Alas, maybe even the concept of the factory as boring has changed. These days, GM has one individual hand-building each of the 505-horsepower LS7 engines found in the Z06 model. And the engineers traded notes with the racing side on how to build a production Corvette capable of achieving 200 mph with some stability. Hence, the smaller greenhouse of both the C6 and Z06 that makes them compelling versus the styling competition in Europe.

If nothing else, the Corvette Racing program has re-focused the world on road-going supercars in a way that’s relatively practical for manufacturers. In addition to the Astons, two Saleen S7R’s, a Lamborghinni Murcielago R-GT and a Ferrari 550 Maranello took on the Corvettes at the Circuit de la Sarthe.

From the perspective of a racing journalist, the greatest accomplishment of the Corvette program is making people forget the ill-fated Cadillac prototypes. One can argue correctly that the attempt by Cadillac to race at Le Mans that began in 2000 and ended so poorly helped changed the perception of the brand in a way that an advertising budget double the size of the racing budget could not. Alas, racers think in black and white, win or lose, not in the abstract. So the silver Cadillacs are not remembered fondly, even if they signalled a complete makeover for the brand.

The Corvettes, winners of five of the last seven Le Mans 24-hours in the GT1 category, have helped GM promote its image as a world class car builder in a way that impresses the racing people as well as the guys in the board room. And, it’s more than image. Pound for pound, dollar for dollar, the Z06 ranks as the best sports car in the world, because it is so relatively light, well-mannered, powerful and accessible in terms of cost.

Ever the cynic, how can I be so certain there’s such a close connection between the C6, the Z06 and the C6.R race car? For starters, the rulebook at Le Mans demands a deriviative from the production body, chassis and suspension. But that’s not the clincher. If the key to the Z06 is the 7.0-liter, small block engine, then it’s a no brainer when it comes to the racing connection.

In a race such as Le Mans where the various makes are brought to the same horsepower level by air restrictors, the rule of thumb has always been go for higher displacement even though the restrictors get smaller. (This has much to do with a Swiss named Bernoulli, whose principle of physics indicates the air speeds up more in the venturi of a smaller restrictor, which facilitates more power from a larger engine on the other end. I wouldn’t know the guy, except that racers keep talking about him.)

When the Corvettes first arrived at Le Mans, the challenge was to beat the Dodge Vipers, powered by 8.0-liter engines. According to Joe Negri, the GM engineer who spearheaded the decision to add one liter displacement, a 6.0-liter V-8 would not get the job done versus the Viper’s larger V-10. The last time Chevy had produced a 7.0-liter engine, Junior Johnson’s race cars were on the receiving end. But it was not until Negri said, “We’re going to use the small block to do it” that I couldn’t believe my ears.

Subsequently, the 7.0-liter has now appeared in the Z06. It’s hard to imagine the production side tackling this project on its own. But if the racers could build a 7.0-liter small block that could sustain itself long enough to win the 24 hours at Le Mans, why not build one for the road? “When we started to look at upgrading the LS6 (engine), the first thing we did was sit down with the race group and talk about what they had done to build a 7.0-liter small block,” said Dave Muscaro, a GM Powertrain engineer.

OK, what about the C6.R and the Impalas that will race at Sonoma?

Last year, Pratt & Miller, the engineering group that fields the Corvettes, suggested some front suspension geometry that worked quite well in the winning Chevy of Jeff Gordon. It seems that under funding from GM Racing, the guys at Pratt & Miller created the mothership of a computer simulation program — based on the factory’s Corvette Racing program. This computer program was funded in part to help build road cars like the Z06. This same program also helped provide the framework for creating a database for the Pratt & Miller engineers (40 strong) working in North Carolina with the NASCAR teams.

Now granted, this sort of information is hard to track for any journalist and it’s more difficult still to determine just how that simulation program may have helped Jeff Gordon on the road course at Sonoma. So we’re back to that old saw about racing and production-based race cars. The people involved will tell you anything to sustain or justify the budget that keeps them racing. Alas, I happen to know the source well and he wasn’t looking for publicity.

Although it’s likely to change in the very near future, you don’t see too many of those “racing improves the breed” stories any more. When it comes to winning on Sunday and selling on Monday, it also bears pointing out that they’re racing Impalas these days, because the car they used to race, the Monte Carlo, wasn’t selling enough models. And NASCAR hasn’t had any fundamentally new technology since the days of Junior Johnson.

It’s all about the corporate nameplates these days not only in NASCAR but also in F1, which continues to struggle with the concept of production-related technology versus technology for the sake of winning races that fans may or may not relate to production vehicles. F1 has become the automotive version of celebrity marketing.

All this, in fact, may lay the groundwork for the further elevation of the Le Mans 24-hour and its associated series, the American Le Mans Series and the Le Mans European Series. Most recently, Le Mans has scored home runs with its rulebook and the arrival of diesel prototypes from Audi and Peugeot, cool race cars with green technology. Lightweight Porsche prototypes and alternate fuel Hondas (possibly with compressed natural gas) are in the wings.

So Le Mans may indeed re-invent the old saw. (”Win on Saturday/Sunday, sell on Monday.”) When it comes to the Corvette developed for the Le Mans rulebook’s GT1 category, there is no problem selling all of the cars produced, especially the Z06, and that includes Europe. Having road-tested the Z06 recently, it makes one proud to be, well, an American on the open road with the incredibly supple power of a 7.0-liter, hand-built V-8.

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

3. France Jr. greatly admired and respected his father. But he was not intimidated by the NASCAR founder. In 1978, the sanctioning body put out a press release stating retired founder France Sr. had undergone prostate surgery.

“Dammit, you don’t write press releases about a man’s private parts,” thundered France Sr. in a subsequent meeting with senior staff members at NASCAR. “That’s the stupidest thing NASCAR has done in its history!”

Bill France Jr. declared his father to be wrong, according to other staff members present at the meeting. “The stupidest thing NASCAR ever did,” countered the younger France, “was to endorse Gerald Ford (over Jimmy Carter) the day before the election.”

4. Unlike his father, France Jr. was not much of a race car driver. When IMSA was first launched by France Sr. and former SCCA excutive John Bishop, the sports car series raced on the infield-and-oval course at the Talladega Superspeedway. Short on entries, Bill Jr. was drafted to drive a Ford Cortina. He put the car on its roof, according to an account by Bishop, and was not known to participate in any other motor race as a driver.

5. Perhaps the biggest goof of his career occurred when France Jr. decided to hire the NFL’s so-called drug czar, Dr. Forest Tenant. Tim Richmond then made a mockery of the drug testing procedure, which was created because drivers had complained about Richmond’s erractic behavior during the 1987, when he won two races before abruptly quitting the Winston Cup due to health reasons. Prior to the Busch Series race in 1988, the mercurial Richmond loaded up on over-the-counter medicine, was banned after failing a drug test and then sued NASCAR. Richmond won an out-of-court settlement well into seven figures, according to an Associated Press story by Mike Harris. Tenant was later discredited during his tenure with the NFL.

6. One of the most clever manuevers by France Jr. concerned the rule change to “out of the box” cylinder heads mandated for Ford, Chevy and Pontiac engines in 1992. Up until then, teams could modify cylinder heads considerably and teams were spending huge sums in that area. In a conversation I had with France Jr. in Charlotte shortly after the rule was announced, he confirmed the object was to prevent the richer team owners (such as Rick Hendrick, Felix Sabates and Roger Penske) from gaining an advantage versus the team owners who had grown up in the sport (such as Richard Childress and Robert Yates).

In 1991, the year before the rule change, NASCAR had allowed some severe modification of the valve placements in the cylinder heads of Ford engine guru Yates, which gave him as much as a 50-75 horsepower advantage over all other competitors, including those with Fords. Naturally, Ford subsequently submitted the “Yates head” as its choice for the “out of the box” heads mandated by NASCAR for 1992. With considerably more horsepower across the board by the use of the “Yates head,” the Ford teams finally won a much-needed manufacturer’s championship in 1992, led by the incredible upset of owner/driver Alan Kulwicki.

7. Never a shrinking violet, although very private, France Jr. actually radioed Dale Earnhardt Sr. during the final yellow flag period in the 1998 Daytona 500. Calling himself “Captain Jack,” France Jr. refered to Earnhardt Sr. as “Sunday Money” in the radio call, according to the book Unseen Earnhardt (which I co-authored with Al Pearce). France Jr. gave “The Intimidator” encouragement, an unprecedented intervention by a high-level NASCAR official on behalf of an individual driver during a race. It was also a rare self-indulgence by France Jr., although clearly the victory by Earnhardt Sr. was welcomed by all in the sport.

8. France Jr. was the architect behind NASCAR’s strategy to weather the crisis in the media that erupted after the death of Earnhardt Sr. on the last lap of the Daytona 500 in 2001. He brought veteran Jim Hunter back to Daytona to play the chief PR role of “good cop.” Hunter immediately opened up the lines of communication with the media. Then the presentation by NASCAR in Atlanta following the accident investigation was so detailed and intimidating, the media was greatly subdued afterward by an alternate version of how Earnhardt Sr. was killed.

9. The biggest contributions by France Jr. may have come after his courageous struggle with cancer that began in 1999, which included radiation treatment. In addition to directing the crisis that erupted after his close friend and fishing buddy Earnhardt Sr. died, France Jr. was instrumental in the new multi-billion dollar TV contract that began in 2001, the ongoing expansion of the International Speedway Corporation that included a settlement of the Ferko case, the transition to sponsorship by the Nextel brand and the creation of the Championship Chase format.

10. Just as his father did not entirely let go of the reigns, France Jr. continued to hold the final vote on major issues until his final days in the hospital, not his brother Jim or his son and successor Brian. When a groundswell of opinion arose against Michael Waltrip during the cheating scandal in time trials for this year’s Daytona 500, some NASCAR officials suggested he be banned from starting a qualifying race. According to Hunter, France Jr. vetoed that sentiment and Waltrip then raced his way into the field. In retrospect, wisdom once again prevailed thanks to the stategic vision of France Jr.

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

But in this case, Wheldon made the right move at the right time. He cut short Patrick’s bid to overtake on the inside at Turn 1. When the rear wheel contacts the overtaking car’s front wheel, well, that demonstrates Patrick was not exactly alongside.

In a frenetic, but otherwise feature-less race, the incident resulted in Patrick dropping to eighth with damaged steering, but provided the kind of excitement that Kyle Petty, ironically, says has been missing in NASCAR this year.

In the exchange of unpleasantries that followed, Patrick threatened to brake check Wheldon over her radio and, well, um, “rip his front wing off.” For his part, after finishing third Wheldon said, “She’s messing with the wrong person if she wants to get fesity. I’m a lot tougher than she is on the track.”

That was Wheldon’s mistake. Possessing a typically spikey single-seater personality, Wheldon may be tougher to pass than most people — although Patrick blew him away on the final re-start of the 2005 Indy 500 just 11 laps from the finish. Wheldon won that duel when the fuel strategy of Rahal Letterman Racing went awry in the closing laps.

Evidently, the Milwaukee race was Round 3 between these two. “She nearly put me in the wall in Indianapolis,” said Wheldon, who said he has no problems with any other drivers.

The incident at Indy this year, one of those that occurs between two drivers in the heat of a 500-mile race without much comment afterward, indicates that Patrick is as tough as any other driver on the track. She may be tougher given that she has always loved beating guys on the track (such as Sam Hornish and Brian Vickers in her karting days). And she is, as Wheldon points out, overdue in an IndyCar.

As has been the case time and again, Patrick has demonstrated the discipline that is necessary to win races, too, starting with Indy in 2005 when she shook off two rookie mistakes to put herself in position to win.

On high speed ovals, Patrick has consistently been far less likely to hit the wall than many of her peers, such as fellow rookies Tomas Enge and Ryan Briscoe in 2005 and at present Andretti Green Racing teammate Marco Andretti, who wrecked Wheldon at Indy this year. At present, if you bet on whether former teammate Buddy Rice, the winner at Indy in 2004, or Patrick finishes a race with the car intact, the smart money would be on Patrick.

Under the tutelage of Kim Green, Patrick is indexing herself up to winning on an oval. In the short term, like countless IndyCar and NASCAR drivers before her, she is learning how to run at the front, hence the incident at Milwaukee. A more seasoned driver might likely have decided to pause and set up her next adversary for a sure pass later.

So Patrick made a mistake. But it continues to be a mistake to underestimate her skill, high-speed discipline or, above all, toughness. If nothing else, her aggressive driving helped put IndyCar on top of the racing world on a day when NASCAR’s Nextel Cup was rained out.

Jonathan Ingram can be reached at jingram666@cs.com