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About the only non-Chase story line this weekend (other than an actual qualifying run by AJ Allmendinger) is this: Texas will be Terry Labonte's last Cup race. USA Today has an epic on him here.

T-Lab has been part-time for two years. (He has won $2.6 million in 30 races over the past two seasons -- that's a part-time gig I could get to like.) Before that, he has 22 Cup wins and two Cup titles (1984 and 1996). Here are his career stats - impressively consistent.

Truth be told, I don't remember all that much about Labonte. By the time I really started paying attention to racin' (that would be the late 90s or so), Labonte and that ugly yellow No. 5 were just barely hanging on to the back of the pack. His best days were behind him, and it was just a matter of when Hendrick was going to find some hot shot for his ride.

I've got two Labonte memories.
The first is the rattle-the-cage race, the 1999 fall night race at Bristol where he got in Dale Earnhardt's way. (Don't try to convince me that Senior was in the wrong. You can take that smack somewhere else.) Labonte's response: "Have you ever heard him say he means to spin anybody out?" Perfect.

The other was in 2003, when he won the Labor Day race at Darlington. Every other driver after a win stands on his window sill, drink bottle in hand, and soaks in the cheers, confetti and beer foam. Labonte just climbed out of his car while everyone else was milling around and had this expression on his face something along the lines of, "Hey, give me my trophy already -- I've gotta get him."

I'll give him that -- the guy is cool.

You have any other Labonte memories? Share 'em in the comments.

Friday update: The Charlotte paper opened its photo archives. (When they say "Lots of Terry Labonte images," they're not kidding around.) If you dig through there, you'll find pics of him and Jeff Gordon back in Gordon's Rainbow Warrior days. There's also a pic of Labonte and his smashed-up car in Bristol's victory lane after an earlier dust-up with Dale Sr. (the one Labonte won).

That would be me for not posting anything here in a while.

Here's something interesting: Dustin Long's 12 picks for the 2007 Chase. (No, Dustin doesn't know for sure that the Chase field will grow, but that's the way the wind is blowing.)

Over at NASCAR Scene, Bob Pockrass speculates on the 2007 Chase fates of seven drivers in last year's version but not this year's.

That might be my problem (and Dustin's and Bob's, too, maybe): I'm beat. It's a long season, and, yeah, it's hard to pay attention to racin' with all of this football going on.

But back to the 2007 Chase for a moment: If you believe in momentum (I do), Tony Stewart's a good bet to win his third title next season. The guys is driving like his rear end is on fire, and I think he's a little hurt that he has to sit at the kid's table this year. That, and a good strong front bumper, make Stewart the early favorite.

And Carl Edwards. I just have a funny feeling about that guy.

Tony Stewart picked a fine time to get hot: Two races, two wins ... and a firm grip on 11th in the points. (And the diet seems to be working - he said in pre-race he has dropped 20 pounds. He's still big, but he's not sloppy. Two thumbs up.)

But Stewart's two-for-two run hides (or at least obscures) this nugget: Jimmie Johnson hasn't finished worse than second in four races.

JJ doesn't need to win as long as he keeps everyone else in the Chase in his rear-view, and that's what he's doing. Since Talladega and Vickers' friendly game of last-lap bumper tag, Johnson has gone from eighth to the points lead.

Someone smarter than me wrote not too long ago that Hendrick Motorsports was built on wins, not top 5s. If Johnson keeps this up ... do I really have to refer to him as "Nextel Cup champ"? I guess I'll get used to it.

Jeff Gordon and Ingrid Vandebosch will be honeymooning in two not-so-romantic places, Phoenix and Miami. I say "honeymooning" because the two of them sneaked off to Mexico and got married Tuesday.

Good for them. Sorry, Jaynelle.

The full release (all three paragraphs) after the jump.

On a racin' related note, I wonder if any drivers were at the wedding. The last guy who was ended up working for Rick Hendrick.

With two races left, there are four, maybe five, drivers with a shot at winning this Cup championship thing:

* Jimmie Johnson, who climbed back into the points lead Sunday for the first time since Bristol
* Matt Kenseth, the former points leader, now 17 points back
* The people's choice (OK, maybe just mine), Dale Junior, 78 points back
* Rookie Denny Hamlin, 80 points back
* Crafty Kevin Harvick, 105 back
(Gordon is 157 back - he's done. Sorry, Gordon fans.)

If I'm Junior or Hamlin or Harvick, I'm feeling pretty good about things. Sure, Johnson's driving the wheels off his car. But this Chase has shown pretty clearly that the fickle hand of fate will give anyone a wedgie at just about any time. (Duct-tape your underwear to your body. And watch out for stuff flying out of Robby Gordon's car.)

If I'm Matt Kenseth, I'm feeling really good. A 17-point difference is nothing. Johnson has lost a championship by just more than half of that. So when Kenseth said this to reporters on Tuesday -- "I don't really feel like we're going to find the magic and ... (run) like Jimmie is," -- I'm not sure my pea brain can process that.

Dude, you're down just 17 points. That's four positions. You've got two weeks.

What's up with that? Is Kenseth sandbagging? Or should we start getting used to the idea that Jimmie Johnson will be the 2006 Cup champ?

Because someone might hit them. Like, say, Brian France, who just nailed one.

OK, OK, there doesn't appear to be any damage or injuries, and there's no suspicion that France was under the influence of anything more than high-fructose corn syrup or aspartame.

Still, irony lives.

And speaking of racing and trees, I'd be remiss not to remind everyone of this classic piece of rally footage. Like the Brian France story, it's funny only because no one got hurt.

Friday update: Race tracks do have cars, and apparently France did hit one of the parked variety (allegedly) during his (alleged, of course) mad dash through the streets of Daytona Beach. The Daytona paper has more.

P.S. No, I don't know why France was driving a Lexus. If you had NASCAR money, wouldn't you?

Chris asked in comments in the previous post about Toyota and qualifying for 2007. Toyota definitely has an uphill climb, at least early in the year. But Ford, Chevy and Dodge won't be the only cars running the Daytona 500 (which is just three months, one week and one day away, if you're keeping track at home).

Here's Dustin Long's breakdown:

Remember that Dale Jarrett has a champion's provisional and Dave Blaney is in the top 35 in car owner points. Now, the champion's provisional is likely to be changed for next year. I'm hearing it could be a case where you have so many for the year (like maybe 6) and once you use that up, you're done. We'll see.

At last count -- and an unofficial one at that -- I see 47 sponsored full-time teams. (This doesn't count the Chad Chaffins, Kirk Shelmerdines and Morgan Shepherds.)

I see the top 36 in points along with:
The No. 00 of David Reutimann from Michael Waltrip Racing
The NO. 55 of Michael Waltrip
The NO. 44 of Dale Jarrett for MWR
The No. 32 from PPI if there's sponsorship
The No. 4 from Morgan-McClure if there's sponsorship
The NO. 49 from BAM Racing if there's sponsorship
The No. 83 of Brian Vickers with Team Red Bull
The NO. 84 of A.J. Allmendinger with Team Red Bull
the No. 15 of Paul Mendard with DEI
the No. 13 of Joe Nemechek for Ginn Racing
The No. 36 of Jeremy Mayfield with Bill Davis Racing.

So there you have it: Toyota will have at least one (Blaney) and probably two (Jarrett) cars in the 500, maybe more.

But, really, the story isn't Toyota so much as it's 49 cars trying to get into a 43-car race. Is this the end of the field filler? Will this be the last time we see Chad Chaffin or Mike Garvey or Hermie Sadler in a Cup race? Will some of those teams drop down to Cup Jr. and take on the big boys on Saturdays? What happens if you're not among the top 43? What happens if Toyota's not among the top 43? What happens if Toyota gets all of its cars in the top 43?

About the only thing for sure in 2007 is that Tony Stewart will win the Cup title. Beyond that, it's wiiiiide open.

Gordon says (according to Dustin Long) that he sold his story to US Weekly.

I'm speechless.

I'll admit it: I was rooting like heck against Jimmie Johnson all day Sunday. For the last 50 laps I waited for something to go wrong on his car -- an engine, a brake line, a piece of trash on the grill, a Travis Kvapil spin, anything.

But ... nothing. Johnson started toward the back, picked his way through the back and harrassed Kevin Harvick (who was just good enough to say ahead and not get wrecked) It was Race Car Drivin' 101, and Johnson did it flawlessly. Golf claps all around

Is Johnson going to win this thing? Probably. Does he deserve to win it? It's hard to argue against 11 top-2 finishes.

Will NASCAR fans like it? It's hard to say. I can't say I've met a Jimmie Johnson fan, but I'm sure they're out there somewhere. But I haven't met anyone who hates him either, not like some people can't stand Junior or Stewart or Gordon. I think NASCAR fans respect his talent and skill, but he doesn't seem to raise either your pulse or your blood pressure.

Around the Sports department, we've taken to calling Wake Forest "Switzerland" -- everyone has an opinion on Carolina and Duke and State, but no one seems to think much of Wake either way.

So maybe Johnson is NASCAR's version of a small neutral mountainous country. I just wonder if he'll show up at the NASCAR banquet in lederhosen.

More on the weekend from Dustin Long and Jaynelle Ramon (flip through there until you get to the picture of the tents on the hill - what a great spot).
Also, Matt Kenseth, who evidently took the white flag at the end of Sunday's race as his cue to surrender. Antonette has given up on Junior's chances (me, too), and the AP's Jenna Fryer trashes PIR (no permalinks, so look for the Sunday post).

Long-time Spotter reader Nate Ryan (whose claim to fame is his day job at USA Today) wrote a smart piece yesterday on NASCAR's sputtering growth.

A lot of the reasons for declining attendance and slumping TV ratings make sense: new markets, lack of NBC on-air promotions, Dale Earnhardt's death, retirements of long-time drivers, the cost of attending races, the length of the season.

The picture might look gloomy, but it's not. Consider where NASCAR has come in the past, say, 20 years: from regional curiosity to national powerhouse. It's not the NFL -- nothing is -- but stock car racing has grown from something with the buzz of bowling and rodeo to the nation's fifth (or sixth, depending on where you think golf fits) professional sports league.

Here's the money quote, from David Carter, the executive director of the University of Southern California's Sports Business Institute:

"Anybody that would imagine NASCAR could continue its double-digit growth in perpetuity is really out to lunch. They've captivated, captured and sold to the hard-core fan and done a very good job of embracing the casual fan. They need to extend the brand and envelop more casual fans without alienating the hard-core base."

So go read the story and think about these questions: If you're Brian France, what do you do? Do you sit tight and hope that everything you have planned for 2007 (Car of Tomorrow, new ESPN/ABC deal) works out? What do you put after that? Do you change the Chase? The schedule? Is more growth even realistic, or is this it? Where do you go from here?

The scene, according to Dustin Long, was one of today's pressers in Miami before Sunday's Cup race. Somebody asked points leader Jimmie Johnson about his likeability - namely, everyone likes him until he tangles with the No. 8 car.

Junior and Denny Hamlin, meanwhile, start talking and snickering at the other end of the room. Johnson stops talking and looks over. Then Hamlin explains that there's this You Tube video ... and hilarity ensues.

Dustin dug it up and I'll link to it in a bit with some caveats:

1. The language in this video is definitely NSFW. It's probably not safe for your house if you have little kids.

2. Dustin says this is footage from the Talladega race where Brian Vickers took out both Junior and JJ. (Which makes it almost Johnson's fault.)

3. The featured guy in the video - that is NOT a Southern accept. Maybe South Jersey or South Vermont, but not South as in around here.

So here you go. I'm not sure whether to be horrified or amused. A little of both, I guess.

Update: Deadspin (warning: language) hits exactly the right note and points out a snippet of the audio at about the 1:40 mark.

Dustin raises an interesting question over at his blog:

Who's the best driver of 2006? Is it ...
... Jimmie Johnson, assuming he wins the Cup title?
... Kevin Harvick, whose Chase hopes were hampered because he insisted on driving Cup races with that huge Busch Series trophy?
... Denny Hamlin, who could have the best-ever rookie season in the modern era?

Hmmm. Johnson's the easy choice, but ...

No surprise: It's Jimmie Johnson.

Johnson came into today's race at Homestead with a 63-point lead over Matt Kenseth. He drove a safe, smart race, came home ninth and ceded just 7 points to Matt Kenseth. Not bad for a former junkyard racer who once camped out on the leather couch in Ron Hornaday's spare bedroom. (Those stories and more on Johnson's early years are here.

If you're a Jimmie Johnson fan, enjoy the night. If you're a fan of anyone else, the Daytona 500 is three months from yesterday.

So what's wrong with NASCAR? That's the question my tiny brain has been tossing around since about halfway through Sunday's race.

Last week's USA Today story on the state of NASCAR started it. Big Brian France bit back (and here, too). He's paid to respond, even if he has nothing to counter with other than "just wait and see."

Then Charlotte's Tom Sorenson piled on ("If you would like to replicate the thrills at Homestead-Miami Speedway, do two things. (1) Go to Wendy's; (2) Check the action in the drive-through lane.") The Washington Post and the AP's Jenna Fryer also hit on the same themes.

Selena Roberts of the N.Y. Times stumbles onto something (it's behind the Times' stupid paywall): NASCAR lacks passion.

Forget the TV ratings and the high ticket prices and the long season and all of the commercials I have seen over and over and over again since February. (For the love of all that is holy, please someone come up with a new crop for 2007.) There's nothing fundamentally wrong with NASCAR that "Dale Earnhardt Jr., 2007 Nextel Cup champion" and the incessant ESPN hype machine can't cure. (You saw how Ohio State-Michigan was billed as The Biggest Game in the History of Organized Sport? You don't think ESPN can't do that with racin'? Just watch.) My gut feeling is that NASCAR is slumping a bit after some record years. Silicon Valley will tell you that you can't sustain that kind of growth forever.

On the other hand -- and Mr. Ambivalence here always has two hands -- I think NASCAR's missing that passion that the NY Times columnist wrote about. You know that guy screaming at his TV after Vickers took out JJ and Junior? He's got the passion and then some. My reaction was pretty much the same, minus the f-bombs, but I didn't have many moments like that this year. Even Montoya's flameout on Sunday didn't do much to raise my pulse -- yeah, that was one impressive wreck, but it has been a long season and let's just finish the race and give Johnson the trophy so I can eat dinner and watch the last Sunday night football game.

Last night I was surfing around and found the clip of Dale Sr.'s 2000 win at Talladega, his last victory, the one where he came from 15th or so to first in about two laps to win the thing. That was a race. It was so good, in fact, I watched it again.

That's what NASCAR needs. It needs that guy yelling at the TV when Junior gets taken out. It needs Jeff Gordon fans bragging that everyone is jealous that their guy has four Cup crowns. It needs me getting that knot in my stomach when the 8 car gets out front at Talladega. It needs everyone standing and cheering and going Wow! when a poor nobody like David Gilliland comes out of nowhere and wins a Cup Lite race.

Sure, try to keep selling me stuff. That's what the racing industry does. But make me feel something, too. That's why people keep coming back.

Because Americans love them some Camrys.

Look, I know Toyota is a Japanese company, not an American firm. But Toyota makes a bazillion cars in the States, they employ thousands of Americans to make them, and U.S. buyers can't seem to get enough of them.

Here's a mind-blowing stat: In October, Toyota sold nearly three-and-a-half Camrys for every Fusion that Ford moved off the lot.
Here's another: For October YTD, Toyota has sold more Camrys than Fusion and Taurus combined.

Between now and the 500, when Toyotas roll off the line for their first-ever Cup race, you're going to see a lot of stories and TV spots that raise the issue that, well, maybe, ah, there's something a little wrong with Toyota being in NASCAR because, well, you know ...

Rather than talking smack about Toyota, maybe racing fans should be asking Ford why the term most closely associated with its racing and domestic car programs is the word "struggling."

For fun, the October sales announcements from Ford and Toyota:
Ford's U.S. Sales Rise for the 2nd Straight Month
Toyota Reports 2006 Best-Ever October Sales

Let's pause for a moment to reflect on the 2006 Cup season.

Jimmie Johnson won it all. RCR revived himself. TV ratings down. Bill Weber's been kicked to the TNT curb. ...

In Thursday's paper (not posted online, @#$$%^*&!!!), Dustin Long hits on some of the key issues NASCAR faces in 2007 (Car of Tomorrow, Toyota's arrival, re-arrival of ESPN/ABC, efforts to revive fan and viewer interest and revamping the points system.) It's nothing you really didn't know, but it's all there in one handy spot.

You'll have to trust me unless you have a copy of Thursday's paper. (I'll try to post it when I get back to work Monday.) He also put together a couple of interesting lists. More after the jump ...

We've been batting around 2007 predictions in the previous thread (I know, I know, it's early still.) So what does NASCAR do? Send out the 2006 preseason picks so everyone can point and laugh at the predictions.

Here's who the media picked way back in early 2006, in order of how the media thought they'd finish; 2006 Chasers are in bold:
1. Jeff Gordon
2. Tony Stewart
3. Jimmie Johnson
4. Greg Biffle
5. Carl Edwards
6. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
7. Ryan Newman
8. Kurt Busch
9. Mark Martin
10. Matt Kenseth

NASCAR doesn't define "media" as Big Dog David Poole and Jim Utter (remember, "media" is plural) or as some of the millions (it seems), print, TV, radio and online folks who cover NASCAR.

Either way, it's not a bad list. They got five of the top 10 and eight of the top 13 if you include Stewart, Edwards and Biffle. Yeah, they whiffed on the Denny Hamlin (no rookies), Kyle Busch (still too young), Kasey Kahne (he fell off the map in 2005) and the RCR duo (few picked Harvick, and no one figured Burton was going to come back from the dead, figuratively speaking).

But when you get right down to it, the 2006 preseason picks look a lot like the 2005 finishing order, but shuffled and missing a couple of cards. Here's the 2005 finishing order:
1. Stewart
2. Biffle
3. Edwards
4. Martin
5. Johnson
6. Newman
7. Kenseth
8. Wallace (who retired at the end of the year)
9. Mayfield
10. Kurt Busch

The main storylines heading into 2006 were that Gordon (11th in 2005) and Junior (19th) were going to rebound, Roush would continue to dominate and Kurt Busch would do well in a new car. Funny how these things work out.

And when did Ryan Newman go into the witness protection program? Was that before or after he started hitting everything on the track?