Day 6: Rain, Ricky and riff-raff

Looks like I brought a little Unity Raceway with me to central Florida.

I mean, the Gary Mitchell Memorial at Unity is a lot like the Daytona 500. Well, maybe not. But they're both marquee events at their respective facilities, More to the point, whenever I head to either one, it rains.

Repeatedly.

Sprint Cup Series practice was hit up by rain, and the practice sessions for the Nationwide Series and Craftsman Truck Series were shuffled around by rain showers. It must be me...

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During my now infamous trip to the Mainely Motorsports set a few weeks back, show owner Steve Perry of Windham asked me -- half-jokingly, I thought -- what it would take to make one of the top spots on my Top 10 stories of 2007 list. I told him he'd probably have to buy a track or something.

I didn't think he'd actually go out and do it.

It appears Perry has done something close. Word is that he's leasing the go-kart track Richmond Raceway beginning this season, and he's already started lining up personnel to help him run the Sunday afternoon shows there.

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Former supercross racer Ricky Carmichael has been rumored to the Camping World East Series for the last several months, but Carmichael said at New Smyrna Speedway this week that he's got no ride lined up yet for that series.

Carmichael said he's got a few options on the table, one of which is from Richard Childress Racing.

Should Carmichael sign with RCR, don't be surprised to see him end up in a development deal with Andy Santerre Motorsports. ASM still has an available seat -- with a reported asking price of $850,000 for the season -- and RCR already has youngster Austin Dillon driving a development car with ASM.

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Is it just me, or does Ken Schrader's car look like a bunch of Teletubbies puked all over it?

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It's an uphill battle for last-minute, low-budget teams, as Kevin Lepage well knows.
Lepage, who was asked by Doug Taylor to drive the currently unsponsored No. 61 Ford in the Nationwide Series this year, was just 44th quickest out of 50 cars in the only practice session Wednesday in preparation for Saturday's Camping World 300.

By the way, visited the Camping World store in the Daytona infield today. Actually, I didn't so much visit as I did walk through it like it was some kind of sidewalk.

Here's what I got from the stroll -- lots of portable grills, camp lights and giant packages of single-ply toilet paper. All in a less-than-endearing warehouse-style setting.

Welcome to the big track.