Auto Racing Biggest Weekend is here

It is Memorial Day Weekend and that means it is the biggest auto racing weekend of the year. At least it used to be. This weekend is the Indianapolis 500, the Coca Cola 600, and F1 race at historic Monaco. All are a big deal in their local markets. The problem is I'm not sure how much of a big deal they are world wide anymore. AUTO RACING USED TO BE BIG The Indianapolis 500 used to be the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. I grew up in Indy and went to the 500 every year. The sport was at its absolute peak with household name drivers like AJ Foyt, Johnny Rutherford, Mario Andretti and the Unser family. There was the era in more recent times where Danica Patrick brought more curious eyeballs to watch on TV, but sadly, I don't think I could name one driver in this weekend's race. Nascar reached its heyday in the early 2000's. I went to several races from Daytona to Darlington. The sport's household names were Jimmy Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart. They have all retired since then. Now NASCAR is most known for last week's roundhouse punch thrown at Kyle Busch by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. And while F1 popularity may have peaked in the days of 7 time champion Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton holds the sport's torch now and F1 seems to have an uptick in popularity in America with better TV coverage these days. Maybe auto racing will return to its peak in popularity and maybe it won't. Either way it will always be a part of Memorial Weekend. All of us at Craig Shemon and Company from 2-6 every weekday afternoon on ESPN Southwest Florida wish you a wonderful weekend!