This is going to be a really, really obscure reference. Fair warning.
At the end of the 2002 CART season, then CEO Chris Pook said there were going to be some announcements and developments that will “knock your socks off!”
When said announcements came and no real positive developments happened, most people’s socks seemed to stay firmly attached... and that was a bit of a running joke for a brief period on a couple spots I used to frequent talking about open wheel racing back in those days.
Well, with today’s announcement of Roger Penske taking over the speedway and the series, my socks have indeed finally been blown off, almost 17 years later to the week of when Pook said they would.
I made an oppo post just before the news conference went live this morning about it. After some discussion in replies on a Jalop article about the happening, shop-teacher asked if I had read Robin Miller’s take on it yet, which I hadn’t. I had refreshed Racer.com a couple times throughout the day waiting to get some more details but hadn’t yet spotted that one.
Now that I have, I would have to argue Miller is spot on, as usual. I don’t think there’s been a collective giddyness to team owners and overly nerdy fans like myself in a long, long time.