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Another Monday, another Cup race. Crap.

No FX in the building. Who knows what the radio stations will do? The last time this happened, I had to use nascar.com - it's not the option I wanted, but it will do. We'll see how it goes this time.

We're about 30 minutes from racing. FX goes on air at 12 noon. Dustin Long says the command to start engines will come at 12:00:30. I think NASCAR just wants to get this thing over and get home. There's testing at Charlotte tomorrow and Wednesday, and everyone's on a short week because of the Saturday night race at Richmond.

While you're waiting for the green flag, here are a couple of Dustin offerings from the weekend.

On Sunday, he wrote about Jeff Gordon's recent slump: Former champions Rusty Wallace and Darrell Waltrip question Gordon's focus and say that is a key reason why Gordon has won less. Gordon says he's more concerned with rebuilding his team than winning after missing last year's championship chase.

In today's paper, he wrote on Kyle Busch, who hit just about everyone in the field during Speed Weeks at Daytona: Daytona clouds Busch's reputation and will until he gets through a restrictor-plate weekend incident free.

Dustin Long, who's back in Charlotte after driving all night from Alabama reports in:

Kasey Kahne not cleared to test at Charlotte today. Says he will be cleared tomorrow.

Evidently that hit he took yesterday was harder than he and his team initially let on. It's obviously not Nadeau/Park serious, but it's worth watching.

And not to put the proverbial cart before the horse, but Kahne is fourth in points, 181 behind of Jimmie Johnson. With the chase-eligible field down to 12 already, Kahne can't afford to miss Richmond.

4:30 p.m.: Dustin says that Kahne didn't visit a doctor today, which is why he wasn't cleared to race. Still, you'd think he'd get that thing cleared up today instead of letting it hang on for a day or so. If he's right in the head, his tests today would come back fine, right?

If you glance to your right and scroll waaaaay down, you'll see the "Links of Interest" box. I've updated a couple of things - Diecast Dude has moved over to blogspot, though he's still running his AOL site.

Also, I've corrected the link to Carrie's Flash of Genius site. (It's my fault that the link was bad - Carrie knows exactly where her site is even if I don't.)

Frequent visitors (that means you, the person reading this) oughta remember Carrie as The World's Only Robby Gordon Fan. Here, let's try something:

Hey, Carrie! You see that Robby finished 10th, five spots ahead of the other Gordon?

Comments are open for all of your Robby Gordon praising (he's actually having a decent season) and your Jeff Gordon bashing (he pulled a reverse Earnhardt yesterday).

Also, and this is the reason I posted this in the first place: Any racin' blogs I should be reading? C'mon, don't be shy. If you post regularly with some sense and a decent command of grammar and spelling, I want to know about your blog.

If you're interested in testing speeds, here ya go. I'll ruin the surprise: Harvick was the fastest in the afternoon session at 180.620, followed by Stewart and Johnson. There's an evening session that I think is going on now.

Here are the real numbers by Dustin Long's count:
5 wrecks
3 spins

Be afraid, be very afraid, in the comments.

Wednesday update: After the jump, the story that appeared in today's paper about Charlotte testing. Sounds like we're back to where we were a year ago - no one's exactly sure what the problem is.

Oh, Jimmy, I've missed you so. Here's Spencer, former Cup driver and current cast member of SPEED's NASCAR RaceDay, on his favorite driver:

You know, in the garage, Kurt Busch is the only driver I know who is perfect and always right. He and I have had issues in the past where he has talked about my family and I punched him in the nose. But he has never apologized -- and no one talks about my family.

Ah, good times. Full interview after the jump. ...

I got off the phone a little bit ago with a reporter from the Staten Island Advance newspaper. She had come across this blog post from last week and wondered if NASCAR fans thought Staten Island's rep had taken a hit after last week's public shouting, er, hearing.

The short veresion of what I told the reporter: Manhattan, Staten Island, Poughkipsee -- it's all Yankeetown to us down here.

The longer version: We don't really care about the land-use issue story that the Staten Island paper is covering and most SI residents are talking about. We're more interested in whether the Cup schedule will change and which tracks will lose a date (unless NASCAR lengthens the schedule) to a new track in NYC. In other words, the story (to us down here, anyway) has less to do with Staten Island and more to do with the evolution (or de-volution) of racin'.

So: Did I sum things up accurately? If this makes your head hurt, feel free to go back a post and say mean things about Kurt Busch and/or Jimmie Spencer.

Scene Daily reports that Dale Jarrett's new boss in 2007 will be Michael Waltrip.

If that's true, and it seems credible, that puts Waltrip, Jarrett and Dave Blaney behind the wheels of Toyotas. That leaves three Toyota seats open. No telling who will get those rides, especially because Kevin Harvick is about to be locked up by Childress.

Also: Who wants to drive the 88? Yates doesn't have much to show for the past several seasons, but at this point it'll be the best available ride in the garage for '07.

Looks like Busch/Cup driver Denny Hamlin will be driving with some stitches this weekend at Richmond. After testing this week at Richmond, he cut his hand between his pinkie and left wrist. It was bad enough, his PR flacks said, that he needed to go to the hospital

So how did he do it? He was ... oh, heck, let Denny tell you what happened:

"The guys were having races around the hauler after the test. I thought I'd try for the best lap of the night, and as I was running around the front of the truck, I caught my hand on a sharp piece of chrome. I got all stitched up and I'll be fine to race this weekend. By the way, I did finish first. Hopefully Coach Gibbs will be impressed that I can play 'hurt'."

I have a feeling Gibbs would have been more impressed if Hamlin had hurt himself finishing first in a race that actually counted.

In about three months, Greg Biffle has gone from everyone's pick for the 2006 Cup champion (he was fourth in NASCAR's media preseason voting) to ... where exactly?

He has one pole and two top 10s in nine races ... but five finishes outside the top 30. That definitely hurts.

So how bad is it for Biffle? He's 23rd in points, 560 behind leader Jimmie Johnson - and only 12 points ahead of Scott Riggs, WHO MISSED THE DAYTONA FIVE-FREAKIN-HUNDRED.

Riggs, meanwhile, has ripped off three top 10s in four races. Hmmmm.

That's how many stitches Denny Hamlin got in his left hand yesterday in a race against a team engineer to see who could run around the team's hauler faster.

As Dustin Long reports from Richmond, Hamlin also lost part of his left ring finger.

Ouch.

1:45 p.m. update: The money quote from Dustin (I'm paraphrasing): "When you see bone, you know it's bad." The Richmond paper has more, including the nugget that Gibbs has hired Mike Bliss for the weekend just in case.

After Monday's race at Talladega, Dustin Long and I debated the lead of the story he was going to write. Dustin asked: Was it overstating the case to write this? Jimmie Johnson is a championship away from greatness.

Nope, I said, and that's how it ran. (Here's the story.) When you think about it -- and as much as it pains me to say this -- Jimmie Johnson might be the best driver on the Cup circuit right now, and he might become one of the best of all-time.

As Dustin Long reported Sunday, Jeff Gordon is in a slump (for him). Why? Who knows? Lots of reasons, I suppose. My favorite theory came from the recently retired Rusty Wallace, who has three fewer championships than the driver of the No. 24:

"I don't think Jeff is as focused right now as he's been in the past. I think he's got a lot of other things going on that are a lot of fun to him, a lot of vacationing, a lot of cool places that he's been to around the world and he's really enjoying himself. These race cars take 100 percent of your concentration."

And because the Cup garage is a gossipy little place, word got back to Gordon. His initial take: "Had he stopped being the crew chief and the driver years ago, he may have won more races and championships." (emphasis mine).

Everyone loves a good catfight, and Gordon keeps scratching after the jump ...

Shut it. I mean it.

OK, OK, I know, this is Junior's first trip to victory lane since Chicagoland 27 races ago, and one good Saturday night hardly means he'll win five or six more this season. He's definitely not quote-unquote back in the 2004 sense when he was a threat to win every time he raced. But it looks like he's over 2005. That's good news for the 8 team.

Coming up, Junior usually does well at Darlington. He was awful last year at Charlotte, a track he tore up in 2004. There's his real test.

He's still not as good right now as Tony Stewart. You barely saw Stewart all night, but he came across the line in sixth. He's now second in points, just 55 points behind Jimmie Johnson. Here, kitty kitty kitty ...

Crown Royal is going to get a lot of mileage about of this promotion. It might end up being second to my all-time favorite race name, which came during last year's Busch season: ITT Industries, Systems Division and Goulds Pumps Salute to the Troops 250 presented by Dodge. What a great sendoff for Pikes Peak, eh?

Deadspin has fun with it here. And a blog called Noobsports thinks he's being funny here. [Warning: Hairy fan back alert - you know the picture.] Writes noobsports.com, Nascar is a stupid sport for stupid people.

Yo, man, it's NASCAR, all caps, BECAUSE NASCAR FANS HAVE THIS THING ABOUT TYPING IN CAPS LOCK. And NASCAR fans have enough sense not to root for the Lions. I am rubber, you are glue ...

The Charlotte Observer will be sending blogging staff writer Andy Shain to the races in Charlotte later this month. He launched the blog yesterday, never mind the fact that the Cup guys have one more race at a track worse on tires than an LMS paved with ground beer cans and razor blades.

In related Charlotte Observer staff news, David Poole can't understand (second item) why 100,000 fans can't magically disappear after the race so he can drive back to his hotel room. Maybe someone can suggest an alternate route - or take up a collection for a helicopter.

If you missed Dustin Long's story in today's paper, here's how it starts:

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Denny Hamlin are even. For now.

Earnhardt's half-second win Saturday at Richmond gave him a 1-1 record against Hamlin, counting exhibition races. Hamlin beat Earnhardt in the Budweiser Shootout in February and finished second to him Saturday. Other than those two times, their battles for a victory have come in racing video games.

The story is less about video games (that's the hook, boys and girls - betcha kept reading) and more about on-track rivalries. Dustin went back to 1999 and looked at how drivers fared against each other in races where they finished 1-2.

Some of the highlights:
Jeff Gordon is 3-2 against past champ Tony Stewart (meaning there have been three Gordon-Stewart finishes to two Stewart-Gordon finishes), 3-4 vs. Bobby Labonte and 2-3 vs. Dale Jarrett.

Jimmie Johnson, meanwhile, is 4-0 against the Busch family. And long-time Busch basher Kevin Harvick is (and this is my favorite match-up stat) is 0-2 vs. Kurt.

More matchups courtesy of Dustin after the jump ...

One of the better races of the year is Saturday, and I'm going to miss it, darnit.

One of these days I'll see a race there before the Cup guys go somewhere else. Have any of you seen a race there, Cup or otherwise? How does it stack up against other tracks you've been to?

Y'all need to spam up the comments - I won't be back here till Monday, and I don't feel like future posting to pretend that I'm actually at work today and tomorrow.

If you'd rather, go click on some of the links to the right. There are some fine bloggers over there you need to be reading regularly. Have at it, and see you next week.

I go away for a few days and I miss a ton:

Greg Biffle won at Darlington. Who lit a fire under him? Looks like he'll pull a Kenseth and make it into the chase. The only question: Who's he going to bump?

More after the jump ...

One of the nice things about nascar.com is the information - there's lots of it. The problem: finding it. Gah.

Firefox doesn't much like the site, mostly because of the auto-load video. And if you're still on dial-up, nascar.com will crush your PC.

Thunder Lounge, a new blog find for me, explains what else nascar.com needs. And, yeah, an RSS feed would help a ton. I vote for more stats - www.racing-reference.com is eating their lunch.

Five years ago, nascar.com was way ahead of a lot of other sports Web sites. But five years ago in Web time is, like, back in the day, you know?

10:40 a.m. update: While tidying up Outlook, I found a note Dustin passed on to me yesterday: nascar.com is launching a daily online newscast called NASCAR 24/7. 90 seconds long. Posted every afternoon. Free (for a change). Shannon Wiseman (who until now has been hidden behind nascar.com's pay wall) will host. The release doesn't say when this thing will start. No, I can't find it on the Web site. Figures.

Thursday update: I watched the first one last night - preview of the Pit Crew Challenge, a blurb on a former MLB player who has a Truck Series ride and big ol' shoutout to the nascar.com site. There wasn't much there, but it was a slow news day until after 5 p.m., and the video went up before then. Wiseman was about what you'd expect - she's done enough nascar.com work not to flub her lines, but the media trainers haven't yet squelched the yee-haw from her accent. Give it a look and make up your own mind.

Good ol' Mike Mulhern - turned on his tape recorder, let Jack Roush vent, and jammed it all in the paper.

The topic: Day 2 of Toyota, which will ruin racin' as we know it. (Here's the story; reg. req.)

Some highlights:
"I am concerned about that balance being upset by the - I won't say outrageous, but certainly the generous-beyond-reason - rumors of Toyota's drivers' salaries."

... and ...

"Toyota has a lot of money right now, and a great opportunity to become a bigger player in the American economy, to the detriment of the traditional player. So I see an economic problem."

Over at insiderracingnews.com, C.C. Bell goes on for two parts about Toyota. He concludes: "NASCAR has always has a bit of a Cinderella image. ... The foremost question now is, has the wicked stepmother moved in?"

And if all of this Toyota talk is making your head hurt - it's all business, nothing more, and I'm not sure why everyone seems all freaked out about it - try out this story: Late Model points leader ‘banned for life?’ Yep, I saw that headline and read it, too.

Diecast Dude deftly deconstructs Slugger Labbe's protestations.

Labbe (pre-appeal) speaks here. Commission ruling is here. Yates Racing statement is here.

So what do you think? Did NASCAR nail a guy who deserve it? Or did NASCAR overreact? After NASCAR took down Todd Berrier (Harvick) and Chad Knaus (Johnson), I'm beginning to think France & Helton are getting serious about this cheatin' thing.

In other whinings, we had some problems yesterday with the N&R's blog servers. Things look fine now. Then again, the sway bar on the No. 88 was OK before qualifying last week.

Every year I swear I'm not going to watch this stupid thing. It's Saturday night. It's an exhibition race. No one cares.

And then I watch it anyway. I'd kick myself if I missed the next "Pass in the Grass" or "Mess at LMS" or whatever nickname that gets hung on it.

Yeah, I'm a sucker. But even though the All-Star race is the cheesiest event of the year (love those rock n roll driver intros) and the mid-race breaks (the Chili Peppers are so 1991, which is about when I heard them in NYC) threaten to end the race on Sunday morning, the racing is usually pretty good.

For your reminiscing pleasure, I've typed out NASCAR's latest distraction to keep reporters from reporting media poll, the 10 most memorable All-Star races. It's after the jump ...

Driven a Ford lately? Not many in the Cup garage have, it seems.

Dustin Long's story in today's paper was pegged to Dale Jarrett's impending departure to Toyota. That's one of Ford's problems -- driver loss. Jarrett's leaving. Mark Martin is retiring. Penske defected to Dodge a few years back. (A list of former Ford drivers is after the jump. It's pretty long, but not comprehensive. For instance, there's a four-time Cup champ who drove a Ford in the Busch Series. True story.)

The flip side of the story is where Dustin focused his energies - what does Ford and its teams do with all of these drivers they're developing? There's quite a stable. But unless Roush expands to eight teams (ain't happening) or fires Matt Kenseth (McMurray's more likely, but still), there aren't many seats. And even if the Wood Bros. and Yates each add another car, Ford probably needs 1-2 more cars or risk the Chevy, Dodge and Toyota (and Honda or whoever else comes along) cherry picking their drivers.

Reading between the lines - the Ford guy Dustin talked to was predictably circumspect - Ford is going to add more cars (maybe) and fight back (probably) against Toyota's encroachment on its turf. I can't imagine Ford pulling out of NASCAR, but I can't imagine Ford being happy that Ford drivers have won just 2 of 11 races this season. (Dodge has 3; Chevy has 6.)

Marc touches on the Ford issue here.

So what else do you see when you read between the lines here? What does Ford have to do to stay competitive?

Scene Daily manages to write about it with a straight face.

My sources tell me that it wasn't exactly the end of Western civilization, but it was close. A sample lyric: Start up your engines/Clear out your camshaft

I guess it could be worse, but I'm having a hard time of thinking of anything.

Forbes magazine put a price tag on Roush Racing: $218 million. Even Michael Waltrip's toothless team is worth by Forbes' calculations $23 million.

No wonder the Cat in the Hat is protesting NASCAR's proposal to limit ownership. And no wonder why no one else seems to be all that bothered by it.

Go read. It's heavy sledding for a gorgeous Friday afternoon, but it's interesting stuff. More interesting than anything I'm working on right at the moment. Probably you, too, if you're stuck inside.

Last night's All-Star race saw Jimmie Johnson dominate, a few cars mysteriously spin and everyone else get strung out along the race track.

Please tell me that Sunday's 600 won't simply be longer and more of the same.

A note to our dead tree readers: Because the race went so late - it ended at at about 12:30 a.m. today, we barely got in Dustin Long's story. (It's here in case you have an early edition of the paper, which means you got nothing about the All-Star race.) We'll have more photos, the All-Star race results and Ed Hardin's column in Monday's paper. You can hold the presses only so long before it starts costing you serious cash and good-will among your carriers and subscribers.

Because you make newspaper columnists mad and then they write nasty things about your sport, that's why. But even if the 2006 All-Star race had run on time, there still wouldn't have been much to remember except for the Stewart-Kenseth feud, which I'm already over and I suspect they are, too.

N&R columnist Ed Hardin rips into some NASCAR here. The money quote:

A pitiful crowd wandered in for the day-long festivities that included all sorts of sad sideshows. Intermittent rain hampered the various circus acts and seemed to dull the small audience into indifference, bordering on agitation. The event has simply run out of gimmicks.

That's about right. Putting two days between me and the Saturday night/Sunday morning All-Star race doesn't make me think about it any more fondly. The 2006 version certainly won't make anyone's 10 Best list.

Man, I'm obsessed with best-of lists these days. Maybe it's because I'm still woozy from Saturday's snooze-a-thon. Or maybe because it's a quicky post.

Anyway, the NASCAR folks sent along their list of Dodge Weekly Series All-Time top 25 - that is, really good short-track drivers you've mostly never heard of. Some quick impressions:

* It's in ABC order, which is why Richie Evans and Junior Miller aren't listed 1-2
* It's skewed toward the present, which partly explains why Greg Biffle and Denny Hamlin are
* It's not all Southerners - Ted Christopher made the list, too.
* No, I have no idea why Mark McFarland is on the list other than for the usual NASCAR-hearts-Junior conspiracy theories.
* I think hometown driver Tommy Ellis needs to be on here somewhere. The guy was a legend.

Anyone else missing? Full list after the jump ...

From the e-mail:

WESTWOOD, MA – May 23, 2006 – In an effort to protect its highly valuable show car fleet from theft while they are traveling from exhibit to exhibit, the Richard Childress Racing (RCR) Promotions team has equipped 26 of its retired NASCAR race cars and the tractors and trailers they are hauled in with LoJack Corporation’s (NASDAQ: LOJN) Stolen Vehicle Recovery System.

That raises a couple of questions:

1. Have NASCAR teams been losing their show cars and trucks? I guess a show car might have some value on eBay, but you'd think something like this would be all over the news if it was going on.

2. And how exactly would you go about stealing a NASCAR hauler? It's not like these things are white-paneled vans.

Sports fans have an amazing grasp of geography. They (we) know the difference between the two Carolinas (the NFL team in Charlotte, the NHL team in Raleigh) and the two Floridas (the MLB Marlins and NHL Panthers, who are both more or less in Miami).

Most sports fans have heard of Irving, Tex.(Cowboys), Pontiac, Mich. (former home of the Lions) and East Rutherford, N.J. (Jets, Jints, Nets and Devils). NASCAR fans can find a bunch of much smaller and more obscure places on a map: Bristol, Tenn.; Martinsville, Va.; Long Pond, Pa. and Darlington, S.C., to name a few.

So when we talk about the track where most of this week's racing is taking place, why do we call it Charlotte and not Concord, where the track actually is? The two towns are 18 miles apart (according to geobytes). They're not even in the same county.

So why we do that? Or am I the only idiot out there who calls the track "Charlotte"?

I had jury duty today. Although I was excused, I rolled into work about 90 minutes later than usual and have been behind all day.

So here's what you missed if you didn't see today's paper: A 20-question racin' quiz. Pay special attention to Question No. 20.

In Friday's paper, you won't want to ignore this Ed Hardin take on Jimmie Johnson:

CONCORD — He drives this track like no one we’ve seen since Fred Lorenzen. He’s smoother than Jeff Gordon, faster than Darrell Waltrip and more consistent than, well, anybody. Ever.

Here is a list of World/Co-cola 600 winners. Anyone want to argue Hardin on this point?

Friday update: Ed Hardin's column is here.

Y'know, I bust on the Charlotte paper and thatsracin.com regularly because (1) they're the big boys on the block, and (2) I can.

But the paper has really done some terrific work with its racin' safety series. The Observer's update is here; the original series from Nov. 2001 is here. It's good solid sports investigative journalism.

The good news, according to today's installment in the series, is that no driver in any of NASCAR's top three series has been killed on track since Dale Earnhardt at the 2001 Daytona 500. The bad news: Your local short track or drag strip still has a long way to go.

Good stuff. Go read.

Robert Yates is probably wishing Dale Jarrett has left a year ago when there were a bunch of restless drivers looking for new rides.

This season, the talent pool is pretty shallow. I'd venture to say ankle deep. Dustin Long has more -- the story in today's N&R is here. Pay close attention to the contract status of all of the drivers in the top 20. Casey Mears is the only true free agent, and Chip Ganassi will re-sign him quickly if he (meaning Ganassi) has any ambition whatsoever of handing with the Hendricks and Roushes instead of falling (some might argue "staying") with the Wood Bros. and Morgan-McClures of the world.

And that leaves Yates with ... well, maybe RYR Busch Series drivers Stephen Leicht and Matt McCall will get really good this season. Then again, if Elliott Sadler is going to hog the Busch ride ...

I get the sense that all's not well in Yatesville.

Paul Newman brought his own fire suit to LMS. How cool is that?

Andy Shain of the Charlotte Observer is there at Lowe's for the weekend and blogging. Go check him out.

So you had an Indy 500 that produced the second-closest finish in the 90-year history of the race and a Co-cola 600 that ... was won by Kasey Kahne.

So which race was better?

Ed Hardin votes for the 500.

Tom Archdeacon of the Dayton paper writes (reg. req.) that, yes, we will remember who finished second. (Meaning Marco, not Jimmie.)

Steve Hummer of the Atlanta paper has the seminal piece on this year's 500 here. ("The history was his own, which at the famed Brickyard has played like an annual re-enactment of the fall of Troy.")

And me? When I can dig out from a long weekend, I'll explain why I think the 500 is getting too much praise and the 600 too little.

Tony Stewart gets hurt? Just call Ricky Rudd, 49, who will qualify Stewart's car and probably drive it a long way Sunday.

Kyle Busch gets out of line? Another 49-year-old, Rusty Wallace, suggests a spanking: "He needs somebody to kick his @ss. ... If I had been there I'd have stopped, backed up and got out of the car, and smacked Busch's face off. Then I would have gotten back in the car and took off."

My money's on the two soon-to-be-50 guys, and not just because I'm closer in age to them than to Baby Brother Busch. Rudd has four wins and four poles at Dover, and there's no reason to think he can put a good ride in the top 25 or so.

And Wallace? I think he's mean enough to take Kyle and what's-his-name, the older brother, who will have to take a boat and not a car to his own wedding in July. Which, if Casey Mears is invited, is probably a good thing for the entire wedding party.

Yesterday I promised a contrarian take on Sunday's races.

I banged out a whole long post last night and cut a big chunk of it this morning because I'm struggling to compare the two. Really, there is no comparison. The Co-cola 600 is one of 36 races in a very long Nextel Cup season.

The Indy 500 is an event, sort of like the Kentucky Derby. Everyone's a horse racing fan for a day just like everyone's an open wheel fan for a day. Which is why I'm going to tee off on it.