Happy Tuesday! Today In Nascar History Nov. 10, 2007: Kyle Busch wins the Arizona Travel 200 at Phoenix for his 11th and final Nationwide Series victory with Hendrick Motorsports. Busch has since won 18 Nationwide races for Joe Gibbs Racing, with two races left in the 2009 season. Quote of the Year There's an unwritten rule in NASCAR: Thou shalt not take on Dale Earnhardt Jr. --Terry Blount/espn Vote for your driver! www.chexmostpopular Comments from the Peanut Gallery From Chip Dear NASCAR Momma: I don't know about anyone else, but the idiots in the booth calling the race must think that we are all so stupid that we have no idea of what is going on in NASCAR. To the best of my knowledge, there has never been any points awarded to anyone until a race is declared officially over. These jackasses continue to inform the viewing public that as soon as Jimmie Johnson wrecked on lap 3 of yesterday's race, that these were now the standings in the Chase and continued to do more of the same all the way through. Does anyone know why they do this crap. They must know better than that. Do they think that anyone who watches a race on TV is some kind of moron or something? I have been swearing at the television when they declare that this is where everyone is in the Chase from lap 3 all the way through after each and every caution when they know it is total B/S. Maybe it is time to watch the races with the sound muted. Bits and Pieces RPM Engine shop to shut down UPDATE: What's left of the original Evernham Motorsports engine shop is expected to shut down on Monday, according to multiple sources. Richard Petty Motorsports will retain the necessary personnel to complete the final two races of the season when engine duties will revert to Roush Yates engines with the move to Ford. With the merger of RPM and Yates Racing, the Petty crew chiefs were told that each team would be able to keep 17 crewmen per team. The overall reduction for the organization is expected to be 200 of 250 employees once the deal is complete.(FoxSports Overnight Texas TV ratings down: ABC's broadcast of Sunday's Dickies 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway earned a 3.2 overnight rating with a 6 share. That is slightly down from last season Nov. 2nd race at Texas, a 3.4 ratings with a 6 share. Conway to attempt Phoenix triple: Kevin Conway and ExtenZe Racing announced that they will attempt to run all three NASCAR national series races NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (#70 TRG Chevy), NASCAR Nationwide Series (#26 ExtenZe Chevy) and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (#71 ExtenZe Chevy) at Phoenix International Raceway next weekend. Conway has never raced at Phoenix International Raceway, much less competed in NASCAR's top three divisions in one weekend, but he is set to attempt to qualify for his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and Camping World Truck Series debut at the one-mile oval. "I've never been accused of doing things normally," said Conway. "To make my Sprint Cup Series and Camping World Truck Series debut at a track that I have never even seen is pretty ambitious but I am excited to have this opportunity with ExtenZe. For ExtenZe Racing to pull this together in such a short amount of time is nothing short of a miracle. Everyone on this ExtenZe team is pumped to give it our best shot in Phoenix." ExtenZe will appear as Conway's primary sponsor in all three races. Together they will attempt to compete in 850 miles of racing at Phoenix International Raceway.(ExtenZe Racing PR) UPDATE: Conway is listed on the Phoenix Entry List in the #70 TRG Motorsports Chevy, the 2nd team for TRG, with sponsorship from ExtenZe. Sorenson and Mears candidates for #09 ride in 2010 UPDATE: Casey Mears, currently running the #07 Jack Daniel's Chevy for Richard Childress is a leading candidate for the #09 Phoenix Racing ride in 2010. Reed Sorenson, out of the #43 Richard Petty Motorsports ride after the 2009 season is also a candidate for the #09 ride.(FoxSports) UPDATE: Casey Mears and Reed Sorenson are among the four drivers #09 Phoenix Racing is considering for the 2010 Sprint Cup season. The Spartanburg- Kevin Harvick's Richard Childress Racing crew wins Tissot Pit Road Precision Award for Texas By SceneDaily Staff Kevin Harvick's Richard Childress Racing crew won the Tissot Pit Road Precision Award for Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. It is the first Tissot win of the season for Harvick's crew, which became the 18th different winner of the 2009 pit-road competition. Harvick's Chevrolet spent the least amount of time on pit road (221.751 seconds) during the race. The winning effort by the No. 29 crew helped Harvick post a fifth-place finish in Texas. "The No. 29 crew did an unbelievable job on pit road this past weekend," said Matt Clark, human performance director at RCR. "The Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet crew epitomizes the essence of teamwork and performance. It is awesome to see a group of individuals come together and work hard in the gym as well as on pit road, too. "To do what they did in Texas this past weekend showed up in the results as Kevin Harvick was able to gain positions on pit road and on the race track. Thanks to Tissot for sponsoring this award and rewarding pit crews for their hard work." Harvick's over-the-wall crew, which earned $5,000 for the win, consists of front-tire changer D.J. Richardson, front-tire carrier Erik Pringle, rear-tire changer Jonathon Billy, rear-tire carrier Mike Hodges, jackman Corey Wimbish, gasman Mike Morrison and catch can man Cruz Gonzales. The crew chief is Gil Martin. With two races remaining in the 2009 season, three teams are in contention to capture the award's season championship, which carries a $100,000 bonus plus Tissot watches for the crew and driver. Greg Biffle's Roush Fenway Racing crew leads the competition with six wins, followed by five wins for Jeff Gordon's Hendrick Motorsports crew and four wins for Jimmie Johnson's Hendrick crew. If there's a tie in the Tissot competition after the final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the team which finishes the highest in the Sprint Cup driver point standings will be awarded the Tissot season title. Jeremy Mayfield's stepmother pleads guilty to trespassing; battery charges dismissed By Bob Pockrass/scenedaily Lisa Mayfield, the stepmother of suspended NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield who has alleged that she has seen him use methamphetamines, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of second-degree trespassing but had four misdemeanor charges of simple assault dismissed Monday, according to the Catawba County (N.C.) Clerk of Court office. She was ordered to pay court costs of $130, according to the clerk's office. The charges stemmed from an Aug. 15 incident at Jeremy Mayfield's home in Catawba, N.C., according to the criminal complaint. In the criminal complaint, Jeremy Mayfield stated that Lisa Mayfield trespassed on his property, threatened and assaulted workers at his home. The incident was another part of a family spat being played out in the shadow of Jeremy Mayfield's legal challenge to his NASCAR suspension issued May 9 for what NASCAR says was a positive test for methamphetamines. Mayfield claims that the test was a false positive reading from the prescription drug Adderall, which is used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and the over-the-counter allergy medicine Claritin-D. NASCAR filed an affidavit in July that included Lisa Mayfield's testimony that she had seen Jeremy use methamphetamines. The affidavit was part of NASCAR's argument that the driver should remain suspended. Jeremy Mayfield has since filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Lisa, whose actions he alleges contributed to the death of his father, Terry, in September 2007. Lisa Mayfield also has sued Jeremy Mayfield for defamation. Kyle Busch, Junior may be ready to break out By David Newton/ESPN. Before Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran out of gas and then stalled on pit road late in Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway, one thought kept running through my mind. This is a glimpse at how things could be -- and some might say need to be -- next season. These are two of the drivers who could stop Jimmie Johnson's run of championships at four, assuming Johnson doesn't have two more catastrophes like he did on the third lap of this race and lose the title this season. Busch and Earnhardt are the two drivers who could bring back NASCAR's sagging ratings and falling attendance, Busch with his bad-boy image that fans love to hate and Earnhardt with his overwhelming popularity. Busch dominated Sunday, leading 232 laps before his fuel tank ran dry 4.5 miles from the finish line, handing the victory to older brother Kurt Busch. He looked like the Busch who dominated the first two-thirds of the 2008 season with eight wins and a commanding lead in the points. Earnhardt didn't lead a lap, but he was poised for a top-5 finish before fuel mileage got the better of him. He looked like the Earnhardt who top-10'd himself to second in points through the first 18 races of last season. The results won't show that. They'll show Busch finished 11th and Earnhardt 25th in Fort Worth. But both drivers appear headed in the right direction, Busch with new crew chief Dave Rogers and Earnhardt with now full-time crew chief Lance McGrew. What we saw at the 1.5-mile track in the city where everything is bigger than life could be the start of big things. "We're disappointed, While it's too early to say the communication and chemistry between Rogers and Busch is championship caliber, their first Cup experience has to be encouraging. Were it not for a splash of gas they'd be celebrating a win instead of trying to figure out how their fuel calculations were slightly off. "We'll try to focus on how well we ran and not where we finished today," Rogers said. McGrew probably is doing the same thing. Consistency, as Johnson has proved over and over and over, is the best formula for championships. Earnhardt has shown glimpses of that over the past month and on Sunday was in position for his first top-5 in the last 12 races. That shouldn't be overshadowed by where he was listed on the scoring pylon. Same for Busch. He was back to contending for a win instead of a solid finish. He even showed some of his old swagger, parking the car and leaving the garage without having a conversation with Rogers. "He didn't say nothing," Rogers said. "He said we were out of fuel after the race, he took his helmet off and went to his motor home and calmed down. I think he handled it well. It's tough." What made it tougher for Busch was he had a chance to become the first driver in NASCAR history to win all three national touring series races in the same weekend, having already captured the Nationwide and Truck series races. "He deserved to win all three in a row," Rogers said. Both drivers deserved better than their fate, but what they accomplished should carry over into next season. They now know who their crew chiefs are and seem comfortable with them. They can focus on one thing: driving. The crew chiefs can focus on getting the cars better and stop worrying about the circus surrounding their drivers. But yes, there still will be a circus. "You know, it's part of the game," Rogers said. "It's what you sign up for. Someone's got to do that job and I raised my hand and said I wanted to do it -- and here I am." By the time I get to Phoenix ... by Darrell Waltrip/foxsports. I'm sure you all know that classic song by Glen Campbell called "By the time I get to Phoenix." Well, that was the song Jimmie Johnson was singing before Sunday's race at Texas. Unfortunately for Jimmie, he got taken out of the race on Sunday and ended up with a 38th-place finish. Poor ol' Sam Hornish Jr. has just had a terrible run of luck the last few weeks. Sam's a good guy but unfortunately he has had problems the last few weeks, including yesterday when he took Johnson out. Sam had been making a lot of progress but it just seems like he has been going backwards the last few weeks. In Sam's defense, it did look like David Reutimann might have touched him some and got him loose. You do have to respect how Johnson, Chad Knaus and that entire team refused to give up. They went to the garage with a totaled race car. It took an hour for everyone to thrash on that car and they were able to get it back out on the race track. It was able to maintain minimum NASCAR required speed on the track and they were at least able to salvage some points moving up from 43rd position to 38th. It just showed the strength and heart of that team to rebound the way they did in the face of adversity. Sure, Johnson lost a lot of points, but you also have to remember that he had built up an incredible point lead, so he had some to lose. With a 184-point lead, you can have a bad race. He still rolls into Phoenix this weekend with a 73-point lead, which is still the second-largest point lead in the history of the Chase for the Sprint Cup with only two races to go. That margin is still a substantial lead and it really only gives his teammates, Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon, a little hope. Other than that, it is pretty much the same as it was. The good news for Martin going to Phoenix this weekend is it's where he won in the spring. So that gives him some confidence. Now the downside for Martin is that Johnson also runs really well at Phoenix. If Jimmie were to leave Phoenix with a lead of say 40 points or greater, then it's going to be extremely hard to go to Homestead and beat him. Homestead-Miami Speedway is a big, wide racetrack so you can sort of stay out of trouble and keep your nose clean. Johnson would only have to run as hard as he needed to keep Martin and Gordon in sight and then cruise to his fourth straight championship. The thing that really stuck out Sunday was the dominance of the Busch brothers. Kyle was in his Toyota and Kurt was in his Dodge. Boy did they put on a show and what a real duel it was. Kyle said during the race that it reminded him of battling it out with Kurt years ago in the Legends Cars in Las Vegas. It did make you wonder if Kyle was going to be able to make it on fuel since he stopped a few laps earlier than Kurt did. Sure enough, that made the difference as Kurt had enough fuel and Kyle didn't. It would have been neat though to see Kyle win all three races last weekend. He came into Sunday having already won the Truck and Nationwide series races. Anytime someone has a chance to either set a record or break a record, I would like to see them do it. When you have a chance to do something like that, well you need to capitalize on it. It's just like Johnson having a chance to win four consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup championships because it has never been done. Someday years and years from now, young race fans will ask "Remember when Jimmie Johnson won four championships in a row?" That's what makes setting or breaking records so special. Obviously what makes them special is they are so hard to do. So if it's hard to even set the record, then breaking it is even that much harder to do. So I want to see Jimmie win his fourth and I would have liked to see Kyle win all three events at Texas. Unfortunately it didn't happen for Kyle and the verdict is still out on Jimmie. The other thing I found interesting in Sunday's race was there didn't seem to be a lot of engine failures. Texas is a tough track. You are talking about a 500-mile race. That shows how the teams and their motor programs have evolved because in years past, that race would chew up engines left and right. It was really hard to believe how Jeff Gordon struggled the way he did Sunday at Texas. He sat on the pole and had been running really well in all the practices. I've noticed a pattern with that team that when they are "on," well they are really good. By the same token, when they are "off" even a little bit, they really seem to struggle. They seem to struggle to put a whole race together. They run good at times but can't seem to keep the car running well enough for an entire race. If you remember, Gordon won the spring race there. It was his first-ever win at Texas in all the time we have been going there. If you heard him in his postrace interviews he admitted that Texas still has his number. As he mentioned, they were good in the spring but this time they were right back to where they were before. Unfortunately not being able to keep the car good all day Sunday, it kept them from capitalizing on Johnson's misfortune and making up a lot of points. Gordon winning the pole reminded me that I had been worried about the way the No. 48 has been qualifying as of late. He started way back at Martinsville but was able to get through it without any issues. He started back there Sunday and it's what bit him this time. It seems to me there has been a change in philosophy over there with that team. In the past it seemed they spent more time and effort in either winning the pole or getting the car as far forward as they could and then worrying about the race. Now in the last few weeks it looks like they are more worried about the race setup and spending much less time worrying about qualifying. Sunday should be a wake-up call to what can happen when you don't get that car up front. Maybe they need to worry a little bit more about getting out front and staying out of trouble. So anyway we head to Phoenix. While Mark and Jeff have a little bit of hope left, I still believe it is Jimmie's to lose. I don't think having a bad race and losing a lot of points will affect that team. I figure we will see Jimmie run well at Phoenix like he always has. While they may run just a tad more conservative, don't look for a major change in strategy because it's simply not in Jimmie and Chad's DNA to do that. Frankly Speaking: "Earnhardt left a void that hasn't been filled'' Dustin Long/hamptonroads. I recently gathered Kyle Petty, Jimmy Spencer and Larry McReynolds in a room to discuss the state of NASCAR and other key areas. What was supposed to last 30 minutes went an hour as these three did not hold back on their opinions and even joked afterward that they might be getting a call from NASCAR (or someone else) based on their comments. Click here to see NASCAR's response to Part 1. While some will not agree with what they say about the sport or certain drivers or some other issue, their voice remains relevant. They've seen the inner workings of the sport. Now they view it differently from their TV jobs but they still retain close contacts to those in the garage and they know what's going on before most do. They know what drivers and others are really saying even if those people won't say it to the media. So without further delay, here's part of the series. Today's topic: Driver personalities It's been more than eight years since the death of Dale Earnhardt, yet he remains, at least in some of the lists, in the top 10 in sales in this sport. Is that more a commentary of today's drivers not being able to pass him or is that a commentary on Earnhardt's power eight years later. PETTY: Here's what I say that's a commentary on. (Larry said recently) Earnhardt left a void that nobody's filled. That's what you said. McREYNOLDS: Pretty much. PETTY: I agree with Larry. Earnhardt left a void that hasn't been filled. Richard Petty left a void that hasn't been filled. Darrell Waltrip. Cale Yarborough. Those drivers left voids that haven't been filled. The problem we have today is if … I go take the top 12 drivers in points and line them all up and ask them a question, they're all going to give me the same soundbite except for Juan Montoya. Which tells me that now I've got 12 drivers that are really one talking head against Dale Earnhardt selling. So Dale Earnhardt is still going to outsell these guys because they're all the same guy. I can buy 99, I can buy 24, I can buy 48, I can buy 11. It doesn't make any difference. I'm buying the same guy. I'm buying the same personality. People say we don't have a Jimmy Spencer. We don't have personalities. We have a personality. It's an a typical, a political McREYNOLDS: A predictable. PETTY: It's very predictable. ... Tony (Stewart) ventured out there and they slapped his hand. Kyle (Busch) ventures out there, everybody hates him. You look at it. I don't know if it's the sport or the fans or what it is, but I think part of it is the personality. What's driving the personality as much as anything else is the sponsor dollars and the TV and all the things that we always hoped and dreamed and wished we had. Now that we got them, we don't know what to do with them because we're not controlling them. They're controlling us. Earnhardt was the last of that era who he was what he was when TV got here and it didn't change him. Everybody else are products of the TV generation. They are the TV generation. SPENCER: Watch all these young drivers coming up. Joey Logano. Anybody that is under 23 or 24 years old. I watched this (Paulie) Harraka (from Camping World West series) last night. They've got their hair cut perfect. They're shaved. I didn't know they could shave. And these kids are so concerned about being a Sprint Cup driver that they've lost focus on what they're supposed to do. You know what they're supposed to do? They're supposed to freaking race and win. You're supposed to come in here and if you push that guy out of the way, say that I really didn't mean to do that but that's part of racing and I won. These guys have lost focus on trying to win races. Old man Earnhardt didn't care who it was. He tried to win the race. McREYNOLDS: It didn't matter if it was his own race car. SPENCER: He tried to win the race. We have lost focus on winning races and it goes to show that all these young kids coming along, they only have one thing in mind. I can get a Cup ride. I can't ruffle no feathers. PETTY: Let me ask you this, how many times, because I laugh, I just laugh at this, is how many times do you think on a Sunday afternoon or Monday morning that David Pearson or Richard Petty or Cale Yarborough, Bobby Allison or any of those or Dale Earnhardt got up and (said) I better call that guy and apologize for hitting him yesterday. I feel really bad. SPENCER: It makes me sick. PETTY: How many times do you think that happens. My God! They got up Monday morning and looked in the mirror, laughed and went to work. That's the way it was. Because you know what, they had the trophy sitting in the living room and they had the check going in the bank. That's what they went to the race track for. I'm sorry. It's a different … SPENCER: Era PETTY: … Because they feel like you have to apologize because, oh that guy is paying me $15 million, I've got to make my fans happy. McREYNOLDS: Some of the biggest disappointments I've had this year was at Martinsville when (Jimmie) Johnson knocked (Denny Hamlin) out of the way (to win) and Denny basically, he apologized in his interview. What is he doing? PETTY: You never would have heard that. McREYNOLDS: It's like, wait a minute you got knocked out of the way. PETTY: I think that's a commentary on the drivers and … I'm not blaming all the drivers, let me be real clear. I think that's who they feel they have to be to succeed in this industry. McREYNOLDS: But NASCAR started a big part of it. You know what? The analogy I've used, you can whip that dog and whip that dog and whip that dog for chewing that whatever up. You just can't one day just all of a sudden one day say I'm not going to whip you any more if you chew. Go ahead and chew. That (dang) dog is going to say ... I ain't chewing it. PETTY: That's a good analogy, too. This is the final segment of Frankly Speaking. Take the opinions for what they worth -- three men talking about the sport. So, what do you think of what they said about driver personalities? Agree or disagree? Login or register to post comments Now, you can bet I'm going to read the whole series. Wish I had found this one earlier! France wants TV's criticism throttled back By Dustin Long - The Roanoke Times, Va. NASCAR chairman Brian France says he wants TV broadcasters that work NASCAR events to call the sport like those in other sports do and limit their areas of criticism. France made the comments in an exclusive interview with The Roanoke Times before Sunday's race at Texas Motor Speedway. The sport has been battered by critical comments from TV broadcasters the past two weeks, starting with a roundtable discussion in The Roanoke Times with Larry McReynolds, Jimmy Spencer and Kyle Petty. NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston posted a blog entry questioning some of their comments. Last week, Poston wrote a blog entry criticizing comments made by ABC's broadcasters about the racing at Talladega. Sunday, France spoke publicly for the first time on the issue. ''Clearly, this is a sport that has a lot of opinions," France said. "Most other sports channel their thoughts and criticisms differently. That is an unusual thing that we have, to have people within the sport openly just criticizing 1/8NASCAR3/8 as we go along, but maybe that's something very unique in NASCAR that no other sport has to sort out. We'll sort it out." France noted that he is not against all forms of criticism. ''We welcome criticism on calls that are made, strategy, policy; that goes with the territory," he said. "What we'll ask the commentators to do, they're professionals, and to look at how other professional commentators call other sports. They work with professional networks. They are professionals in their own right. At some point they have to be professionals and that will be that." France said he did not contact any officials from ABC or ESPN about last weekend's Talladega broadcast. He also noted he did not see the entire race. France also spoke about other subjects. He defended the level of competition in the sport. ''I think we're getting better and I think it's very good," he said. "I think we've had some great races at like Loudon and even Dover, places that are not known as having our most exciting races, but they were. ''I think if you look at it on balance, we're very pleased with the competitive level of things. It's easy to get off track when you look at how good Jimmie Johnson has been, how dominant he's been and sort of forget that there's been lots of hard-fought passing and racing that has gone on, but there has. We're quite pleased with it ... finishing up in 2009." France also discussed the Chase, which is in its sixth season. The Chase has not provided the drama as the first year in 2004 when Kurt Busch beat Johnson by eight points and Jeff Gordon by 16 points. ''No question that we would prefer to have it come down like it did the first year where more than one driver and certainly three or four would really have a shot going down the stretch," France said. "Jimmie Johnson, we could not have forecasted or predicted how dominant he would be. ''He is just incredibly dominant and so you can't change a format because somebody has just been so dominant. You'll go up against your own creditability when you start doing that. So you have to be, I think, measured in how you respond to wanting to get it like everybody else does. But you know, the Super Bowl doesn't always get the two best teams. It doesn't always get the last-minute finish of who is going to win. ''That's just the nature of ebb and flow of a national sport. We'll look at that with those kinds of things to think about as we get down the road." Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. One moment just made the title battle relevant again Johnson's Lap 3 crash puts Martin back in contention By Joe Menzer, NASCAR.COM Who knew? Who knew Sam Hornish Jr. and David Reutimann would play such a huge role in the 2009 Chase? Who knew Mark Martin still had a chance? Or that even Jeff Gordon still had an outside shot? Who knew, outside of Jimmie Johnson, that the three-time defending Cup champion was right all along when he repeatedly insisted this thing wasn't quite over? Even as he kept building what the rest of the racing world figured was an insurmountable lead in the first seven races of the 10-race Chase, Johnson kept saying that anything could happen at any point in time during any race. And on the third lap of Sunday's Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, anything finally did when Reutimann touched Hornish from behind, sending Hornish's No. 77 Dodge into Johnson's famed No. 48 Chevrolet. It looked for a moment as if Johnson would save the 48 without much damage. But after brushing the wall, Johnson made contact with Hornish again and that was it. The 48 went spinning, and then slamming, into the inside retaining wall -- suffering the kind of damage that would have rendered lesser cars (or rather lesser teams) done for the day. More than an hour and 112 laps later, Johnson returned to the track after extensive repairs that were nothing short of heroic by crew chief Chad Knaus and the rest of the No. 48 team. The end result of their remarkable efforts was a gain of 15 points after Johnson picked up five positions in the finishing order. That may not sound like much -- but with Martin grabbing fourth in the race and moving to within 73 points in the points standings (when it would have been to within 58 if Johnson hadn't gotten back on the track), it suddenly could mean a whole heck of a lot in the coming two weeks. It's interesting now Prior to Sunday's smash-and-grab (Johnson's smash and Martin's grab of points), this season seemed over. Johnson entered the race with a lead of 184 points on Martin and a Texas-sized swagger that hinted at him perhaps not believing his own words that this thing wasn't yet over. There was widespread talk of Johnson easily wrapping up his unprecedented, historic fourth consecutive championship this coming Sunday at Phoenix, one week before the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Ticket sales and television ratings for the final two races were in danger of sinking to new lows. That talk of premature championship clinching has since evaporated. And although no one will say it publicly, you can bet that NASCAR is happy about it. Suddenly, what had been a foregone conclusion lacking even the slightest hint of drama is full of possibilities again. Martin, at age 50, has been the most intriguing story of the year as he returned to a full-time seat for the first time in three years and suddenly found himself challenging for the Cup championship that has previously eluded him during an otherwise successful, storied career. Now the feel-good story has fresh legs, if only for another week. Johnson remains the prohibitive favorite to win this thing. He has won three of the last four races at Phoenix -- although adding to the intrigue is the fact that Martin was the man who broke Johnson's three-race win streak there with a victory of his own last spring. The odds of Johnson having another disaster day like Texas are minimal, and it should be noted that he very much still controls his own destiny (at least as much as anyone can control their own destiny while racing with the likes of Hornish and Reutimann). He needs only to average a fourth-place finish the final two races to secure the title, regardless of what Martin -- or even Gordon, who is not totally out of the hunt 112 points back -- are able to do. But the fact is that anything can happen. Sunday at Texas proved that. Looking back After looking at video of the incident about a dozen times, one question begs to be asked of Sunday's wreck: with 331 laps to go, why would anyone -- least of all Johnson -- risk going three-wide anyway? Hey, it happens. Anything can happen, remember? Starting 12th, one spot behind Hornish and one ahead of Reutimann, Johnson obviously was anxious to get to the front and run with the leaders. He almost certainly had the car to do it. But if he did anything wrong, it was that he was a little impatient in darting to the top side of the track to pass Hornish. So, obviously, was Reutimann. And if Hornish had been able to make his car stick on the bottom, Reutimann never would have gotten a run on him and Johnson easily would have passed Hornish on the top side without incident. Johnson has avoided "incidents" for so long that it was beginning to seem he was immune to them. What Sunday proved is that no one is, as Johnson has been insisting all along. At Phoenix, you can bet Johnson will play it more careful while racing around the likes of Hornish and Reutimann and others with little to lose except the respect of the champion. But that only thickens the subplot. Can he afford to play it safe now, with Martin and Gordon coming hard in his rear-view mirror? Whatever happens, at least now it is worth watching. For that, NASCAR nation can be thankful. It's not that everyone is rooting against the immensely likable Johnson. It's just that very few Americans enjoy a four-game sweep in the World Series or NBA Finals, or a 40-point blowout in the Super Bowl. And until Sunday's trouble in Texas, Johnson was on course to accomplish the equivalent of all of the above -- plus he's aiming to do it for the fourth year in a row. He still very well may do it. In fact, he probably will and should be applauded for the accomplishment afterward. But after years of domination by one individual or one team in any sport, folks like to see someone new -- or someone old who hasn't been there in a while -- at least challenge for a major championship to the end no matter what the sport. Now at least Martin and Gordon are in positions where they still might come up with the unlikely walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth, half-court desperation heave at the final buzzer, or late onside kick recovery followed by a Hail Mary pass into the end zone. Sporting world, stay tuned. The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer. Looking back: 'Mr. September' By Ben White - NASCAR Illustrated At the end of the 1990 Cup season, Harry Gant seemed to be on the wrong side of his 18-year career. The 11-time winner limped to a 17th-place finish in the point standings and it wasn't clear just how much the 50-year-old driver had left. But he wasn't finished. Not by a long shot. In September of 1991, he shocked NASCAR by reeling off four straight wins at Darlington, Richmond, Dover and Martinsville. Though Gant wasn't the only driver to make four consecutive visits to victory lane, his hot streak earned him the nickname "Mr. September" and secured his place in NASCAR lore. "It seems like everything just fell into place," Gant says. "The car was really fast and handled so good. The pit crew did an excellent job getting out of the pits in those races. Everything just clicked. Sometimes it works out that way." Andy Petree, Gant's crew chief at the time, credits one particular chassis built by legendary mechanic Edwin "Banjo" Matthews and a strong engine for their eye-popping run. "It was just incredible," Petree says. "We ran the same car and the same engine in all of those races. We were having to turn the car around every week and they were also taking the motor back to the shop to rebuild it. We only had one set of heads for that engine and I remember Leo [Jackson, team owner] saying, 'Let's just keep teeing this car up until it loses.' " Before the first of the four wins, Petree sat down with his driver at Darlington and told Gant he wanted to win. "We had already won at Talladega [that year] and I said, 'We have only won one race per year and we've never won in the second half of a season. We need to buckle down and try to win some races.' I had no idea he was going to take it that serious," Petree says. After dominating Darlington, Gant edged Davey Allison at the first Richmond night race before lapping the entire field at Dover. At Martinsville, Gant rallied from a crash to seal his fourth straight win. He nearly won a fifth race but his brakes failed with nine laps remaining and he finished second behind Dale Earnhardt at North Wilkesboro. "Even now, I think about how that bleeder valve on the brake line kept us from winning five in a row," Gant says. "That was probably the best the car had run in all of those races. In the other four that we won, I had to run the car hard." Gant won two more races in 1992 but after Petree left and Gant's team switched from Oldsmobile to Chevrolet in 1993, he never won again. "Andy went to work for Richard Childress the next year and that really put us back a good bit," Gant, 69, says. "We would have been really, really good that next year if we had all been able to stay together. Plus, the Oldsmobile went out and we had to switch to a Chevrolet Lumina. Having to make that change took away a lot of the advantage we had with that car." This story originally appeared in the September 2009 issue of NASCAR Illustrated. 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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