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Racing fans, NASCAR fanatics, auto historians, drag racers, Cup chasers unite! Racing in America and The Henry Ford are looking for enthusiastic writers to contribute to the Racing in America blog. Do you want to join a fast growing and fun blog? Good, we'd love to hear from you.

A mechanic will replace parts that are broken, a truly great mechanic will tell you why that part is breaking. Let me explain; it's a bit of a long story:

The last time we chatted, I shared my list of favorite American race tracks and asked for yours.

Now, we’re going to zoom in more closely and talk about our favorite turns at American race tracks. Again, the requirement is that you must have either witnessed in person cars (or motorcycles) racing through the turn, or have driven the turn yourself.

Here’s my list:

Sometimes we watch auto racing and think, "wow that was some great driving that guy just did". Sometimes we don't realize we are watching a piece of history because it is coming at us in real time.

The name of my blog includes "racing". This doesn't mean I'm watching on TV and reporting back; it's meant to be my events. My blog title also includes "Average" and includes budgets as well. (You might as well include 'time', as in the average amount of time to spend on the hobby.)

NASCAR has finally announced the much anticipated and speculated about 2011 Cup schedule. The new schedule includes a mixing up of dates, the removal of second dates from both Atlanta and California, and the addition of Kentucky Speedway - a new track. Texas will be hosting a night race next season. But one change I was really hoping for did NOT happen.

What are your five favorite American race tracks?

They can be short tracks, road courses, drag strips or superspeedways. The only requirement in this game is that you must have attended (or participated in) a race at each of them.

Before you list yours, I’ll list mine (and since I’m writing the rules, I’m ignoring the five track limit). Here’s my list:

The majority of NASCAR fans adopt a main driver and take on that driver as their own. They will often even refer to the driver as being owned by them. My driver, my team, my my MY. They feel ownership and pride in their driver when they win. They feel the defeat when their driver suffers a particularly devastating loss and the anger when their driver is the victim of someone else’s “mistake.”

Last weekend at Pocono we saw something that was so bad it forces NASCAR to examine the way the racetracks are designed for safety reasons. Our friends at NASCAR have improved the "Car of Tomorrow" for drivers safety and they improved 90% of the walls by adding safer barriers but 90% is not good enough.

Back in the 1960's, almost anyone who was anyone in motor racing spent some time racing Minis. The cars were great crowd pleasers. Easy to see why when they are driven the right way. You could argue that any clown can drift given enough power but, momentum oversteer, that's another story.