Happy Friday everyone. Habbajeeba, we made it through the week! Today In Nascar History Oct. 2, 1983: With Darrell Waltrip behind the wheel, Junior Johnson picks up his 100th victory as an owner in the Holly Farms 400 at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Dale Earnhardt finishes 2.7 seconds back, and Bobby Allison is third. In 30 seasons as an owner, Johnson wins 132 races, 115 poles and six championships -- three with Waltrip and three with Cale Yarborough. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chevrolet and Tony Stewart are giving you the opportunity to win Smoke's Camaro through Smoke's Camaro Raffle! WE HAVE REDUCED SMOKE'S CAMARO RAFFLE TICKET PRICES 50%! What does this do to your chances? If you purchased 1 ticket at $100, you now have 2 tickets at $50 each and so on. A lot of Tony's fans told us they would like to support "Smoke" but this economy has everyone tightening their belts. We listened. Effective August 12, 2009, the "Smoke's Camaro Raffle" ticket costs $50 each – reduced from the original cost of $100 each.
What does this mean to you & your chances? To keep everything fair we are doubling the number of tickets purchased at the previous price. So, if you purchased 1 ticket at $100, you now have 2 tickets at $50 each and so on. This system keeps the odds and percentages exactly the same for you and your fellow 'early bird' ticket purchasers! Visit SmokesCamaro.com to purchase your raffle ticket today, or click here to visit our Smoke's Camaro page, including prize details, rules, photos and more! Understanding the current economy, Tony added even more impact to the Grand Prize of receiving this in-demand Camaro. The winner and a guest will be flown down to Charlotte and treated to a personal tour of SHR, lunch and the presentation of the Camaro and the keys directly from Tony. Only 12,028 tickets will be sold nationally and the drawing will be held on Monday, Oct. 5, 2009 unless all tickets are sold prior to that date.
Buy your ticket(s) today. The earlier you make your ticket purchase, the greater your chances of winning an Early Bird prize! For a full description of prize packages, please visit www.TonyStewartFoundation.org. And, you are definitely helping Tony in his effort to provide funding for children, animals and drivers in need. Feel the Heartbeat of America, and help out those in need. Get your ticket today. If I could, I would absolutely buy more than one. But with my husband's illness, we can't help. But you can!!! www.smokescamaro.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Quote of the Year Stupid is Forever --Brian Vickers There's an unwritten rule in NASCAR: Thou shalt not take on Dale Earnhardt Jr. --Terry Blount/espn Vote for your driver! www.chexmostpopulardriver.com/ Comments from the Peanut Gallery Bits and Pieces #48 and #5 cars 'too close' in tolerances at R&D center? UPDATE: Claire B. Lang reported on Sirius Satellite NASCAR Radio Channel 128 "Dialed In" show Thursday night that the #48 and #5 Chevy's teams of Hendrick Motorsports were told they cars were too close to NASCAR tolerances at the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, NC this week. The cars were taken to the R&D Center after Jimmie Johnson won the Sprint Cup race at Dover in the #48 with Mark Martin finishing 2nd in the #5 Chevy. Lang says she heard the teams were told not to bring the cars back to the track. Lang asked NASCAR if this was true and was told: "The 48 and 5 were brought back to the R&D center. We've been doing this since the inception of the new car as a part of routine post-race inspection. We bring the winner and a random pick back to the R&D center after each event. While both cars passed post race inspection, we informed the 48 and 5 they were extremely close on some of the tolerances." UPDATE Word circulated Wednesday night that NASCAR had found issues with the #48 Chevy as well as the #5 Chevy during inspection at the Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C. The two Hendrick Motorsports teams currently sit atop the points standings. The buzz within the NASCAR community suggests that the offset on the tail, which helps the rear of the car stick to the ground instead of spinning out, of the #5 Kellogg's Chevy just made the tolerance. NASCAR allows a tolerance of 0.070 of an inch for the body off of the center line of the car. Suffice it to say, JJ's #48 car didn't make it. But by how much? NASCAR claims it was .006 over the tolerance. That's about the thickness of two sheets of copier paper. Others in the garage hint at a charitable disposition on the part of the sanctioning body. So how did NASCAR view the situation with the Hendrick cars? "The 48 and 5 were brought back to the (Research and Development Center)," according to a NASCAR statement. "We've been doing this since the inception of the new car as a part of routine post-race inspection. We bring the winner and a random pick back to the R&D Center after each event. While both cars passed postrace inspection, we informed the 48 and 5 they were extremely close on some of the tolerances." (in part from FoxSports) No fuel injection until 2011? Car owner Richard Childress predicts that NASCAR will go to fuel injection in 2011. Childress has a share company that builds Chevrolet motors [Earnhardt-Childress Racing Engines]. He says "we're constantly working on it right now.'' Robin Pemberton, vice president of competition for NASCAR, said that series officials met with teams about it last week. "It wasn't about ideas, it was about laying out the groundwork ... with fuel injection,'' Pemberton said."We're right in the very, very early stages of all of that.''(Roanoke Times) EGR Saluting American Heroes: Earnhardt Ganassi Racing will host some very special guests this weekend at Kansas Speedway. The team, in conjunction with the Coalition to Salute America's Heroes Campaign, will host: Sgt. James Wilson who was wounded in action in 2004 on his second tour, served with 1st Airmobile B 1st/27th Company, Sgt. Matt Lloyd served with C Company 67th Signal Corp in 2004 and Sgt. Mike Davis served with 20th Engineers 1st Cavalry Division. (EGR) Sadler to host some special guests: #19-Elliott Sadler is hosting some very special guests at the racetrack this weekend at Kansas Speedway. The 34-year old Emporia, Va. native is hosting three Army servicemen that will soon be re-deployed back to the Middle East. The men contacted Sadler several years ago via the internet prior to a previous deployment and wanted to try to meet him at a race just prior to their departure, unfortunately the meeting never occurred as their deployment was moved up several weeks. Once the men returned from active duty, Sadler finally set up a meeting with them at a race in Talladega. Now, as the three men prepare to venture back oversees, Sadler is planning to host all three for a VIP race weekend during the Chase for the Championship at the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway. Info: · SFC Gilliam, 34, Brigade Maintenance Management NCO, 16-year vet, three deployments · SSG Babineaux, 33, Transportation Management Specialist, 13-year vet, five deployments· SGT King, 33, Wheeled Vehicle Mechanic and Recovery Specialist, 12-year vet, five deployments Sadler says: "I'm looking forward to hosting SFC Gilliam, SSG Babineaux and SGT King. These guys are huge NASCAR fans and Elliott Sadler fans. They got in contact with me several years ago over the Internet and we've stayed in touch ever since. Hopefully this is a nice little going away present for them this weekend. Everyone that knows me realizes I'm a huge supporter of our military. These guys fight for our freedom everyday and this is a chance for me to say, Thank you!" (RPM) Bowyer's Team Claims Tissot Pit Road Award in Dover: Clint Bowyer's crew took top honors at Dover International Speedway, winning the Tissot Pit Road Precision Award in Sunday's AAA 400 Sprint Cup race. The #33 crew, out of the Richard Childress Racing stable, picked up its second Tissot win of the season and became the sixth multiple winner of the pit road competition. The first Tissot win for Bowyer's crew was at Atlanta in March. Bowyer's BB&T Chevy Impala SS spent the least amount of time on pit road in Dover 257.194 seconds during the 400-lap race at the Monster Mile. Bowyer's over-the-wall crew consists of: Jason Pulver (front-tire changer), Austin Craven (front-tire carrier), Dustin Niecaise (rear-tire changer), Matt Kreuter (rear-tire carrier), Nick Terry (jackman), Bryan Smith (gasman), Chad Haney (catch can) and Scott Brewer (eighth man). The team's crew chief is Shane Wilson. The #33 crew, which is in a tie for fourth place in the Tissot standings, will receive $5,000 for winning the pit crew competition in Dover. Greg Biffle's crew leads the Tissot standings with five wins. The team with the most Tissot Pit Road Precision Award wins at the completion of the 36-race Sprint Cup schedule will receive a $100,000 bonus plus Tissot watches for the crew and driver. (Tissot) McDonald's Monopoly scheme for Sorenson: Monopoly is back at McDonald's, starting Tuesday, October 6th. This Sunday at Kansas Speedway, the #43 McDonald's Monopoly Dodge Charger will feature Mr. Monopoly rolling McDonald's dice to promote the new exciting element in this year's event: The $1 Million dollar daily roll. For 29 straight nights, a McDonald's customer has a chance to win as much as $1 million, in primetime on NBC's "The Jay Leno Show" and "Sunday Night Football." An NBC celebrity will roll two dice into a see-through lottery machine. If both show sixes, the contestant wins the top prize. Other combinations are worth $10,000. Go to www.playatmcd.com to enter for the chance to be the one person each day to take part in the roll for $1 million. (McDonalds) Gilliland in 2nd car for Robby: a 46th entry popped up on the NASCAR Entry List for the Price Chopper 400 at Kansas Speedway Sprint Cup Series race, #04-David Gilliland, in a 2nd Robby Gordon Motorsports Toyota, with no sponsor listed and Doug Richert listed as the crew chief. Richert has been with RGM for a few months now. Gilliland raced Gordon's primary car, the #7 Toyota at Richmond on September 12th when Gordon was running a road race in the Las Vegas desert [which he won]. The #04 team will probably be considered a post entry (PE), an entry after the deadline for the race and will not earn points for the team or driver. Final Dover TV Ratings: ABC's live telecast of Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series AAA 400 race at Dover International Speedway earned a final national household rating of 3.1, down from the 3.3 rating for last year's race that also aired on ABC. The telecast averaged 5,084,257 viewers. ESPN2's live telecast of Saturday's NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Dover earned a final national household coverage rating of 1.2, up from the 1.1 rating earned for last year's race. It was the fifth consecutive Nationwide Series race on ESPN2 to be up from last year's race or corresponding weekend. The Dover telecast averaged 1,459,145 viewers. (ESPN) Miller Lite donates to Operation Homefront; Kurt & fans can add: Miller Lite announced it is donating $200,000 to Operation Homefront, an amount that could increase by $50,000. The initial $200,000 donation from Miller Lite will grow by an additional $10,000 for each Top-10 finish Kurt Busch and his #2 Miller Lite Dodge achieve at the Kansas, Charlotte, Martinsville, Talladega and Texas races. With a successful run by the Blue Deuce and support from consumers, Miller Lite hopes to raise a total of $500,000 for Operation Homefront. It is all part of a Miller Lite Veterans Day promotion that also encourages consumers to contribute to Operation Homefront. The multi-faceted program starts with the $200,000 donation but extends to retail packaging and bar promotions. Consumers can contribute $5 to the cause by texting the word T-R-O-O-P-S to 90999. The donation amount will then be charged to the consumer's wireless bill. Alternatively, visitors to www.MillerLite.com/Vets can donate any amount with a few simple clicks. (Tom Roberts PR) Cobb hopes to race Sprint Cup: Jennifer Jo Cobb will be attempting her 4th NASCAR Nationwide Series start as well as her 8th ARCA Re/Max Series start at her hometown track, the Kansas Speedway, this week. Cobb's ultimate goal is to be the first woman competing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in over 8 years. For now, she will focus on the next step to that lofty goal in this week's Kansas Lottery 150 scheduled for Thursday, October 1 and the Kansas Lottery 300 on Saturday, October 3. Capitol Federal Savings will serve as the primary sponsor on Cobb's #79 CapFed.com Dodge,for team owner Derrike Cope, Inc. with Rick Markle Racing. Cobb will have two teammates, owner/driver, Derrike Cope and the inaugural Kansas Speedway race pole sitter, Kevin Lepage. Cobb works as one of the instructors for the Richard Petty Driving Experience and has logged thousands of laps at Kansas Speedway. Cobb has developed Driver Boutique; her own clothing line for female motorsports fans and www.DrivenMale.com a new clothing line for male race fans. (Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing) Danica signed to stay in IRL? she ain't saying: Danica Patrick refused Wednesday to confirm widespread reports that she's agreed to a three-year extension of her IndyCar contract with Andretti Green Racing. Asked specifically about the extension, Patrick simply shook her head, not saying a word. Patrick is considered the biggest draw in the IRL, and her interest in moving to NASCAR has been speculated on numerous times in recent years. She has a close relationship with Tony Stewart, and he has said Patrick will eventually make the jump he did - from IndyCar to stock cars. IRL officials have not commented about Patrick's future. Patrick was at Homestead-Miami Speedway with several other drivers Wednesday to test for the IndyCar finale Oct. 10. Earlier this season, Patrick insisted she wouldn't announce anything about her future until after this IRL season concludes. (in part from the Associated Press) Different hood decal for Menard at Kansas: The #98 Ford of Paul Menard will unload the Zecol / Menards Ford Fusion for this weekend's Price Chopper 400 at Kansas Speedway. It is the first time Zecol will be featured on the hood of the #98 Menard's Ford. Zecol produces Professional quality, High Performance automotive chemicals and additives. (Yates Racing) Petty says merger negotiations still ongoing: Richard Petty Motorsports co-owner Richard Petty says that negotiations on the team's proposed merger with Yates Racing are continuing, and he still expects the deal to be completed. RPM and Yates officials announced Sept. 10 that they planned to merge. At the time, Petty said he thought the deal would close within a few weeks. "It's still in negotiations, and so far they ain't signed nothing," Petty said Wednesday following a news conference to promote the upcoming races at Lowe's Motor Speedway. "I feel like if it went this far, we are going to go forward with it."(SceneDaily) Dover terminates agreement to sell Memphis track; buyers still interested By Bob Pockrass/scenedaily.com Dover Motorsports has terminated the agreement to sell Memphis Motorsports Park to Gulf Coast Entertainment, which could not finalize the project financing, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Gulf Coast Entertainment, which plans to build Alabama Motorsports Park in the Mobile area, had agreed in January to buy the .75-mile track for $10 million. Bill Futterer, general manager of the Alabama project through his marketing company PSE-3 (which has a financial interest in the project), said Gulf Coast Entertainment still hopes to purchase Memphis once financing is completed. The deadline for completion of the deal had been extended from the end of April to the end of June and then to the end of September. Dover Motorsports officials declined comment beyond what was filed with the SEC. "Gulf Coast continues to express an interest in purchasing Memphis Motorsports Park and/or having us operate its Alabama facility and is still actively seeking the financing for its project," Dover Motorsports' filing stated. "We are evaluating all of our options relative to the Memphis facility at this time." Dover gets to retain the $165,000 deposit in MMP as well as the 2 percent interest in Gulf Coast Entertainment. Futterer said Gulf Coast Entertainment still has as good relationship with the people from Dover. If Gulf Coast Entertainment wants to purchase MMP, it would have to renegotiate a new deal, including possibly the purchasing price, although Futterer said he didn't expect anything to dramatically change. "We've got three bona fide prospects – we simply haven't been able to get it closed by the end of September," Futterer said in a phone interview Thursday. "As soon as we get that financing closed, we'll be calling our friends at Dover and trying to get that acquisition done because we're still very intent on doing it. "If it doesn't happen, it's not going to keep us from doing our motorsports project. But it was a very good fit because our guys are interested in being in the motorsports business, and we felt being involved with Memphis would give us as a group more experience as we got closer to having our own facilities." It is widely speculated that Gulf Coast Entertainment wanted the Memphis track so once its Mobile track was built that it could move the events for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and Nationwide Series there. "What is best for us is to put a great track together that's built to the standards that the sanctioning bodies require, and we think the market will take care of itself on that. … While we do want to buy the Memphis track, we're not hyper-ventilating about not having it under contract at this point," Futterer said. "We're still going head-strong with our facility." Gulf Coast Entertainment is still securing financing for the 2,700-acre complex as well. Plans call for a proposed oval speedway, road course, karting track, recreational vehicle park, lifestyle village, commercial zone and designated open space. The track originally was branded as a Dale Earnhardt Jr.-endorsed facility, but Earnhardt Jr. recently dropped out of the project. Futterer said the target for the oval track to be in operation is 2012. The city of Pritchard, Ala., has agreed to rebate the track $500 million in sales tax from purchases made at the complex over the next 20-plus years, Futterer said. Johnson: 7 titles? Getting there 'just too tough' By David Scott - charlotteobserver.com CONCORD -- Fans might be about two months away from a new talking point for reigning Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson. If Johnson can overtake Mark Martin in the standings and win his fourth straight championship, he'll be more than halfway toward tying the record seven titles won by Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt. "I don't think that's possible," Johnson said Wednesday at a news conference at Lowe's Motor Speedway. "I think getting to seven is just too tough. Jeff Gordon's got four and he hasn't gotten his fifth one. "I hope I can maybe prove people wrong, but winning four more seems insane." Johnson is second in the standings, trailing Martin by 10 points. After dominating Sunday at Dover, Del., he'll be among the favorites at this weekend's Price Chopper 400 at Kansas Speedway. "There's no record that's ever been set that can't be broken," said Petty. "I don't know if it's any harder or easier to do it these days. The equipment we had wasn't that good, but the guys (Johnson) is running against now aren't any tougher than who I ran against or who Earnhardt ran against." Notes 'Homecoming' for fall race: Lowe's Motor Speedway is calling the NASCAR Banking 500 on Oct.17 a "homecoming, NASCAR-style." With a vast majority of the sport's teams located nearby, the track crowned Petty the race's "homecoming king" Wednesday. LMS will keep with the theme by having marching bands - from schools such as Garinger High and N.C. A&T - and high school cheerleaders - including East Mecklenburg, Northwest Cabarrus, Hopewell and Butler - perform on race day. NFL doesn't do it for Smith: Monday night's NFL game between the Dallas Cowboys and Carolina Panthers didn't hold the attention of LMS President Bruton Smith. "I watched an NFL game on Monday for a little while," he said. "Then I fell asleep. Why? It was so bad." Smith was talking about the NFL's television ratings, which have outstripped NASCAR's during the first three weeks of the season. "They have their problems, we have ours," said Smith. "I think a lot of what they've got going is people wanting to see things like Dallas's new stadium for Jerry Jones. That all plays a part." Kligerman to debut this weekend: Penske Racing development driver Parker Kligerman will make his Nationwide Series debut this weekend, driving the No.22 Dodge during Saturday's Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway. He also will compete in the Nov.21 race at Homestead, Fla. Kligerman leads the Automobile Racing Club of America series with seven wins this year and is second in the standings with two races remaining. "It's definitely going to be a challenge, but I know the team will give me a great car," he said. "Penske Racing has a lot of experience and this will definitely help us as we prepare to go to the next level." Jim Utter Gilliland doing three races for Gibbs: Driver David Gilliland will attempt to make three Cup series starts for Joe Gibbs Racing in its No.02 Toyota beginning with the Oct.17 race at Lowe's Motor Speedway. He also will attempt the Nov.8 race at Texas and Nov.22 season finale at Homestead. Gilliland is in his fourth Cup season, having accumulated 112 starts. He has started 25 races this season, driving primarily for TRG Motorsports. Fan day at Penske: Penske Racing will host Fan Appreciation Day on Oct.16 when it will open its shop in Mooresville and have its NASCAR and IndyCar series drivers on hand. Penske Cup drivers Kurt Busch, Sam Hornish Jr. and David Stremme, Nationwide driver Justin Allgaier and development driver Kligerman will join IndyCar drivers Helio Castroneves, Ryan Briscoe and Will Power and four-time Indy 500 winner Rick Mears in attendance. The nearly 425,000-square foot Penske facility is at 200 Penske Way. It houses all of Penske's motorsports programs - Cup, Nationwide, Grand-Am Sports Car and IndyCar teams. Gordon not backing down from fight By Ed Hinton/ESPN.com Here's Jeff Gordon in the eighth autumn of his quest for a fifth championship, slipping slightly at the outset of the Chase while two of his teammates, Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson, are off to optimal starts. So again, already, it doesn't look good for Gordon -- except to Gordon. Sometimes you have to wonder how he keeps his chin up, struggling for this fifth title that has eluded him for as long as it took to amass his first four, seven years, from 1995 to 2001. But somehow he does, and then some, not just hopeful but optimistic that his big run of wins -- on the six intermediate tracks in the eight remaining races of the Chase -- could easily start as early as Sunday at Kansas City. It's not easy on his psyche that "the first two don't go the way you'd like them to [15th at New Hampshire, sixth at Dover in the past two weeks] … and then your teammates are up there winning the first two races. "It's very frustrating," he said during a teleconference Tuesday, when I asked how much it wears on him. Yet his voice was matter of fact, without a hint of the whine his old detractors used to claim to hear, back when he was called "Wonder Boy" and winning everything in sight. The disheartenment conceded with just a ricochet of admission, here came the optimism back, first in drops, then in torrents. "It's frustrating that we are not living up to our full potential," he said. The idea that his 24 team has the potential to run consistently with the 5 of Martin and the 48 of Johnson is optimistic in itself, based on performances this year; Martin has five wins, Johnson four and Gordon one. "But at the same time, we are only two races in [to the 10 playoff races]," Gordon said. While Martin and Johnson have maintained the first two berths in the Chase, Gordon has slipped from sixth seed to eighth place, from 30 points behind leader Martin to 122 back. He acknowledged that "if those guys [Martin and Johnson] continue the way they are, we have got to win to gain points on them. "And that's certainly a lot to ask for. But in my opinion, it's still doable." That's because of the intermediate tracks, which include 2-mile California but which he groups as "the mile and a halfs" because there are five of those remaining. Kansas Speedway is the first. "I think our chances [there] are really good," he said. "I've been really excited about the mile and a halfs. … I feel like that's something that we have really done a great job with improving from last season, and I feel like that's where this championship can really get turned around for us." His only win this season came in April at Texas Motor Speedway, a place he'd largely dreaded in the past because he'd never won there. Now he "can't wait to get back there," he said, for the eighth round of the Chase on Nov. 8. There are but two non-intermediate tracks left if you keep California in the intermediate column. There's the 2.66-mile casino at Talladega, Ala., where plate racing makes for a crapshoot but which "is a great track for us," he said, with the credibility of six career wins there, second only to the late Dale Earnhardt's 10. Martin by contrast loathes Talladega, calling racing there "The Lotto." And Johnson has but one win there. Then there's the matter of the intrasquad duel between Gordon and Johnson at NASCAR's tiniest track, the half-mile at Martinsville, Va. Johnson has the current upper hand, having won five of the past six races there. But Gordon has more career wins there, 7-5, and still is Johnson's primary rival every time they unload the cars there. "The only track that I see that we have to make big gains is [flat, 1-mile] Phoenix," Gordon said. "I feel like all the other tracks, we are very capable." Capable … potential … Gordon's fan base seems weary of such words, starved for results, judging from the e-mail I get. Again, they're questioning his crew chief, Steve Letarte. "You can say whatever you want to say," Gordon countered at my mention of that. "I feel like this year we have had some of the best cars that we have had in a long time. I give Steve a lot of credit for that. There's been times when our pit crew has been as solid as they have ever been, and I give Steve and that pit crew a lot of credit." Letarte isn't getting the acclaim of Martin's Alan Gustafson or Johnson's Chad Knaus, maestro of the Chase. But Letarte has the unenviable task of finding the right feel for Gordon, who at 38 has struggled chronically to get the right feel in the new car. "I can't change my driving style -- at this point in my career, I can't change that," Gordon said. "I have a certain feel and a balance that I'm looking for out there in the car, versus Jimmie, Mark and [Dale Earnhardt] Junior [whose struggle this year has kept Gordon's results far from the bottom of the four-driver Hendrick Motorsports team]." Johnson, 34, always has adapted to whatever Knaus puts under him. Martin, at 50, is going through his second youth, leaving the setups entirely to Gustafson. Letarte just keeps on tweaking for Gordon. "You go win Texas like we did earlier in the year, and we lead the points, and everybody praises [Letarte] and says how amazing he is," Gordon said. "Same for me, and then you get into the Chase and things don't go our way, it's easy to say, 'Oh, well, this isn't the right combination' … and everybody points fingers. "But that doesn't happen within the organization, and that's why we still have a shot at this championship." Seems like whenever Gordon is running in the top five in midrace, you just don't have the sense that he can hang in and close the deal on a win the way he used to. Sometimes you wonder about Gordon's own desire, considering his life outside racing -- his family, and the career potential he has beyond NASCAR, especially in TV and, he has hinted, a management role with Hendrick. But the thing is, he has never won a championship under the Chase format, although he has made five of the six playoffs. The closest he came was in 2007, when "we did as great of a job as we can do, and we still lost," to Johnson, by 77 points. And so, "I'm as hungry and as eager as I've ever been to get the championship, because it's something I feel like I've never accomplished and it's something we desperately want to do," Gordon said. There is an echo of the old, youthful hunger. And there'd better be, if he is to have a chance. For Gordon to run down and beat his protégé Johnson and the forever-young Martin, it might very well take the second coming of the Wonder Boy of yore. Brad Keselowski-Denny Hamlin feud could continue Jeremy Dunn /Atlanta NASCAR Examiner Let me start out by stating that I seldom buy into the hype of a 'brewing rivarly' after two drivers clash. For example, the media blew up the Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch deal after they engaged in some hostile encounters back in early summer. I had a feeling that the so-called feud would die down as the season progressed. Busch has been trying to alter his public image for years, and Johnson is as polished as they come. Neither driver is going to dwell on what happened earlier in the season. Furthermore, the two champions have respect for one another. On the other hand, I am beginning to believe that this Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski feud could perhaps turn into something the fans and the media yearn for…a bitter rivalry between two drivers. That was evident at Dover last weekend in the Nationwide Series event. Keselowski wrecked Hamlin as the two were battling for a spot in the top five late in the race. The bump drew the ire of Hamlin, as he confronted Keselowski after the race. The two had a brief but heated discussion before they were separated. Keselowski refused to take full blame for the incident, in fact, he felt as if Hamlin cut him off. "He could have gave me a lane and finished fourth or fifth. He just tried to take advantage of me, and I'm not going to be pushed around," he said. Hamlin responded by saying, "We were listening to that idiot talk…He has no idea how to race. He'll get a ride and he'll hang around for a couple of years and people will realize that he's not really that good…He needs some guidance on what it takes to make it." I disagree with Hamlin on one thing. Keselowski is really good. He has a bright future in this sport, and the Penske Racing team is on the rise. He will be around for years to come. I disagree with Keselowski on the fact that he feels as if Hamlin should have let him go. While he is not racing for the title, Hamlin's job is to win races and earn the best finish possible for Joe Gibbs Racing. If it were earlier in the race, I would understand Keselowski's perspective, but not with just a few laps to go. Would Keselowski have let Hamlin go with just a handful of laps remaining? I could be missing something, but it did not appear to me that Hamlin cutoff Keselowski. In a nutshell, the whole incident could have been avoided. Keselowski was faster, and could have passed Hamlin without wrecking him. He just needed to exercise more patience. The two drivers have a history. They had a skirmish at Lowe's Motor Speedway last May, which could be why neither driver will cut the other any slack. Neither driver is as polished as Johnson, nor do they seem all that concerned with how the public views them, so there is potential for a rivalry. Still, I would not hold my breath. I also thought that the Brian Vickers-Kyle Busch feud would fester. Thus far, their scrap remained in Michigan. The fear factor by Darrell Waltrip/foxsports.com With Dover in our rearview mirror, one of the things that has lingered is Joey Logano's comments after his tumble last Sunday in the race. Since the wreck happened, Joey commented on how it scared him, and a lot of people have made a big deal about it. People are saying he can't drive if he is scared or admitting you are scared means you aren't macho enough to be in NASCAR. Some have said it shows weakness to his competitors. Something that came to mind was a quote a friend of mine once said: "If you've never scared yourself in a race car, then you haven't tried hard enough." Now, granted, what he meant was that if you haven't hung it out enough or pushed it to the edge enough, well, you haven't tried hard enough. Luckily, these days when drivers crash, they are able to walk away. But trust me, it leaves a lingering effect — I don't care who you are. Looking back at my career, I drove with reckless abandon until Daytona in 1983. That was my first serious crash. Up to that point, I had been a wild man. I did things with a race car that folks couldn't believe. I did things with a race car that I shouldn't have been doing. I did that because I was in control and knew what I was doing. I won a lot of races by going for it all the time. It didn't always sit well with the competition or the fans, but I didn't care because it was my style. There wasn't any fear factor in ol' DW's vocabulary. Dale Earnhardt was the same way. He had that same go-for-it attitude. You always hear me say with Dale, you hit him once, well, by golly, he would hit you twice. If he could get you distracted with his intimidating style, then mission accomplished. That was his style. In 1983 at Daytona, I came off Turn 4, lost control, spun and hit what was then the dirt bank on the inside of the track just before the entrance to pit road. After hitting the bank, it shot me back out onto the racetrack. That hit knocked me out. I had a concussion and I ended up in the hospital. That was the first time I had ever gotten hurt in a race car. I like to tell people that accident knocked me conscious. Reality knocked on the door. It made me realize that I had never considered the fact of getting hurt, but now it could happen. It's like airplane crashes and car wrecks — it always happens to someone else, right? So in 1983 I had a wake-up call that you could get hurt. I think it affected the way I raced ... ... and that's the point of this story. If you have a bad crash, does it affect the way you race? In my opinion, you certainly don't forget it, and, yes, it does affect the way you race when you find yourself in certain situations. For a number of years after that when I was racing at Daytona, that crash still lingered in my mind whenever I came off Turn 4. You would like to think you could wipe those things out of your mind, and you can 99.9 percent of the time. It's just that remaining little bit lingering in the back of your mind. Three years later, there was another accident that got my attention. In 1986 at Richmond, Dale and I were racing each other hard, and I mean very hard, for the win. Going down the backstretch with two laps to go, Dale turns left into my right rear quarterpanel and sends me through the fence. Folks, that was a hard impact. Again, that was 1986 and there was no guard rail then. No HANS device, no carbon-fiber seats, no SAFER barriers, no Car of Tomorrow with all its safety innovations, just a big ol' heavy tank. That was our salvation, though. They were big and had what we called "crush factor." You sit in there like in a truck these days with a lot of room around you, so if you did hit something, you had more room in there to move around without hurting yourself. In Junior Johnson's mind, that was the wreck that changed the way I drove. I didn't see that, but that's what he believed. I didn't feel that and I didn't believe that. He did. Junior was convinced that after that happened that I didn't drive the same. I think that's why Junior didn't try harder at the end of the year to keep me from signing with Rick Hendrick. Maybe he thought I lost my nerve. Now fast forward to 1990 when I was back at Daytona for the July race in the Tide car. There was a big crash off of Turn 4 in the last practice. I made it through the crash OK, but I was sitting across the track. As I had just tried to re-fire the car, here came Dave Marcis out of the smoke, and he had nowhere to go and T-boned me in the driver's door. It shattered my femur. It busted my knee. It broke my arm. I had six broken ribs. I was screwed up. When I woke up that time in the hospital, I knew something bad had happened to me. That was the ultimate wreck for me. It was so bad that folks said my career was over. They said I couldn't come back from something that bad. It took a lot of pain, sweat and tears, but I did. The doctors rebuilt me and the physical therapy was brutal but as I have said in the past, racing is all I know. So I did come back and this time with my own team. Here's a little bit of trivia and irony for you: Felix Sabates had a team and I had told Rick Hendrick that I was leaving to start my own deal. Mello Yello and Western Auto were out there shopping for a team to sign with. With me in the hospital, Mello Yello decided they didn't want a driver with a broken leg, so they signed with Felix and driver Kyle Petty. Western Auto signed with me. Folks, I literally signed my Western Auto contract with my leg in a cast. Now for the irony part. Remember how Mello Yello didn't want a driver with a broken leg? Well, unfortunately, Kyle broke his leg at Talladega in 1991 driving the Mello Yello car and missed 11 races. My 1991 didn't have me breaking any more bones, but I did have another spectacular wreck. Where at? You guessed it, Daytona. Yes, I was back at Daytona one year to the day from when I was badly hurt in the Tide car. I was having a great year. I had won a couple races and things were going along just great. Coming off Turn 2 during the race, Joe Ruttman gets into my right rear quarterpanel and we go off the racetrack and when my car hit the grass it began to tumble. Folks, I barrel-rolled 11 times down the backstretch. Again, I didn't break anything, but it knocked me out with yet another concussion. Here I was waking up in the hospital again. Those series of events take their toll. You have that recall kick in when you are out there in a similar situation at the same track. So you naturally develop this fear factor to make sure you stay out of situations like that. You become cautious. It becomes risk/reward calculation instead of instinctive go-for-it driving. In 1995 at Charlotte in the All-Star Race, Dale Earnhardt, myself and Jeff Gordon were going for the win. Earnhardt goes in the third turn over his head, goes up the hill, slams into my car, putting us in the wall and takes us both out of the race. Because of that, I end up with four more broken ribs under my right shoulder blade and I can't drive the car for four weeks. That's the wreck that began my downward spiral. That one did me in. By that time, Stevie and I had an 8-year-old and a 5-year-old. I had won all these races and three championships. I found myself asking why I kept doing this. Wrecks like the ones I described take their toll. They add up. I don't care who you are. Your body doesn't recover nearly as fast as you get older. A 48-year-old body doesn't get back up to speed as fast as a 24-year-old body. Ask Greg Biffle about his tire test at Las Vegas last year when he wrecked. Greg told me it was the hardest crash he has ever endured. He said he was knocked out and when he came to, he was sitting on the back straightaway. Did it affect the way he raced? I think so. Also at Las Vegas, but this time during the race, Jeff Gordon had a major wreck. He said it was the hardest hit he had taken. Later on that year, you saw him have another hard hit at Texas. My point is when you get to be 35 to 40 years old and you take hard licks like that, well, it gets your attention. If you don't want to call it scared, fine, but it definitely gets your attention. David Stremme told me his wreck at Nashville earlier this year should have killed him. He'll never forget it. Think about Dale Earnhardt Jr. in that fire in that Corvette a few years ago. That fire thing is something you never ever forget. I believe it has some effect on the way you drive. Look at Kyle Busch in the Fourth of July race this year at Daytona. It was a hard, hard, hard impact. Those kind of hard accidents linger. You don't forget them. You don't put them out of your mind. You can't race scared. You simply can't race with something hanging over your head. The good news for Joey Logano is that he is only 19 years old. He's a young kid with a lot of time to put that behind him. There's plenty of time for him to move onto bigger and better things. Trust me, if a driver tells you about something that happened to him on the race track didn't scare him, well, he's simply not telling you the truth. The good news is that the sport is the safest it has ever been. You know how it got that way — by drivers scaring themselves. Kansas, math problems and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Random thoughts heading into the race weekend at Kansas Speedway: • Some critics wonder why Kansas Speedway hosts a race in the Chase For The Sprint Cup. Let me count the reasons, in no particular order: 1. It's a first-class facility, with good fan amenities, including exceptional traffic flow in and out of the track. Plus, it's a city that fans, competitors and sponsors enjoy visiting, with plenty of entertainment, dining and lodging options. Anyone who has complained about spending $175 per night (with a four-night minimum) to stay in some fleabag hotel 40 miles from Talladega Superspeedway would be happy to know they can find first-class lodging 15 miles or so from Kansas Speedway for a fraction of that price – with no minimum stay and no advance reservations. 2. Kansas City is an important market for NASCAR. By holding a playoff race there, NASCAR continues to show it has moved beyond its traditional Southeastern U.S. base. I'm intrigued by the thought of Darlington one day hosting a Chase race, as some fans suggest. Other fans think Bristol Motor Speedway should be among the Chase tracks, but I'm not sold on that, simply because I like that race where it is on the schedule. 3. The Kansas race draws fans from throughout the Midwest, where many of the sport's stars past and present (Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace, Clint Bowyer, Carl Edwards, etc.) cut their racing teeth. Yes, NASCAR was born in the Southeast, in the foothills of the Appalachians and on the beach at Daytona, but there are many, many hard-core fans in the Midwest, too. • Every so often, some newspaper or education agency will report on how American students are falling behind their counterparts in other countries in the study of math. I would guess some of these mathematically challenged school kids grow up to be motorsports reporters, many of whom are now claiming that any driver more than 100 points behind the leader after only two of 10 Chase races probably won't win. In truth, that margin can disappear in one pit stop. This Chase is still mathematically wide open. • In case you missed it, Charlotte Observer sports columnist Tom Sorensen had a great line in his Sept. 26 column. Writing about the Carolina Panthers' prospects of winning their football game last Monday night against the Dallas Cowboys, he managed to trash not one, but two sports icons in his lead: "The Dallas Cowboys remind me of a mannequin in a store window or Dale Earnhardt Jr. in his Chevrolet. They look good. But they don't do anything." Not saying I agree with Sorensen on the Earnhardt Jr. analogy, but you have to give the guy points for stating a strong opinion, with some humor thrown in. As it turned out, the Cowboys proved Sorensen wrong last Monday, thrashing the Panthers. Maybe Earnhardt Jr. can do the same. Why Saudi Royal Family Money Doesn't Belong in NASCAR
By Dennis Michelsen/racetalkradion.com
When did the world get so politically correct that pointing out the truth gets you in trouble? The news that the Saudi Royal Family was buying into George Gillett's company and therefore NASCAR seemed like a bad joke to me. This is the same family that has been in the news for having made financial contributions to organizations that our government says has helped fund terrorist organizations. But that isn't the main reason I object to the Saudi Royal Family money financing a NASCAR team. It is how the Saudi regime treats women that I object to the most. Almost 40% of the NASCAR fan base is female. As a business owner would you take a chance on alienating 40% of your fan base? Let me show you why the Saudi Royal Family money doesn't belong in NASCAR racing.
Women as Second Class Citizens
Last year an American business woman was jailed for sitting next to a male colleague at a Starbucks coffee shop in the Saudi capital of Riyadh. After being strip searched and forced to sign a confession she finally gained her release. She was wearing a head covering as demanded by Saudi law and her only crime was sitting next to a co-worker using the wireless Internet! Political connections helped get her released and she said many others sit in prison for the same offense or even less! Two years ago a victim of a gang rape was convicted for having been in an unrelated man's car and given 200 lashes. The rapists received lesser punishment! NASCAR has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to help women get a chance to drive in this sport. Saudi women are not allowed to drive a car or even ride a bike in public! Women need a man's permission to travel outside of the country or even get certain medical treatments. Adult females are treated as underage dependents. Forty percent of the NASCAR fan base would be treated as second class citizens in Saudi Arabia. Whose Money is Welcome Next?
Some might argue that criticism of Saudi treatment of women is just part of their culture. But would NASCAR welcome with open arms a child rapist or mass murderer if that person's fortune was funneled into NASCAR racing? How about a member of the Gambino Family who built their fortune through organized crime? What if the son of a Russian Mob family or the Japanese Yakuza invests in a NASCAR team next? Yes I know NASCAR had a lot of moonshiners involved in the sport and they broke the law but that is a different class of criminals. The sport has had convicted felons involved in the sport in the past but those were mainly financial crimes involving bribery or tax evasion. Would NASCAR be happy if a guy like Larry Flynt got involved in racing? NASCAR would be inundated by protesters and they can't afford negative publicity right now as the television ratings drop. Could you imagine NASCAR's horror if a white supremacist invested in NASCAR? Whose money is welcome next? It's a Small World
Yes folks I realize this is a small world and knowing whose money is involved in what venture is almost impossible to trace in this day and age. The Chinese government is involved in plenty of human rights abuses against women (and men) and most NASCAR merchandise is produced there along with almost everything we use nowadays. Perhaps singling out the Saudi Royal Family's money seems harsh and we should all just stick our heads in the sand about the whole situation. I have voted with my pocketbook about the Chinese situation by not buying NASCAR die cast since the work got sent to China. NASCAR will welcome the Saudi Royal Family's money into the sport but I choose to protest. Forty percent of the NASCAR fan base would be treated as second class citizens in Saudi Arabia and until that changes the Saudi Royal Family's money should not belong in our all American sport. Kurt Busch's team needs to act more like team by Larry McReynolds/foxsports.com Kurt Busch finds himself sitting in fourth spot and 75 points out of first in the 2009 Chase. So far this season, he has had one win, eight top fives and 16 top 10s. Despite all this, there is still turmoil with the team. His crew chief, Pat Tryson, has already announced he won't be returning in 2010 and will be joining driver Martin Truex Jr. at Michael Waltrip Racing. So Kurt is going through some frustration. You might say his ego is getting in the way at times. I remember back in 1989 when I was crew chief for Ricky Rudd. We had just the opposite situation. Ricky announced he was leaving us. Now, we never quit working hard to try to win races, but, to be honest, we didn't make it easy for Ricky either. I look back on that now and realize how silly that was. Now, I have the utmost respect for Roger Penske. He is one of the most awesome and powerful men in all of motor sports. Obviously, his record speaks for itself. I also have all the admiration for Kurt Busch. He is a very talented race-car driver. With all due respect to Roger, I blame him for all the things that have gone on and are going on. Truly, Roger is the only guy that can put his foot down and say it's not only going to stop, but also stop now. They are a great company, and they are spending a ton of money. Yes, Pat is leaving, but if you listen to the communication on the radio during a race, that's probably a big reason he is leaving. At the end of the day, they could still win races this year and could still win the Chase. If they are doing this well with this kind of animosity, just think how good they could be if they would just buckle down for eight more weeks together. They have to get through these remaining races with a professional attitude. I don't care whether after the checkered flag falls at Homestead they want to spit on each other then. Again, Roger pays those guys well and he is spending a lot of money, but only he can make it stop. I know he is focused on trying to win the IRL championship and rightly so, but he also has an excellent chance to win the 2009 Chase, too. It's no different from Rick Hendrick, Richard Childress, Joe Gibbs or Jack Roush. When they speak, folks listen, or they'd better. Those owners are the only ones that can make a difference when they speak. So, yes, the team is fourth in the championship right now, but they sure are making it harder on themselves. They have a Dodge that seems to be a little bit behind right now. They have a lame duck crew chief, and that's causing animosity. Kurt is a diehard, true-to-the-bone tough competitor. You have to find that balance, and that is what Kurt is lacking right now. Kurt is as good an individual that you will find. He and his wife do so much for charity. Folks, trust me, he is a good person. It's something about when he puts that helmet on and climbs in that car. He's like the old Tony Stewart to a certain degree. When they tighten that chin strap, they go through a complete character and personality change. Maybe a new crew chief in place for 2010 will help calm things down over there. But let's face facts, there were issues going on over there with the No. 2 car well before Pat announced he was leaving after the season ends. Go back to the spring Martinsville race. There were serious issues between the driver and Roger Penske all directed at Roger Penske. Well, he put his foot down and things seemed to get better for a while. Unfortunately it has drifted back now in the wrong direction. It's easy to be a great race-car driver when things are going perfectly. What makes a great race-car driver is handling things right when things aren't going good. Again, Kurt is a great person and a great driver, but he just has to change his demeanor when he climbs in that car. Now, in fairness, there is a lot we don't know. We only see the outer side of things and hear the radio transmissions during a race. I could be totally wrong, but I truly believe Pat Tryson is doing everything he can to keep that team moving forward in a positive direction. I believe he is doing it still facing a lot of obstacles. He's already basically been told he is no longer welcome at Penske Racing. He is only allowed in on Tuesday for the team meetings. After that, he is out of the shop. So my hat's off to Pat, because he could very easily have said, "Heck with this, I am gone now." I am sure he could go right over to Michael Waltrip Racing and start working today. But Pat is a true professional. He wants to go out on a high note, and I think that is why he is hanging in there. Rookie-Owner Stewart Knew Times Would Get Tough By Jim Pedley | Managing Editor
RacinToday.com Kansas City, Kan. – Tony Stewart began nodding affirmatively well before the question was fully put to him on Wednesday. He's been around racing, he's been around the media and he knew almost immediately what he is about to be asked. And he was ready with an answer. Yes, Stewart said, the Sprint Cup team for which he is an owner/driver, is going through the first difficult period of its rookie campaign. And, no, he does not know why it has happened. "Obviously," Stewart said with a hint of exasperation in his voice, "if we knew what it was due to, we would have kept from happening in the first place." But Stewart, a two-time Cup champion, does have a pretty good idea about how to fix his team's problems: Keep doing the things that had made him and his Stewart-Haas Racing program the biggest success story of the season. "Just bad timing," Stewart said of his team's recent slump. Very few things have gone badly for Stewart over the last 15 months or so. He entered the ranks of ownership by securing half of a team which has strong ties to Hendrick Motorsports, he attracted strong sponsorships for both his car and that of teammate Ryan Newman, he lured top-notch personnel like Newman as teammate, Darian Grubb as crew chief and Bobby Hutchens as manager of competition. Still, debate raged about just how successful Stewart will be in his rookie year as an owner/driver. It's a tough sport, most agreed. Some optimists think while a victory probably would not be in the cards, he might actually challenge for a spot in the Chase. Stewart himself? He didn't know what to expect. Becoming a Cup team owner was never played into his long-term plan. It just kind of happened, so, he didn't even know how to define success. Then the season started and it suddenly appeared that the optimists were not optimistic enough. Stewart finished eighth at Daytona. And then he was eighth again the next week at Fontana. Three weeks later, he was on the podium with a third-place finish at Martinsville. And then came a remarkable month of June. With a runner-up finish at Dover on the final day of April, Stewart moved to the points lead. The next race, at Pocono, Stewart got his first victory of the season. It all seemed so easy. Was he shocked by all that success? "You know better than to ask that," Stewart said. We'll take that as a yes. What he was not shocked by what happened next and that would be a return to earth. Stewart finished 17th at Michigan the week after Pocono and then would not post another top-10 until last weekend when he was ninth at Dover. This weekend at the Price Chopper 400 at Kansas Speedway, Stewart start the race as the fifth-place driver. He will be 106 points behind leader Mark Martin. He will not, however, be wearing a dazed look. Nor will anybody else on his team. "You've got to remember, this is still an organization that at the beginning of the year, Gene (Haas) just wanted his cars to finish on the lead lap each week," Stewart said. "And now he's got two cars in the Chase. And there are guys (on the team) that have never been in the Chase before. "So the attitude in the shop has been great. We preach the big picture. They all knew there were going to be some hurdles to clear this year and it went better than average, better than we expected. And I kept reminding these guys, hey, we're going to stumble at some point but stumbling is not the problem. It's how soon can we recover. "You know, I thought I would have to be more of a cheerleader than I have been. A lot of these people, it's the first time there having any kind of success. They're on a high. They've been on a high all year and that's made it easier. If Jimmie Johnson was third in the points right now, you would absolutely have to work hard to keep them pumped up right now because they'd be devastated because of their past three years. But this is a group that hasn't had any success and it seem like they've won the lottery." The hope, of course, is that Stewart will not even need to think of becoming a cheerleader, that the team can rediscover its early-season magic and do it starting this weekend. If it does, well, then Stewart won't have to answer that goofy question again. "We're still fifth in the points, we're still within striking distance. If we put together eight good weeks we can still get this done, even if they (those in front of him) have eight good weeks," Stewart said. Junior's move to Hendrick has paid off for almost everyone but Junior Tom Bowles/si.com Heading into Kansas this weekend, Mark Martin, Juan Pablo Montoya and Kasey Kahne sit first, third, and 12th in points, respectively. Dale Earnhardt Jr. sits 22nd. At the end of the year, they'd all better send Junior a really nice thank you card. Who would have predicted that two years after leaving his father's former company, the sport's most popular driver would be helping other drivers more than he's helping himself? Yet that's exactly what's happening as we'll point out in this little game of "What if?," which shows how that one simple move changed the current complexion of the sport -- and left Junior worse off statistically than ever before. Let's look at the dominoes first. Consider what would have happened had Earnhardt chosen a different path and re-signed with Dale Earnhardt, Inc., in early 2007: • When DEI merged with Ginn Racing in the middle of that summer, Mark Martin would have had a formidable team to build his part-time career around. Working with development driver Aric Almirola, Martin would have ended up working with Earnhardt, Martin Truex Jr. and Paul Menard in 2008, each with full-time sponsors and the type of stable environment where he'd stay semi-retired no matter who came along. Earnhardt and Rick Hendrick may be good friends, but as rivals would he ever have let a guy like Martin leave? Probably not. • Meanwhile, with DEI remaining a viable organization, Chip Ganassi would have had no one to merge with as his team fell apart at the end of 2008. Backed into a corner, he would have had to spread the Target sponsorship across two cars to remain competitive -- a formula that helped destroy his team in the first place -- or choose to go it alone with Montoya. Considering single-car teams have won just one race since 2003, that's probably not the formula you'd need to make the Chase this year, much less win it. Also consider the Ganassi-Earnhardt merger forced a switch to Chevrolet, along with the research, development and ECR engines that came with it. The organization had struggled along with Dodge the last few seasons, and Montoya has clearly benefited from the handling package already in place from the second DEI engineers came on board. • Finally, with Earnhardt taking control of DEI, the Budweiser sponsorship would have stuck with a pitchman seemingly tailor-made for their company. That would have left Kahne and the No. 9 car searching for sponsorship back then or forced to go with Dodge for one more year (2008). And considering Dodge's financial problems, where would that have left its most promising driver if their funding dried up? Probably with Joe Gibbs Racing, as they'd have no one in line to replace J.J. Yeley at the No. 18 car two years ago (which missed the Chase this year). Remember, a Junior re-signing with DEI would have kept Kyle Busch at Hendrick's No. 5 -- the same car Martin drives now -- leaving Gibbs more desperate to keep Tony Stewart last year once Chevrolet came calling with millions for him to become a driver/owner. The list goes on and on, a line of about two years' worth of deals triggered by the sport's most marketable driver spurning the "evil" stepmother in a public family drama. But while Earnhardt was supposed to be the victor, he has yet to receive any of the spoils. In his final two years with DEI, he scored one win, 17 top 5s, 29 top 10s, and one Chase appearance. That's more than the one win, 12 top 5s, 21 top 10s, and one Chase over nearly the same period with Hendrick. It's a tough story for another day, a man who went with his head but instead may be secretly harboring a broken heart. With Earnhardt all but forgotten amidst five Hendrick-supported cars in the Chase, you wonder if he thinks back on whether he made the right decision. But rest assured there are plenty of people happy in its wake. BOWLES BITS • The reason people are writing this week the Chase is Jimmie Johnson's to lose is because it's the truth. He's the defending champion of this weekend's race, and a win there would not only give him the point lead but also a likely 100-point lead over every driver in the field not named Mark Martin. That would give him the cushion to have a bad day over the final seven races and still fall to no lower than second in points. So why are people not giving Martin the credit he deserves? Simple: the 50-year-old has had so much bad luck throughout his career, he could get struck by lightning on pit road and no one would so much as bat an eyebrow. Nobody can consider him a serious contender until he gets through Talladega ("the lotto," as he likes to call it) with a better than 40th place finish. Should Johnson win as expected, the only hope for the rest of the field is that someone overaggressive (Montoya?) makes a statement by beating the No. 48 at an intermediate track while "rattling his cage" a bit and roughing him up on the track. Someone, somewhere has to rattle Johnson's confidence; otherwise, that fourth title is in the bag as long as luck stays on his side. • Buzz around the garage at Dover was that Reed Sorenson will step out of the Cup Series next year, taking a step back by signing with Braun Racing to run a limited schedule in the Nationwide Series. It would be a great move for the 23-year-old, who could take a David Stremme-like path back to Cup with a couple of successful years winning races and maturing at a lower level. That leaves Stremme, Bobby Labonte and Casey Mears as the three biggest free agents remaining. Stremme has been seen popping in and out of Rusty Wallace's hauler the last few weeks, with rumors circulating he'll return to that team in some capacity next year. As for Mears, well, he could be the odd man out in February 2010, as if Labonte can bring sponsorship money to Richard Childress Racing, sources say he's got the inside track for the No. 07 ride. Childress said last weekend Mears' option has not yet been picked up, a move blamed on sponsorship, but also a convenient way to dump a driver who's performed below expectations this season. NASCAR ON TV THIS WEEK | NSCS Practice | Fri, Oct 02 | 01:00 pm | SPEED | | NNS Practice | Fri, Oct 02 | 03:00 pm | SPEED | | NSCS Coors Light Pole Qualifying | Fri, Oct 02 | 04:30 pm | ESPN2 | | NNS Final Practice | Fri, Oct 02 | 06:00 pm | ESPN2 | | NNS Coors Light Pole Qualifying | Sat, Oct 03 | 10:00 am | SPEED | | NSCS Practice | Sat, Oct 03 | 12:30 pm | SPEED | | NNS: Kansas Lottery 300 | Sat, Oct 03 | 03:30 pm | ESPN2 | | NSCS Final Practice | Sat, Oct 03 | 06:30 pm | ESPN2 | | NSCS Countdown | Sun, Oct 04 | 01:00 pm | ABC | | NSCS: Price Chopper 400 presented by Kraft Foods | Sun, Oct 04 | 02:00 pm | ABC | All times Eastern
Well, that's all for today. Until the next time, I remain,
Your Nascar Momma Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, wine in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!"
"Don't come here and grumble about going too fast. Get the hell out of the race car if you've got feathers on your legs or butt. Put a kerosene rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up there and eat that candy ass." -Dale Earnhardt - 1998 | 
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