In the years after World War II, the newly-minted United States Air Force set up shop on the edge of Rogers Lake on the border of Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties to wring out their hottest new aircraft.

Muroc Field - later to become Edwards Air Force Base - was the name of the facility, and a more godforsaken out-of-the-way spot in the middle of nowhere was hard to imagine. The Air Force chose it because the dry lake was the perfect testing ground for new equipment, with miles of absolutely flat, hard earth serving as generous runways for the best test pilots in the world to use.

Sebring International Raceway in Sebring, Florida, shares several elements with Muroc Field. It was once an Air Force base, and it shares about the same connection with civilization, which is to say it might as well be set up in the Egyptian desert with the pyramids. And while it is not absolutely flat - actually, it is so bumpy that you can lose fillings just driving around the racing surface, and that's probably the best case scenario given the rather firm nature of the track's walls - it is the location where many different categories of American motorsport descend to test their newest and hottest equipment.

Muroc and Sebring share another quality, in that except in rare instances the testing that goes on there goes unheralded and is mostly workmanlike in nature. But there are instances when these gritty, remote locations become the flashpoint of an explosion of interest. In Muroc's case, it became a pop culture landmark during the space race, when the Air Force tested its staggering array of X-planes and destroyed speed and altitude records in the process.

For Sebring, the flashpoint happened over the past two days, when Formula 1 star Rubens Barrichello joined his "brother from another mother" Tony Kanaan to test the new Dallara DW12 IndyCar for KV Racing.

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Ten years ago, a young driver in the Champ Car World Series ladder system was having a conversation with then-CEO Christopher Pook in the paddock at St. Petersburg, Florida.

Pook had made headlines for all the wrong reasons by publicly alleging that American race car drivers were inadequate against European-trained competition for Champ Car seats, and this young driver - an American - was incensed by Pook's casual dismissal.

Incredibly, Pook - the latest in a long line of "saviors" of Champ Car who would eventually almost single-handedly bankrupt the series - reiterated his comments to the driver's face.

"You're testing the wrong people," the driver retorted. "You give me ten laps, and I'll show you that you are absolutely wrong."

The driver never got that test, though, his bravado notwithstanding. Pook and the Champ Car powers-that-be passed him by, along with several other promising young American drivers in the ladder system.

In the present day, Joey Hand - the young driver told to his face that he was not good enough - is an established and successful sports car driver and factory driver for BMW. His career is thriving... but his dream of racing in the Indianapolis 500 and competing at the top level of open-wheel racing is long dead. And he is not alone.

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I'm going to make an admission that will probably get me in hot water with the Indy-rati out there.

I was born in Indianapolis on race weekend. I spent most of my early life only blocks away from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

But until I finished college, the only IndyCar race I ever watched was the Indianapolis 500.

That's right. Although philosophically methanol ran through my veins like platelets, I had no background or appreciation for USAC racing, CART, roadsters and Road America, midgets and Milwaukee, or any of the trappings of Indy car racing that everyone tells me is the absolute lifeblood of the sport.

If that's not embarrassing enough, I only learned that there were more IndyCar races than THE BIG ONE after playing video games in my college dorm room.

I learned everything I know about IndyCar history by researching it, not by experiencing it. I like to think I have a good basic foundation for IndyCar's past by now, but for most of my life I experienced IndyCar in the same way that the enormous majority of people around the world do today - by watching it once a year in late May at the Brickyard.

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It wouldn't have been IndyCar without a slight tinge of hysterical pessimism coloring the beginning of the new year.

Let's face it - pessimism by now is coded into the DNA of a disturbingly large percentage of IndyCar fans, and if there wasn't something to worry or kvetch about, most of us would start wondering who had passed out the Ambien.

Where is Lotus? Why is the DW12 such a dog on ovals?? Why doesn't XX have a ride???

Chill, folks. These things are already getting worked out, and spring training in Sebring doesn't even start until March.

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It's not the greatest time in the world to be a fan of IndyCar oval racing.

Not only is the number of oval races in the upcoming season drastically lower than anyone hoped, but the atmosphere around the paddock and in the management offices seems to be apathetic towards maintaining any sort of equal quota of left-turn-only events on the series schedule. At least, that's what oval fans tell me.

The reasons for this have been spelled out ad nauseum, but really, if you're a fan... how can those explanations erase the twisting sensation in the pit of your stomach when you see a road or street race replace an oval race?

For oval fans, this is not simply a betrayal of series history, but a personal insult. Every argument about why ovals aren't currently working for IndyCar illogically feels like a backhanded, thinly-veiled accusation... even though the idea that oval fans who actually take the time and money to attend one of these races are somehow to blame for their failure is ridiculous.

If you can pardon a digression, I will explain why I sympathize profoundly with oval fans, even though I understand and accept why they are doomed to be disappointed.

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The first person that Beaux Barfield ought to call, now that he has been officially announced as the inheritor of the worst job in organized motorsports, is the NHL's Brendan Shanahan.

Those of you who follow professional ice hockey don't need to be told who Shanahan is. For the rest, let's describe Shanahan this way - he is the only player in NHL history to amass more than 600 goals and more than 2,000 penalty minutes. In other words, while he was still playing, he could score on you and then deprive you of your teeth, all in the same game.

Shanny's current gig is acting as the National Hockey League's Vice President of Hockey and Business Development. Impressive as that sounds, his main job is to act as "the NHL's top cop," a job formerly held by Colin Campbell, who was about as thoroughly reviled in his execution of the post as Brian Barnhart was when Barnhart ran IndyCar race control.

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Sit back, kids, and let your grizzled old blogger give you a bit of a history lesson.

Just over half a century ago, the United States of America was in a veritable lather, a froth of panic. When Americans looked up into the night sky, one of the stars moved. When they tuned their radios to a certain frequency, a persistent beep-beep-beep told them that the Communist Menace had established a foothold beyond the atmosphere.

The launch of Sputnik I signaled the beginning of the Space Race between the US and the Soviets, but it also threw a monkey wrench into the nation's carefully-laid plans to venture into space.

People familiar with the history of NASA and the US space program will recognize the name "Project Mercury," but they may not remember the other name of the program: MISS, which was an acronym for "Man In Space Soonest."

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It's not like this wasn't coming for months.

Still, that didn't keep Robin Miller from virtually tripping over his moustache and "paddock paunch" to be first out the door with the news. The Daily Prophet could hardly have been more enthusiastic about Lord Voldemort's demise than Miller was to make his pronouncement.

Brian Barnhart is out of Race Control.

At this point, if you picture the start/finish line at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway painted gold and Miller doing the Macarena on it with a horde of Munchkins, you're probably pretty close to the atmosphere that accompanied the scoop.

Miller went public with the news late on Tuesday night, most likely because, like a child who tears into his Christmas presents on Christmas Eve, he just couldn't wait any longer. Why? Because Ann Coulter and Barack Obama could not be worse enemies than Miller was - and is - with Barnhart.

The grudge and its resolution certainly make for entertaining fodder ex post facto. What they don't do is give us an idea about how Race Control will change with Barnhart no longer in charge.

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