News-Record.com

So Robby Gordon didn't mean exactly what he said about Danica Patrick after all: "The only thing I was saying was that I have a problem with the rule, not any particular driver. I've been impressed with Danica from the first time she got in an IRL car earlier this year, and I certainly did not mean to disrespect her or any other driver."

His original comment that got Gordon in trouble, in case you forgot it: "I won't race against her until the IRL does something to take that advantage away."

I'd say he has a problem with one particular driver.

Anyone read these comments any other way?

Word from NASCAR is that it has suspended indefinitely Busch and Truck driver Shane Hmiel for violating NASCAR's substance abuse policy. Hmiel tested positive -- NASCAR didn't say what for -- after qualifying at Charlotte.

This is the second time for Hmiel. NASCAR suspended him in Sept. 2003, then reinstated him before the start of the 2004 season.

Hmiel had to beg forgiveness and then some to get a second chance behind the wheel. My gut tells me NASCAR won't be so forgiving this time.

If this latest test is accurate and Hmiel has a drinking or drug problem, I hope he gets the help he needs to get his life back in order.

Update: Hmiel was tested after Charlotte qualifying, not the race, so I've corrected the above entry. Also, Ron Hornaday will drive Hmiel's car this weekend. NASCAR.com has more here.

The early verdict around the garage: See ya, Shane. It's been nice knowin' ya.

The Pleasant Garden native and current Busch Series driver violated NASCAR's substance abuse policy for the second time in two years. NASCAR has suspended him indefinitely, which is the same penalty he got in Sept. 2003 for failing his first test.

Here's Ryan Newman today at Dover:
Does Shane Hmiel deserve another chance?
"In my opinion, no. Does the court system work like that? No. Plenty of people are out there that are multiple offenders and are still carrying on doing what they’re doing and leading a normal life. I don’t think that's fair, but that's my opinion."

Veteran Busch driver David Green had this to say Thursday:
"I totally changed my view of Shane Hmiel after his first problem, because here was a young man who went out and knew he did something wrong, fixed it, then came back and aligned himself with good opportunities. He had the opportunity of the lifetime here. He now shows a total lack of respect toward the people that are making his livelihood what it is today. That's just totally unacceptable."

Ouch. I'll post more as I get 'em.

* Seeing Hendrick and Roush drivers in Victory Lane. After Greg Biffle won today's race at Dover, that's 11 Hendrick/Roush wins in 13 races this year. Enough already.

* Watching Dale Earnhardt Jr. stink out loud. Being the first car three laps down at Dover is nothing to brag about. And after coming home today 22nd (!), Junior is 15th in points and 18 points on the wrong side of the cutoff for the Chase.

* Burnouts. It's cliche, guys. So, too, is jumping up on the car window and spraying your pit crew with whatever drink you sponsor.

* Kyle Petty not winning a race. He hasn't seen Victory Lane since the spring race at Dover ... in 1995. Is a ninth career win too much to ask for?

* Carl Long not finishing a race. Just once, I'd like to see the Official Field Filler of The Spotter get a decent set of wheels so he can show what he can do.

What else are y'all tired of? Or is it just me? Maybe all of those long green flag runs today did something to my mood.

About the only intriguing subplot in Sunday's Dover race -- no, not how many laps the No. 8 would finish behind the leader -- was the Tony Stewart-Jeff Gordon incident. The short version: Stewart was behind Gordon. Stewart was faster. Gordon wouldn't let him by. So Stewart shoved him out of the way -- right into his DNF of the year and a 39th-place finish.

After the race, Gordon accused Stewart of being impatient. Stewart said Gordon was whining as usual and added: "We can get into a car-crashing war. It does not matter to me."

Ouch.

If anything, though, this is Stewart's return salvo in a long-running battle between the drivers of the No. 20 and the No. 24.

The two drivers got into it at Watkins Glen in 2000. (Stewart got the better of this one: He finished 17 spots ahead of Gordon and derailed his quest for seven straight road-course wins.) At the 2001 spring race at Bristol, Stewart wrecked (or got wrecked) on the last lap when he turned down into Gordon. (Stewart got the worst of that one: NASCAR put him on probation after he spun Gordon as Gordon waited in the pits after the race.)

So who won this round? Stewart. He finished 15th and moved up one spot in the standings to fifth -- six ahead of Gordon.

Just one of them racin' deals, right?

Among the nation's newspapers, no one is blogging more (that I can tell, anyway) than the News & Record. At last count, we have 16. Of course, that might have changed since I started typing that sentence.

I was feeling pretty good when we launched this thing back in February, right before Daytona. And then my smugness went away when the neighbors over at thatsracin.com, the Knight-Ridder chain's well-established racing site, launched not one but four the week before The Spotter went live.

The site's editor, Bob Henry, has a pretty good blog. He doesn't post all that regularly, and he gets far fewer comments than the other three bloggers over there.

But when he had a couple of recent posts about DEI's firing of Pete Rondeau and about Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s and Michael Waltrip's struggles, his comment meter just about broke.

So in an effort to attract some more traffic around here, I'm going to try something from the Checkered Past playbook:

Dale Earnhardt Jr. stinks.
Michael Waltrip is worse.
DEI is doomed.

Okay, comment away. I want to see this thing hit double digits by morning.

In one of many embarassing moments here at The Spotter, I got nailed by a commenter for not knowing that Mike Garvey is a short-track ace.

The question I posed in that post -- Who is Mike Garvey?" -- is now answered this way:

He's the guy replacing Hermie Sadler behind the wheel of the No. 66 car.

If you want to celebrate Garvey's new job, go here.

For the record, Carl Long is still The Official Field Filler of The Spotter. But we could be talked into making Garvey and Long co-TOFFOTS.

Speaking of field fillers, just be careful if you follow my link in that post to Carl Long's site.

Say, for instance, you were to wander into the forums and wonder, oh, I dunno, when Long might actually finish a race or even manage to get through a fourth of a race.

It's a legitimate question, 'cause I'm wondering the same thing. But don't ask it unless you want to get smacked around by the site admin.

In all seriousness, the lead post explains why Long made it only 26 laps at Dover before his engine gave out:

It turns out the main cause was the lower portion of the grill on the car was sealed off, and no air was going in there. Even if they opened the grill, there still was not a tube going to the radiator to cool it off. That along with the high air temperatures today did them in. This car is meant for bigger tracks like Lowes, where the lower grill is sealed off. Big tracks are all it has run at so far, so they did not think that this would happen. They could have done duct work on the car yesterday, but that takes a long time according to Carl, and he was happy with the way the car was handling as is, so he didn't want to mess with anything.

You think someone would have noticed this when they rolled the car off the truck.

A few questions for ya heading into Sunday's Cup race at Pocono:

* Can Jimmie Johnson make it three Pocono wins in a row? He swept both races at that funky triangular track last year.

* Can someone outside the Hendrick and Roush stables win this one? After Greg Biffle won last week at Dover, we're up to 11 Hendrick/Roush wins in 13 races.

* Whose engine will give up first? Carl Long's? Or Bobby Labonte's?

* Who will be the first driver to shift Sunday and get rammed from behind? Remember, NASCAR changed the gear rules this season, and drivers won't be able to shift.

* And when will the Cup series run at Nashville? The Busch drivers are there tonight, and Nashville is a sweet little track. (I'd rather see the Cup drivers run at Nashville than Pocono.)

Our racing writer, Dustin Long, had five questions of his own. His answers:
* Kurt Busch (sorry, Matt)
* Jeff Burton
* Michigan
* We'll need another Bud
* Lots of jobs are on the line

You'll have to read Dustin's story in today's paper to see the questions.

Congrats to Backflip Boy Carl Edwards, who smoked the field Sunday to win the Pocono 5000. (Er, Pocono 500. It just felt like 5,000 laps.)

Speaking of smoking, what was up with all of the blown tires yesterday? Expect the usual this week: Drivers (except for Edwards, of course) and crew chiefs will blame Goodyear, and Goodyear will respond by saying the tires work fine if the teams don't abuse them. That back-n-forth is as predictable as a Roush/Hendrick win. The count's up to 12 now (in 14 races).

How bad was Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Sunday?

He:

* Had two blown tires
* Caught his car on fire
* Started 34th and limped home 33rd.
* Finished six laps down. Heck, even Mike Garvey managed to lead a lap and finish only one lap down in 25th.
* Fell to 16th in points, 504 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson and 104 points outside the magic 400-point Chase cushion.

After teammate Michael Waltrip won the pole, finished fifth and passed Junior in the standings (Waltrip jumped two spots to 15th), I'm beginning to think the DEI camp is debating the fate of the wrong driver.

1 p.m. update: USA Today has a bunch more, including this: "Few would have expected Junior to have led just five laps all year, recorded more worse-than-30th-place finishes (four) than top-five efforts (three) and failed to earn a pole halfway through the 26-race regular season."

Also, according to the stories, the in-house communication between the No. 8 and No. 15 crews were worse than anyone thought.

This entry is about golf, not racing. But I'm contractually obligated to mention that my boss (aka Joe Sirera, the N&R's Sports editor) has a podcast on our coverage of the U.S. Open down in Pinehurst. (Or at least I think I am -- I don't actually have a copy, but those around here higher up in the food chain keep mentioning it.)

Joe's podcast here if you want to take a listen.

What J.D. Gibbs, president of Joe Gibbs Racing, said today when the team announced that Terry Labonte and not Jason Leffler will drive the No. 11 car at Sonoma in two weeks:

"Jason understands that our support of him continues. With an experienced veteran in Terry, the No. 11 will benefit from his 25 years of Nextel Cup racing and his strong performances at road course venues."

What J.D. Gibbs meant:

"We have so little confidence in Jason that we'd rather take our chances on a semi-retired driver who has finished 26th or better only once of the last seven times he's raced there."

One of my favorite racing writers, Ed Hinton of the Orlando Sentinel, put together a quick best-and-worst list.

A few local guys (Brian Vickers, Bill Davis, Richard Petty) made his report. You'll have to read the whole thing to find out why they're mentioned.

What did Hinton miss? We might as well start our own here.

p.s. Matt, you might not to click through because he busts on your guy, Kurt Busch. I have no idea why Hinton didn't pick this guy. (And what kind of dad gives his kid a Ford Pinto for his birthday?)

The ladies love Kasey Kahne, according to this AP story. (I had the pleasure of cutting the heck out of the original story, which is linked above, to make the version that ran in today's N&R, which isn't posted.)

Among voters in Fox's Sexiest Driver poll, eh, Kahne isn't so hot. He lost in the quarterfinals to this guy.

Your finalists? Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon.

Hold me while I faint from the shock of it all.

Austin raises a good point in the previous post: "Can we not get back to judging drivers by how they drive and not what they look like"?

Sure can.

To tag on to the post about Ed Hinton's column earlier this week, here are some of my bests and worsts from the 2005 season:

... me. Yep, another year, another birthday.

I'm not saying how old. I'll just say I've got a strong rooting interest in Elliott Sadler's car Sunday at Michigan.

Dustin Long is at Michigan and e-mailed me this update:

45 minutes to go 2nd practice: Mike Garvey is 32nd Junior is 39th (one spot ahead of Jarrett) and only seven in front of Shepherd.

Doomed, I tell you. Doomed. I suspect you might be reading more about Junior's struggles in Sunday's paper.

For tomorrow, Dustin will serve up something on a more-or-less local driver.

Sunday update: Dustin Long had more in Sunday's paper.

Formula One ran its only race of the season on U.S. soil today.

Only six cars competed.

What a sick, sorry joke. F1 should take its pretty cars and go back to Europe and take the IRL with it.

Thanks to this debacle, open-wheel racing in this country is officially dead. Nice knowing you.

Dustin sent me this. Considering the circumstances, I'm surprised the Indy Motor Speedway folks showed so much restraint.

Here it is:

Subject: [usgp-update] Statement from Tony George, Indianapolis Motor Speedway CEO
Sent: 6/19/2005 5:06 PM
Importance: Normal

For Immediate Release

STATEMENT BY INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY CEO TONY GEORGE,
JUNE 19, 2005

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway shares in the disappointment with the loyal fans of IMS and Formula One that we did not see the exciting race we all anticipated due to circumstances beyond our control.

The FIA, Formula One, the constructors and manufacturers that represent the cars on the starting grid made decisions on an individual basis to limit participation in today’s USGP.

We suggest the fans who wish to make their feelings known, contact the following:

Michelin
46, rue du Ressort
63100 Clermont-Ferrand
France
www.michelinsport.com

FIA
8 Place de la Concorde
F-75008 Paris
www.fia.com

Formula One Management
6 Princes Gate
Knightsbridge
London SW7 1QJ
United Kingdom

#

I'll have more on the weekend that was in racing when I dig out from under the usual pile of complaints, concerns and issues left over from the weekend.

One thought, though: When we talk about dominance in NASCAR, it's about time to drop "Hendrick" from "Roush and Hendrick," which is usually how it's written.

By now, you've probably heard that Sterling Marlin is a lame duck in the No. 40 Dodge. He'll be replaced next season, as the Ganassi crew announced Sunday (fourth item), by David Stremme, a full-time Busch series driver. (More here.)

I can't say I'm surprised. Marlin hasn't won since the third race of the 2002 season. And in the marketing-obsessed world of NASCAR, Stremme's 28 and Marlin is nearly two decades older. Coors Light is skewing itself younger these days (snow-capped mountains out, flesh and rock music in), which means Marlin is a no-go for promotional purposes. Plus Marlin's recent lack of on-track success means you rarely see the No. 40. The other two beer-car drivers, meanwhile, get plenty of coverage: Rusty Wallace because he's retiring (and winning) and Dale Earnhardt Jr., because he's Dale Jr.

But here's where the story gets weird and leaves me with more questions than answers:

After Sunday's race, we won't hear DW's "boogity" catch phrase to start the race until February 2006.

Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is personal choice. Most people either love it or hate it, but the CW seems to be that DW needs to retire it.

A columnist with the Daytona Beach (Fla.) paper is holding a contest to come up with a phrase to replace it. Some of the leading entries so far:

"Round and round they go, who will win, no one knows."

Total silence.

Here's the story. The writer's e-mail address is at the bottom of the piece if you want to play along at home.

... is written in pencil, because NASCAR is facing a championship chase without some of its biggest names. Maybe NASCAR will extend its within-400-points provision to, say, 600 or so. There's nothing that suggests that they will, and I know NASCAR would catch holy heck if it did, but I'm sure Brian France and Mike Helton will be tempted.

Why: If the Chase started today, Jeff Gordon would be out. So would Junior. And former champs Dale Jarrett, Matt Kenseth and Bobby Labonte. That's seven titles potentially sitting on the sidelines.

Of the 10 who are in as of now -- Johnson, Biffle, Sadler, Edwards, Martin, Stewart, Newman, Rusty Wallace, Kurt Busch, Harvick and McMurray -- have combined for three titles (one each for Stewart, Wallace and Busch) and a lot of near misses (Mark Martin has four runner-up points finishes).

Here's something else: Of those 10, only three (Martin, Stewart and Wallace) were even in the Cup series five years ago. Cue the "Young Guns" theme music ...

Dustin had the scoop in today's paper.

If you want a clue as to what's running through the brain of the guy who runs the F1 series, check out this.

And, yes, it's about what someone said to Danica Patrick not once but twice. Moron.

From now on, I'll bring up Formula One only when I can mock that worthless joke of a quote-unquote racing series.

Related to this post.

Q: What do you call a championship chase without Dale Earnhardt Jr.?

A: The last one.

Courtesy of Dustin Long, who's safely on the ground in California and is gearing up to cover the heck out of Sunday's race at Infineon.

... Say hi to The Diecast Dude, a racin' blogger from out on the Left Coast, specifically the Bay Area.

His current post is an open letter to NASCAR drivers that contains a warning about the local media, which is something (luckily) we don't have to deal with here:

One thing you should be aware of, though, is something I feel deserves an apology on behalf of all of us who live here. It's the local sports media. They donit know NASCAR, they don't follow NASCAR, and the only time they mention it is to make fun of it and its fans because they think you and your fans are a bunch of dumb redneck hicks. But since whether they want to admit it or not you're the biggest single sporting event of the year out here, they'll be calling up asking for interviews. You're going to be hearing the stupidest questions you've been asked in your life the next couple of days, up to and including "so what do you do during the race if you have to go to the bathroom." On behalf of all the fans out here, we're sorry.

I like the guy already -- he's old school -- even if he admits to be a fan of the No. 24.

Go show him some love while I update my links.

Not long after I heard from Diecast Dude, I got an e-mail from scottishracer9, another Greensboro racin' blogger. (So I'm not unique anymore. So it goes.) SR9's blog is heavy on the pictures, but the pictures don't seem to be working right now. Go give him a read anyway -- he's got a lot to say, and he posts often. And he's picking Jimmie Johnson to win Sunday's race.

ScottishRacer said he had wandered over here by following a link from The Forager Blog, which, if you scroll down past the long entry about The Biggest Joke in All of Sports, you'll get to his Dale Earnhardt Jr. post. (Hint: It's not complimentary, but he's got a good point.)

Hmmm. Maybe I am unique after all. I might be the only racin' blogger out here who actually roots for Junior.

Excuse me while I update the blogging links again.

No, that's not my Sunday prediction. (Unlike some racin' bloggers, I don't have a dog, much less one that picks race winners.)

An actual honest-to-goodness win.

It's good to see that the No. 8 team still have its sense of humor. Once that goes, it's straight down into Top-30-Land.

On the other hand, it might have been the first time in a while that Junior had the best equipment on the track.

The great thing about a road course race is that there aren't any favorites.

Sure, Jeff Gordon has been good in the past. He won at Sonoma last year. But the whole thing's such a crap shoot because it seems that so many things can happen on a road course that don't happen on an oval. Such as the right-hand turns, for instance.

Me? I'm rooting for one of the road course ringers. There's no telling what Boris Said might say (or do) in Victory Lane.

Also: Dustin checks in from Sonoma. With qualifying more than half done, Mark Martin's on the pole, followed by Robby Gordon, Scott Pruett and Dale Jr.

Yes, that Dale Jr. Just when you think the season can't get any stranger.

When Dustin reported a little bit ago that Junior was sitting fourth on the qualifying board, I got all excited.

I didn't look at the qualifying order, so I didn't see that Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson hadn't gone. Guess who ended up 1-2? Yep.

There's some hope: Boris Said (gooooo Boris!) will start fourth, and there are only two Roush drivers (Martin at 3rd and Kurt Busch at 6th).

And remember when I talked some smack last week about that semi-retired guy hired to drive the No. 11 Chevy? Danged if Terry Labonte didn't go out and qualify eighth.

That's the thing that bugs me about the Road Course Ringers -- you know, Boris Said, Ron Fellows, Scott Pruett, etc.

Every year at this time, the racin' media gets all hyped up because a bunch of NASCAR newbies show up at the track. The problem: They've never won a Cup race. Never.

Dustin Long has the reasons why here.

The short version: The ringers aren't used to the Cup cars, they don't know the pit crews and their rides usually aren't the best. Maybe it's obvious, but it needed to be said.

Coming Sunday from Dustin: What are the other teams doing to beat Roush and Hendrick? (The online version should be around here somewhere.)

The short answer to that question: This and that. You'll be surprised by the answer out of the DEI camp. Either they don't realize they're being out-everythinged, or they're sandbagging. I'm hoping it's the latter, because this Roush-Hendrick dominance meme has really got me worried. That said, everything needs an Evil Empire. Hey, it worked for George Lucas, right?

Tony Stewart and Davey Allison, gunslingers.

Matt Kenseth and David Pearson, cerebral warriors.

Mark Martin and Richard Petty, blue-collar workers.

That'll give you a taste of a series of essays written by a guy named David Smith that attempts to classify current and past drivers into five categories.

All I know about Smith is from his bio: He turns 21 in August, he's from Florida, he is (or was) a college student, he's the son of an ISC official and he's a self-proclaimed talent scout whose career seemed to have started at age 4, when he correctly guessed, er, pronounced that Ernie Irvan would be NASCAR's next big star.

That's a backhanded way of saying I'm not sure if this guy knows what he's talking about. But from the looks of it, he's put a lot of thought into what he's written. It's easy to quibble with his terminology. For instance, I'd consider Jeff Gordon to be an innovator or even a revolutionary rather than the word he uses, a conservative. And there's a very fine line -- maybe no line at all -- between gunslinger and aggressor.

Still, it's an interesting read, in large part because Smith tries to put the newer drivers in the context of the long-ago stars. Go check it out.

... er, No. 2 pencils, and take Dustin's midseason quiz in today's paper.

It should be online here if you prefer an electronic version.

If you get less than an 100 on this thing ... [shakes head] ...