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Here are your weekly Small Team Standings after Martinsville. Your big mover was Travis "Can I Haz Sponzerz Plz?" Kvapil, who motored home 18th and moved up two spots to fourth. Brian Vickers added a point to his lead over B-Lab. Kyle Petty held on to 10th despite missing Sunday's race.

Your top 10:
Rank ... Driver ... Pts/Beh (Chg)
1. Brian Vickers ... 631 (--)
2. Bobby Labonte ... -27 (--)
3. David Gilliland ... -50 (--)
4. Travis Kvapil ... -94 (+2)
5. Robby Gordon ... -113 (-1)
6. Scott Riggs ... -125 (-1)
7. J.J. Yeley ... -163 (--)
8. Jeremy Mayfield ... -190 (--)
9. Dave Blaney ... -258 (--)
10. Kyle Petty ... -335 (--)
Dropped out: None

Lots of Small Team news this week. Let's get to it.

Lap 1: When Petty moved its shop to Mooresville this year, it was billed as the start of something new. Now it looks like the beginning of the end, or maybe the middle of the end. Kyle Petty missed Sunday's race at Martinsville, a place that should be called Pettyville because King Richard own the place. Kyle's going to skip Texas this week, too. Worse, General Mills, tired of backing a team that has won just three races in 23 years, is going to Childress next year. Dustin Long and I were talking last week about which team we thought would be the next to follow Morgan-McClure to the garage. The likely candidates (other than BAM, which isn't much of a team) are the Wood Bros., the Pettys and and Yates. I had Wood, Yates and Petty in that order, but now I'm not so sure that Petty won't be the first.

Lap 2: Speaking of BAM, they're not coming to Texas this week. That's a death blow, because there's no way that team will climb back into the top 35, and they're not usually fast enough to qualify on speed.

Three more laps after the jump ...

The weekend's almost here. Let's get to it.

Lap 1: The weather doesn't look great at Texas today - showers in the morning, cloudy in the afternoon. The three people who are praying for sunshine: Patrick Carpentier, Burney Lamar and John Andretti. Eight others who are praying for rain include Sam Hornish Jr., Dave Blaney and Chad McCumbee. Persistent showers all afternoon mean that those three would be washed into Sunday's Cup race.

Lap 2: Has time passed by Petty Enterprises? Uh, yeah. Memo to NASCAR.com's Bill Kimm: A team that that has fewer wins in 23 years (3) than Jimmie Johnson ripped off in four races late last season (4) is not in a "times have been tough" phase -- it's in freefall.

More after the jump.

Some post-race thoughts:

Lap 1: Why is Michael McDowell not dead? That's a rhetorical question, of course, but that was one hard hit. SAFER barrier, HANS Device, COT -- take a bow.

Lap 2: Yep, that was Jeff Gordon finishing 43rd. Sadly, because I'm a Junior fan, it hurts a little to see a teammate in distress. Not a lot. I mean, I no longer laugh hysterically when the 24 runs badly.

Lap 3: When was the last time you saw TWO unsponsored cars in the same Cup race? And what does Robert Yates have to do to get someone to throw some money his way? Both of his drivers got much-better-than-you'd-think top 20 finishes.

Lap 4: So Carl Edwards won again. Last time he finished first, it cost him 100 points and his crew chief. Either (a) Edwards was that good, or (b) the Roush crew has gotten better at hiding its work. I vote (a).

Lap 5: I ran out of gas a lap from the finish. Seriously, though, did anything stand out about Sunday's race? Anything at all?

No change in the top 9 from last week as the top 4 all finished in the top 20 and everyone else finished toward the back. The only change this week was that Skinner squeezed into the 10th spot. Kyle Petty, who now has a two week sitting-atop-the-hauler streak, dropped out.

Next to fall out will be Jeremy Mayfield, who got punted from the No. 70. His replacement: Johnny Sauter, who got dumped late last year for Mayfield. Weird. (Here's the story. See if you can read behind the lines.)

The Small Team Driver standings after the jump ...

First Saturday night race of the season. Whee!

Lap 1: This ESPN piece about Aaron Fike is a great little piece of journalism. Props to Ryan McGee for doing such a nice job on the story. But I don't think this is the thing that will shake NASCAR to its proverbial core. Think about the whole safety saga for a minute. There was a collective sad shrug when Kenny Irwin and Adam Petty died less than two months apart in 2000. Dale Sr.'s death at Daytona in Feb. 2001 was the holy-hell-we-need-to-do-something moment. Same with drugs. A few nobodies (Aaron Fike, Shane Hmiel, Kevin Grubb) get nailed, and NASCAR continues to say everything's fine. If Jeff Gordon or Junior or Jimmie Johnson gets busted, game on. Don't expect anything to change until that happens.

More rants after the jump.

A look back at the madness:

Lap 1: That wasn't one of the estimated 16.5 million major league baseball games scheduled for 2008 on my TV when I tuned in Saturday night for the race, was it? It was? Really? Did Fox delay the start of the race so it could finish the game? And then did Fox switch to the race before the ball game was over? It did? E-Fox. Story here. (P.S. to USA Today: This was not a repeat of the Heidi fiasco. Not even close. So why mention it?)

Lap 2: Props to Chad Knaus for his win Saturday night. Not only did he draw a straight flush when he needed it, but also ... did you see him screw with Jimmie Johnson's head? Telling his driver that he's 20 seconds up instead of 10 seconds was a stroke of evil genius.

More nonsense after the jump.

Bobby Labonte has caught Brian Vickers for the lead among the small-team drivers thanks to a 12th-place finish at Phoenix. (Vickers was 25th.) David Gilliland (15th) was the only other Small Teamer in the top 20. Four other drivers swapped spots farther down in the rankings.

Top 10 Small Team Driver Standings after the jump ...

Must have been something I ate, but I'm in a foul mood. Maybe it's the inane debate over NASCAR's drug policy. Remember, it took the death of the sport's biggest star for NASCAR to finally do something serious about safety. NASCAR is running the same play ("We're NASCAR and we know") with its substance abuse policy. Gimme a break.

A grade-A rant is below the jump. If you're in a good mood, I suggest you go outside and enjoy the sunshine and read something else. That's what I'm going to do shortly.

Here goes:

Lap 1: It's about time NASCAR took away a win for cheating (or, more technically, a rules violation. This case seems more stupid than intentional). The argument against doing that has traditionally been the fans and the sponsors and all the money that's tied up in both. The thing is, your bottom line might look better if folks didn't think the winner was cheating. I don't see much different between Peyton Sellers' bad shock and Carl Edwards' loose oil pump cover. Do you? More from Dustin Long here.

Lap 2: Yes, it would great if Junior won this week. No, I don't think it's going to happen. (My bet is Richmond next week.) My hope is that Four-Time wins. Do you throw Amp cans at the 24 even though he's now Junior's teammate? (My bet is they'll throw Bud cans just for old time's sake. Some habits die hard.)

More after the jump ...

Brian Vickers opens up a lead on the rest of the field after a wild 'Dega race that saw Brian Vickers get a top 5 and four (!) other Small Teamers (Kvapil, R. Gordon, Gilliland, Riggs) crack the top 20. One of those running well was *not* Bobby Labonte, who got caught up in that late wreck and got dropped to 34. David Gilliland (15th) passes him for second in the Small Team Standings.

In the real world, Vickers climbed three spots to 16th and has a weak, but still possible, shot at the Chase.

The Small Team Standings after nine races is after the jump: