News-Record.com

For those of you with memories that go back a year or so, you might recall Dustin Long's stories (I'm using the word loosely) that ran before last year's spring Martinsville week. These were the very cool "In Their Own Words" features, where three drivers (Dale Jarrett, Jeff Gordon and Jamie McMurray) riffed on a bunch of topics mostly unrelated to racing.

Dustin's doing the same thing again this year. (The pieces will run next week, starting Friday.) Today, before qualifying, he did his sit-down with Elliott Sadler. Guess who's on the pole for Sunday's race at Bristol? Yep, Sadler. Another of Dustin's "In Their Own Words" subjects, Rusty Wallace, will start third.

And the third subject? That would be Dale Earnhardt Jr., who starts 19th. Well, maybe he would have qualified 32nd if Dustin hadn't interviewed him last week.

Other Bristol qualifying highlights:

That was a pretty good race. Not quite as good as the Atlanta finish two weeks ago, but it was a classic short-track race: Lots of bumpin' and bangin', a little finger-pointing and some good hard racing.

The highlights:

Your winner: Kevin Harvick. Hard to believe it's the first time he's been in victory lane since August 2003. And who needs a stinkin' crew chief anyway?

DEI fans, you can come down on the ledge. Junior finished fourth and moved up nine spots to 17th in points. Michael Waltrip was 19th, but he looked good when he wasn't being run into.

Jimmie Johnson owes Jeff Burton and Kurt Busch a big fat apology. The Burton-Busch head-on was one of the roughest crashes I've seen in a while, and I'll be surprised if neither has any lasting damage. No, I don't think Johnson's nudge of Burton was payback for the Harvick (Burton's teammate) bump-draft incident at Daytona. It was just a case of Johnson being careless. He knows better.

Nope, not a misprint. Kyle Petty finished 8th. I was very glad to see that.

Chase update: Only 30 drivers now within the magic 400 point window. Falling out of the Chase this week: Joe Nemecheck, Ken Schrader, Bobby Hamilton Jr., Jason Leffler and Kevin Lepage. Sure, a driver can claw his way back in to the Chase. But none of these guys is likely to do so, especially since Jimmie Johnson can't seem to finish worse than sixth these days.

Monday noon update: Dustin's race story is here. And he's got some notes here on Elliott Sadler, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Petty and Jeff Burton.

Monday 1:50 p.m. update: Guess Kevin Harvick really, really likes Bristol, because he just won the Busch race. Runner-up was Jeff Burton, who apparently isn't feeling any effects from yesterday. Burton, incidently, was driving Harvick's No. 21 car.

Sorry for the lack of bloggage over the past couple of days, but I've been at half speed because of some sort of stomach bug. Another distraction has been some N.C. team that just won some sort of big national title.

I'll have something a little meatier for you later today or tomorrow. But, first, this important programming note:

In tomorrow's paper, look for a story on Truck driver Steve Park, who survived a horrific 2001 crash, then came back and won his first race in February. Also, Dustin Long will follow up on the Shane Hmiel-Dale Jarrett incident (stories here and here) at Monday's Busch race.

On Friday, we kick off the first of three days of "In Their Own Words" interviews that Dustin did with some of the Nextel Cup drivers. First up is Rusty Wallace. Elliott Sadler is Saturday, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. is Sunday.

There's a truck race Saturday afternoon and a Cup race Sunday afternoon just up the road in Martinsville. (Yep, there are still tickets.)

Saturday night, the Whelen Modified Tour, after being rained out last weekend at Ace Speedway, makes a return visit to Caraway.

Finally, Charlotte Observer racing writer David Poole will be in Greensboro at 7 p.m. Friday to sign his Tim Richmond book. Catch him at the Friendly Center Barnes & Noble.

In other words, just because I'm not blogging doesn't mean there's not a ton of racing stuff going on, especially around these parts.

In case you missed today's paper, Dustin Long's story on the Shane Hmiel fine is here, and his roundup of various odds and ends is here.

Elsewhere, Winston's Mike Mulhern chats with Kyle Petty (reg. req.), who's coming off his first top 10 finish in nearly three years. And the N&O reports that actor Anthony "Dr. Green on E.R." Edwards will be the honorary grand marshal of Saturday's truck race at Martinsville. And thatsracin.com has the AP story on Kevin Harvick, who apparently can get along with his teammates. (For the record, it seems no one in NASCAR really gets along with Robby Gordon, which is why he has his own team. I'm not sure why everyone presumed Harvick would have better luck.)

Trent Cherry, one of Ryan Newman's crew members, blogs on his picks for most overrated drivers in NASCAR. (He goes with Jamie McMurray, Brian Vickers and Kasey Kahne.) Go check out the lively discussion, which devolved pretty quickly into Junior bashing.

Closer to home, Matt, one of the regular commenters here (okay, he's one of two regular commenters here) runs a racing message board here. Make his day and go check out his site.

There are lots of numbers rolling around NASCAR, but these are the four you need to watch this week.

35: Starting this week, the top 35 in this year's owner points are guaranteed a spot in the race as long as they qualify. (Up through Bristol, NASCAR used the top 35 in last year's owner points.) This new system replaced the provisional system. I never completely understood the details, but it, like the new method, was there to ensure that the top names in the sport aren't sitting out Sunday's race just because their car blew up in qualifying.

The current owner standings show some weird things. First, the No. 18 driven by Bobby Labonte is in 34th. Whew. For a while this season, it was looking like bad-luck Labonte might not crack the top 35. He's safe, sort of, because NASCAR did keep the past champion's provisional. Unless Matt Kenseth (who won a Cup title more recently than Labonte) dropped out of the top 35 (don't laugh -- Kenseth is a disappointing 27th in owner points this year), Labonte will claim this provisional.

Might as well do a rolling entry as things pop up:

3:45 p.m.: Cup qualifying is delayed by rain. Eight cars have made their runs, and 39 are still waiting. The weather radar doesn't look too bad, so maybe this is a light shower.

4:30 p.m. update: No word, so I'm assuming qualifying is still off. Not that most drivers care, especially Rudd. Ken Schrader wrecked in qualifying, by the way.

5:35 p.m. update: It's raining like heck here, but apparently not in Martinsville, where qualifying is done. Scott Riggs has the poll; Newman is second. Jeff Gordon starts 16th, Junior starts 26th and points leader Jimmie Johnson goes off 37th (!). Ricky Rudd made the field; he'll line up 13th. Going home: Stanton Barrett, Jeff Fuller, Kirk Shelmerdine and The Spotter's favorite field filler, Carl Long.

Oh, and someone named Mike Garvey is starting 34th. Makes me think I could qualify in my Honda Civic. Your starting lineup is here, btw.

6:15 p.m. update: Dustin Long just e-mailed: Darrell Waltrip failed to qualify for Saturday's truck race. Bummer.

7:05 p.m. update: Your Truck race pole sitter: Bobby Hamilton. And I still don't know who Mike Garvey is. (When Ed Hardin phoned from the Masters, his response was "Who?") Any help?

7:30 p.m. update: Weird. Apparently someone was screwing around with the famous Martinsville hot dog yesterday. Not to worry: Problem apparently solved.

Typical Martinsville weekend: A lot of beating and banging, and a pretty good race.

So what did we learn?

* Never ever count out Jeff Gordon. And never ever get in his way. Hear that, Kurt Busch?

* A loose race car might be fine for qualifying, but it can be junk in a race. Just ask Scott Riggs, who learned that driving loose in traffic at the start of a race is a whole lot different than driving loose by himself during qualifying.

* Kyle Petty ain't dead yet. He ran close to the front until he spun late in the race, and he still managed to salvage a top 20 finish. (He was 18th.) And teammate Jeff Green was only four spots despite spinning three times. Guess there's something to those Evernham engines.

* Dale Earnhardt Jr. likes liver mush. (Yuck.) Also, there's some woman out there who would rather hang with her friends than go on a date with Junior.

* The Chase might be the thing that saves NASCAR. Jimmie Johnson had his worst race since sometime last fall, but the points leader is already 160 points up (!) on second place Greg Biffle. If this were, say, 2003, NASCAR already would have engraved the points champion's trophy with Johnson's name.

* Martinsville should never, ever lose a Cup date. That tiny little track is too much fun.

Over in this post, I made a half-snarky reference to someone named Mike Garvey, who qualified 34th for Sunday's Cup race at Martinsville.

And after Sunday, I didn't know anything more about him other than the fact his brakes gave out after 18 laps and he went home with a last-place finish, 34 driver points and a check for $63,000 and change.

Today, reader Mark Jalovec called me out for a big blind spot in my racing knowledge: namely, ASA. Here's Mark:

John you must live inside the NASCAR box. Mike Garvey is my eyes considered one of the top ten short track drivers of all time. He has won the All-American 400 twice, had five wins in ASA last season and is tied with Mark Martin for all-time ASA wins with twenty-two. He also has wins in Artgo, All Pro, Hooters Cup Late Models, Hooters Pro Cup, Southern All Stars,etc. Mike was Voted Most Popular in ASA in 2003 and Most Popular in Hooters Cup in 1995. I can guarantee you all the drivers on the Cup series know who he is. Before you belittle someone maybe you should do a little research. Have you heard of Google?

So know you (and I) know. Thanks, Mark.

And, yeah, I have heard of this Google thing. That's how I found this short recent piece on Garvey. Anyone who wants to read more about Garvey is welcome to try this or dig around the USAR Hooters Pro Cup series site, where Garvey is running in the Southern Division and already has one win this season.

With Sunday's win at Martinsville, Jeff Gordon creeped one race closer to Dale Earnhardt on the all-time wins list. (Earnhardt is second in the 1972-and-later modern era behind Darrell Waltrip, who has 84 wins.)

Gordon now has 71 wins to Earnhardt's 76. Chances are, Gordon won't catch Earnhardt this season. Sure, he's got two wins in six races so far this season. But as good as Gordon is, he's won only six races a season once since 2000 -- it was in 2001 -- and remember he started the season seven back of Dale Sr.

I've always been curious as to how Gordon and Earnhardt stack up against each other at the various tracks around the NASCAR circuit. Dustin Long was kind enough to put the chart together yesterday. We didn't have room for it in today's paper (we barely had room for Dustin's story on Gordon), so here's the list:

There's not a ton of racing news out there, but it doesn't stop racing writers from writing. Here's what's out there:

thatsracin.com has a short piece on some of the top young Busch drivers, and updates Charlotte's bid for the NASCAR Hall of Fame (they've got I.M. Pei's firm on board to design the thing), and blogger Trent Cherry (aka Ryan Newman's rear tire carrier) writes here about not being run over by Tony Stewart on Sunday at Martinsville.

The Journal's Mike Mulhurn catches up with Carl Edwards (reg. req.). (Remember him?) And USA Today writes that Kurt Busch's non-response to being run over by Jeff Gordon "provided another example that Busch has tempered his temper."

The Track Smack boys over at nascar.com chat about Bobby Labonte's recent woes and Tony Stewart's newfound maturity.

My hometown paper has a story on Kyle Petty's resurgence. The key, it seems, is the hiring of Paul Andrews.

Over in IRL-land, the entry list for the Indy 500 has grown to 69 cars. A lot of familiar IRL names there. The only name with any NASCAR ties is one Larry Foyt.

Finally, the New York Times discovers bumping in NASCAR. Next up: The Times breaks the story that Nextel Cup races run counterclockwise!

Or so Marty Smith reports over at nascar.com:

There's something special about an old, cranky joint in the middle of nowhere. Character is earned, not given, and no place has more character than Darlington.

Plus, it has mainstream appeal. Retro is in. Darlington is as retro as your grandfather's dentures.

Losing Darlington from the Nextel Cup schedule would be the last straw for many folks, an unforgivable transgression.

Agreed. Now if we can just get some ironclad assurances that Martinsville will remain on the schedule. It wouldn't be any fun if every track on the circuit was the same ol' same ol' 1.5-mile tri-oval.

That time already? Apparently so. Thatsracin.com is reporting that Greg Biffle is a quote-unquote leading candidate (whatever that means) to replace Rusty Wallace in the No. 2 car next season.

Huh. At this point, just about everyone in Cup, Busch and Trucks could be a quote-unquote leading candidate for the 2, one of the better rides on the circuit. Biffle's name always surfaces first because he's usually been among the more disgruntled members of the Roush crew.

With a lot more drivers definitely (Mark Martin), almost definitely (Sterling Marlin) or maybe (Michael Waltrip and probably several others) leaving the sport or losing their rides, expect a lot more Silly Season craziness over the next few months.

Friday update: Maybe it will be Ricky Craven in the 6? Or Carl Edwards in the 6 and Craven in the 99? (More here.) I'd love to see Craven back racing Cup for a better-than-average team.

And not just at Texas Motor Speedway, where there's Cup qualifying today (4 p.m., SPEED), a Busch race tomorrow (2 p.m., FOX) and a Cup race Sunday (12:30 p.m., Fox, with the green flag expected at about 1:20 p.m.).

Here in news&recordland, the boss is out, which means I've got three days worth of stories to wrangle into the paper. So here are a few weekend story lines to chew on:

* Can Shane Hmiel finally win a Busch race? The kid from Pleasant Garden won the pole for Saturday's Busch race, his first since taking it at Indy in 2003. He's ninth in Busch points this season, with three top 5s in seven races. Hmiel come close to winning a lot, but something goofy always seems to happen to him at the end of the race. Maybe this is his weekend?

* Will a return to Texas mean the return to dominance of the Hendrick and Roush cars? It's not like they disappeared at Bristol and Martinsville. But Texas is a scary-fast aero track, and we all remember how Roush and Hendrick ran toward the front at California, Vegas and Atlanta.

* Can Boris Said make the race? Bill Elliott? Terry Labonte? They're among the 46 drivers entered in Sunday's Cup race.

* And should I start Bobby Labonte or Kyle Petty on my fantasy team?

Y'all talk in the comments.

The latest name in the mix: Martin Truex Jr.

Thatracin.com reports today that Truex is being courted by Evernham and Yates, among others, for next season. He's a potential star -- Truex won the Busch series title last year and is in the hunt for this year's crown -- so I can't say I'm surprised that other teams are sniffing around.

Last I heard, he was going to get the No. 1 Chevy (Steve Park's old ride) in '06. That would shock the heck out of me if he bolted DEI.

Thoughts?

Anyone remember Francis Ferko? Folks around Rockingham sure do. He's the guy who sued NASCAR in 2002 because, in short, Texas had only one Cup date.

Anyway, he sat down with Dallas Morning News columnist Kevin Blackistone (reg. req.). For the record, Ferko says he wasn't doing Bruton Smith's dirty work, didn't receive a dime in the settlement and said he's "disappointed" that the Rock lost its Cup dates.

So why did he sue: "The reason I began the suit to get the race in Texas was because I was impressed by how TMS took care of the fans."

I wonder what fans of the Rock think about that last statement.

First off, I'm last out of six teams after six weeks. That's what starting Bobby Labonte, Dale Jr. and Ryan Newman will do for you.

Last week, with Kyle Petty on my active roster instead of B. Labonte, I managed the third-highest score of the week. The problem: I was up against someone who had the best score that week. (He or she started Stewart, Mark Martin and Rusty. Grr.)

This week, I'm feeling pretty good about my team. Newman has the pole, Junior has won at Texas before, and Bobby Labonte starts a not-too-bad 22nd.

This week's issue: My opponent is countering with a Roush-Roush-Hendrick lineup of Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle and Jimmie Johnson. The only glimmer of hope is that Biffle will run in backup car Sunday.

Wish me luck.

Oh, and don't miss Dustin Long's Sunday story on caution flags. (Hint: You're not imagining things.)

Gotta bolt - the Busch race is on soon.

Sunday update: Here is the Dustin Long story I promised. The lead:

A combination of more accidents and NASCAR's version of spring cleaning have extended caution periods and lengthened Nextel Cup races this season.

Drivers have run more than 18 percent of all laps this year with the yellow flag waving. That's the highest percentage in a decade for the season's first six races. Those cautions also have prolonged Cup races by 10 minutes -- they now last an average of 3 hours and 32 minutes -- compared to last year's events.

There was no catching Greg Biffle today. Guy led 219 of 334 laps, and it was pretty clear that everyone else was racing for second. Congrats to Biffle, who joins Jeff Gordon as repeat winners for the season.

A couple of other story lines to emerge from today's race at Texas:

* Ganassi (all three drivers in the top 5) and DEI (Waltrip 6th and Earnhardt Jr. 9th) seem to have finally figured out the spoiler-tire issue.

* Former champ Bobby Labonte had another terrible race. For the record, he hates the shorter spoiler.

* There's no one better in Nextel Cup at fixing a crummy car on the fly than Jimmie Johnson. He rallied to finish third. Although Biffle cut into his points lead, Johnson's 13th (I think) top 10 finish put Kasey Kahne and Matt Kenseth outside the magic 400 point mark to remain eligible for the Chase. At this rate, we'll be down to just 10 Chase-eligible drivers in about two or three weeks.

Joe Gibbs said struggling driver Jason Leffler isn't going anywhere, nascar.com reports, despite published reports to the contrary.

And Greg Biffle? Dustin Long reports today that Biffle is close to renewing his deal with Roush. Said Biffle:

Despite Internet reports that Biffle, in the final year of his contract, could be headed to another team, he said he'll remain with Roush.

"There isn't any question about it," Biffle said after his fifth career Cup win. "I know we're going to get it worked out."

So maybe that rumor will die. Yeah, I know it's too darned early to be talking about driver moves. But let's face it: Somebody's going to get canned before too long. And there are too many good rides (No. 2 and No. 6, to name two) that'll be available at the end of the year. So I'm figuring this is just the first of many waves of Silly Season talk.

Tuesday update: According to nascar.com, Biffle's not going anywhere, and neither is Ryan Newman. So there.

I wonder who's going to be next in the rumor mill. Any thoughts?

Okay, this isn't technically racin' in the turn left-go fast mold. But it is racing of the bicycle variety. So please bear with me, because I've followed cycling ever since Greg Lemond was showing the world that Europeans weren't the only ones who could bikes fast up the Alps.

I was sad but not surprised to hear yesterday that Lance Armstrong will be hanging up the bike after this year's Tour de France (reg req). (Austin American Statesman story here (reg. req.); USA Today version with audio here.)

Armstrong was simply a monster on a bike, especially when that bike was rolling through France in July. That he won five Tours was pretty amazing, especially for a guy who nearly died of cancer. But six? Nobody had ever done that. That was cycling's equivalent of Richard Petty's 200 victories -- untouchable, unapproachable, unthinkable.

In his fifth Tour, in 2003, an ailing Armstrong showed he had more on sheer guts .

His sixth TdF win was a display of utter domination, remarkable because few people gave him much shot of doing, at age 32, what no other cyclist in history had done. His stage 17 "No gifts" win was as dramatic and exciting of a cycling finish as you'll ever see.

Was Armstrong the greatest ever? Nope. Belgian cyclist Eddy Merckx (aka "The Cannibal," one of the best nicknames in all of sports), claims that title even if Armstrong wins a seventh tour this summer. Why? Because Merckx rode about every race there was, and dominated most of them.

But Armstrong is definitely the greatest U.S. cyclist ever (sorry, Greg Lemond). And on hot July days in France, no one comes close to catching Armstrong. Here's hoping he gets No. 7.

Just when we're getting used to Sunday afternoon racing, NASCAR plays with the schedule and gives us a bunch of Saturday night (and Sunday night) races.

Except for the Talladega race next Sunday, five of the next six races on the schedule will start and/or finish under the lights. First up is Phoenix, which starts at 7:55 p.m. Saturday (or 4:55 p.m. in Phoenix, which refuses to accept Daylight Savings Time). After 'Dega, there's Darlington (Saturday night start), Richmond (another Saturday night start), the All-Star race (still another Saturday night start) and Lowe's (late afternoon start on a Sunday).

Me? I like the night races. The Richmond races, both run under the lights, are two of the best on the circuit in any given year. But I'm not so sure I want them all in a clump like this, especially when it frees up my Sundays to do yard work. What do y'all think?

p.s. Speaking of Bobby Labonte, whose 2005 woes came up in an earlier comments thread, Marty Smith of nascar.com has more: "Labonte has fallen victim to others' miscues on several occasions. If there's a wreck, he finds it. You'd think the guy had a GPS tracking device locked on the Big One. Everywhere."

If you're NBC, you're probably pretty happy this week. Not only does NBC show NASCAR, including the Daytona 500 every other year, it has a bunch of golf (including the U.S. Open), Notre Dame football, horse racing's Triple Crown, Wimbledon and, oh yeah, the Olympics. Now NBC will be back in the NFL business in 2006 after an eight-year absence. It took the Sunday night game from ESPN, which wrested the Monday night game from partner ABC.

Over at the Winston-Salem Journal (req. req.), Mike Mulhurn has more. His take: The numbers don't work on a return to racing for ABC and ESPN. Why? Because ESPN just shelled out a bunch of money for MNF, and ABC ... well, he doesn't talk about ABC.

Meanwhile, back at the nascar.com ranch, NBC says it wants "to keep that relationship going" with NASCAR, whatever that means.

Man, this is making my head hurt. Anyone got any other scenarios?

Oh, here's the last paragraph of the nascar.com story, which is something I missed when it was announced:

NBC/TNT's NASCAR coverage will undergo a bit of a makeover this season. NASCAR.COM learned late last year that former lead pit reporter Bill Weber will move to the play-by-play booth and former booth man Allen Bestwick will move to pit road.

That's too bad. I like Bestwick in the booth. I can't imagine how the suit-and-tie and perfect hair will play down there in the pits.

Nope, not Nextel Cup, which runs Saturday night at Phoenix.

I'm talking F1. The Grand Prix of San Marino (that's Italy, race fans) will be shown on tape-delay at 1 p.m. Sunday on CBS (WFMY-2).

Sure, it's not racing of the turn left-go fast variety, but it's some racing on a day that otherwise wouldn't have any. To help you figure out what's going on, here's our in-house F1 expert, Dick Barron, with your viewer's guide:

Friday update: The Journal's Mike Mulhurn has more here (and scroll down; reg. req.), including talk of lie-detector tests and an earful from Marc Reno, James Finch's GM.

I've been behind at work, so I'm just now getting around to this weird Busch Series story involving the No. 1 car of Johnny Sauter.

Here's the timeline (according to what I can piece together from the Charlotte paper, which has been all over this story):

No, not me. Her.

Go say hello to Jaynelle Ramon, an online content producer and racing blogger at azstarnet.com, the Web site of the Tucson, Ariz. paper. Ramon is a self-described NASCAR nut who's been blogging since at least last September, or long enough that her blog no longer has a yellow stripe on it. She is promising to be at the Phoenix race. Maybe she'll have something for us later in the weekend.

Update: No wonder her blog doesn't have any comments. The dang comments thing is broken. And, yeah, I know how to work the comments. A blog without comments is like an unsponsored Nextel Cup car: It runs laps, but it's somehow just not the same.

Saturday update: Looks like Jaynelle made it to the track Friday. She reports that she ran into Jeff Gordon (literally); she saw license plates in the parking lot from several Western and Southwestern states and Mexico; and she wasn't sucked into Juniormania. Btw, the "Hey 66" cheers were for Hermie Sadler, who missed out on qualifying for the race by one lousy spot. Here is her report.

Saturday night, the Cup series rolls into Phoenix, where they'll be racing in the spring under the lights, both for the first time.

So what to watch? Here are some plot lines:

Greg Biffle. (Or, as DW kept calling him last night, "Biff.")

Biff spun himself out on lap 9 or so, then came charging back through the field and won going away for his second victory in six days. (Biff, as y'all recall, won Sunday's Cup rate at Texas.)

Runner-up Elliott Sadler put it best: "Biffle is a driving machine." (Brief registration required. Or you can check out the Associated Press version here.)

I'm beginning to think if you made Biffle race in a Big Wheel, he'd figure out a way to pedal that thing into the top 10.

Two races, two close finishes.

Saturday night, Michael Waltrip chased pretty hard after Kurt Busch, but came up just short. For a few laps, I thought the No. 15 might catch, Busch, the eventual race winner, because Waltrip was driving the car that Dale Earnhardt Jr. won with at Phoenix last fall. But Waltrip nearly put himself into the wall a couple of times -- that's how hard he was trying to drive -- and Busch stayed out in front. (I'll have more Monday when I can look at my season stats, which are at work.)

Sunday, in the San Marino Grand Prix F1 race (you saw that, right?), Germany's Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) ran right behind Spain's Fernando Alonso (Renault). Schumacher waited and waited and waited ... and lost. It was the first F1 race I'd seen in a while, and I was glad to have caught one where there was actually a battle for the lead at the end of the race -- you know, like they have in NASCAR ever week.

With a wild Busch race Friday night, this was a very decent racin' weekend.

P.S.: If you read the Thursday post of our in-house F1 fan Dick Barron, he pretty much nailed the top 3 podium spots. I'm not half that lucky, er, good.

Not here. At the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (reg. req.):

To our readers Saturday, April 23, 2005

Two articles carrying the byline of an Atlanta Journal-Constitution staff writer included passages that were copied without attribution from other newspapers; the passages were represented as the result of our staff writer's work, but they were not. ... These are clear violations of the paper's journalistic standards. We apologize to our readers. The reporter regrets his actions, apologizes and has resigned.

- Julia Wallace, Editor

The falsified material, comments from race fans and area residents before the 2004 and 2005 Daytona 500, were lifted from the Daytona and Orlando papers. (In other words, they didn't come from Dustin's work, so we're not directly affected.)

I don't know Al Levine, and I didn't pay nearly as much attention to the Atlanta paper's race coverage as I should have. But this level of laziness, not to mention the simple wrongness of passing off someone else's work as your own, is inexcusable. I can't imagine it would be that hard to climb down from the press box and find a talkative race fan out of the, what, 18 million people who come to the track for the 500?

Good riddance.

If you have a chance, take a look at the links -- those are the things at the right-hand side of the page -- and click on the one at the bottom. I stumbled on that one today while I was looking for the Caraway Speedway narrative, which was posted there but not at the Caraway site. It's a handy guide to short-track racing all over N.C. and Va. If you've ever suspected that every community in both states has some sort of tracks, well, this site pretty much confirms that.

Speaking of short tracks, regular commenter Mark is the site's No. 1 modified fan, and he was up in the mountains this weekend instead of paying attention to the Tech-Net Spring Sizzler (aka "The Greatest Race in the History of Spring") at the Stafford (Conn.) Motor Speedway.

Your winner: Tony Hirschman of Northampton, Pa. (here and here), who appears to be the Dale Earnhardt of his sport. He's won four NASCAR modified tours, but it took him this 19th try to win one of these Daytona 500, er, Spring Sizzlers. So, congrats to him.

And speaking of modifieds, Bowman Gray Stadium opens its season Saturday with a 200-lap modified race. Looks like they're expecting most of the guys who have been taking part in the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour that has raced at Caraway a few times already this year. Should be a good race.

One of the stranger recent stories has been the debate over the size of the carburetor in Johnny Sauter's Busch car at Texas. Here is the background in case you're coming late to the tale.

Car owner James Finch got his day today before the National Stock Car Racing Commission. It didn't go well. Not only did the commission uphold Sauter's disqualification from the Texas race, the four-race suspension of his crew chief, it slapped Finch with a $25,000 fine.

Like I said: Ouch.

P.S. Here's the nut of the commission's ruling. Pay special attention to that long last sentence:

The modifications to the carburetor represented an unequivocal and substantial violation of the rules. The onus is on the entrant to present a car that is legal at all times. The onus is not on NASCAR to detect every rules violation at every inspection. Parts or equipment on the racecar are not deemed to have been authorized or approved by reason of having passed through inspection at any time or any number of times unobserved or undetected.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Talladega, where the Cup drivers will race Sunday:

"I love Talladega. Love going there, love racing there, love winning there."

You think he's excited to be back? And guess who's only 13 points out of 10th in the standings?

On my NASCAR schedule, it says the June 19 race will be the Michigan 400. No longer.

According to the Detroit Free Press, Warner Bros. has bought the rights, and the race will be called the Batman Begins 400.

Rumor is, the Batmobile might serve as the pace car.

No, as Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up.

It was bad enough when NASCAR moved its Cup races out of North Wilkesboro. There was a ton of great racing on the 5/8-mile track over the years, and it was the only track out there (except for Infineon and Watkins Glen) where you'd gain and lose elevation in the course of a lap.

But the fact that there's absolutely no racing going on there is a travesty. If the Cup Series doesn't want the track, Busch or the Craftsman Truck series might. Or even ARCA or the Hooters Pro Cup series. The Whelen Southern Modifieds would have a field day there. Somebody should be turning laps there.

And that's Robert Marsden's point. Marsden is a New York resident (according to my Internet sleuthing) who operates the Save the Speedway Web site.

Marsden doesn't have many kind words for the track's co-owners Bob Bahre and Bruton Smith. But he does have some good pictures that show you what the track looks like now. If you squint a little bit, you can just about make out Dale Earnhardt's pass of polesitter Harry Gant on lap 351 of the 1991 Holly Farms 400 and ending Gant's four-race win streak.

Go check it out.

Let's see:
* It's Talladega week
* Dale Earnhardt Jr., like his father, just about owns the place.
* After early-season struggles, Junior has clawed his way to 12th in points and is 13 points out of the magic 10th spot.
This, ladies and gentleman, is what we in the journalism business call a news hook, something on which to hang a story.

In other words, it won't be too hard to find Dale Jr. (and DEI) stories this week.

Trust me.

I'm not touching that question.

But Trent Cherry, a crewman on the No. 12 Cup team and a member of the blogging stable over at thatsracin.com, did.

His original post is here. His apology of sorts -- "So everyone just calm down and take a sip of beer out of your Dale Earnhardt mug and relax. I don't need anyone to bust an onion over this little discussion." -- and Part 2 of the topic is here.

Warning: If bad grammar, poor spelling and lousy arguments bother you, don't click the links above. But if you want to see a lot of anonymous posters ripping on each other and a NASCAR crew member lose his cool, click away.

I got home from work today, leafed through my new Sports Illustrated, the one with the NFL Draft picture on the cover, and a picture caught my eye. The third picture in the "Leading Off" section at the front of the magazine was of a stock car race.

My eye wandered to the top right of the page, where there was a insert picture of Kurt Busch in Victory Lane and a caption that started this way: "The Subway Fresh 500 ws run under the lights for the first time atthe Phoenix International Raceway on Saturday."

The Subway Fresh 500, as you regular readers know, was Saturday's Nextel Cup race. But something didn't look right in the big two-page picture.

Half-empty stands.
The No. 2 AC/Delco Chevy leading the field.
The No. 18 Vigoro/Home Depot Chevy behind it.

Yep, that's right. The main picture was of Friday night's Busch race.

Morons.

Today would have been Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s 54th birthday.

So happy birthday to the Intimidator. We miss ya, man.

One of these days I'll get down to Dale Earnhardt Day in Mooresville.

So who's going to win Sunday's race?

Will it be Dale Earnhardt Jr.? He's won five of the last seven races there.

Will it be a Chevy driver? You have to go back to Oct. 1998 to find the last non-Chevy winner. (It was Dale Jarrett in a Ford, btw.)

Can someone else break the Earnhardt-Chevy dominance? If so, who?

I've got nothin'.