The Rear View Mirror is back, with Atlas F1's Don Capps taking backward glances at motor racing history and commenting on its relevance in today's events

Am I missing something?

Granted, the Formula One world has something more akin to an actual scramble for the title this season. So far, at any rate. Oh, make no mistake about it, I am enjoying the season. I think the change in the qualifying format is great. I really enjoy it since it allows me to actually see some of those generally ignored during the weekend in former days. It seemed that the only purpose of the backmarkers was to clean the track for the hotshots and then get out of the way and stay off the track once the big boys started rocketing around the track. It is nice to see some of the gents sweat a bit and have to hang it out a bit more than they had to in the past.

The season has had a few of those funny hops and skips which have been notably absent in Formula One of late - a win for Jordan and several new names at the head of the class being among the most notable. The recent performance of Williams and BMW have made more than few consider that Ralf Schumacher got the message - Loud and Clear - when Juan Montoya and Jeff Gordon traded seats for a few laps around the Indianapolis Grand Prix course. Nothing like being made aware that you are simply a light bulb and can be replaced to get the mind focused. After all, there is a really big BMW facility off I-85 in Greer, South Carolina, deep in the heart of NASCAR. Nor should it be overlooked that Michelin had more than a few manufacturing plants stretched along that same corridor through the American Southeast. Ralf may not be the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but the message that Jeff Gordon would be far more beneficial to The Cause struck home.

While it may come as a shock to some whose eyes often (okay, occasionally) gaze upon these bon mots that not everyone is of an opinion that Formula One is the Alpha through Omega of motor racing. Oh, it is big and deservedly so. But the flack masters have generated numbers that allow the series to puff out its chest and crow about those numbers to all and sundry. Those numbers are the one which are used to browbeat, coerce, or persuade sponsors and the Media to devote money and other resources to The Product.

Formula One basically stands alone today. It is the sponge in the water bucket that soaks up all the resources. The Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) really doesn't even pretend very hard to mouth the former party line that Formula One was on the top of a pyramid of supporting series and championships. Other than the World Rally Championship, the FIA really does a minimal job in the championship business - or at least championships of any substance.

Not that it ever did much of a job in the past. The Commission Sportive Internationale (CSI) was more known for its lack of ability to manage international motor sport than its talents to manage the international scene. Once upon a time, the CSI concocted an international sports car championship which latched onto a number of autonomous events such as the Mille Miglia, the Sebring 12-hour and the Le Mans 24-hour races. It stumbled, tumbled, and staggered along until it finally collapsed - and collapsed and collapsed once more and continued to collapse periodically until it was merely a footnote at best in the general comings-and-goings of the racing world.

That the Le Mans 24-hour race - the 24 Hour Grand Prix of Endurance - continues to exist and be run every year is a testament to, well, the notion that there should be such a race. Certainly, the organizing club , the Automobile Club de l'Ouest, has managed to generate its own set of horror stories without any outside help. That there seems to be so little "international" interest in Sports Car and Grand Touring racing at the precise moment that the sports and GT cars are so good - the recent Honda S2000, Nissan 350 ZX, the BMW Z4, to mention merely a few - is simply amazing. Whether or not the super sophisticated and super expensive "prototypes" such as the recent Le Mans-winning Bentley have a place in all this is always open to question, but I for one recall the very satisfying days of the GTP series and its supporting GTS and GT classes from the days when John and Peg Bishop ran the International Motor Sport Association. I have always thought that had the CSI opted for GTP rather than "Appendix C," well, don't get me started.

Anyway, back to the business at hand, Formula One and NASCAR. What, some are shrieking, how dare I mention them in the same breath? With racing in the sports car and grand touring categories essentially second or third tier, Formula 3000 must be placed definitely - and generously - in the lower end of the second tier, the disintegration of American open-wheeled racing, and with only the World Rallying Championship at the head of that second tier, the field for the top tier narrows considerably.

The NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) Winston Cup (Nextel Cup next season) Series and Formula One stand next to each other on the top tier because they have best manipulated the media. What, you say, the Winston Cup is merely a "national" series while Formula One is the genuine, official "World Championship" series so how can this happen? Simple, buckaroos, they have the butts sitting in the stands plus the ones sitting in front of the television sets. They have those numbers I mentioned earlier.

And one reason they can share the top tier so easily together is that they don't butt heads over the same turf. NASCAR is quite happy to let Formula One Management manage Formula One. NASCAR does not badmouth Formula One. Indeed, Formula One is extremely popular among the ranks of those participating in NASCAR. And Formula One is becoming more pragmatic and not above borrowing - stealing - what works elsewhere. Say, does that qualifying system being used in Formula One strike anyone as being familiar from some place? Like Atlanta, Pocono, Bristol, or Darlington? Or how Formula One results are now often listed in an ordinal format - including the non-finishers?

Formula One and NASCAR are, if nothing else, aware of The Bottom Line. While Formula One has strolled along almost oblivious that the go-go days of the Gordon Gecko Gang are now past - hey, Arrows was on borrowed time and Ligier, ah, Prost was in the same leaky boat - and is now facing the prospect of the manufacturers within its midst creating their own series, NASCAR has paid closer attention to the economic winds (in a relative sense) and cannot provide enough of its product to the customers.

Meanwhile, finally embracing the concept that the "world" in not anchored in place in Europe, Formula One is exploring other venues and reducing the number of European events in the "FIA Formula One World Championship." Oh, did I mention that every new Formula One venue has no restrictions on tobacco advertising or use? Fancy that.

Perhaps the major difference between Formula One and NASCAR is that the latter came to grips - very reluctantly and not without no end of hand-wringing, weeping and wailing, gnashing of teeth, and rending of garments - with its addiction to tobacco and its major drug to racing, money.

NASCAR is evolving into something that may just well guarantee its continued place on the top tier in addition to kicking the tobacco habit. In 2004, Toyota will begin competing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Climbing to the top of NASCAR hierarchy are a new generation of Frances (and others) who have been serving as understudies for years now - just as the current generation worked the "family" business. This new generation looks at America the world with a different perspective than those who preceded them.

Formula One and NASCAR are fiddling with that most volatile of notions, tradition. In Formula One, that there might not be a British Grand Prix in a season or so is difficult for many to comprehend. However, it would not be wise to bet against such a notion. In Formula One, nothing is forever. Lotus came and went. There have been seasons without a Formula One German Grand Prix.

In America, NASCAR is offering up its real anchor, the Southern 500 at Darlington, to the expediency of marketing The Product. The California market can easily support another event. The television numbers that a California presence would deliver make the decision a no-brainer: bye-bye Darlington!

A closing thought to ponder - what if NASCAR were to decide to utilize its marketing and business acumen to go truly international? Or to finally field a series similar - perhaps it would simply be easier to buy the series and its name - to the SCCA Trans-Am series? The NASCAR Busch Series draws standalone crowds that most racing events would love to have. With the merging and blurring of many of the elements of motor sports in recent years, it is food for thought to think about NASCAR expanding its interests in partnership agreements with those elsewhere.

Keep in mind that during its formative years that the big NASCAR race in Daytona was a road race.