Click here to follow us on Twitter @circletrackplus   Click here to like us on Facebook 

Somehow, I imagine the stock car racing equivalent of Jim Mora, the football coach, yelling in response to a question after a less-than-satisfying game. Uh, race.

Heat races? Heat races? Who's talking about heat races?

NASCAR. It's going to try them in four Xfinity races this season. Two heats and a main event, not just a main event. If it goes well, it is likely coming soon to the Sprint Cup Series. NASCAR sees it as an experiment. I see it as a trial balloon. Release the ropes, and see if it flies!

I hope it does. I'm all for anything that gives NASCAR's three major touring series the flavor of a short track. I'd also like to see fried bologna sandwiches at the concession stands, but some things just cannot be done. I'm satisfied NASCAR can do more with racing rules than its affiliated food slappers can with a fried bologna sandwich. God forbid Americrown's version of cotton candy or funnel cakes.

Less enthusiastic am I about the extension of the Chase into the Xfinity and Camping World Truck series. All three series have slightly different formats now. Sprint Cup, being, in France Family parlance, "the bell cow," will maintain the most extensive. All three will guarantee the grand finale of four finalists, all even, entering the race for all the marbles.

Only one gets marbles. A good few of them get some money out of it.

TV will gleefully add Chase Points as They Run, Even Though the Chase Hasn't Started Yet and They're in the Middle of Green-Flag Pit Stops to every single, solitary, everloving race they put on your TV screens, and the ones at your in-laws' house, because they've got more than basic cable.

It's a mouthful. It's also more complicated than the New York Times Crossword Puzzle because it's all been multiplied by three.

Hey, did Nick Fauntleroy advance to Round 2?

Yeah. Sixth place was just enough.

I bet he wins the Truck Series?

That'd be something. Know why?

'Cause he's hell on wheels.

Nope. Because he races in the Xfinity Series.

Oh, yeah. I must have been confusing him with Ryan Poindexter.

I thought he was Clemson's punter.