By MONTE DUTTON

Just to be on the record, I do not expect the NASCAR race on Sunday through the streets of Chicago to be entertaining. I expect it’s going to be a rarity, a stock-car race where passing is harder than an IndyCar race.

Stock car racing is entertaining on a road course, but I doubt it will be on a street circuit. There’s no runoff space. Barriers are on both sides all the way around. A NASCAR vehicle is not supple. Chain-reaction crashes could be impossible to get through. Even if all else were equal, stock cars take up too much space. I hope I’m wrong.

Politics is more of a sport than eSports, or Esports, or whatever it is. I could go on, but I’d prefer to limit the worms to one can. Concerning what is a sport and what isn’t, to each his own.

I’m the same about halls of fame. The first requirement of being in a hall of fame is being famous. By the way, I think a writer or a broadcaster should be in a writing or broadcasting hall of fame, but not one for sports. They are instrumental to sports, but they are not sports. They describe it. They are not in it.

I once had a colleague argue that there should be playoffs for the worst teams as well as the best. I asked him, “How does one advance?” It occurs me that I might qualify for a hall of shame.

Can you accurately recite the currently official name of 10 major sporting venues? I’m not conditioned to keep up with mergers and acquisitions.

Alec Baldwin was a perfect Columbo episode. Alex Murdaugh was a perfect Matlock.

Golf is no longer encumbered by the nasty dilemma of whether ‘tis nobler or not to consort with murderous Saudis.

The most overdue advance in sports is knowing how much time is left when a soccer clock runs out. At last! Watching a tied World Cup match, not knowing how much time remained, drove me crazy. It’s like the two-minute warning in pro football. I remember when announcers used to say “the two-minute warning is being delivered to both benches.” This is a vestige, from a time when football stadiums did not have clocks, turned into an institutionalized TV time-out.

No washed-up old football player ever examined the helmets used today without wondering how everyone survived back when he played. The last time this wasn’t true was the last year helmets weren’t required at all.

I’ve written a baseball novel, The Latter Days, that can be purchased inexpensively at MonteDutton.net, along with other books I’ve written over the years. Insofar as local sports are concerned, you can contribute to the coverage here by contributing either as a patron or by sending a check to DHK Sports, P.O. Box 768, Clinton, S.C. 29325.