Okay, I guess you can call me a s*** stirrer.  I sure seem to get some people riled up when I report on drivers, be they NASCAR drivers or IRL drivers, voicing a desire to try another series.

My take on this is, if they are successful in one series and want to move over and try another series, let them at it.  Nowhere have I said that I think any driver should be able to just jump into a top level car and drive in a race - to do so would be asinine, in my opinion.  Drivers who have already run in the Midgets or the World of Outlaw cars, or other dirt track cars? Of course, that's a no brainer.  Even those who never have run on a dirt track have come over to try it, and said it was the best time they've had.  Still, they had to learn how to drive the car.

The same thing in the top series, whether it be NASCAR Sprint Cup or the Indy Racing League.  Any driver in those series didn't get there by sending out an application and going for a job interview.  They have to prove they are capable of handling the car, and handling it well enough not to crash it and destroy it on the first lap. 

It doesn't matter if they are moving from IRL to NASCAR or from NASCAR to IRL.

Well, Jeff Gordon agrees.  Sort of.

"You have to know the cars and do laps with the cars to know what you’re doing,” he said at this week’s NASCAR stop. “If say, you wanted to go run around at 210 mph, I could do that, but I wouldn’t have much fun doing that because I like being competitive.”

I'm not sure that he is acknowledging that he could step into a premiere Indy car, should he want to or not.  The important thing is, he acknowledges to do so would be dangerous.

“I don’t think that’s going to happen as long as I’m running a full-time (NASCAR) schedule,” he said. “As a driver I have so much respect for IndyCars. It’s not like if I had an off-weekend, I would go run 230 mph laps.”

What of other NASCAR drivers who have expressed an interest in running the Indianapolis 500?  Dale Jr has said he would like to, and also says,

"Should the schedules work out one day, I think you’ll find a lot of (NASCAR) guys interested in coming here and running the Indy 500,” said Earnhardt, who was at the track to promote the July 26 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.

Tony Stewart, Robby Gordon and John Andretti have all done the double header, competing first in the Indy 500, then later in the day in the Coca Cola 600, with Smoke finding the most success in doing so. 

Jeff Backus, however, has said he sees no possibility of the Indianapolis 500 schedule changing, however, making this all just speculation and s*** stirring anyway.