If you’re like us here on the show, and if you’re reading this blog post, I know you are like Matt, John and myself, you’re getting prepared for the best day of racing. There’s no doubt in my mind that Sunday of Memorial Day weekend is the best day in racing, beginning with Formula 1 running the crown jewel race that is the Monaco Grand Prix, then to the US with one of the crown jewel races in all of racing, not just IndyCar, the “Indy 500”, and then in the evening, NASCAR’s Cup Series “Coca-Cola 600”.

However, don’t forget that NASCAR has the Xfinity Series at Charlotte on Saturday, a day that begins with Formula E running in Berlin. Let’s not forget the NHRA, which will run on Memorial Day itself, the “Route 66 Nationals” in near Chicago, Illinois. There are other great weekends of racing, where you get a lot of good races in, but this weekend marks the biggest weekend of them all, considering that of the series we cover on a regular basis, only the Gander Outdoors Truck Series won’t be in action.

I’ll be going to church in the morning, which means I’ll miss Monaco live, but, I’ll be back home in time for the Indy 500, the replay of Monaco which ABC will air between Indy and then the live action of the “Coca-Cola 600”, and I’m sure you’ll be doing a lot of that too, if you’re anything like us on the show…deja vu right? If it isn’t, re-read the first line of this blog entry.

So, as we have mentioned on the show a number of times since the “Talladega Transformation” project was first announced that 2019 is the fiftieth anniversary of the first-ever race at NASCAR’s longest and fastest track. That is certainly worth celebrating, and will be, both in the spring and in the fall. However, a bit less known was that, just this past weekend, we celebrated ten years of IndyCar Racing in Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park. That is equally as laudable, especially considering that, other than Florida, IndyCar has little to no other presence in the southeastern part of the United States.

When the race was first proposed at Barber, many people scoffed, claiming that Alabama is in the heart of NASCAR country, and would not be acceptable to race fans who prefer, some said, to wear cut-off tees, jean shorts and who have, some said, questionable tastes in food and drink. While at its peak Talladega could, and still can, fit about 250,000 people in the stands and in the infield, the people showing up at Barber have been reliably estimated to be at least 100,000. Remember that Barber is a road course, so there is really no place any race fan can sit that shows them the entirety of the 2-plus mile-long course, but for a decade, people in Alabama and surrounding states have come out in droves to see the IndyCar drivers compete.

Then there are the IndyCar drivers themselves, who, to a driver have applauded the Barber family for the wonderful facility they’ve built just east of downtown Birmingham, and have been more than complimentary of those who come out, year over year, and pack the hill-sides and grassy areas around the track to see the action each April.

I was happy when I first heard IndyCar was coming to Alabama, went to the first race, and have been to many of the ten events since, and it just keeps getting better and better in my mind. The drivers love it, the fans seem to as well, and for those who questioned IndyCar coming to “the heart of NASCAR country”, it has been proven the two series can co-exist.

Now, if only NASCAR and IndyCar would get together on the scheduling, and allow Barber and Talladega to run on back-to-back weekends again, bringing back “Alabama Speedweeks”.