Dover Qualifying

Jess

CUP RESULTS
1. Greg Biffle
2. Kurt
6. Brian
20. Martin
25. Dale Jr.
37. David
39. Casey
40. Michael

Oh man, I'm so hoping for another great performance by Kurt and the Miller boys!

MWR's qualifying effort was rather disappointing, though David said in one of UPS Racing's lovely qualifying reports that the #44 is better in race trim (though about fifteen minutes into practice he's last ). I'm very worried about Michael - that time would have sent him home if he hadn't been locked in. And he's only locked in by three points.

NATIONWIDE RESULTS
1. Carl Edwards
14. David
15. Scott

When David swung out the back end of the Dream Machine during his first lap I nearly passed out! We were in Syracuse all Friday so we didn't get to see practice, but while browsing through photos I saw David getting out of his car with the hood up and everything blackened and smoking! Apparently fuel leaked into the carburetor and caused a fire! The #99 team had to pull out the backup car.

Scott also had a good lap even though his car looked a little antsy.

Hoping for a great race for both these boys - and certainly hoping they avoid any nasty thunderstorms, since Dover is under a tornado watch at the moment...

Charlotte Motor Speedway - Coca-Cola 600

Danni

RESULTS
1. Kasey Kahne
5. Dale Jr.
10. David
16. Kurt
27. Michael (3LD)
29. Casey (4LD)
34. Martin (5LD - ACCIDENT)
42. Brian (DNF - ACCIDENT)

The people attending the Coke 600 observed a moving prerace dedicated to Memorial Day, complete with bagpipes playing "Amazing Grace", which, personally, was my favorite (I love bagpipes). It's always nice to see the men and women who protect and have protected our country get recognized - it is because of them that we even get to watch NASCAR every weekend!

This is the longest race of the year that goes from evening to night - a challenge for both driver and crew chief to keep up with the changing track conditions and subsequent shifts in the car's handling. At the drop of the green, polesitter Kyle Busch left the field in the dust, but the top-5 saw a few of our drivers - Brian, Kurt and Dale Jr. On Lap 34, Brian took the lead and showed off the strength that he had in his previous spring start at Charlotte. As has been the trend much of the year, the cars were forced to pit road undeer green. Relief wasn't found until Lap 61 when Robby Gordon brushed the wall and brought out the caution. Under this yellow, Casey, who would struggle with an extremely loose car for most of the night, stayed out to lead a lap.

Kurt would lead during the following green flag run, which was just awesome to see! It was also part way through this stint that some foreshadowing would fall upon the #83 team when Brian reported that it felt like he had a loose wheel. Fortunately, he got saved when the caution came out, but unfortunately it was Kurt blowing a tire and hitting the wall while running 2nd. Talk about luck! It was pretty depressing, but it could have been a lot worse. Despite everything, the #2 crew would mend the car back into shape during the course of the race and Kurt would salvage a decent finish. It's just a shame because he had a race-winning piece under him.

Back beyond the top-5, David was charging his way forward only inches from the wall. Even though the car wasn't exactly to his liking, he drove it as best as he could and it really showed. Go David!

Brian led some more and then dropped back to second. Again, he radioed to his crew that it felt like he had a loose wheel. Moments later, his left rear wheel bounced violently and then came right off! Brian spun and hit the wall pretty hard. The wheel went on an adventure of its own. It ricocheted off the catch fence and then hit David Gilliland's hood, understandably causing him to wreck. The wheel continued on down the banking, picking up speed, jumped over the inside wall and narrowly missed the ambulance and a photographer. It then climbed the fence leading to the infield and hit the awning of a pop-up camper while the fans around the area raised their arms in victory! As unbelievably upset as I was about Brian's great day gone horribly wrong, I was amazed at that wheel. But the cause of it all is odd - this is the crew that won the Challenge a couple weeks ago. It just seemed that the lugs were coming loose. Just one of those freak situations that do a good job of ruining your race...

Dale Jr. led his first green laps of the night after the caution and David, through helpful pit strategy by Ryan Pemberton, broke the top-10 and flexed some muscle with the best racers in NASCAR. It was great to finally see him get recognition for his abilities and I'm sure UPS wasn't complaining about the positive coverage they got during the race.

Junior went on to lead more laps on and off through the next few stints. Then came Lap 296. Now, as probably even the non-Junior fans know (), Dale has gotten the habit of rim-riding, which often causes a few stripes on the side of his car. So when he came off of Turn 4 and put it into the wall rather hard, I wasn't particularly surprised, althought by that time I was so exasperated that all my drivers who had led and run great ended up wrecked that it was almost numbing to watch. When JJ Yeley slammed into the back of him, I kind of woke up a bit. However, it did more damage to the #96 and Junior scraped along the wall for a while because of two flat right side tires. In spite of being more frustrated than anything, I had to chuckle at this - he was directly in front of all those insane fans that I abhor so much. I love my June, but man, do I hate a large bunch of those idiots who wear his gear.

Then followed a series of events that left me a little confused but quite disgusted. Junior was able to keep going and went flying down pit road to get his car assesssed. Now, I personally saw him zip by a safety truck that was clearing up Yeley's fluid. That's a big no-no. To make it worse, nobody forget that he had two tires down at the moment. And he was clearly speeding, obviously to beat the pace car so he could stay on the lead lap. NASCAR has rules about these things for safety reasons! I remember one year at Pocono I watched Junior have a really bad race. He sped on pit road to beat the pace car and was penalized at least one lap. During the commercial here, NASCAR landed him with a one lap hold for what the broadcast explained as endangering a safety truck. Then, upon further review, they revoked it! WHAT? From what I've heard more than one other driver had negative opinions of this move and frankly I agree with them. Even if he didn't endanger the truck (which is crap because a car on two flats is dangerous by itself), he was speeding to avoid the pace car. It's this ridiculous favoristism that makes me crazy and makes people hate Junior! I don't give a crap if I'm called a bad fan - the #88 deserved a one lap penalty, no ifs ands or buts! UGH!!

But anyway... life went on.

And came another things that pissed me off. With Junior out of winning contention, Tony Stewart took the point. He led the field to the green grossly slow, causing everyone to bunch up behind him. Either he brake-checked or just shot off because all of a sudden he was way ahead while the rest of the cars ran into the back of each other. Just behind David - who was 12th - a massive wreck ensued, taking out Martin. And what happened to Stewart? NOTHING!!! God!! It was very clear that he screwed with the field and he crashed a group of cars! By now I was royally annoyed at NASCAR for being soft and careless.

However, karma does come back and bite! A long green run at the end of the race resulted in some pit strategy for fuel (which is why Junior finished so well). Stewart was leading by a huge amount with about 3 to go when he got a flat tire and had to come to pit road! HA!!

David barely missed finishing 9th when Carl Edwards ran out of gas and just made it over the line ahead. But I'm definitely not whining! David and his crew proved that they are capable of running with the big boys and, yes, I'm going to say it - they can win this year! They can! This performance came at a wonderful time to demonstrate to UPS that the #44 team is where they should stay. Come on UPS!

On the flip side, Michael ran terrible all night. This came at the worst time - with Sam Hornish Jr. doing better, Michael is now in immediate danger of falling out of the top-35 in owner points. I keep thinking back to his temper tantrum with Casey and then getting parked. If he hadn't lost his cool, he'd have more of a cushion. To make things even more dismal, Michael McDowell is also in peril of being forced to qualify with only a 14 point buffer. With sponsor troubles already on the #00, he just has to start finishing better. But asking that out of someone who was thrown to the wolves much like David was last year is really hard. I feel for him - we might not be seeing his big smile for much longer.

#44 Quotes of the Race
After the race

David: "Where'd we end up?"

Ryan: "Tenth, tenth. You almost got 9th there, the 99 ran out...those guys are pushing it. The 24, he made it on fuel...he finished 4th. You had a great run there, nice job, good hard work, guys. We take that and make it a touch better and we'll get top-5s. You do that a few times, then we'll do what we need to do. Great job."

David: "Thanks guys, good [solid?] night."

Ryan: "Ten-four, nice job. Lotta hard work guys!"

Shawn: "Good job, David! Did a hell of a job tonight!"

David: "That was fun!"

Shawn: "Ever peel the right side off that thing? Watch your left side here - 20 car coming inside here and he's not happy. Watch out!"

David: "What the hell is he going after?"

Karma! Michael also came on the radio and congratulated the team, which was nice.

POINT STANDINGS*
1. Kyle Busch
3. Dale Jr. -139
15. Martin -569
20. Brian -657
21. Kurt -668
26. David -759 (28th in owner points +77 from 36th)
27. Casey -779
33. Michael -927 (35th in OP +3 from 36th)
*Updated to show the 150pt penalties assessed to the #66 and #70 cars

NNS Charlotte Motor Speedway - Carquest Auto Parts 300

Jess

RESULTS
1. Kyle Busch
4. Dale Jr.
5. Brian
11. David

Unfortunately Brian didn't lead the first lap - he had a very strong car all night but didn't end up leading until after the midway point! Pit strategy and some contact on pit road sent him back in the field for a while but you can't keep a good car down and it didn't take him long to return to the top 5.

David had a tougher time, although he started to make up spot quickly at the drop of the green. During their first pit stop they didn't take tires and ended up restarting 4th. This did not have the result they were hoping for because the little Dream Machine began to make a free fall out of the top 10. At one point it appeared that David didn't realize Clint Bowyer was under him while racing across the frontstretch - he drove him into the grass! He ran around in the top 20 for a while before making a late race charge back to 11th.

Junior had a great piece under him and I was surprised that he only led three laps. He had his fair share of drama as he watched his driver Brad Keselowski get into some trouble. Under the last caution of the race Keselowski bumped Denny Hamlin through the corner, stuffed the nose of the #88 under the #20 and then drove up beside him to show some sort of displeasure. Hamlin responded by yanking his car to the right and denting Keselowski's left front fender! Okay...I'm not one for retaliation but come on Keselowski - you deserved that for ignorance alone. Did he really think that after knocking Hamlin around for over one hundred feet and then pulling up beside him that Hamlin was just going to tremble in fear? Yeah right! Hamlin wasn't going to take Keselowski having as much of a hissy fit as that was. The #88 would have been better off giving him a good bump to show displeasure and then passing him during the race to send it home.

Remember a blog I recently posted where Junior went on and on about how Keselowski is getting a big head? Well it seems to me that Junior is probably one of the big causes of his arrogance. After Hamlin gave the #88 a good wallop, Junior drove up, passed Keselowski and then jacked Hamlin's back tires off the ground! Way to go, June, for encouraging bad behavior. I can understand an owner being disgruntled when someone messes with his driver, but let's get real here. You can't diss someone to the media for being full of himself and then pretty much show him that he has the right to be full of himself on the racetrack! Isn't that the number one rule of parenting? Don't yell at a kid about doing something and then egg him on later!

Kyle Busch went off and won the race (I'm sure he must have been very amused at the events commencing behind him!) and Keselowski finished 3rd because he couldn't get by Hamlin (duh, don't get your fender beat in next time). When the cars stopped on pit road the #88 crew dashed over the the #20 crew and started a brawl, led by Tony Eury Sr. Do men ever fully grow up? What's worse is that the "Navy boys" were clearly not listening to authority (NASCAR Officials) and were still lunging after the officials were right in the middle of the crowd. Nice. There was a funny part, when one camera angle caught Kyle happily doing a burnout as the carnage raged on pit road.

Keselowski whined that Hamlin didn't like him racing hard. This comment sort of confused me because then why was Keselowski the one instigating on-track bumping? That type of stuff is usually the other way around...like Hamlin racing Keselowski too hard. So that was odd. Hamlin had some funny quotes about when someone throws a rock at him he's going to throw a concrete block back. Junior said he doesn't like when his cars get torn up (I guess he didn't make the connection that it was Keselowski's attitude that tore this one up). By the end of it I was just hoping none of the #20 crew or NASCAR Officials got hurt by the #88 crew's lack of control.

Yesterday NASCAR handed down deserved penalties to Tony Sr. and two of the crewmen, one of whom was suspended for a race. Good. Apparently one of the officials was hurt as a result of the fight and that makes me think the penalties probably should have been harsher.

POINT STANDINGS
1. Clint Bowyer
4. David -188

Charlotte Qualifying

Danni

CUP RESULTS
1. Kyle Busch
3. Brian
6. Dale Jr.
8. Kurt
21. Casey
24. Martin
28. David
29. Michael

No surprise at the polesitter - Kyle sure knows how to make the haters squirm! I was, however, pretty shocked about Brian's run! Wow! He said afterwards that they were so focused on having a RACEcar that they neglected qualifying, so the #83 team decided to go back and try more qualifying stuff again. Looks like it paid off, especially if it's difficult to pass Sunday night.

Some of our other guys have quite a ways to get to the front. Since it's a 600 mile race, they have a long time to get there too!

NATIONWIDE RESULTS
1. Brian!
10. Dale Jr.
24. David

This was kind of scary to watch since they qualified in the heat of the day. Right in the middle of Turns 3 and 4 was like a loaded gun. A couple of the early qualifiers wrecked right there (including Kevin Harvick, which was odd to watch), but our David pulled what the booth called a "champion save" on his second lap. He was on a pole run when the car kicked out. I was like, "Oh no..." but David wrestled the Not-A-Dream Machine all the way up the track and kept it off the wall! I know he probably was pissy that he didn't get a better lap, but I'm sure his crew brushed off any apologies because otherwise they would have had a car to fix next week and a backup to pull out of the hauler!

In all reality, Brian had a huge advantage for the pole as a result of going out last. Still, I was thrilled to see him beat out poor David Ragan! He should have a good car to race with.

Random News of the Week

Jess

There have been some interesting developments and rumors to ponder recently posted on Jayski!

JR Motorsports: Cup?

Jayski posted part of a press conference transcript where Dale Jr. talked about the possibility of moving JR Motorsports to Sprint Cup:

IS THERE ANY CHANCE YOU'LL MOVE UP TO THE CUP LEVEL WITH THAT TEAM ANYTIME? "I used to say no way, no way. But it's almost as expensive to run in the Nationwide Series. And they're going to bring a CoT in and we won't be able to race in the Nationwide Series with the CoT probably. That'll just be too expensive to switch all that over."

WOULD YOU DO IT AS EARLY AS NEXT YEAR? "Yeah, maybe. If the right opportunity comes along with the right sponsorship and driver, we'd love to do it. And it would cost the same amount of money to do that, as it is to run the Nationwide Series. It's harder to get sponsorships. And the CoT program is going to be too expensive for me to justify creating a whole new program with CoT stuff, so I'd just as soon go into the Cup Series or get out of the Nationwide Series altogether."

I know June has a habit of opening his mouth when he shouldn't; I'm really hoping this is one of those times. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't fully believe that running a Cup team is about the same as a Nationwide team. That set aside, is he joking? His Nationwide team (the #88 - I don't count the #5) hasn't won a race yet...and he thinks it's ready to head into Cup? I love Junior but I don't think it would be a great idea. Starting a Cup team isn't easy even if you do have a lot of money.

Tony Stewart's name came up as a potential driver, as well. Of course it would. Martin's name came up. Of course it would. They're Junior's friends and Junior does have a tendency to make his buddies his drivers. Unfortunately so far it looks like it hasn't worked out too well with the exception of Martin. JR Motorsports has gone through two drivers/buddies already and it appears that things are a bit tense between Junior and Brad Keselowski:

"The problem I run into with Brad Keselowski is that he watches and sees how I act and thinks that's how he can act. But I've earned the ability or the right to be a little bit of jerk every once in a while and the thinks he can come in right off the bat and be one. And so I have to tell him, man, you can't be like that you know, you got to earn it. People ain't going to like you just coming in, seven months into the deal, and you're complaining all the time. You've got to suck it up for a little while. It's no fun. But after about four or five years, you can start kind of being more demanding and calling your shots a whole lot more and saying 'no' a whole lot more often. But he wants a PR person that'll carry his uniform around for him and things like that right now, and he's got to wait a couple of years before he gets that. I tell him to be patient. And I tell him too that qualifying is overrated. So hopefully he'll start listening to that."

This is about the time I smack my forehead and look up at the sky. Nationwide coverage isn't too expansive so to me Keselowski always seemed pretty down-to-earth...Junior's comments surprised me in that aspect because he makes him sound like an arrogant poop. It bothers me a little, firstly because I've always gotten the impression that Junior's drivers think he's their friend first and boss after that (I mean he lets his drivers live with him). Secondly, no matter what he shouldn't be talking about Keselowski like that to the media - it should be between them. Maybe he feels it's gotten to the point where he has to publically embarrass him but I think team owners need to be more professional than that. It's an issue I have with Michael as well.

Aflac Signs with Carl Edwards: Primary Sponsor

This puts some hope back into me about MWR having a better chance of keeping UPS, since Carl Edwards was apparently their first choice. It also leaves Office Depot looking for a driver, already rumored to be McD. You can't help but dream and hope 2009 has a #55 NAPA Camry, a #44 UPS Camry and a #00 Office Depot Camry beefing up MWR.

Doug Richert: Bye Bye DEI

No surprise here as I saw this coming the moment he left Brian. According to Bob Dilner on SPEED just a few minutes ago, DEI also fired some Team Red Bull crewmen that came along with Richert! Things that make you go, "Hmm!" I wonder if they had "different philosophies"? We'll see where Richert ends up.

Charlotte Motor Speedway - All-Star Race

Jess

SHOWDOWN RESULTS
1. AJ Allmendinger (transferred to All-Star race)
2. Sam Hornish (transferred to All-Star race)
* Fan Vote: Kasey Kahne (transferred to All-Star race)
4. Brian
6. David
20. Michael

Charlotte has never been the same since it was resurfaced but the Showdown and the desperation that goes along with it gave the fans some good racing - and the best racing of the night.

Brian immediately took the lead from polesitter Elliott Sadler, which was awesome! He had a great car and pulled away. It was doubly cool because AJ was performing just as well, causing visions of the pair of Red Bull cars making the All-Star race together.

Poor Pat Carpentier wrecked within four laps. He didn't get lucky like he did in qualifying and killed the car...I felt pretty bad for him.

AJ's evening became a little more stressful when during a restart he was tucked behind Brian with Sadler to the #84's outside. Brian appeared to get a little squirrelly and in response AJ let off to give him some room. When he did this the #84 jumped a little bit and made contact with the #19. Sadler crashed. I felt bad. AJ felt bad. But it was racing, hard racing to make one of the biggest events of the year.

I stopped feeling bad once Sadler opened his mouth afterwards. "There’s a reason why he gets taken out of that race car it seems like every other week," he said (referring to AJ - he called him "whatever his name is" and Matt Yocum quickly corrected him). "It’s a shame. We had fast race car and he got into us and just took us out."

You know what? Shut up, you idiot. How soon he forgot the move he pulled the weekend before at Darlington. The one where he dove it in like a lunatic under Tony Stewart and crashed him. On Lap 2 of a five hundred mile points race! I used to like Sadler but after hearing (and hearing about) some of the things he's said and done I'm not a big fan anymore.

David had a great car, especially in the second segment. I feel he really could have contended for the transfer spots if he had had a little more time. Hopefully their awesome setup will work just as well for the Coke 600!

On the other hand, Michael did not have a good car. In fact, in was horrible. On TWiN he made me cringe because he said it was a good car after practice but he made them change stuff to make it "better"! I hate when he does this! He's done it so many times and he knows he does it since I've heard him say similar things before. Michael can still run well and he can be the driver he was when he was with Tony Jr. He's just got to have more trust in Bobby Kennedy.

Brian led during the second segment but AJ took his place on Lap 20 and would hold that position to win his first NASCAR race! I was very, very proud of him! I might have to slap myself for this but I'm going to say it anyway because I give credit where it's due: Sam Hornish did a wonderful job. He was fast and as far as I know didn't ruffle any feathers on his way to a 2nd-place finish. His car, however, looked ridiculous! "Crab-walking", they're calling it - apparently it makes these new cars turn better. It's also making it hard for the cars to fit on the inspection scales, so NASCAR is nipping this funky modification in the bud.

#00 (yes, the last hurrah for the Reutimann number) Quotes of the Race

(Shawn's encouragement before the green flag)

Shawn: "Remember last week when they dropped the green in the Busch race and you passed twelve cars in the first ten laps? Go ahead and do that tonight, too, if you don't mind."

David: "I don't mind!"

Shawn: "It's only forty laps, brother, you got nothing to lose!"

ALL-STAR RESULTS
1. Kasey Kahne
8. Dale Jr.
13. Casey
16. Martin
21. DJ
22. Kurt

Kyle Busch was dominant until his engine failed as a result of a very foolish JGR motor experiment that also took out Denny Hamlin. Only after he was having trouble and finally was out of the race did the other drivers have a chance. Junior led some laps but like I'd feared faded when it counted; Kurt was running very well for a while but dropped like a stone at the end. Casey and Martin were never a threat and despite a moving tribute to Dale Jarrett during prerace ceremonies (he drove the truck!) he struggled all night.

Kasey Kahne became the first fan vote winner to win the All-Star race. Fans all over were using programs to vote - I was one of them, I'll admit. The vote totals look strange because macros can vote tens of thousands of times a day, so non-Kahne fans are screaming conspiracy, of course. I'm not so sure about that. First of all, it was obvious to anyone with half a brain that Kahne was the driver to beat for the fan vote. Secondly, I believe voting programs can only do so much, and I doubt that every vote, even manual votes, were counted because very likely the programs and some manual voters can go faster than the votes actually register. But whatever...there's always next year and at least no one has to compete against Kahne anymore! I'm not going to be a sore loser because Michael didn't get voted in, especially since he probably wouldn't have run well anyway.

Other than that this race was boring. I was very disappointed because it looked very hard to pass and even then it seemed like nobody wanted to try. I hope the 600 isn't like the All-Star race - the Showdown was more exciting! That's not saying wrecks are cool...it wasn't that the All-Star race was caution-free...it was that it was more of a parade than a race.

All-Star Qualifying

Danni

SHOWNDOWN RESULTS
1. Elliott Sadler
2. Brian
14. Michael
17. David

From Michael's random audio during practice, I had feared a rather dismal run from the #55, but he said after his lap that he didn't go hard enough because he didn't have the confidence! Hopefully the car will be that good tonight! Michael is in contention for the Fan Vote if he doesn't finish 1st or 2nd in the Showdown.

David's lap wasn't as good as I'd wanted, but he's qualified bad before and still had a good racecar. It's nice to see him in the #00 again and a surprise to see Aaron's on the hood! Brian was so close to the pole! His crew won the Pit Crew Challenge on Thursday night - they were phenomenal!

ALL-STAR RESULTS
1. Kyle Busch
3. Kurt
4. Martin
11. Dale Jr.
17. Casey
18. DJ

All-Star qualifying is always fun to watch and there's usually at least one spin-out on pit road entry (Denny Hamlin took the honors Friday evening). Dale Jarrett is back in the #44 to make his last start - I really hope he has a decent night because his laps did not look too good. Of course, having Kyle Busch on pole probably doesn't make a lot of the drivers feel very confident!

Darlington Raceway - Dodge Charger 500

Danni

RESULTS
1. Kyle Busch
4. Dale Jr.
12. Kurt
14. Martin
19. David
24. Michael (1LD)
25. Brian (1LD)
35. Casey (26LD - ACCIDENT)

It was predicted with good reason that the race would be crash-infested. Several drivers were in backup cars. But in all reality, the night was generally calm. There were plenty of Darlington stripes, but the only two DNFs resulted from engine failures.

Excitement ran high when in the opening laps, Elliott Sadler got loose when he dove under Tony Stewart. Both cars wrecked against the wall. From Sadler's in-car camera, you could see Stewart drive past and give him the thumbs-up. I have to admit, I was impressed with Stewart's behavior - when he can keep his cool about getting wrecked and Michael can't, it's amazing! Actually, Stewart has been acting uncharacteristically happy ever since the rumors began that he may leave JGR. Hmm... it's a little creepy but I'm kind of liking it.

Dale Jr. and Kurt ran up front in the first portion of the race. It was really good to see Kurt in contention! But for a good bit of the race, David was among the fastest on the track - even faster than either Kyle Busch or Greg Biffle when they were leading! There were long green flag runs between cautions that spread things out and put a lot of cars down a lap. David started looking at the top-10 when things went downhill for him. His koolbox, for at least the second time this year, was blowing hot air on him. With temperatures in the 80s, I can't imagine how bad that must have felt. He began slipping back to around 20th position, obviously suffering. Ryan and Shawn sounded pretty concerned. Debris cautions brought him some relief when the crew gave him water and ice bags, but then he got his microphone wet and sounded like an alien for the remainder of the race! It was funny even though David was awfully hard to understand sometimes.

When Biffle unexpectedly gave up the lead to head to pit road after wheel problems, Martin led some laps. More green flag stops began and cycled through before Biffle brought out the next caution by leaving debris on the track. In a tale of sad irony, the pole-sitting car finished last after an engine failure. I feel for Greg! I also have a feeling he may be looking elseware in terms of a ride for next year based on some of his comments.

Something strange happened during that caution. The footage was confusing and brief. From looking at race reports, apparently Ryan was having some major mechanical issues (a broken rear end). While Brian was going into pit road, Ryan was told to also pit and swung down, but then was told to get back on track. He swerved to miss the commitment line and tagged Brian. It just sucked, then sucked moreso when Brian spun out on the track a while later. Not a very fun night for the #83. During that caution, Michael sped on pit road. He was having a better time than usual, but going to the tail-end of the longest line probably hurt.

Several laps later, another of our guys had his race go sour. Casey, running well, hit the wall then cut a tire and was forced to go to the garage for repairs. Ugh! That really marred his points climb.

During the next green run, Kyle Busch showed his true talent. While leading, he hit the wall hard on the backstretch. Sparks flew, the car swerved sharply and I thought for a moment that second-place Dale Jr. would take over the top spot. But man! Kyle kept going like nothing had ever happened!

The final yellow flew when Martin just sort of ran into the back of Denny Hamlin. I don't know what brought that on but I'm sure Hamlin didn't enjoy it.

The next sixty or so laps went green and Kyle continued his tear. It was awesome to see him win and know all the fans who can't stand Kyle were cringing under his talent! And you know? Not a whole lot of boos. I think his unpopularity is something only those fans jealous of him make up. I'm sure he probably has a lot of bandwagoners, though!

#44 Quotes of the Race
Ryan's post-race speech!

Ryan: "Nineteeth, man. Sorry, man, nineteenth. I'm gonna get that air conditoning and stuff worked out for you. You did a great job, man, hanging on to it. At any one point in time in the race, man, you looked as good as anybody, so uh, we just gotta work on it a little bit over there, clean up around the rough edges and we'll have good days here shortly."

You tell it!


POINT STANDINGS
1. Kyle Busch
3. Dale Jr. -134
15. Martin -460
17. Brian -529
22. Kurt -618
27. Casey -690
29. David -723 (31st in owner points +67 from 36th)
32. Michael -839 (33rd in OP +45 from 36th)

NNS Darlington Raceway - Diamond Hill Plywood 200

Jess

RESULTS
1. Tony Stewart
3. David

What a great night for David and the Dream Machine team! I'll admit I wasn't expecting a top 3, especially because I learned during the prerace that David had actually crashed the primary car in practice. But leave it to David's talent and determination to prove me wrong!

Darlington lashed out quickly when she decided Carl Edwards was going to be her first victim. As the polesitter, Edwards chose to start on the high groove - a move that led to the early demise of his night when he spun out and crashed. I felt awful for him because he looked upset, but it gave me hope that David could start to reel him in in points.

It didn't take long for David to move forward and he snuck into the top 10 by lap 52! He and Shawn did an awesome job slipping by accidents, like this one when Kyle Busch got wrecked trying to pass David Ragan. Brad Keselowski (who was two laps down after wrecking early on) didn't yield to lead lap cars and drove down on Kyle, forcing him onto the apron...and at really high speeds that doesn't work out too well. Kyle was displeased, of course...but when he said "SOB" I had to laugh.


(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

It was a game of survival and skill from then on, avoiding wrecks and sitting through red flags. Nothing fazed our hero, even when 2nd-place Mark Martin ran out of fuel on a restart with four laps to go and took out five other cars along with him - this happened directly in front of the #99! On the last restart of the race David was running 4th but that wasn't good enough for him. He drag-raced Todd Bodine down the frontstretch on the white flag to come home 3rd!

Not too bad for a guy who's never finished in the top 20 at Darlington!!

POINT STANDINGS
1. Clint Bowyer
4. David -168

Darlington Qualifying

Jess

CUP RESULTS
1. Greg Biffle
2. Dale Jr.
5. Kurt
22. Martin
28. Brian
29. Casey
30. David
37. Michael

Darn it, so close for Junior! I'm really happy where Kurt is starting and he was great in practice, too. He needs a good race and I hope the Lady is nice to him.

Gotta give a shoutout to both Patrick Carpentier and AJ Allmendinger for making this race. Pat's lap was really heartbreaking but he did just good enough to qualify and for that I'm thankful. He's such a good guy. (And I want him to run naked.) AJ's first lap was absolutely horrifying! I wanted to cry, it was so bad. But he pulled himself together and made it easy the second time around. Go AJ!


NATIONWIDE RESULTS
1. Carl Edwards
21. David

Oi! He's never gotten a top 20 here but I think this could be the night!

Sponsor Silly Season!

Jess

It never ends! Jayski recently posted these rumors over the past week.

Truex to Penske? with UPS? UPDATE UPS denies: hearing that Martin Truex, current driver of the #1 DEI Chevy, could be headed to a 4th Penske Racing team with UPS as the sponsor.(5-4-2008)
UPDATE - UPS denies negotiating with any team: UPS officials released a statement Monday saying the company is not currently in negotiations with any specific Sprint Cup team or driver. UPS currently sponsors the #44 driven by David Reutimann. Michael Waltrip Racing Vice President Cal Wells has said that UPS has had preliminary discussions with six teams about what cars and drivers they would have open for 2009 and "UPS is doing exactly what they should be doing. We either earn the business back or we won’t." But to say that UPS has started negotiations with any team is not accurate, according to a company official. "As of this date, UPS is not engaged in formal active sponsorship negotiations with any NASCAR Sprint Cup driver or race team," read the statement, attributed to UPS Director of Sponsorship & Events Ron Rogowski. With Dale Jarrett's retirement this year, UPS is looking for another face for a long-term campaign. One of the drivers often mentioned is #99-Carl Edwards, who right now is sponsored by Office Depot. Roush Fenway Racing and Office Depot currently are in an exclusive negotiating period for Edwards. "UPS went to six or eight race teams, visited them, to get all the inventory that they all had," Roush Fenway President Geoff Smith said Saturday. "And from that, they told us they would cut it down amongst the teams. There's been no negotiating."
(SceneDaily.com)(5-6-2008)

I hate when this happens...a rumor that a sponsor of one of your drivers is leaving to sponsor another one of your drivers! Sponsor-hopping happens a lot so it's to be expected sooner or later one is going to be an awkward switch. UPS is claiming they haven't started negotiations yet, which I guess is slightly comforting.

What's even more interesting about this rumor is Martin going to Penske. It's no shocking thing he possibly wants to leave DEI. However, at this point I'm not entirely sure if Penske is the best place to head (okay, although it's probably a better environment than DEI, but I'm talking about performance-related stability here). Kurt is struggling. Sam Hornish is wobbling on the edge of falling outside the top 35 (a lot of this could be chalked up to inexperience, which isn't really the fault of Hornish or the team). What I'm trying to get at is Penske being ready to add a fourth team - if that's the plan, for Ryan Newman's contract is up so Martin possibly could replace him if he choses to leave. If Penske added a fourth team it would most likely be outside the top 35...unless another point switcheroo happens and Kurt is forced to rely on his past champion's provisional again. I wouldn't be too happy about that.

Office Depot to MWR? Hearing Office Depot, currently the sponsor for #99-Carl Edwards, is considering a move to Michael Waltrip Racing with driver #00-Michael McDowell. UPS has been rumored as a possible sponsor for Edwards and Roush Racing in 2009.(5-8-2008)

Now this is more like it! McD and Office Depot would be a good fit - McD's smile and personality rival's that of Carl Edwards'. Another big name sponsor signing with MWR would be a great thing. But there is a downside that I'll admit makes my heart sink.

Office Depot leaves the #99. The #99 is open for a new sponsor. UPS has looked at the #99. It would really, really suck if UPS left David for Carl and David didn't get a sponsor in return. I like McD and think he deserves a great sponsor like Office Depot, but it would hurt if David - the driver at MWR that has shown the most week in and week out - was left without a sponsor.

In a perfect world Office Depot will come over to sponsor McD and UPS will stay with David (Roush is asking a ton of money to sponsor the #99). But we'll see how it all works out.