Track to the future: Casting an eye on '09 and beyond

Pardon me while I file a police report. Someone took summer and I'd like to get it back.

How in the world did Labor Day get here so fast? I still have receipts from the Orlando airport on my desk from the trip to Daytona back in February.

Bruton Smith vows Kentucky will be on the Cup sked in '10. Is he right? (Getty Images)

But somehow the kids in my neighborhood were at the bus stop this week and sure enough there's college football on tap this weekend, both absolute signs that summer is ending and fall is knocking on the door.

The seasons may change but NASCAR goes on ... and on ... and on. No other sport transcends all four seasons on the calendar and overlaps with every other sport's campaigns.

NASCAR starts in the dead of winter while the NBA, college basketball and the NHL are going strong. It picks up steam during baseball's spring training and the NCAA basketball tournament and then hits its stride during the summer months. There's a brief lull in late summer, but things pick up again as NFL teams come to camp. By the time the pro football schedule is in full swing and the World Series has just ended, NASCAR finally throttles itself down with its championship weekend in Homestead.

That's a season which begins on Valentine's Day and ends just before Thanksgiving, for those of you keeping score at home.

And guess what? Usually by the time we celebrate New Year's and winter testing begins, most everyone is ready to get back to the track.

It's a long journey to say the least, but not one many want to see changed anytime soon.

Before we shut down the summer run and head into the final Labor Day weekend race in Fontana, which will mercifully move to Atlanta beginning in 2009, let's clean out the old reporter's notebook with some news items that have been coming fast and furious the last several days:

Logano replaces Stewart

Joe Gibbs Racing was forced to fast track the career plan for phenom Joey Logano when Tony Stewart bolted its No. 20 ride to start his own team. Rather than letting the teen sensation have a full season of running for a Nationwide Series title under his belt with a handful of Cup starts thrown into the mix, the Gibbs group will make Logano the full-time driver for the famous Home Depot-sponsored entry in 2009.

The kid has succeeded at every level of competition he has been in during his rise to the top, and there's no reason to believe it won't continue at NASCAR's highest level. It will just take time. Gibbs will have to be patient with Logano's development, something that will come a little easier with a guy like Kyle Busch winning so regularly for your team.