-city (cue the trumpets, please) Hall of Fame Tour.

For instance, I've enjoyed daring friends and co-workers to try and find an honest-to-God race fan in some of the photos we've seen from the pep rallies Atlanta's and Charlotte's civic boosters staged in efforts to impress the NASCAR brass.

Believe it. These are people not easily impressed unless you're showing them stacks of cash. Ask the race fans in Rockingham and Darlington if you don't believe me.

It was also less than impressive to learn that some of Charlotte's leading downtown businesses had sent memoes and e-mails to their employees, suggesting they spend Wednesday's lunch hour attending the pep rally and screaming their support for the NASCAR hall. It didn't really matter whether they knew Dale Earnhardt Jr. from Dean & DeLuca.

The people upstairs wanted them out there, wearing the yellow T-shirts and showing their support.

OK, enough griping. It's not like I'm running for City Council in Jimmy Ballard's old hometown of Rantville. But one more thing while I'm thinking about non-race fans for a moment longer:

What makes some people think it's perfectly all right for them to just walk the hell home with store's grocery carts? And to even steal another one the next time they go to the store just because they left the other one under the house or in the yard?

Thanks, I feel better now. That should hold me till race time anyway.