Every fan and participant has their own series of memories that mark the days of racing past. They inevitably flash by like a series of Burma Shave signs, itself an old-fashioned roadside advertising technique that literally marks the passage of distance and time.

On this Memorial Day, another immortal 500 miles at Indy and 600 at Charlotte have rushed into the maw of history just as the gates to the summer season were thrown open. In a remarkable sign of cooperation in an often fractious world, the Monaco Grand Prix aligned with these other great racing events to provide a grand slam of hot rodding.

At Monaco, McLaren-Mercedes teammates Alonso and Lewis flashed by regularly in the closing laps of the race like a roving Burma and Shave as the chasing rookie scrubbed rubber on the barriers before leader Alonso, now using a razor for the clean-cut McLaren look, took the checkers.

There’s the memory of sitting with friends on the rocky hillside known as “Le Rocher,” which overlooks the harbor portion of the seaside circuit of Monte Carlo. I won a bet for a beer by suggesting the winning lap time (by that Schumacher guy aboard the scarlet car) in qualifying would come down to the 1:19’s. And jeez, that was just seven years ago and now they’re down to the 1:15’s as Monaco’s street course continues to stand the test of time with satisfying grace.

But the Darwinian nature of F-1 stood clear again as Alonso’s old team, Renault, ate cheap dust in the world’s richest city and the scarlet guys ate their hearts out like forlorn Romantic poets over their lost hegemony. Ah, the black-and-white blood lust of racing.

In America, racing hedges all other sporting bets on this weekend.

A big bet at Indy came from Dario Franchitti’s Andretti Green team, which gambled that the lead on a re-start was the place to be, not often the case. Having come from mid-field due to a cut tire, there was nothing to lose by leaving him out when others pitted prior to the short run-up to the rain. Sometimes better to witness lucky and good, especially for those who have been cheered by Franchitti’s unflappable love for the job of driving race cars.

There’s the memory of first meeting a very young Franchitti at Hokenheim, where he was driving in the German Touring Car Series for Mercedes. The next time we crossed paths was at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan during the exhibition weekend for CART teams at the new track. Finally, we had time for a real conversation during CART spring training in Homestead, Fla. several months later, where the Scot took the time to suggest, “I guess the next time I’ll see you will be in Australia.” It’s that extra effort to turn the often grimey process of “star race car driver” into a friendly one that goes a long way with writers and fans.

This was my year to be in Charlotte, where a fuel gambit brought an O. Henry finish and victory for Casey Mears, recently suffering as an expendable driver in the Hendrick Motorsports empire for those who thought Dale Earnhardt Jr. was irresistable. Mears, also long suffering as a sure bet to win his first race, is the son of Roger Mears, the less-heralded brother of the famed four-time Indy winner Rick. So what a remarkable chapter and delightful irony that Roger Mears’ boy gets his first Nextel Cup victory in NASCAR’s 600-mile classic on the same day as Indy.

To pit or not to pit? That was the question that decided Indy and Charlotte, where Rick Hendrick again looks like a genius when it comes to picking drivers. Geoff Bodine and Tim Richmond, latterly Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch and Mears come to mind. And, on the weekend Jack Roush (himself a sharp judge of talent) claimed Hendrick took the Car of Tomorrow races by the throat because they broke the spirit of the testing rules, well, Mears won it the old-fashioned way in a Car of Yesterday.

What comes to mind is standing on the top of the old media center roof in 1994 as Crew Chief Ray Evernham made the call for a two-tire change on the final pit stop for his young charge with the learner’s permit mustache named Gordon, getting the kid his first Cup victory versus Rusty Wallace, who took four Goodyears.

These days, as then, it’s often a slim margin between sipping the champagne or falling prey to the slippery slope of second place (first loser) in F-1, Indycar or NASCAR’s upper echelon such is the level of commitment and competition. Green flag, stuff happens, checkers, champagne, or not, then look for the next set of signs coming down the road.

The phalanx looked like The Magnficent Seven — or a scene from Reservoir Dogs if your tastes run to more modern movie images. In any event, the group striding down the paddock and headed for the gates had seen, conquored and was headed for the next conquest at full tilt.

In the middle was the man himself, Roger Penske, and his first lieutenant Tim Cendric. Penske’s Porsche Spyder had just swept the American Le Mans Series race at Miller Motorsports Park with surprising ease against the mighty Audi R10 TDI armada. But that was history. In the gunsights at this moment for the Penske Racing brain trust was the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a short corporate jet ride away.

In the back of their minds, perhaps, was the fact Kurt Busch had been competing for the victory in a Penske Racing Dodge at Charlotte in the Nextel All-Star race this same night when he crashed in a duel with his younger brother. That race is considered the golden fleece of bragging rights in NASCAR country, where Penske now has his truly magnificent racing factory. Despite the crash — and perhaps because of it — the gauntlet has been cast, foreshadowing victories for the Penske Dodges later this year after what has been a dry spell for both Busch and Ryan Newman.

Next up, the Indy 500, where the Penske team has 14 poles, thanks to Helio Castroneves’ qualifying efforts this year. Looking for a record 15th victory, Penske has a car in each of the first three rows, including the satellite entry for Ryan Briscoe, the talented young Aussie reclaimed from the brink after his horrifying crash in Chicago while driving for Chip Ganassi.

It was Briscoe who co-drove to victory in the Porsche at the daunting 23-turn Miller track, his first major win since the fiery crash from which he was lucky to escape with faculties intact.

In fact, the Penske team seems to specialize in recovery projects. Busch became an outcast among fans, his Roush team and his sponsors just one year after winning the first Nextel Cup. At Penske, where he wasn’t predicted to last past his first two years, he has become a focused professional versus the guy who could get himself arrested in Phoenix.

One might even consider Penske’s Sam Hornish a bit of a castoff. The Ohioan couldn’t find his behind with either hand at Indy despite winning IRL championships until he signed on with the Captain. This year, he’ll be gunning for two in a row at the Brickyard.

So what’s the secret behind the success of Penske? The man himself, of course. He is America’s resident racing genius if you compare results as well as breadth of participation. Oh sure, there’s the usual knock that he hasn’t won a NASCAR title or a Daytona 500 for those who like to split hairs. Besides, the future looks bright as always at Penske, including an assault on the Le Mans 24-hour as the Porsche factory team in the near future, possibly next year.

What’s most amazing about the Penske team is the fact he runs it like the rest of his privately held, multi-billion dollar empire. He relies on chief lieutenants like Cendric. That sounds easy enough, until one considers the breadth of his empire of businesses where the same system is in place. Ultimately, only Penske himself knows what’s going on in all of his operations at any given time, although is son Greg is right in his draft. Of course, RP’s also legendary for getting involved in the details of those operations, right down to minute design choices for buildings.

So what about a few quotes from the man himself on his success or how it gets it done? Penske always plays his cards so close to his vest that even his lieutenants can only glean what goes on in his head other than the fact he expects dedication, fresh ideas, loyalty, hard work and success. Those without such qualities, in addition to talent, need not apply.

Penske is first and foremost a super salesman, which he pursues like everything else, relentlessly. He once offered to give a lift home to the team’s shops in Redding, Pa. on his corporate jet to Teddy Mayer, one of his racing crew chiefs, after a race. It took three days for Mayer to get back to Redding because Penske made so many sales stops along the way.

As far as racing goes, one key is to start with a large amount of money and factory alliances so that the fundamentals never fail due to a lack of budget. Another key is Penske’s own confidence and ability as a field general. When he shows up at the race track, it’s like Caesar riding to the point of a pitch battle with red cape flying. It gives everyone a lift to have him on your pit wall — or in the case of Busch spotting for you high atop a NASCAR grandstand.

Ultimately, Penske has an incredible depth of understanding of what it takes to win motor races, which is always a complicated and highly fluid circumstance whether its the dead of winter or a hot day in Indiana. Then there’s that self-motivation, the one key ingredient for any successful racer at any level of the sport.

Having won at Miller, Penske couldn’t wait to get to the next one. As his great driver Mark Donohue once said, the needle always goes back to zero.

Jonathan Ingram can be reached at jingram666@cs.com.

Especially if you’re Earnhardt Jr.

Like so many race car stars before him, the cockpit of his racer has become a sanctuary for the second son of Dale Earnhardt. If nothing else, driving the car takes his mind off the questions he’s about to face in the coming months regarding his future — while all of NASCAR nation speculates on those same questions.

Although inevitably cast as a celebrity-industrial-complex story, it’s a saga just as worthy of Shakespearean drama. A prince tries to escape the long shadow cast by a beloved dead king, which would be the story line from Hamlet.

If that seems far-fetched, this racing prince similarly spins out his own tale in a manner that underscores both his doubts about the future as well as his resolve to focus on winning races and championships, i.e. reclaiming the throne. Staying at Dale Earnhardt Inc., the driver has concluded, won’t get the job done.

In truth, in the absence of the company’s founder and namesake, the organizational chart at DEI has been insufficient under the pressure of grief. Since losing its edge at the restrictor plate tracks of Daytona and Talladega, DEI has slid into a funk. Everybody in the organization, it seems, has a vision of fulfilling Dale Sr.’s vision — but none of those visions match up.

The latest mismatch was the proposal by Dale Jr. and his sister/business manager Kelly Earnhardt Elledge to be given control of DEI by stepmother Teresa Earnhardt in order to resolve the ongoing funk. A bona fide business partner to her late husband, Teresa was asked to give away a multi-million dollar business on the basis that it could not survive without the presence of the family’s racing bloodline.

The garage at Darlington, in fact, was like a wake for DEI, which is assumed to be headed for the dumpster without the sponsorship dollars generated by Dale Jr. once he leaves in 2008. On the other hand, what business executive has ever been known to simply give away controlling interest of a highly profitable corporation?

A couple of historical perspectives can shed some light on the future of DEI. When Richard Petty left his family operation of Petty Enterprises at the end of the 1983 season, it shook NASCAR to its foundation. This was more like a king abdicating the throne. Petty went on to win his 199th and 200th races for the team of Mike Curb, but Petty Enterprises never quite rebounded, even though the King returned and it survived.

When the Wood Brothers fired David Pearson, who was almost like family, after a pit stop snafu in Darlington in 1979, that also was a sea change in NASCAR nation. The winning record of the Wood Brothers has not been the same since, even though it too survives.

In the current “split of the century,” everyone assumes the battle boils down to Dale Jr. versus his stepmother. But the heart of the story remains the missing king. For his part, Dale Jr. has become more endearing to fans and the media with his decision to become a free agent due to his forthrightness in stating his own vision about taking ownership of DEI and then the plaintive difficulty of making his decision to leave after being thwarted.

In truth, there’s a lot bigger window into Earnhardt Jr.’s soul due to his verbal skills than that of Dale Sr., who had his doubts and strategies but rarely acknowledged them. The gift of gab for Little E, ironically, comes from his maternal grandfather, race car builder Robert Gee. Whether Earnhardt Jr. has the ability to drive his way to a championshp versus his peers remains a valid question, but one that is rarely posed due to his down-to-earth, cool personality.

With what team will Earnhardt Jr. try to answer the championship question?

It is a safe assumption he will move to a Chevrolet team, but there are problems in all directions nevertheless.

A move to Richard Childress Racing may well replicate the current dilemma of living in the shadow of a seven-time champion, since Earnhardt Sr. won six of his titles in RCR’s cars.

The team of Rick Hendrick, also a winner of six championships, has grief issues in the wake of the tragic plane crash that killed Hendrick’s brother, his son, several other family and team members just under three years ago. Winning races and contending for championships has gone a long way to resolve the Hendrick team’s spirit, especially the team owner’s. Given the overwhelming success this season by Jeff Gordon following last year’s Nextel Cup title by Jimmie Johnson, why mess with the team chemistry by cutting loose Kyle Busch or Casey Mears?

At Joe Gibbs Racing, the team owner does not want beer sponsorship, even if his superstar Tony Stewart gets along well with NASCAR’s most popular driver. Will Earnhardt Jr.’s current Budweiser sponsor allow itself to be out-bid by a competing sponsor? Don’t bet on it.

Ginn Racing, meanwhile, hasn’t won as many races as DEI, much less a championship. Landing a semi-retired Mark Martin is not the same as a potential winner of multiple championships who is in the prime of his career.

Finally, there’s always JR Motorsports, the Busch Series team owned by Earnhardt Jr. It could become a satellite operation with cars and engines from Hendrick Motorsports, much like Ginn Racing. Chevrolet might facilitate such a deal, even though JR Motorsports has yet to win a race. But would it re-create the problems suffered at DEI, where not enough money, in the opinion of Earnhardt Jr., is being spent properly on engineering and engines. How could a start-up Nextel Cup team entirely dependent on sponsors and race winnings fund the necessary budget?

In the long view, it’s impossible not to commiserate with Earnhardt Jr., who seemingly is always caught on the rumble strips between triumph and tragedy. He may be able to put the smell of money into the air in the form of sponsorship and race victories by becoming a free agent, but which way the championship breeze blows still may not be within his grasp.

Jonathan Ingram can be reached at jingram666@cs.com.

1. Patrick is ready to win her first IndyCar race after 35 career starts and her best track remains the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Supposedly, the average number of IndyCar races a driver runs before the first victory is 33. In any case, Danica’s due. The number of drivers who have won their first IndyCar race at Indianapolis are few in number, but include the likes of Troy Ruttman and Graham Hill.

2. Patrick set the fastest lap of the month at Indy two years ago while driving for Rahal Letterman Racing. That resulted from driving talent and the Panoz-Honda combination, not any weight advantage. Her teammate that year at Rahal Letterman, Vitor Meira, barely outweighed her and had the same equipment plus far more experience… .

3. How many other drivers can say they have taken the lead in Turn 1 on a re-start within 11 laps of the checkers? The guy Patrick passed — eventual 2005 winner Dan Wheldon — surely didn’t cut her any slack.

4. There’s something to the old racing adage about losing a race before learning how to win it. In the case of Danica, a fuel mileage gamble kept her in the 2005 race and also took her out of it before the finish. Patrick knows what it takes to be in position to win, i.e. how to take the lead on a re-start when the race is on the line.

5. It takes luck to win at Indy and Patrick’s luck generally runs well at the Brickyard. She survived a pit stop snafu and a multi-car wreck she started herself under yellow in 2005 and was still in the running. If the critics say she was lucky, who’s to argue that any Indy 500 winner needs some luck? As for incentive, think of the millions Danica will make if she scores at the Brickyard.

6. The guy who won last year, Sam Hornish, spent most of his life pursuing a victory in the Indy 500 and finally got it with the right team last year, Penske Racing. Former karting champion Patrick, who would tell anyone she met as a 12-year-old that she was going to win the 500, enters at Indy with a good team for the third straight year. Her new team, Andretti Green Racing, has posted a first in 2005, plus a second and third last year.

7. For those cynical types who might think Patrick was added to AGR to boost the team’s over-all budget with her Motorola and Honda sponsorship, it’s worthwhile to note that team principal Kim Green charts her race strategy. He’s not in that role to finish second.

8. Last year, Patrick suffered all month with the Panoz chassis. The car was poorly balanced and just not fast enough when the IRL forced Panoz to change a suspect undertray that aided straightaway speeds in 2004 and 2005. After struggling all month last year to coax speed from a bad chassis, this year Patrick returns with a competitive Dallara machine. In such cases, the lap times and confidence usually improve considerably. (See the Penske and Ganassi teams during the 2006 season when they moved from underpowered Toyota V-8’s to Honda engines.)

9. OK, OK. Patrick has registered two pit snafus in her first four races with AGR, taking teammate Tony Kanaan out of contention at Motegi and crashing in Homestead at the pit entrance. Such issues often occur with a change in teams. After four races and a month of May at Indy, these problems should be ironed out.

10. If Danica doesn’t win this year, there’s always next year and the years after. She won’t run out of sponsorship because of her performance, not her gender or good looks. Judging by her finish of 8th with a desultory chassis last year, when she was one of 10 drivers to finish on the lead lap, Patrick won’t run out of teams that believe she can make history at Indy.

Jonathan Ingram can be reached at jingram666@cs.com