HAMILTON SPEC: Tim Miller's take on NASCAR & CASCAR

Veteran motorsports writer Tim Miller has a piece in today's Hamilton Spectator, talking about the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series.

It kind of clouds the issue of what was 'bought' and 'sold' leading up to the Sept. 12 announcement in Toronto, but it's a convoluted concept to begin with.

It's my understanding that the deal is effective January 1, 2007. But that after tomorrow night's banquet in London, there will be no more mention of CASCAR. At that point, everything will be geared toward promoting the new entity (The NASCAR Canadian Tire Series).

Common sense would tell you that it's anything but ''clean' to purchase something as ambiguous and intangible as a sanctioning body. What is CASCAR? A name? A logo? A legacy? A rulebook? The assets and/or debts? Certainly it's not the tracks, teams, drivers or cars.

Therefore, the easiest way to go about it, I suspect, would be to have Tony Novotny agree to wind down CASCAR on his own. In return, he might receive a sum of money and possibly sign on as a paid consultant to the new series for a pre-determined period of time.

So while NASCAR may not have actually "bought" CASCAR, I suspect there is an agreement between the two parties that will see Tony Novotny compensated to co-operate in a transitional process that will result in a very CASCAR-like product on track next season, called the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series.

Further murkying the waters was the 'cease & desist' letter from NASCAR's legal dept. on Sept. 18, 2006, informing "CASCAR ONLINE" webmaster Evan Towle that "...you are using the CASCAR trademark, of which NASCAR is now the rightful owner..." So they obviously believe they own the logo.

However, while all of these things may appear to be a bit of a 'tangled web', the end result will be that CASCAR is heading into the history books and everyone is excited about the NASCAR-owned and operated "NASCAR Canadian Tire Series".