Happy Hump Day! Today In Nascar History Oct. 21, 1984: Bill Elliott beats Harry Gant in a photo finish of the Warner H. Hodgdon American 500 at North Carolina Motor Speedway for his first of four Cup Series victories at the Rock. Quote of the Year There's an unwritten rule in NASCAR: Thou shalt not take on Dale Earnhardt Jr. --Terry Blount/espn Quote of the Day I don't want to wish any trouble on them. But really, the only chances we have to win this championship is to go win the next five races in a row -- or if they run into some problems. -- JEFF GORDON Well, he may not want to, but I sure the heck will. I may be a Chevy girl, but I'm about sick and tired of see JJ win. Vote for your driver! www.chexmostpopular Comments from the Peanut Gallery From my Mom I love it that my brother Dell is getting some recognition for his racing connection. He has always loved to be involved with a racing team and it is finally paying off. Sure hope Tommy Cloce's will have a chance to get into nascar as Dell has watched him climb to the top. From Jo Whopper If only they'd make a Whopper that LOOKS like the ones in the ads. Jo, Florida And… I'm about sick and tired of see JJ win. I agree. Give somebody else a chance. Jo, Florida Bits and Pieces McMurray close to signing new deal?: hearing that Jamie McMurray is close to signing a deal to drive the #1 Earnhardt Ganassi Racing Chevy in 2010, announcement could come the week following Martinsville. Special NAPA scheme for Waltrip at Martinsville: The #55 Toyota Camry of Michael Waltrip will once again have the NAPA Adaptive One Brake Pads paint scheme. Adaptive One Brake Pads are designed to reduce noise and brake dust without sacrificing the 'stop-on-a-dime' braking power. Waltrip will start in his 47th race at Martinsville Speedway in his 754th NASCAR Sprint Cup race. Earlier this season, Waltrip rallied back from being down a lap three times -- to race his way onto the lead lap to finish 13th in the Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500.(MWR) Penske Racing Hauler driver wins: Congratulations goes out to Bill "Stump" Lewis for claiming the first-place prize in the 2009 Freightliner Run Smart Hauler Challenge. The final segment of the annual contest for NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team transport drivers was held over the weekend at Lowe's Motor Speedway and "Stump" was presented his trophy and $35,000 first-place check on the stage prior to Saturday night's NASCAR Banking 500. "This one's especially sweet," said the popular veteran driver, who shares the over-the-road duties with wife, Cindy. "It's my third big trophy and I was up against a bunch of young bucks this time around." "I guess you could call Stump the Brett Favre of what we do out here," Cindy offered. "I'm so proud of him. He just keeps on getting better in everything he does. The last time Stump was a winner in the contest, he bought Cindy a new Harley-Davidson motorcycle. "This time around, we're going to spend the money on getting things done around the house, like putting in an irrigation system for the yard." "But first, we'll have a big party to celebrate and have all the team over," said Cindy.(Tom Roberts PR) Halloween scheme for the #18: Kyle Busch's #18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota will sport a special paint scheme on his #18 M&M's Toyota this weekend at Martinsville Speedway showcasing M&M's Halloween Fun Packs since Halloween night is just around the corner. Of the 30 tracks that will host NASCAR's top three divisions in 2009, Busch has competed at 28 of them at least once and won at 22 of them. This weekend, he'll compete at two of the six venues where he has not been victorious. In addition to Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Martinsville, Busch will fly to Memphis Motorsports Park to compete in Saturday's NASCAR Nationwide Series race.(JGR) Tire test at LMS: Goodyear completed a two-day tire test Tuesday at Lowe's Motor Speedway with #47-Marcos Ambrose (Toyota), #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Chevy), #17-Matt Kenseth (Ford) and #19-Elliott Sadler (Dodge).(Roanoke Times) Danica and JR Motorsports/ Last 2009 race for National Guard on the #24: This season, Gordon and the #24 team helped bring awareness to the National Guard's community initiatives, which were showcased on the #24 DuPont/National Guard Chevy in seven Sprint Cup Series events. This weekend's race at Martinsville marks Gordon's final event of the year with the National Guard. In six of the seven outings with the National Guard on the hood of his #24 Chevy this season, Gordon has scored a top-five finish. His best effort was a win at Texas Motor Speedway in April, while he also scored runner-up finishes at Atlanta in March, Michigan in June and Chicagoland in July. He finished fifth at Darlington in May and third at Richmond in September. This weekend at Martinsville Speedway, the National Guard's official Web site -- nationalguard. Some Georgia Racing Greats to be honored: the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame will be holding their 2009 Induction banquet at the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame, which is housed at the Dawsonville City Municipal Comples this Friday, Oct. 23 at 6:00pm. Among the inductees are former NASCAR drivers Bob Burcham, Ronnie Sanders, Tommie Irvin and Buck Simmons. More info at thunderroadusa. Drivers to appear on Raw: #18-Kyle Busch and #20-Joey Logano are scheduled to serve as special guest hosts of WWE's Raw in Buffalo, N.Y., this Monday night [10/26]. The show airs on the USA Network at 9:00pm/et.(WWE) Final LMS TV Ratings down: ABC's live coverage of Saturday night's NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., earned a final national household rating of 3.5, averaging 5,484,745 viewers. The rating was down from a 3.8 for last year's race that also aired on ABC. ESPN2's live coverage of Friday night's NASCAR Nationwide Series race at the same track earned a final national household coverage rating of 1.4, averaging 1,711,780 viewers and up from the 1.1 for last year's rain-delayed race that also aired on ESPN2.(ESPN) Three team testing at Little Rock: Three Sprint Cup teams are testing today [10-20-2009] at Rockingham Speedway's 'Little Rock', their 1/2 mile Martinsville- New crew chief for Robby in 2010? UPDATE: hearing that Robby Gordon's current crew chief, Kirk Almquist, will leave the team at the end of the 2009 season, supposedly to retire and head back to California. UPDATE: Robby Gordon Motorsports announced Doug Richert as the crew chief of the #7 Camry for the remainder of the 2009 season. Richert, a NASCAR veteran with more 25 years of experience and 15 Cup wins, will assume the crew chief responsibilities starting at Martinsville this weekend. "Doug brings experience and knowledge to our team, which I hope will help elevate our Cup performance. He has spotted for us since early June, but we are happy to have Doug come on board as crew chief this weekend. He will fill this role for the final five races, and we will see where it goes from there," commented Robby Gordon. "I am really looking forward to this opportunity. Even though I have helped Robby and the #7 team as a spotter, I haven't been associated directly with a team since last May. This opportunity will allow me to be more hands-on in the decisions of the #7, which I hope will directly improve the team's performance. I am looking forward to the rest of the year and continuing to push forward," commented Doug Richert. (RGM) #42 Target Crew best in the pits 3rd Qtr: Juan Pablo Montoya's #42 Target Chevy pit crew has proven that they have the speed, power and performance to help their driver earn a spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and to run at the front of the field. The team is now in third place in the Chase standings with six races to go, and has earned two poles, six top-fives and 16 top-10 finishes so far this year. That's why the #42 Target team won the Mechanix Wear Most Valuable Pit Crew Award for the third quarter - the only authentic competition voted on by crew chiefs. It is the first time the #42 team has won the award. The Mechanix Wear Most Valuable Pit Crew Award is given quarterly throughout the NASCAR Sprint Cup season, and the winning pit crew is determined by a vote of each team's crew chief. The four quarterly winners are eligible for the year-end Mechanix Wear Most Valuable Pit Crew Award and a check for $100,000 is awarded at the 2009 NASCAR banquet and awards ceremony.(Victory Management Group) RCR announces crew chief changes for Jeff Burton, Casey Mears By SceneDaily Staff Richard Childress Racing has shifted crew chiefs within its NASCAR Sprint Cup and NASCAR Nationwide series teams, moving crew chief Todd Berrier to Jeff Burton's team following this weekend's race at Martinsville Speedway. That move created a pair of changes for Casey Mears, who will now have crew chief Doug Randolph at the helm, and the Nationwide program. Burton's current crew chief, Scott Miller, is moving to his previously announced role as director of competition for the organization. Berrier's duties with Mears' team will be assumed by crew chief Doug Randolph, who has been working with the organization' "I said previously that RCR would continue to adjust our team lineups in order to have the right personnel in place and this is the next step in that process," said team owner Richard Childress. "Todd, Doug and Dan are all proven winners so the goal of these moves is to put them in the best situations to continue that success. I'm confident that making these changes now will be a benefit to the teams for the rest of this season as well as in preparing for 2010." Changes will also be made among crew members for Burton and Mears' Cup teams. The crew chief position for RCR's development program, the job previously held by Deeringhoff, will be named later. Miller has worked with Burton's team since 2005. Berrier's RCR career began as a fabricator in 1994. The Kernersville, N.C., native has earned 19 victories as a crew chief in the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Truck series. He won the 2001 title in what is now the Nationwide Series, the 2003 Brickyard 400 and the 2007 Daytona 500, all with driver Kevin Harvick. Randolph began his stock-car racing career in 1984 and has been a crew chief in either the Sprint Cup Series or Nationwide Series since 2000. The Morristown, Tenn., native had earned two Nationwide victories, in 2003 with driver Scott Riggs, before joining RCR in May 2009. He has two Nationwide Series victories this season, both with Bowyer. The No. 29 team is currently sixth in the 2009 owner point standings. Deeringhoff is in his second stint at RCR, where he has been a crew chief since December 2005. From 2001-2003, he worked as car chief for the owners championship winning No. 21 team with drivers Harvick and Johnny Sauter. The Walla Walla, Washington, native also led Bowyer and the No. 2 team to the 2008 NASCAR Nationwide championship. He began the 2009 season as the crew chief for the No. 29 team before assuming similar duties with RCR's driver development program in May. NASCAR notebook: Hamlin: Johnson will be repaid By Dustin Long | The Roanoke Times Denny Hamlin is not backing off a comment he made the last time the Sprint Cup series raced at Martinsville Speedway: He'll do to Jimmie Johnson what Johnson did to him. Johnson and Hamlin made contact racing for the lead with 16 laps left in the March race at Martinsville. Hamlin drifted high and Johnson shot past on the way to his fifth win in the last six races at Martinsville. Hamlin finished second. Johnson said after the race that he tried to avoid the contact. Hamlin didn't quite see it that way. And doesn't now. "If I'm in the same situation, I definitely will have that in the back of my mind and probably will do the same to him,'' Hamlin said Tuesday. "There's been a couple of instances at the end of races -- Loudon, New Hampshire [and] Chicago -- where I nudged Jimmie out of the way with a few laps to go to get a position, but it's never really been for a race win. "I'm not going to say that I owe him one or anything like that, but I'm going to race hard to try to get a win, especially in the situation that I'm at right now, I can afford to be a little bit more aggressive and just do everything I can." Hamlin fell to 11th in the points after failing to finish Saturday night's race at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Johnson is first and halfway to a record-breaking fourth consecutive title. Bobby Labonte deserves another chance Jeremy Dunn/nascarexaminer Ten years ago, Bobby Labonte firmly established himself as a frontrunner when he won five races and finished second in the final Cup standings. A year later, he won four races while pulling away from Dale Earnhardt en route to his first and only career championship. It appeared as if more great things were on the horizon for Labonte in 2001 and beyond. Bobby Labonte scored eleven wins in a three-year span from 1998 to 2000, more than all drivers with the exception of Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton. For various reasons, Labonte began a steady decline in performance following his championship season. In 2005, Labonte and Joe Gibbs Racing opted to part ways. Labonte took a giant leap of faith and jumped on the fledgling Petty Enterprises ship. While he was more competitive in than any driver in the storied No. 43 since Bobby Hamilton and then John Andretti in the late 1990's (not 2000's), he rarely was a factor. Following the 2008 season, Gillett Evernahm Motorsports absorbed Petty Enterprises, hence the name Richard Petty Motorsports, leaving no room at the inn for the 2000 champion. Labonte teamed up with Hall of Fame Racing and formed a union with Yates Racing with Ask.com as the sponsor for the majority of the races. The union appeared promising after a fifth place finish at Las Vegas back in March. His best finish since was twelfth in the rain-shortened Coca Cola 600. In August, HOF revealed that Labonte would relinquish the No. 96 ride for seven races to make room for Roush Fenway Racing developmental driver Erik Darnell. The reason was primarily sponsor-related. However, Labonte immediately found another ride with TRG Motorsports, and turned in his best performance of the season in the underfunded No. 71 Chevrolet at Atlanta on Labor Day weekend. He finished in the eighteenth position, but he consistently ran in the top twelve and fifteen for the majority of the race, something he was unable to do in the Roush-Yates powered Ford. He turned a 30th place car into a top 15 performance at Atlanta, which proved that he is still a heck of a wheelman and deserves another opportunity with a solid team. Unfortunately, his future is up in the air as of now. At the age of 45, he is no long-term solution for any team, unless turns into another Mark Martin. With that said, I believe that he has enjoyed a solid career, and should have the opportunity to end his career on top and on his terms. There are few qualify rides available. Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing's No. 1 is the most appealing because of the way the No. 42 has performed, as well as the fact that Bass Pro Shops is the primary sponsor for at least half of the season. Richard Childress Racing, which helped resurrect Jeff Burton's career, would be a pleasant upgrade from Hall of Fame Racing. Despite a recent run of solid showings, Casey Mears appears to be on his way out at RCR, so the seat may open, but Jack Daniel's will not return as sponsor, and sponsorship has not been found for the No. 07. Other than the No. 1 and No. 07, Labonte has extremely limited options, which is a shame. A past champion with a few good years left in him should not have a difficult time attracting a sponsor, but the current economic conditions say otherwise. Do not allow his cool and collective demeanor fool you, Labonte was and still is a fiery competitor. I once saw and in-car clip of him at Charlotte slamming his hand on the steering wheel in fury as Jeff Gordon sailed by him for the lead late in the race. Labonte still has the desire to race, not just ride for a paycheck. Hopefully, he will land an opportunity in solid equipment. The Voice of Vito Vito Pugliese · Frontstretch. Media Crowning Johnson Champion Halfway Through Chase Lazy and Irresponsible My uncle owns and operates an industrial lighting company, and has an interesting way of motivating people. Whenever they express the futility of the task at hand, he comes back and says, "You should probably just give up and quit, man. It's too hard." Somehow, I think the rest of the media does not have that reverse psychology or that air of thinly veiled sarcasm in mind when they repeatedly state that the championship Chase has all but been decided, and that the final five races – half of the playoffs – are all but a formality for the No. 48 team of Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus. While I was trudging away on the elliptical machine at the gym Tuesday, the TV ad for the Martinsville race, when viewed with the sound off, painted a pretty stark picture — unless you were a fan of the No. 48, of course. Looking more like the highlight reel they roll at the awards banquet before presenting the new champion with his trophy, it was a video montage celebrating Lowe's team while and ignoring their other 11 rivals – and 31 additional competitors. Witness the scene in the media center this past weekend at Lowe's Motor Speedway. The post-race press conferences of Kasey Kahne and Matt Kenseth, as well as Johnson and Knaus, were almost mirror images of each other. Broadcast on ESPN2's late edition of NASCAR Now, virtually the only questions to either of these competitors that did not center on the championship all but being over were posed by our own Bryan Davis Keith and Mike Neff. The other questions were more like editorials, leading questions that all had the same common theme: "Johnson is going to win his fourth consecutive Sprint Cup title … what do you think?" Not to toot my own horn or anything, but "beep beep." This continued phenomenon is anything but puzzling. One of the biggest issues NASCAR has been fighting the last couple of years has been dwindling ratings and the failure of its newfangled "playoff" system to gain much traction when going head-to-head with regular season NFL games or, God forbid, the World Series. So would it not serve everyone well to go Daughtry and bellow out "it's not oooovverrrr…" a few weeks into this Chase? But no … everyone refuses to do so. Instead, from what I have been hearing and reading, everyone has been going Colonel Trautman, emphatically stating, "It's over, Johnny!" Well, to quote John J. Rambo: "NOTHING IS OVER! NOTHING! YOU JUST DON'T TURN IT OFF!" What the NASCAR Banking 500 provided was proof positive that anything can happen at any moment, and the Chase drivers are nearly as vulnerable as anybody within three car lengths of David Gilliland. Witness Juan Pablo Montoya's No. 42 Chevrolet as an example, sandwiched in the middle of a restart accordion that squished closed faster than a squeezebox on Pulaski Days. The incident turned Juan Mon's right rear quarter into a rudder that culminated in a spin in Turn 4, followed by the depositing of patch panels on the backstretch. Need example number two? Mark Martin entered the night second in points, only 12 behind Johnson. But the run-in with Montoya on the restart punched a hole in the nose of the No. 5 Impala, sending it spiraling back through the field. After the team put a patch panel on the nose, it turned a 20th-place car into a 17th-place one. And those were just the lucky ones who got a chance to finish the race. Carl Edwards called his engine failure a "mercy killing," while Denny Hamlin's FedEx Toyota was taken out for a ride in the country on lap 192 — both ended up with DNFs. Remember, an engine failure can reach out and bite anyone, particularly if the rubber band is wound a bit too tight. And we barely have to mention Brian Vickers' disaster of a Chase continuing with a 34th-place finish, just ahead of Montoya. So after seeing how the No. 48 would suddenly rocket forward halfway down the backstretch as if grabbing another gear, who's to say a mechanical failure won't happen in one of the upcoming races? Yet while Jimmie Johnson is in position to make history by winning his fourth consecutive championship (I know, I know – different points systems…), the general public interest and support is all but non-existent. This is not to criticize Johnson, whose only weakness apparently is being boring (which in Great Britain is a capital offense) but highlights how this malaise not seen since the Carter Administration has seemingly washed over and infected NASCAR to its very core. Not even a playoff system that resets the points and gives 12 guys a shot at the title — when in reality it would be a three-way fight between Tony Stewart, Johnson, and Jeff Gordon — can do the trick to turn fans back on to the action. Yet NASCAR remains the only sport where domination and excellence is reviled. This trait is not because of any defect in those who follow auto racing, it is because the passion and loyalty of racing fans, and NASCAR fans in particular, is unmatched in any arena, save for Scottish soccer hooligans. It is also because, unlike stick 'n' ball sports, the entire league plays the same game at once, every weekend. Because of that, anybody can lose – and lose big – at any moment. So why is everyone so determined to fire up the Dremel and etch Johnson's name into the trophy plaque with only half of the playoffs complete? As much as I am resistant to throw in the towel so quickly, previous performance and the past month unfortunately does give some credence to their argument. Three wins in the last four races, and a worst finish of ninth; those are some stats that even Richard Petty in his prime would be hard pressed to match. But that isn't just hyperbole, either; if you take The King's most dominant modern era championship season of 1975, his final 10 races produced four wins, a second, a third, and finishes of 16th, 22nd, 28th, and 35th. So couldn't the same thing wind up happening to Johnson? According to much of the stories surrounding the NASCAR Banking 500 … apparently not. They all started out the same: "Jimmie Johnson will one day be in the NASCAR Hall of Fame …" Yes, he likely will. After tying Buck Baker for 13th on the all-time wins list with 46 victories Saturday night, the question that remains is will it be as a four-time consecutive champion or a three-time consecutive champion? So can we all stop with the adulation for a second? In reality, it is a bit premature to consider the 2009 title a lock. There are two big potential landmines coming up – both tracks where Johnson has won before (including six of the last seven at Martinsville) When Talladega is taken into consideration, "The Big One" is still a threat, though it has been diminished slightly with the durability and heartiness of the CoT. Even with some bashed in fenders, the car can still go fast – if not faster, since it will create a smaller hole in the air. That does not mean that the danger has been eliminated, though. Quite the contrary; if anything, it has provided drivers a false sense of security, with bumpdrafting taking precedence over patience, restraint, and prudent driving. Remember Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle's dustup last year at Talladega? That should illustrate the possibility – and probability – that something ugly could happen at the Alabama track that has recycled more metal than an Alcoa plant. The other three tracks that remain after The Paperclip and The Graveyard aren't exactly walks in the park, either. Texas Motor Speedway may look like Charlotte, but it's more like Atlanta in the way it can punish engines with sustained wound-out RPMs for 500 miles. Phoenix is essentially a big short track, and with only 312 laps to run; if you have trouble early, good luck digging out of that hole before the race is over. More than one championship over the years changed hands at Phoenix, so it should not be a track to ignore or belittle. That would leave the final event of the year at Homestead-Miami Speedway — and if there is one track that could haunt the No. 48 team, it just may be this one. Kurt Busch narrowly beat Johnson here for the title by a mere eight points in 2004; the inaugural Nextel Cup went down to the very last lap, with six drivers entering the race with a shot at winning it all. In 2005, a blown rear tire and trying to do too much with too little ended Johnson's title hopes with a crash in the closing laps. While that was four years, many wins, and three championships ago, it underscores how fickle racing luck can be; literally anything can happen at any time. So while you may be reading articles from other racing sites, your local hack sports editor stuck with writing a racing column, or watching a television program that panders to the flavor of the week, all but convinced that it is over, think again. The Chase if halfway through… but by no means finished. Accidents, punctured tires, untimely cautions, fuel follies, mechanical maladies, or any number of problems can befall anybody at any time. For those in the media to be waving the white flag in more ways than one is fatalistic, cowardly, and — as far as I am concerned — downright irresponsible. My uncle's needlings aside, I am also reminded of a couple of quotes from General George S. Patton regarding moving forward in the face of adversity: "You are never beaten until you admit it," he said, along with "If a man gives his all, what else is there?" Perhaps some of those that have chosen to cover auto racing and NASCAR in particular should take this saying to heart. Nobody should be giving up at this point in the game, whether those competing on the track or crushing Krispy Kremes in the press room on race weekend. To echo one more line from one of our greatest wartime generals, "If everyone is thinking alike… someone isn't thinking." Did You Notice? Thomas Bowles · Frontstretch. Driver Development Busts, Ridiculous Race Names, And Why Restarts Are Crazy Did You Notice? … How so many race names this year have turned into the equivalent of a tongue twister on crack? It's bad enough to listen to drivers in Victory Lane not talk about the race before they have to thank their "sponsors A,B, C … even that Z thingee on the rear quarter panel who somehow gave me that extra boost of driving talent to win today." Well now, it's the race tracks taking the sponsorship angle just a little bit too far. Check out some of the names of races we've had on the Cup schedule this season: These titles irritate me to no end. It's bad enough NASCAR has so many "official sponsors" that get snatched up to support the sanctioning body instead of dozens of struggling teams on the circuit during these tough economic times. Now, one of two things are happening at the tracks themselves (many of which are owned by NASCAR's race track wing, ISC). They're either trying to squeeze two sponsors into the name in an attempt to give exposure to as many companies as possible, or (even worse) sponsors coming up with tongue twisters and special promotions in hopes the long name or cheesy competition will reinforce their branding in our heads. Well, I have news for these guys; what they're doing is just making things confusing and awkward. Do they really think I'm going to go on the radio and say things like, "If it wasn't for what happened at the NASCAR Banking 500 Only From Bank Of America, Juan Pablo Montoya would be in Chase contention?" Are you crazy? In fact, I'm surprised some of you are still reading and didn't doze off during that last sentence. Maybe I'll say "NASCAR Banking 500" while discussing the race, but when faced with a long name like the one from Saturday night all I'm probably going to say is "Lowe's" or "Charlotte." All my writers are perpetually confused by these tongue twisters, too; they don't want to slight a sponsor that paid millions to a race track, but how long can they put a 10-word name in an article, interrupting their flow, and get people to take them seriously? Well, I have news for you, this practice is out of hand and we're not supporting it. The one exception here I can see is Autism Speaks, as that deal is charitable in nature, a way to spread awareness about a developmental disorder spreading at an alarming rate. But fitting two sponsors into the same name? That's just plain silly. It's either one or the other … and if tracks keep doing that, the only way we're going to stop it is by ignoring the second sponsor or the absolutely ridiculous name. I'm starting the rebellion here this week by making sure every article refers to Lowe's as the "NASCAR Banking 500" … and if people can't figure out that means Bank of America, well, maybe their marketing execs should have figured out a better way to advertise. By the way, I couldn't move on without reciting my personal favorite: "2009 Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola." You're kidding me! I thought Coke Zero was made by Pepsi… Did You Notice? … The griping by several drivers on restarts lately? We've now gone two weeks in a row with major incidents, with Denny Hamlin's untimely wreck at California followed by a stackup at Lowe's that ruined the days of both Juan Pablo Montoya and Mark Martin. After the race, Montoya spoke out on Jeff Gordon's role in that incident, claiming his tactics caused a bottleneck that couldn't be avoided. "They all accelerated and they all checked up," Montoya said of a brake-checking move during the restart designed to get an advantage. "Every time the No. 24 (Jeff Gordon) restarted it was the same thing." So the question is … why now? Why so many problems on the restarts in 2009 when we've had them for years and years without multiple incidents? Certainly, changing the double-file restarts to put the lead lap cars up front has a lot to do with it, but that shouldn't get all the blame. After all, it's not like lead lap cars didn't try and get the jump on people they wanted to keep a lap down under the old format. And Gordon's been around for 16 years … you'd think we'd hear some sort of complaint before last week. Well, the real answer comes from a little nagging problem called the "new car." With the "aero push" and ill-handling vehicles making it harder than ever to pass, restarts have become a two or three-lap shootout to gain as many spots as possible. Even if you have a long run car, you lose so much time passing people that maintaining track position is critical; a loss of five or six positions could have you spending the entire rest of your green flag run getting them back. People have suffered those consequences on intermediate tracks, as well as noticed how strong Gordon and other drivers have run on two tires in clean air late in the race. So, the restarts have become a game of trickery, with desperation setting in and people drooling for their one and only chance to pass slower cars in front of them with ease. Now, if we make the new car easier to pass with at the intermediates, chances are these problems will ease up a bit. But since we're not … you know how everyone copycats in this sport, and with brake-checking and different restart styles becoming an accepted practice (i.e. – not penalized by NASCAR) we're going to see it more and more down the stretch because of what's at stake. Did You Notice? … Being the Rookie of the Year in the Nationwide Series can be the equivalent of the Kiss of Death? We're reminded of their freefall this week, when Landon Cassill gets his first Nationwide start of the season driving James Finch's No. 1 Chevrolet despite winning this prestigious award a year ago. Here's a quick look at the ROTY race from 2008 and where the drivers ended up: 2008 Now, a look at this year's standings doesn't show much improvement. Justin Allgaier looks destined to win the award, but there are some whispers cropping up recently he may not return full-time with the team in 2010 (see below). Second-place Brendan Gaughan has also not officially announced his return to Rusty Wallace's No. 62 Chevy, while Michael McDowell and Michael Annett have no sponsorship in place for 2010 in their respective rides. Scott Lagasse, Jr., who rounds out the top 5, has already been released, unceremoniously booted from his ride in the No. 11 Toyota for a handful of different drivers back in August. OK, so let's think about this one for a second. This level is supposed to be the equivalent of "AAA" baseball, where the sport's best prospects dust themselves off and prepare for a possible jump to the major leagues. But how can they do that if their development is not sustained? No wonder NASCAR has to go reaching over to open-wheel to grab the next big talent … right now, they have no choice unless some car owners and sponsors are willing to align themselves with the next big thing instead of some established star looking to beat up on the little guy. Did You Notice? … That with Kirk Almquist leaving as his crew chief this week, Robby Gordon has made it through the full season with the same head wrench just once in his five years as a car owner. Only when Greg Erwin (now Greg Biffle's crew chief) manned the shop from late 2005-early 2007 did Gordon have stability in the leadership position. Ever since, it seems like it's been a revolving door over at RGM, with crew chiefs quickly tiring of the limited funding and Gordon's tendency to berate his team on the radio. Gordon claims he's in solid position to continue racing in 2010 despite losing sponsor Jim Beam. But he won't be in a solid position to contend until he's able to keep someone around long enough to both organize his program and get it heading in the right direction. Perhaps Doug Richert is that man … we'll have to see. By the way, it was Richert who Erwin essentially replaced over at the No. 16 after he and Biffle had a falling out by the end of 2006. What goes around… Did You Notice? … Two interesting situations to close it out this week… · If rumors are true Jamie McMurray is out of the running at Earnhardt Ganassi, then David Stremme likely moves to the top of the list for the No. 1. Yes, that David Stremme, who's gone a whole year at Penske without a top 10 finish. But he's kept up a good relationship with his former boss since being released from the No. 40 Dodge a few years ago, with former teammate Montoya giving Stremme the bulk of the credit for helping him learn the stock car racing ropes as a rookie. Remember, Bass Pro Shops is the sponsor there, and they're looking for an outdoorsy type they can market – Stremme fits that bill. If he doesn't get the ride, the best opportunity could be with a Rusty Wallace, Inc. car next season in the Nationwide Series. · What's going to happen with Roger Penske's Nationwide program? This much we know for sure: Brad Keselowski will be driving the No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge in 2010. But when I got confirmation from a source Penske prospect Parker Kligerman was moving up to Nationwide next year (it just hasn't been announced yet), that surprised me as the organization is committed to two full-time teams – not three. Could that mean Allgaier's in trouble? Currently fifth in points, he's collected three top 5s and 12 top 10 finishes in what's been a productive rookie year behind the wheel of the No. 12 Verizon car. But he hasn't had a top 5 finish since Kentucky in June, and Kligerman impressed plenty of onlookers with his pole-winning run at Kansas this October. I'll bet the runner-up in ARCA points will just end up in a third part-time ride depending on sponsorship, but there's enough whispers I've heard that the situation bears watching. Ricky Rudd has no regrets leaving NASCAR in rearview mirror By Kenny Bruce/scenedaily. Ricky Rudd looks as if he could climb back into a race car and give everyone on the track a run for their money. Rudd has no intention of climbing back into a race car, not to give everyone a run for their money or anything else. "I miss the people. I miss the fans. I miss driving the race cars," Rudd said recently. "I don't miss being gone seven days a week. I don't miss the travel." More than three decades in the sport, he says, "was a pretty good length of time. I enjoyed it. I had my day, but I'm settling in. It's a transition, but I'm OK." Rudd, 53, stepped away from NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series following the 2007 season, leaving a long, impressive list of accomplishments: 906 career starts, 23 wins, 194 top-five finishes and 374 top-10s. He also finished 10th or better in the point standings 13 times, including a best of second in 1991. He drove for some of the sport's top owners, after getting his start in 1975 with Bill Champion. Junie Donlavey, Bill Gardner, Richard Childress, Bud Moore, Rick Hendrick, Robert Yates and the Wood Brothers all fielded cars for the Chesapeake, Va., native. Their choice in driver often paid off as Rudd quickly became one of the sport's top road-course competitors and was equally adept at contending for wins on the series' shortest venues. Eventually, Rudd got the itch to be his own boss and started his own team with the hope of moving into the ownership role once his driving days had ended. "We did it for six years," he says of the team's 1994-1999 run. While he won six times as an owner, financial struggles eventually led him to close the operation and move on. "It wasn't that I was done with it; it was done with me," Rudd says. "I couldn't raise the money to do it correctly, so we just shut it down, and I drove for some other guys." Looking back now, he said the team's inability to stay afloat "was probably a blessing in disguise. "I was having trouble raising the money it took to compete back then, and it looks like the trend now is that you have to have some big-buck guy bankrolling the thing," Rudd says. "Even some of the guys that were solid car owners [then] have now merged. … It's become too corporate for me to be able to handle that. "I didn't realize it at the time, but it was a blessing when it ended up not working out. I didn't lose my shirt when I shut down." It was as an owner/driver that Rudd earned perhaps his most noteworthy win, capturing the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1997. These days, Rudd spends time with his family and quenches his competitive urge by riding mountain bikes. Dirt bikes lasted only until a relative was seriously injured in Mexico. "That got to be a little too dangerous," he says, "so now all the dirt bikes are parked, and we're riding mountain bikes. I entered a mountain bike race about three or four weeks ago, just to see … , but I'm no threat to dominate or win. I just wanted to see what I could do." Yes, he occasionally checks in on the goings-on around NASCAR but only "every third or fourth race." That has been more than enough to understand what most fans already know – Hendrick Motorsports remains atop the Sprint Cup realm. "When you get inside the Chase [For The Sprint Cup], it seems like nobody really has anything for them," he says of Hendrick. While some teams may contend for wins during the course of a race, "when it gets down to the later stages, it's like, 'OK, guys, it's time to go.' And Jimmie [Johnson] or Mark [Martin] or whoever …, it seems like they flip a switch …, and they're gone," he says. "I don't know if that's a good thing or not, but you can't fault the Hendrick organization. They're doing what they can do with their resources, and they're doing a great job. … It's as if they're a half a year ahead of everybody." Son Landon, who recently turned 15, grew up around the sport, but Rudd says the youngster is no gearhead. "If it's anything in racing, it would be on the engineering side," Rudd says. "He's pretty good on the technical stuff. He's pretty smart. Not like his dad." Many would argue that last point. Ricky Rudd walked away with no regrets and a career filled with fond memories. And that may have been the smartest move of all. Sabates proud that team is succeeding with less Would like to see NASCAR tighten team budgets more By Joe Menzer, NASCAR.COM He doesn't maintain as high a profile in NASCAR as he once did, but make no mistake: Felix Sabates is still around and full of colorful, honest opinions. Now a minority owner for the company known officially as Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, he talked at length with reporters last weekend about this year's emergence of EGR driver Juan Montoya, what he believes NASCAR is doing right these days, and what they could perhaps be doing to make the sport better. Question: Sometimes he seems almost nonchalant about it, but how badly does Juan want to win a championship? Sabates: He may not always show it publicly, but he wants to win a championship very badly. He's very intense. You [in the media] don't see that side of him; we see that side of him. He doesn't want to sound like a rah-rah-rah guy -- but inside of him, he is very serious. Earnhardt was like that. He was like, 'So I won my seventh championship; that's no big deal.' Montoya is the same way. Some people are just not that rah-rah-rah type of person on the outside. Q: You said all along that this was sort of a three-year plan to have him emerge as a contender, didn't you? Sabates: There was no doubt in mine or Chip's mind that Year Three was going to be a turning point for Juan. We weren't worried about it. Q: Why was that? Sabates: He saw one oval track in his whole life. That was the Indy 500, and he won the race. He never drove on oval tracks. ... So he comes here to drive on the oval tracks, and our car is like a taxicab. He was used to driving those sophisticated, $100 million or $120 million Formula One cars. I thought he did a pretty good job his first year. If you look at the history of NASCAR, I don't know what it is but it seems like everyone has that sophomore jinx. For everybody. It's like you're a great driver the first year, and the second year you became stupid. I think that's what happened more than anything with Juan. It's just NASCAR. Q: He seems to play down the fact that he could become the first foreign-born NASCAR champion and so do you. Why? Sabates: You're either an American, a Colombian, a Cuban or whatever. But you're driving a car in America for an American series. And if you win it, you're an American champion in an American series. So if you're the first from South America, so what? You could be the first guy from Alabama. That's like a foreign country. What's more foreign -- Alabama or Georgia? They're about the same [laughing]. Q: There are four current Cup drivers looking for jobs for next year and all are former Ganassi drivers. ... what does that mean? Sabates: It means things didn't work out. One of the guys called me and told me where he was going to go before he resigned, and I told him, 'You'd be a fool not to go.' And that was Casey [Mears] when he went to Hendrick. I mean, how could he not go? Who in the world would not want to go drive for Hendrick? Or Roush for that matter, because when Jamie [McMurray] went to Roush, they were on top of the world. They had just won the championship. Hey, doo-doo happens. Q: Now that's it has all cycled around, it seems you're not such a bad place to be? Sabates: We were never a bad place to be. You know the old saying, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. ... Chip came around at the beginning and people were all like, 'Well, he's an open-wheel guy.' He's not an open-wheel guy; he's a racing guy. We've got all kinds of cars. We were not very good in the beginning. Remember, when Chip came along and bought my majority interest out [in 2001], we were a Chevrolet team. We finally had a car that was running good, and had an engine. And then -- boom! -- he came in and we made the switch to Dodge. We didn't know if the front end was in the back or the back was in the front. We struggled because of the switch. Q: You say you are running two cars this season on one-and-a-half sponsors; can you get to two full sponsors by next year? Sabates: There are a lot of sponsors out there. We're talking to a lot of people. We're going to be fine. But the money that was there before isn't there anymore. You don't have this guy coming through with a wheelbarrow full of cash saying, 'Hey, I'm gonna throw this money at you!' Now we just have to learn how to manage our sponsorship dollars. And if we can't get more, we'll just go to Chip and get it from him. Q: What does it say that you guys have improved performance with less money this season? Sabates: What it proved is that you don't have to have a budget of $30 million to run one car. We made a lot of sacrifices. We don't even have an airplane. We have to rent an airplane to go to the race track. All the other big teams -- Hendrick has a fleet of airplanes, Childress has a fleet of airplanes, Gibbs has a fleet of airplanes. We have no plane. We have no company cars. All we have is whatever Chevrolet gives us. We have two guys staying in a [hotel] room. We don't have many specialists. Before we would have a guy who was a specialist on the left fender and another who worked on the right fender. Now we've got one guy who puts all the fenders and the roof on the car. That's the way it used to be. Nothing is the same now, but in 1991 and 1992 we finished fifth in the points two years in a row. We had 12 employees, including the engine shop. And the pit crew was all volunteer. Q: And you are convinced it would be good to go back to that, in a way? Sabates: I think NASCAR allowed too much technology to take over the racing -- and the people who had the money, you can look up and down the teams, but they hired the best talent, paid the most amount to the drivers, and they started winning races because of the money. What is happening today is that this [new car], whether you like it or not, it has brought parity to the sport. If they do what they're talking about to engines, there will be even more parity in a couple of years. NASCAR is looking at the possibility of in the Nationwide Series you can run an engine two or three times. You can put in new valve springs and go running. If they do that, it's going to separate the drivers from the non-drivers. Rick Hendrick is one of my closest friends, but I kid him all the time. I tell him, 'You could put a monkey in one of your cars and win a race.' ... If Juan was driving a Hendrick car, he would have won six or seven races this year -- because they're that much better. Not that we're bad, but they're that much better. Q: So if Juan and Jimmie Johnson are in cars that are equal, who wins? Sabetes: Juan. Because he'd take Jimmie out [laughing]. No, he wouldn't do that. Maybe two years ago he would have, but not now. Q: What else could NASCAR do to perhaps even the playing field? Sabates: What they need to do is put a maximum amount on what teams can spend, and NASCAR writes all the checks -- like a dictatorship. You do that, and you'll have 20 drivers capable of winning a race every week. Right now you've got 20 guys capable of winning every week, but some of them are in equipment that's not capable of winning. Introducing the Chicken Bone Section Ryan McGee/espn.com Today we officially present the first edition of a new, recurring feature in my daily NASCAR blog. I call it the Chicken Bone Section. For the uninitiated, the chicken bone section is the nastiest, yet most, shall we say flavorful, section of the racetrack grandstand. It is typically located in the first few rows down by the fence, where hardcore race fans forsake earplugs for an experience full of tire rubber, brake dust, beer foam and chicken grease. Like its namesake, our Chicken Bone Section will be a catch-all for anything and everything NASCAR-related: e-mails, photos, ridonkulous track tales and whatever else gets thrown down on our heads from the pricier seats above. So grab a spork, a mesh-back STP hat and a Harry Gant Fan Club shirt, and read on. Taking Infield Spotted this retired scholastic beauty across from the media lot in the infield of the Lowe's Motor Speedway last weekend. At first, I thought maybe this was the guy who I caught siphoning gas from my truck on Friday afternoon. (For real, I saw him standing by the fence with a hose and a jug, but he disappeared into the turn three jungle before I could catch him.) However, it was not. Instead, it was a very nice man with a penchant for pennants, bumper stickers, Dale Earnhardt Sr. and the United States of America. My personal favorite details about the bus were: A.) the contingency sponsor stickers placed behind the front fenders and carefully arranged so that they mimicked an actual Sprint Cup car, and B.) a parking ticket that was picked up somewhere in Georgia, but never removed from the left corner of the windshield. I was told the bus sleeps 10 comfortably, but that's irrelevant because, "We don't come to the racetrack to sleep." Throttle Linkage •The Daytona Beach News-Journal' This Ain't Your Grandpappy's NASCAR Earlier this year Mark Martin, a self-professed "50-something Arkansas hillbilly," joked that a reporter needed to speak up because he's such an old man he can't hear well anymore. Truth is, he might be hard of hearing because of the tunes he's cranking inside that Impala. Dude loves Trick Daddy. No, seriously. If you don't believe me, check out Jeff Gluck's recently re-posted story from NASCAR Scene Daily. The Hollywood Minute Director Michael Bay was on hand for Saturday night's Cup race to promote the DVD release of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen." He checked out Ryan Newman's Chevy, which carried the colors of Optimus Prime; Jeff Gordon's Monte Carlo, which bore the face of Megatron and drove the pace car. Busy night. I resisted the urge to make him take back my copy of "Pearl Harbor," and instead asked him about the possibility that the man behind "The Rock" and "Armageddon" will ever make a NASCAR flick. "There hasn't been a good one in a really long time, has there?" he said while fiddling with the iPod that he planned to shoot dashboard video of his pace laps with. (I'll link to it if he ever posts it.) "Sports movies are hard. The team has to lose and then it has to win." Bay claimed to hit 100 mph during his training session with racer-turned- Imagine how scary it would be if they all turned into giant robots. Bay has a story about the night and a batch of photos up on his Web site. Tales From The Road I was at Lowe's Motor Speedway all day Friday, but did not attend that night's Nationwide Series race because of a previously planned date night with Mrs. McGee. We instead headed to our favorite Italian restaurant here in Charlotte, Villa Antonio. At regular intervals during the evening I excused myself to step into the bar and check on said race, a standard part of our night-out routine (romantic, I know). By about the third trip to the TV, I realized that a slightly older gentleman in an Izod jacket seemed to be coming into the bar every time I came out, and vice-versa. Eventually we ended up there at the same time and I realized that we were both checking in on the race. "Who's your driver?" I asked. "Jeff Burton," he said. "He's a good man, Jeff Burton," I replied. "Thanks," the man said, extending his hand for a shake. "I'm his daddy, John." John, father of Jeff and older brother Ward (a Daytona 500 winner), was quite a racer himself back in the day. He ran hydroplane boats, competed in sports car races until he was nearly 70 and, last I heard, was a nationally ranked 65-and-over USTA tennis player. John and Ward's grandfather started the family construction business years ago, which is now run by John and his other son, Brian. Their office is packed with memorabilia from Jeff and Ward's careers, from the earliest kart racing days to Victory Lanes in Darlington and Texas, among others. It was John's hard work and sacrifice that allowed his sons to go racing full-time when it would have been much easier to put them to work in the construction company. Thanks to research from a couple of previous stories, I already knew all of this about Mr. Burton. But I chose not to unload all my data on the man while he was still digesting his dinner. Instead, we talked racing and were later joined by my wife and his large group of friends, including a couple that flies in every year from London to crash at Ward's wilderness cabin and go to the Charlotte races. We cheered when Jeff took the lead and grumbled when he faded to finish ninth. "If you're looking for me during the next Charlotte race weekend, I'll be right here," he said, smacking the bar. "We've been coming here to eat for 25 years." Then John Burton and his posse loaded up the conversion van (with Jeff Burton bumper stickers across the back door), and headed back to another place that's long been a part of their family's history -- the racetrack. Dale Jr. to RCR? Not as Outlandish as You Might Think By Jerry Bonkowski/autoracin One of my favorite writers in NASCAR is Godwin Kelly of the Daytona Beach News-Journal. Not only is he a great writer, he's also a hell of a comic, one of the best in the sport with one-liners. Every time I've had him on the air on Sirius NASCAR Radio, I've had to be careful not to take a drink or bite of food while he's talking, because you never know what outlandish thing is going to come out of his mouth – and then what I might spit out of my own mouth while laughing my butt off in response. Lest there be any misunderstanding, I mean that in a very good, completely complimentary way to Godwin. On Monday, Godwin had something else outlandish to say … well, actually, he wrote it in his News-Journal online blog. But the more I thought about it, I think he really may be on to something. Seriously. Now, as many of us in the NASCAR media like to do, Godwin was simply hypothesizing out loud – or, in cyberprint, as it were. Or, as I like to say, he was "What if-fing." There was no real news, no quotes, no confirmations – just out and out wishful thinking of sorts. Godwin wrote about the combination of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s comments last weekend at Charlotte that he's at the end of his rope, along with the strong inference by Kevin Harvick that he's leaving Richard Childress Racing at the end of next season. And then, as he put it, Kelly connected the dots and came up with an intriguing possibility: could Harvick's leaving open the door for Earnhardt to leave Hendrick Motorsports and join RCR for 2011? Godwin makes a compelling case – even if it is just pure speculation at this point. Think about it: Harvick leaves RCR and Junior arrives, just in time for the 10th anniversary of his late father's death at Daytona International Speedway. What's more, Godwin theorized that what better way for Junior and Childress to make a huge splash than by bringing back the black No. 3 Chevrolet – and for Little E to drive it. "Everybody out there knows that the Childress-Dale Jr. union is NASCAR's missing link, you know, the next big thing, a moon shot for the sport," Kelly wrote. "It would bring one aspect of NASCAR full circle." The simplicity yet genius of that idea hit me in the forehead like a ton of bricks. It's an outstanding thought – even if it is just speculation at this point. Or is it? Think a bit more outside of the box and it could make tremendous sense, particularly if Earnhardt struggles with HMS again in 2010. Even though he has a five-year deal with Hendrick that runs through 2012, if the marriage just isn't working – and if it continues to look next year like it never will work – I'm betting Hendrick would cut Junior loose from his contract if he asks. And, even though Earnhardt and Hendrick have had a close relationship for years, it's nowhere near as close as the relationship Junior has had with Childress his entire life, particularly while growing up. Junior thinks of Richard as a second father and Richard thinks of Junior as a son. What better way to welcome the prodigal son back into the family, so to speak, than to put him in his father's old ride? Do you know what such a reunion of sorts would do to NASCAR? The publicity alone would be the biggest and most positive we've seen in many years, even bigger than when Junior announced he was leaving DEI for Hendrick Motorsports. If it were to happen, the Junior Nation would go crazier than it ever has. And can you imagine the tens of millions of dollars that Junior, Childress and Hendrick (certainly, he has to have some kind of cut of the pie if he lets Junior out of his contract) could rake in with souvenir and memorabilia sales from diecasts to jackets, from ball caps to t-shirts. And what about Chevrolet? With all the economic woes it and General Motors have had, this wouldn't be just a home run, it would be the equivalent of 100 grand slams. I can already see thousands of young bucks lining up at their local Chevy dealer to buy an upcoming Dale Earnhardt Jr. model Impala – in all-black, of course. Harvick, from what I've been hearing, has a number of options on the table. He could join Stewart Haas Racing as a third driver (most likely), stays with RCR or starts his own Cup team (both not as likely) or, in a rather interesting twist, would drive for Junior if he decides to start his own Cup operation (remains to be seen). It's not outlandish at all. Junior's father built DEI while racing for RCR. Why can't Junior race for RCR while taking JR Motorsports to the next most logical level: Cup racing? Hell of a column, Godwin … and it really is a hell of an idea. Only time will tell if there's any likelihood of it happening, but it certainly will have people talking, that's for sure. Junior's struggles mount as life now imitates art By Duane Cross, NASCAR.COM Art does imitate life. That doesn't mean that NASCAR's most popular driver buys into imitation being the sincerest form of flattery. Cue Days of Thunder ... Dale Earnhardt Jr. admits he's at the end of his rope. His career is as off course as Lindsay Lohan's. Thing is, he has recognized this and has accepted the fact changes need to be made, which is more than can be said for his beloved Redskins. "I've been riding it out. There comes a point though when you don't want to ride it out anymore," Earnhardt said Friday at Charlotte. "You just have had enough, you know? It's been a long year. I really don't want the year to be over with, because I like going to the race track every week and racing. But the last several ... well, all year, it's been so ... low. "The highs have been not very high and the lows have been terribly low. It's hard to want to get back up and try again the next week when you take such a beating. But I don't know what else to do." The impetus is now on Rick Hendrick, who made the decision in 2007 to bring Junior into the HMS fold. Hendrick seemingly has the golden touch in regards to teaming crew chiefs and drivers -- Ray Evernham and Jeff Gordon, Chad Knaus and Jimmie Johnson -- but Earnhardt's career now hangs in the balance. After Tony Eury Jr. and Lance McGrew, maybe a third crew chief will prove to be the charm. No matter who the crew chief is, he's got his work cut out for him. In Earnhardt's words, "Whoever I work with needs to be a dictator." Hendrick should spare no expense when it comes to identifying that person, considering the money invested in Earnhardt. (Not to mention the revenue stream from Junior merchandise. Maybe in December 2006 Teresa Earnhardt was, in fact, ahead of the curve: "Right now the ball's in his court to decide on whether he wants to be a NASCAR driver or whether he wants to be a public personality. When Earnhardt's separation from DEI was imminent in 2007, longtime race promoter and former Lowe's Motor Speedway president Humpy Wheeler noted, "He's got three years. You just don't start winning prolifically after you're 36 years old or so." The success of Mark Martin aside, the Sprint Cup Series is a young man's game. The grueling schedule, the marketing / sponsorship aspect for the drivers, it's the epitome of what-have-you- In Earnhardt's case, that's not much -- which is why it is imperative for Hendrick to make the right call during the offseason, if not sooner. Two years into the gig with Hendrick, Earnhardt has one victory, 12 top-five finishes and 21 top-10s in 67 races. He had better season totals in 2003 (2-13-21). Obviously something ain't right. He didn't get dumber behind the wheel. He doesn't have worse equipment. Earnhardt has the talent and the marketability to be both a NASCAR driver and a public personality, but he cannot do it alone. However, time and the in-house competition at Hendrick -- not to mention the series as a whole (he's 22nd in points, after all) -- is not on his side. If the winds of change are to blow through the No. 88 garage, it needs to happen now. "There are a lot of smart people around here," Earnhardt said. "I'm just waiting on somebody to make the call. Put the damn team together and say, 'This is what you've got, and this is what you're going to do next year.' I'm just kind of waiting on that to happen." Mr. H, channel your inner Tim Daland. Harry Hogge (and a real-life Cole Trickle) awaits your call. Not to mention Junior Nation ... FIVE RANDOM THOUGHTS • ... David Reutimann, your Ziploc sponsorship awaits. (And Tony Stewart, you've got company on that hook for Worst Personal Hygiene Moment Inside a Stock Car, re: Watkins Glen 2004.) • ... Has anyone checked the weather forecast in hell? Three RCR cars in the top 14 -- and all four in the top 18? ... Did you know, in the past six races Casey Mears has more points (703) than Carl Edwards (700), Kasey Kahne (699) and Brian Vickers (574)? • ... Real men do wear pink: Michael Waltrip, Elliott Sadler, Kyle Busch, Bobby Labonte and Bill Elliott sported pink color schemes for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast cancer movement. Bravo! • ... My Hall of Fame votes went to: Bobby Allison, Bill France, Junior Johnson, David Pearson and Richard Petty. My 2010 HOF votes will go to: Allison, Pearson, Cale Yarborough, Ned Jarrett and Dale Inman (who unquestionably should be on the ballot). • ... Brian Vickers, you're killing my fantasy team. The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer. NASCAR ON TV THIS WEEK
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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