Cruising through a time when the sport should be talked about for its growth, NASCAR is instead stuck in the pits because everyone wants a bigger piece of the pie. Never mind that the pie is growing mold, notice that even the fans are poking fun at the sport's high-dollar, white-collar tug of war.

Revamping the schedule continues to be a bone of contention between the France family's International Speedway Corp. and Bruton Smith's Speedway Motorsports Inc. Bill France Jr. says if Bruton wants another race for Texas, move one from Atlanta. After all, France says, he's looking at dumping races from Rockingham and Darlington, two tracks owned by International Speedway Corp.

Fans are growing weary from listening to these well-to-dos duke it out over race dates, hence the fans' slogan campaign at eracefans.com. And the fans are more perceptive than many give them credit for, evidenced by the slogan "So we make lots of money -- sue us," which also found itself on the rejected list. Or this: "We get your money's worth at every race."

NASCAR has long held that it is the "fastest growing sport." Nice turn of a phrase by some slick marketing hack, but if you read the words. ... Yes, the cars do go fast. And yep, it is a growing sport. Hence, the "fastest growing sport" claim. However, the NFL -- whose players, not even Michael Vick, cannot outrun a stock car -- picked up more fans in the latest survey.

Still, stock car racing has a huge upside -- if Billion-dollar Bill and Bruton can come to terms with each other and co-exist sans sniping in the future. France got a few yuks when he deadpanned at Daytona that "Bruton, when he opens his mouth, sometimes sounds constipated." Of course, Smith cuts straight to the point when he says his relationship with France is "adversarial."

For the record, "You Da Man, Bruton!" was also 86'ed as a potential NASCAR slogan.

There is no arguing Smith's contention that he's done a lot for the sport. Consider the tracks Speedway Motorsports Inc. operates: Atlanta, Bristol, Charlotte, Las Vegas, Infineon and Texas. If fans were to cite the ABC's of racing, they'd begin with Atlanta, Bristol and Charlotte. AMS is the sport's fastest track; Bristol is beyond description and Charlotte is all-star central.

On the other hand, France's International Speedway Corp. offers fans the Daytona 272 1/2 and the Aaron's 499 (actually a 500-mile event, but who's counting) -- races at Winston Cup's two largest tracks, but tempered by restrictor plates. Yawn. And because ISC did not have the foresight to upgrade Darlington and/or Rockingham (separated by less than 60 miles), those unique tracks are in danger of being moved to one of France's bigger-market venues.

This is a battle that will be waged from ISC's Florida-based bunker. And fans will laud and loathe some of the final decisions that will make up 2004's Winston Cup schedule. But know this: Money will drive this sport from where it was -- "Red necks. White men. Blue grass. This is America's sport" (yet another rejected submission) -- to where France wants it to be.

In the end, ponder fan Linda Buck's conclusion of where Billion-dollar Bill is headed: "Common template cars at cookie cutter tracks."

Of course, it was rejected, too.

B. Duane Cross is a senior producer for SI.com.

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