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I’m about to make some glaring generalities. My attention has recently been light. I am vaguely aware that the new season is going to bring with it massive changes, and the next year NASCAR is going to bring even more, and all that research-and-development money is not going to be spent in vain.

Hell, NASCAR changes massively every year. It reminds of of that alleged Yogi Berra line (Berra himself said half of those things he never said): “That place is so crowded, nobody goes there anymore.” If NASCAR changes anymore, it’ll be back to square one.

If I was still at the track every week, I’d be aware of all the changes. Last night I wrote about the Commission of Public Works and got home in time to watch LSU beat Clemson. My nephew and his wife are making a long, disappointed drive home from New Orleans. My mother and sister babysat the kids. This morning I gave another nephew a ride to work because of a flat tire. Tonight’s the school board, and if it gets done in time, some photographs of the private school’s basketball games.

Life goes on.

In this space, I look back to what I know, or knew. I try not to be presumptuous and write as if I’m there. The Worldwide Web (remember that term?) is already full of those guys. A byline doesn’t mean what it used to. That’s as true locally as it is in Daytona Beach, by the way.

I once heard a baseball manager’s strategic skill described thusly: “If he wrote a book, it would be called ‘Let Them Play and See What Happens.’”

Mostly nowadays, I just watch them race and see what happens. The TV announcers are only too happy to give me all the details, usually through the rose-colored, official glasses of NASCAR.

I will be happier when I get to do that again. Watch TV and try to pick up something I don’t know. It’s the next best thing to being there, even though it’s a poor substitute.