I can't put that in big enough letters. All of the abuse we have taken on message boards, being told that we are apologists, that the Grand American concept will never work, the greenhouses are too big (greenhouse envy?), is over. Or, if it's not, your going to look silly saying it (okay, you can bang on the greenhouses…that's more personal preference).

75 cars at a TEST! How many other major series can say that for a race? The Chili Bowl will have over 100 midgets in weeks time, and the Knoxville Nationals draws around 100 sprint cars a year in August, other than that, I can't think of any.

Big name teams coming into the series, manufacturers upping their games (and the series isn't reliant on them, that's the key), and 54 Champion Drivers entered in the 24. Allan McNish is back, Rusty Wallace is trying his hand at Sports Cars, teams from other series are migrating over. It's a wonderful time to be a Grand American fan.

I'm sorry, I'm going to give some props for a second. Kudos to all of the members of the Cognoscenti for being there from the beginning. You guys saw the vision of the series, stuck with it, and I credit you all for it. This is huge redemption for us since now our series is en vogue. That's right, I even went French on you.

Now, it would be real easy to say "we told you so." But you know what? We don't need to. We can just sit back and welcome fans to our series. Come on over and enjoy the racing. After all, isn't that what it's all about?

Redemption is sweet. Good racing is sweeter. The Rolex 24 is 10 times sweeter.

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