News-Record.com

In random order:

* The best thing we published all weekend in the dead tree version of the N&R was the In Their Words features that Dustin Long has made sort of his calling card. This year he caught up with Juan Pablo Montoya, Kasey Kahne and Jeff Burton. Make sure to click through for audio and complete interview transcripts.

* The second-best thing we published this weekend were Ed Hardin's columns. On Sunday, he took the COT behind the woodshed ([Kyle Busch] has this look on his face like he means it. Just to his right is the vehicle itself, a sheet-metal box, really. It's covered in decals that make it look like a car, but it's not, really. It's a lab experiment. And it's not for sale."). Today, Ed plays bump-n-run on Jeff Gordon ("In other words, Gordon chickened out."). Aaron McFarling up in Roanoke took the opposite approach. ("All's fair on the final laps? Wrong. Not with Gordon, not this time. And darn it, good for him.")

* There's no team better right now than Hendrick Motorsports. If I had a team rankings, they'd be first, second and third. You know, I might just do that - rank the teams. Check this space later this week....

(more after the jump)

One of the more intriguing but little-covered aspects in stock car racing is the relationship between NASCAR and ISC. For instance, none of the other major sports (NFL, MLB, NBA, etc.) own the venues where their respective events are played. In NASCAR, the France family owns both the sport as well as nearly half the tracks where they race.

It's a pretty cozy relationship. Is it too cozy? Maybe. But I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone dig deep enough into the finances and relationships.

The plaintiffs' lawyers in the Kentucky Speedway case are trying to figure it out. Good luck, folks! But really, do we really need another mile-and-a-half track on the Cup circuit?

Speaking of ISC, Dustin Long updates you on the company in today's notes. The big news, of course, is that ISC has killed off plans for another new track (the one in Washington state) and said that there's nothing imminent in Colorado.

If anyone has a few spare minutes (or weeks, really), here are the ISC's SEC filings. There's bound to be some interesting stuff in there.

Let's see ...

The Cup guys are off.
The Busch Series (minus most of the Buschwackers) are in Nashville.
Champ Car is in vegasbabyvegas.
F1 is racing in the middle of the night (my time) in Malaysia.

Yeah, I might get some stuff done around the house this weekend. You?

Junior said he'll re-up with DEI by June or he'll ...

... well, I'm not sure exactly. And probably neither does he. Dustin has the details of Junior told reporters today. (Scroll down for the scoop on Junior's employee. Guess Dale has someone he can ride dunebuggies or go-carts or whatever he's does when he's not making left turns.)

I'm still baffled by the whole thing. Teresa controls the company, but its sole bankable asset (sorry, Martin Truex Jr.) is the guy driving the No. 8 car on Sundays. Most NASCAR contract talks are done privately and quietly, for better or worse. If NASCAR wants to be considered a major sport, then I suppose public and bloody negotiations are part of the deal.

It happens most years, and it's bound to happen in 2007, and that's a driver winning his first-ever Cup race. There were two last year (Denny Hamlin and Brian Vickers) and three in 2005 (Kasey Kahne, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards).

Dustin Long mulls the subject here. Here's his short list of possibles first-time winners: Dave Blaney, Clint Bowyer, David Gilliland, Jamie McMurray, Casey Mears, Tony Raines, Scott Riggs, Reed Sorenson, David Stremme, Martin Truex Jr. and J.J. Yeley.

Montoya's not on the list because he's a known commodity and Dustin got to thinking about all of this after Zach Johnson won the Masters. McMurray's on the list because the statute of limitations on his first win way back in 2002 has expired. (Seriously, no. Dustin also included some one-time winners in his glance.)

My gut tells me Montoya, but that's too easy. Dustin's going with McMurray, who has had three top-10 finishes in the past four starts and is third of the five RoushSox cars. (He's 12, which means he'd be Chasin' if it started Sunday.)

I'm going with Truex. He started OK, but cut at tire at Bristol, then burned up the brakes at Martinsville. He's due. I don't think his two Busch titles were a fluke.

Second choice: Bowyer. The Childress team has got it going on, and he's due, too.

Anyone want to go out on a limb and say Mears? Stremme? Sorenson? Mike Bliss?

Pretend for a moment that you're Michael Waltrip. You come into the season with high hopes, a new car, a new team and an old sponsor. You've got a great family, a nice home near Charlotte, tons of money, everyone knows who you are and ...

Suddenly you're the butt of a joke.

* You get caught up in NASCAR's biggest cheating scandal in years.

* You've made one race all year (out of 6) and you're dead last in points, 993 behind the leader.

* And now you roll your car on a Friday night and, bloody and pissed, walk home only to wake up the next morning to find a state highway patrollman at your door with a reckless driving ticket. (Here's one version of the story. Here's the AP account. What I think is the original account is here.)

Now if you're Michael Waltrip, what do you do? How do you handle all of this? Where's your head? And what do you say to your sponsors? It's not that the wreck is all that bad. It's just all of it tied together that screams trainwreck.

Related: The Hartford Courant's NASCAR blogger (that's Hartford as in Hartford, Yankee-neticut) gives his top 10 reasons for Waltrip's crash. (I like No. 4 the best.)

Wednesday night update: Waltrip talks to the Big Dog here: After the wreck, "I got out and someone had pulled up and said she would call 911. I said that I was fine, and I just decided to go home and then figure out what to do."

Wow: This thing called journalism is being practiced on the NASCAR beat.

First, the Big Dog. Now the AP's Jenna Fryer, who caught up with the witness to Waltrip's wreck: "After I got off the phone I was walking around the car again and somebody stuck their foot out the back driver side of the window," she said. "That's when Michael Waltrip got out. He wiggled out the back window. I knew immediately it was him. He just got out the back driver side window and stood up."

Full story after the jump.

Rain Friday, no qualifying, and once again Michael Waltrtip will be watching this race from his couch. You realize that by Sunday night he'll be more than 1,000 points behind the leader?

Other randomness:

** Dustin Long was at the track Friday and blogged a bit. Check that space today for more, and make sure to check the Sunday paper. He'll have a really interesting piece on clutch driving. Anyone want to guess who's the best clutch driver in NASCAR today? (By clutch, I don't mean the guy who's best at changing gears. Sheesh.)

** A week ago, Bram wrote a short piece on how the COT handles. (Keep it in mind when the series heads to Phoenix this week.) The short of it: Because the COT is bigger and taller than the COY, it wants to take a hard right instead of the preferred left when it comes around a corner. (It's all about momentum. Remember that from high school physics?) Teams can't use shocks and springs like they've been doing, so they have to make the car loose to get it to turn. It's interesting stuff. Bram can explain this stuff as well as anyone. My only wish is that he could draw, too.

** Jeff Gordon starts from the pole Sunday at one of just three active tracks he doesn't have a first-name relationship with victory lane. (The others: Phoenix and Homestead.) So do you like Gordon's chances now? What about Johnson, who's driving better than anyone right now? Kahne won last year - how about him? Newman? Remember him? Your two fastest drivers yesterday were Kyle Busch and Casey Mears - what about them?

** Speaking of Hendrick, there's no doubt that it's the best team in the business right now. Gordon's leading the points, Johnson and Kyle Busch are in the top 5, and the three of them have won four of six races this season. The second-best team ... no one right now. Third, no one either. Next I'd have to put, oh, Childress in fourth, Gibbs in fifth and Roush in sixth. Everyone else is battling for 10th-best.

Gotta run. I've got plenty of chores to do before the rains come.

Postmarked Fort Worth, Texas:

Dear Jeff Burton:
That was a great pass of Matt Kenseth yesterday.
We were rooting for you mostly because you're more fun than Matt in victory lane.
Best wishes,
NASCAR Fan

Dear Juan Pablo Montoya:
Yes, I know you're a rookie. Yes, I know your car is usually looser than rusty nuts and bolts soaking in WD-40.
But I will never, ever forget the fact that you wrecked me. I will come out of retirement to put you into the fence - I promise. Just remember that the next time you see that big orange No. 20 in your rear view.
Sincerely,
Tony Stewart
P.S. Make sure not to do to Junior what you did to me. You'll never make it out of the track alive. Trust me on this one.

There are more after the jump ...

For climbing behind the wheel of a torn-up No. 5 car on Sunday, that is.

Lars Anderson of SI called the whole thing bizarrre, but says the stint in the 5 car will help Junior in contract negotiations with DEI. (Psst, Lars: If Junior leaves DEI, he'll go to Gibbs, not DEI.)

Richard Durrett of the Dallas paper says Junior coulda gotten hurt. Remember, the 5 car was a little beaten up from wrecking the 8.

Jeff Hammond over at Fox Sports hits on something interesting: "Dale Jr. is a very unique individual, caught between two eras. He loves the past, and he's driving in the present."

Here are the race notes if you want unabridged Junor.

So was Junior nuts for driving the 5?

You knew Jeff Gordon was going to tie Dale Earnhardt's win record eventually. The only surprise was that it came at Phoenix, one of only three tracks (now two) where Gordon hadn't won. Dustin Long had figured Martinsville. He only missed by two races.

Gordon will break that mark soon enough. Maybe on Sunday at Talladega, Earnhardt's second home and a place where Hendrick cars have won four of the past six. Gordon won the spring race in 2000, 2004 and 2005. It's as good a place as any to get win No. 77. If not then, it'll be at Richmond or Darlington or Charlotte -- soon, in other words, because Gordon is driving as well as he has driven in a long, long time.

The big prize, of course, is 85 wins. That would put Gordon atop the modern-era list (DW has 84). It would put him in third, ahead of Bobby Allison and DW on the all-time wins list.

So my question: Can Gordon get 85? And when?

Related: If Dale Sr. were still alive, what would he have said when Jeff Gordon passed him? Or would have Senior have won enough races after the 2001 Daytona 500 that we wouldn't be having this conversation yet (or at all)?

Tony Stewart erupts in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

Actually it was last night on his weekly radio show. A big chunk of the transcript -- in which he rants about debris cautions, bottle-throwing fans and meeting with reporters -- is after the jump.

I think his dig at reporters was off-base. (Tony doesn't need help - just a reporter with a working tape recorder - to stir up trouble.) But his take on debris cautions and anti-Gordon sentiment is right on.

If Stewart bores you, here's your escape hatch: Dustin Long updates you on Junior's contract negotiations here. Dustin's also curious about how 3 fans feel about Gordon's 76th win here.

Check Dustin's blog in a little bit for something Rusty Wallace said today about Jeff Gordon. Remember a year ago, Rusty was questioning Gordon's focus on racing.

Or if you want to plow through one of Tony Stewart's greatest hits, click the link. ...

I barely get the previous post done and NASCAR kicks Stewart back hard in the shins:

From AP:

NASCAR called Stewart's comments "very, very disappointing."

"NASCAR has been running races since 1948, and we place the safety of the drivers at the top of the list," said spokesman Jim Hunter. "We have more people and more resources than ever officiating our races. The safety of the drivers is our first priority. It has always been that way and will continue to be that way.

"There are thousands of talented race drivers out there who would consider it an honor to compete in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series."

Although NASCAR has a policy that prohibits obscene language and gestures on television, the sanctioning body has no rule against criticizing its officiating. The NBA and NFL both fine its participants for criticizing the referees.

Hunter said NASCAR had no plans to punish Stewart for his remarks about officiating, which is done from a tower above the race track by a team of eight that includes NASCAR president Mike Helton and competition director Robin Pemberton.

Let's face it: If there's caution out for debris on the track, the TV cameras ought to be able to pick it up. The cameras that Fox and ESPN bring to the track can focus on the hotdog wrapper jammed deep in the nose of the Dodges. The least they can do is figure out what's on the track is a piece of somebody's suspension, a chunk of Robby Gordon's roll-cage padding or the beer bottle that Dale Senior Fan was holding on to just in case Jeff Gordon won No. 77.

My guess is that you'll see some caution flags fly Sunday that cause Stewart to finish, oh, about 50th. Call it a hunch.

So Juan Pablo Montoya gets docked $10K for showing the bird to a live TV camera. Montoya's finger-waggling means:

(a) He's an embarrassment to Colombia, Spanish-speaking people, F1, NASCAR and all forms of auto racing everywhere.

(b) He's dumb, because he meant to use the index finger to show his former F1 competitors that he already has one NASCAR win.

(c) He's catching on quickly to the arcane ways of NASCAR.

Select your answer in the comments below.

The France-family-of-NASCAR-famed-owned sports-car series is going to be up the road this weekend. Me? I'm going to be rebuilding the picnic table in the backyard that finally dryrotted and trying to figure out how much of the Sunday afternoon 'Dega race I can watch at a cookout without being labeled a jerk by my hosts. ("But it's work" doesn't cut it usually.)

That's not to say I'm not interested in Grand Am. I am, kinda sorta, in the way that if it's on TV (and the DP class is live Sunday), I'll watch it, mostly to see who Boris Said will run into. And Grand Am is pretty -- not as pretty as F1, but there's some actual honest-to-gosh racing and even some passing. The Daytona race was cool. Seeing it live at VIR probably would be worth the trip to Alton, Va. (You can Google-map it yourself. It's rumored to be near Danville.)

Today's pitch from the Grand-Am PR folks is driver Colin Braun. He's a name NASCAR fans probably need to watch for. He's 18, a native of Texas and already has two DP-class wins under his belt. (He went back to back last year at Daytona and at Barber.). Better, he helped co-driver Jorg Bergmeister win last year's DP title.He won the Mexico pole this season and finished second, and he's fourth in the standings after three races. (He also races in the other U.S. sports car series that we're not allowed to talk about until Grand Am leaves town.)

Earlier today Braun had a couple of meetings in Charlotte with some race teams, so let's go ahead and start speculating as to when he'll end up in a NASCAR ride. David Smith has Braun ranked seventh on his famed Blackboard, and Braun says on his own Web site he wants a Busch or ARCA ride this year. The Busch Series has two more road races this season - early August in Montreal and the Glen. ARCA has ... oh, who cares what ARCA's doing. Take the Busch ride, kid.

More for the curious:
Grand Am
Colin Braun
Virginia International Raceway
Randy Ruhlman, a Greensboro guy in the Grand Am series

The story line of the weekend will be Tony Stewart and debris cautions, espcially when NASCAR fired back yesterday. This MSNBC writethru on the whole deal makes reference to a 1994 News & Record story, of all things, that reports the results of an anonymous survey of 30 drivers, crew chiefs, owners and some mysterious others. The findings: 14 of those surveyed said they believe NASCAR tries to secretly influence races, and two said NASCAR had helped their teams.

Some caveats:
* The N&R story was published in 1995, not 1994 like the MSNBC story says.
* I didn't start working at the N&R until September 1995, and I've never met Bob Zeller.
* I'm pretty sure the N&R's top editors would not approve something like this today. (Thirty anonymous sources? I need special clearance from one of the two top editors here before I can get in one. And, besides, everything should be on the record anyway.)
* I want to know a heck of a lot more about the two people who say NASCAR helped their team - who they are, when NASCAR helped, which driver, which track, what NASCAR did, etc. etc. etc. That little nugget just lies there in the story like the dead squirrel I found last weekend in my backyard.

The N&R piece from 12 years ago is after the jump.

I heard Jim Rome say this last week, and it's still excellent advice. (I'm paraphrasing because I wasn't taking notes):

"NASCAR fan, drink your beer. Don't throw it at Jeff Gordon."

What is wrong with people?

I'm talking to you, Junior Fan. I'm one of you, but you embarrass me. Please stop.