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It’s late in the race. The last round of pit stops is done. As always, regardless of where you are in the standings actually, you need every possible place. The car is far from perfect. In fact it’s real tight in turn two. Now what?

The best of the best will make it work. Winning drivers, championship capable winners find the lines that others don’t try. They get the most out of it, and keep the thing off the wall, and other cars. Top crew chiefs will have a tactic to suggest, part of an overall strategy that merely mortal box-toppers fail to find. Elite team owners are like master painters in that they find the perfect mix of disparate hues and blend them into a work of mechanical-performance art. But which part of the masterpiece is the key?

That question is the theme of the Bench Racing blog’s Tight in Turn Two post this week.

Looking at all three major series and picking one individual from all of the drivers, owners, sponsors or crew chiefs, who is your NASCAR Most Valuable Player?

Charlie: Pick one and just one of the above to start your 2009 NASCAR team. How’s that for tough? I’ll take Rick Hendrick. It’s about leadership. He brings the best of the best together, makes sure that they have whatever it takes to be at the top of the NASCAR game. He keeps his teams relatively happy all the while never settling for mediocrity from any of them. And then he’ll gamble to make it all better. Dumping Kyle Busch for Dale Earnhardt Jr. Changing Jeff Gordon’s crew chief. Bringing in Mark Martin and convincing him to return to full-time driving. The best owner in NASCAR is the MVP.

Bruce: I hate second round draft picks. All the good players get snatched up! But let’s play it in your court and I am going to stick with a car owner.. they do make the calls, put the teams together, pull the money in, and support the processes they’ve developed.

So who would I go with? Man, that’s tough. I’ve looked at the top 10 in owners points across the three series, Trucks, Nationwide and Cup. I came up with the inevitable 2nd stable for my choice of the Cat in the Hat, Jack Roush. It’s a pure numbers game, but across all three series, he’s got the breadth of performance. Across all three series his shop has 117 top 10’s, 73 top 5’s, 17 wins. I thought maybe these numbers were skewed because of the number of starts his teams had across all three series, but it broke down to a win every 12 starts, a top 5 every 3 starts and a top 10 every 2 starts. He’s got the edge and focus to see a broader picture and he’s almost got a Cup under his belt this year - but that’s OK if it doesn’t happen this year… I think as they actually come up to speed in the COT, next year will be their year… if Johnson or Ky Busch don’t break out next year and have a better year!!

That’s what we think. What do you think? Let us know in the comment section of this post.

Then head over to - if you haven’t already been there - to Bruce’s NASCAR Bits for Bruce’s topic of the week, which is more of a rant this time. All the better. Bruce isn’t happy about ABC’s decision to preempt  the Phoenix Cup race and move the end to cable. That just get’s him started though. Check it out.

With that said, just what informational outlets do we have that don’t inundate us with online ads, or focus on what we really want in the world of NASCAR? Are we being diluted to the point of over-saturation?

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

The Sprint Cup Series enters the second half of the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup this week, making its second visit of the year to the Martinsville Speedway in Virginia. Virginia is the home of many current and former Sprint Cup drivers, and currently boasts two drivers in the Chase, the second most of any state. Those drivers, Jeff Burton and Denny Hamlin, currently sit 2nd and 12th in points, respectively.

Interestingly enough, until his win last week at Charlotte, nobody in the Sprint Cup garage considered Burton a title threat. Ever since the Chase started, it’s been considered a three horse race, and Burton only found his way into that triumvirate by his stellar drive last weekend.

Originally, Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards, and Kyle Busch composed the top three contenders. After Loudon, Busch was replaced by Greg Biffle as the third horse, in most pundits’ eyes. Now, after Edwards’ second consecutive bad race, Burton finds himself in the top three, 69 points behind Johnson.

The question is, why did it take so long for pundits to recognize Burton as a legitimate title threat? His worst finish in the Chase so far is 9th, the same as Johnson’s. Each driver has one win in the Chase. Neither driver has sunk below their original seed in the standings since the Chase started (Johnson’s been above 3rd since Loudon, Burton started in 7th and hasn’t been there since Loudon either).

Of course, this week, everybody’s all over Burton’s chances to win his first career title. NASCAR.com’s headlines today say that Burton and Johnson have the same momentum going into the second half of the Chase. For the record, please note that Burton started the Chase 11th in NASCAR.com‘s power rankings, and didn’t rank higher than 6th until the Charlotte edition.

It’s as if he hasn’t been under the radar the entire Chase - although, if you check out the archives, it’s pretty obvious he has been.

But wait a second. Maybe it’s not the fault of racing pundits for missing Burton. Maybe it’s just the system.

Every time a driver has won a race, except for Biffle’s win at Dover, he’s improved his position in the points greatly. Biffle went from 9th to 3rd after winning Loudon. Johnson went from 2nd to 1st after winning at Kansas. Tony Stewart went from 11th to 7th after winning Talladega. And now, Burton went from 4th to 2nd after winning last week at Charlotte.

If this pattern continues, then it’s only going to matter who wins at Texas, Phoenix, and Homestead. Even though the standings are far more spread out than they were before Loudon, the Chase standings always reward the guy who won most recently.

If that’s the case, why bother trying to win the first seven races? As long as a driver survives all seven of them, he can go into the last three and go for wins and pull off an “upset.” Hey, Clint Bowyer sounds like he could fit that category - he hasn’t won in the Chase yet, but his worst finish is 12th, and he’s 5th in points.

It could happen. And if it does, we’ll know that the pundits aren’t the problem.

Here are this week’s Quick Hits:

5. Burney Lamar and former sponsor Dollar General will reunite at Braun Racing for 2009. Lamar will drive the No. 32 Toyota in the Nationwide Series for 18 races next year. Brian Vickers will drive the car for the other 17 races. This will be Dollar General’s first full-time sponsorship deal in Nationwide since 2007 at Kevin Harvick Inc.

4. Ray Evernham is currently considering leaving Gillett Evernham Motorsports for a full-time gig with ESPN. Evernham has emphasized his role as a minority partner in the team, no longer acting as a decision-maker, according to Dustin Long at the Roanoke Times. Evernham also says that he was not involved in the decision to release Patrick Carpentier from the No. 10 Dodge.

3. Michael McDowell is now a free agent, after Michael Waltrip Racing failed to exercise its contract option on him for 2009. McDowell’s car has no sponsorship for next season, and the owners’ points from his car will likely go to Marcos Ambrose’s No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Toyota next season.

2. Add J.J. Yeley’s name to the mix for the No. 41 Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge next year. “Chip hasn’t said no,” Yeley told Tim Tuttle of Sports Illustrated. “My name is still on the list. It would be a great opportunity.” A.J. Allmendinger is the other rumored candidate for the ride, which will be vacated by Reed Sorenson after this season.

1. Just as I reported before the Kansas race, Unilever has left Gillett Evernham Motorsports to partner with Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 5 Nationwide Series team. The car will feature Hellmann’s sponsorship for the Daytona race. Although I originally reported that Klondike would be the dominant brand, they will be featured on the car for later events. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Mark Martin, and Landon Cassill will share the car.

Finally, congratulations to last week’s winners at Charlotte: Kyle Busch in Nationwide, and Burton in Sprint Cup.

This week, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Kansas Speedway, which will be the second-to-last track to feature the debut of the Car of Today. This creates a lot of unknowns for teams and drivers, whether they’ve had past success at the track or not. Even a team such as Hendrick Motorsports, whose teams have four wins over NASCAR’s big three series at the young track, is going into this race with a lot of questions about how the new car will handle.

Hendrick is a team about to make some big changes for 2009 and beyond. The biggest change involves the No. 5 Sprint Cup car, which will be driven by Mark Martin next season. Martin will make his return to a full-time Sprint Cup schedule after two years of 24 races each, partially because his son, Matt, has decided to give up racing and focus on schoolwork. The departing driver of the No. 5 for this season, Casey Mears, will head to Richard Childress Racing and drive the No. 07 Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet.

However, the Martin deal was announced weeks ago, and everyone in the garage is aware of the change. Not a team to rest on its laurels, Hendrick is making some other moves for next season that may shock and surprise some: new paint schemes, other new drivers, and new sponsorship deals to celebrate its 25th anniversary.

An anonymous source provided the following information, which serves as this week’s five Quick Hits:

5. Jimmie Johnson will run a special paint scheme for his 250th career start at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in a few weeks. This new scheme, which features the addition of red to the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, will also supposedly be run in 2009 and beyond. The scheme is a lot less “sharp” than Johnson’s current car, and features more silver than the 2008 car does.

4. In a dramatic change from the first 16 years of Jeff Gordon’s Sprint Cup career, the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet will primarily feature black, as opposed to the usual navy blue and day-glo orange. The flames on the car will change, fading from yellow to orange, and the National Guard will replace Nicorette on the lower quarter panels. No word on whether or not Nicorette will return to the team.

Gordon will likely run this scheme in 2010 as well, after which DuPont’s contract with the team runs out. Many are suggesting that Gordon will retire after the 2010 season, or scale down to a part-time schedule similar to what Martin currently runs. The team hopes that development driver Landon Cassill will be ready to take over the No. 24 in 2011.

3. Dale Earnhardt Jr. will run a special scheme at Daytona for Speedweeks that features the addition of silver to the current Amp Energy and National Guard car. While it was originally suggested that the new color run the entire season, reports suggest that Amp didn’t want Dale Jr. fans to have to run out and buy new merchandise for the 2009 season, and thus the scheme will only run one race.

The car will feature relatively minor changes to its paint scheme for 2009, with only a couple lines moved around. Earnhardt Jr.’s driving suit, however, will change in a more prominent way: the trademark Adidas triple stripe will grace the sleeves of his firesuit.

2. Klondike will move from Gillett-Evernham Motorsports’ No. 9 Nationwide Series Dodge to the No. 5 Nationwide Series car. This team will again feature rotating sponsorships, with many of the current primaries (Delphi and GoDaddy.com among them) returning. The National Guard will reportedly scale down their involvement with this team, likely due to the shift in dollars towards Gordon’s car.
Cassill will spend some time in this car again next season, and Martin, Earnhardt Jr., and Johnson will likely also run selected events. However, the juiciest rumor in the garage regarding this team is the potential addition of Tony Stewart to the driver lineup for 2009. The assumption is that Klondike is leaving GEM to partner with Stewart at Hendrick.

1. The US Navy will be replaced on Brad Keselowski’s No. 88 Nationwide Series car by Craftsman Tools. Craftsman will likely not return to its primary sponsorship of the Truck Series beyond 2008, thus freeing up advertising dollars to partner with JR Motorsports.

Keselowski will use next season as another year of development, with a partial Sprint Cup schedule almost guaranteed as well. Keselowski will run 10 races in the No. 5 in 2010, with an eye on taking over full-time in 2011 for the likely retiring Martin.

Finally, congratulations to last week’s winners: Mike Skinner in the Truck Series at Las Vegas, and Greg Biffle in Sprint Cup and Kyle Busch in Nationwide at Dover.

With two races left before the Chase for the Sprint Cup, NASCAR heads to Auto Club Speedway in California. California is a state known for many things, from fine wines to celebrities to the greatest football game of Brett Favre’s career, a 41-7 rout of the Oakland Raiders the day after his father, Irvin, passed away.

With all the attention Favre’s been getting as of late, I feel it’s fair to direct our attention to a driver who similarly can’t retire from the sport he loves: Mark Martin. One of the reasons why I’ve been pulling so hard for Favre this season is because I’ve heard much of the same criticism used against Martin, in his many attempts to retire. Sometimes it’s just too hard to walk away from what you’ve been doing all your life.

Truth is, Martin’s been on top of his game these past few years the same way Favre has: producing enough to warrant continued mentions as one of the best in the field week in and week out. Martin led NEXTEL Cup points through 4 races last year, and even still had a shot at the Chase after missing the first few of his 12 scheduled off weeks. This year, despite running in equipment of far lesser quality, Martin has nearly equaled his top-10s from last year (8 so far, compared to 11 last year) and nearly won at Phoenix. He also won the Nationwide Series race at Las Vegas.

Even more important, however, is what Martin’s done to make part-time driving a viable option for aging stars, especially splitting rides with development drivers.

Originally, the plan was to put two “retiring” drivers in one car to split a full season. In a 2005 interview with Claire B. Lang, Martin dismissed the option of splitting a schedule between two retiring drivers as “far-fetched” and “hard to do right.” At the time, Jack Roush was looking to fill the No. 6 Ford for 2006 while waiting for Jamie McMurray to take over the car in 2007. Roush’s idea was to split the car between Martin and Rusty Wallace for the 2006 season.

While the Martin-Wallace deal never materialized, Martin has run part-time schedules in Sprint Cup with development drivers the past few seasons, and the results have been surprisingly decent. Martin’s average finishes were 14.5 in 2007 and 13.9 this year, not far out of line from his career average of 13.3. Last season, the No. 01 Ginn Racing Chevrolet that Martin split with Regan Smith sat 17th in owners’ points, better than 16 cars to start all 36 races and 28 that attempted full schedules. This year, the No. 8 Dale Earnhardt Inc. Chevrolet that Martin and Aric Almirola share is 15th in owners’ points, ahead of 19 other teams to start all 24 races.

Martin won’t race this weekend at California, but has an impressive record at the track: 15 starts with 7 top-10s and a win in the track’s second-ever race in 1998. His 13.3 average finish at the track is 8th best out of active Sprint Cup drivers. In his 700th career Sprint Cup start, which occurred at California earlier this season, Martin started and finished 16th in the No. 8 Principal Financial Chevrolet.

Although Martin will have to wait until next year to make a full-blown comeback, driving the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports in his first full-time schedule since 2006, he’ll certainly continue to face the same criticisms as Favre, for soldiering on with a different team for the love of the sport. But, as has Favre, Martin will continue to persevere in his chosen sport, going until he simply can go no longer.

Before the green flag drops on this weekend’s action, here are this week’s five Quick Hits:

5. Former Formula 1 driver Scott Speed will make his Sprint Cup debut by the end of this season in a third Toyota for Team Red Bull. Former Daytona 500 winner Slugger Labbe and TRB’s test team will pit the car. Speed may run a full-time Sprint Cup schedule next season after winning a Truck Series race at Dover and challenging for the ARCA title this year.

4. Chip Ganassi Racing will definitely field two cars next season, as longtime backer Target has re-signed with the team. Juan Pablo Montoya will drive one car, with Dario Franchitti perhaps making his return in the other.

3. David Reutimann will return to the No. 00 Toyota at Michael Waltrip Racing in 2009, with an 18-race sponsorship deal from Aaron’s Rent. Reutimann drove his first race for Aaron’s in 2005 and currently sits 4th in Nationwide points driving for the company. Reutimann’s father, Buzzie, raced on short tracks in Florida in cars carrying the No. 00.

2. Reed Sorenson will land on his feet in 2009, after signing a multi-year deal to drive for Gillett Evernham Motorsports. While nothing else is a certainty at this point, expect Sorenson to drive the #10 car next season, taking into account the team’s issues finding a full-time sponsor for its third car.

1. After a post-race tangle last weekend in Bristol, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch have both been placed on probation for the next six Sprint Cup races, effective this weekend. Unhappy about being muscled out of the way in the final laps of the race, Busch drove his right-front fender up into Edwards’ door panel after the race had ended. In retaliation, Edwards followed Busch to the bottom of the track and spun the No. 18 Toyota.

Finally, congratulations to last week’s winners: Busch in the Truck Series, Brad Keselowski in the Nationwide Series, and Edwards in Sprint Cup.

Get this. Juan Pablo Montoya has an average start, mid-race position and finish of second at the Brickyard. At least he does in his lone NASCAR race there. Of course he’s won the Indy 500, in a former, open-wheeled life. So maybe we should give his single season NASCAR stats more credit they would seem to deserve.

Indy should be a good track for Montoya. Besides his history of success there, the track is flat and fast, traits that play into JPM’s fantastic car control. He could win this race, if the car and the team are up to it. And that, I doubt.

Tony Stewart, 2007’s Indy winner has the best Loop Stats for Indy. The Loop Data cover the last three Allstate 400s, only. Smoke has the top Driver Rating at 121.4 and has led 109 laps and has a stat best 76 Fastest Laps. But going back, beyond the three Loop stat years, Tony has two wins and four top fives, six top tens and a pole. His average finish is 7.6. He drives for Joe Gibbs Racing, which fields, maybe the best cars in Cup this year. He looks like a favorite.

Friday at Indy, Stewart-Haas Racing showed off the #14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet that Stewart himself will drive in 2009. Tony was excited. He also talked about all the things that the team has yet to do in preparation for Daytona in February. As good as he is, I just think that the distractions of his new venture cancel many of his apparent pluses for any race this year. I can’t pick Stewart to win.

The list of drivers I like at Indy is short. There is, I think, a reason that all but two of the winners of this race have been NASCAR Cup Series champs at some point in their careers. It takes a special driver to win the Brickyard. You don’t get the big, three wide packs of the plate tracks - and no “big one” wrecks that thin the field of quality contenders. You sometimes get flukey seeming winners at Daytona and Talladega. Not at Indy. Long green flag runs also separate the quality.

Kevin Harvick is one of only two Brickyard winners to have never been a Cup champ. His Ave Finish is 7.7. He’s run 432 Loop laps in the top fifteen - 90% and a stat best. Three top fives and five top tens go with a second best Ave Running Position of 8.1. Happy is the third best Driver Rated at 108.7. Harvick could win again.

Matt Kenseth could win his first. The #17 team has been coming on of late. Matt has the fourth best DR of 102.9 He’s good at Indy, with four top fives and five top tens. He runs up front as his Ave Running Position of 8.5 and 404 Laps in the top fifteen show.

Mark Martin has been telling anyone with a pen or microphone that he WILL win this weekend at the Brickyard. And he has a history at the track that shows he could pull it off. He suffers from the same weakness as Montoya though. Can his team measure up? If it can, Mark’s five top fives, nine top tens and fifth best Driver Rating of 102.9 says he has the stuff.

Beyond the Loop top five, the Hendrick threesome of Jimmy Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr are contenders. So are 2008’s strongmen, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards. Greg Biffle, Jeff Burton and Brian Vickers could do it too.

But Matt Kenseth is my choice. He’s paid the dues and has the pedigree, to join the exclusive company of Brickyard 400 winners. If you have to go outside of the establishment, take Carl Edwards.

Photo credit: BethAnne Heisler - ON PIT ROW 

When Mark Martin first guaranteed that he would taste victory in the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard this weekend, most of the Sprint Cup garage was taken aback. Had NASCAR’s most identifiable pessimist changed his ways? Was he that confident in a Dale Earnhardt Inc. team left for dead by many in the garage? Did he just want to get back into the sport’s spotlight, after running virtually under the radar since his near-win at Phoenix this April?

“I plan on winning the Brickyard in the 8 car,” the 49-year-old Martin announced, after a 10th-place finish at Pocono last month. Having fallen out of the top 20 in points (he was 12th after the Pocono race in 2007, still in the Chase for the Cup by 22 points), the most identifiable part-time driver in NASCAR’s top series had only five top-10s when he made his prediction. Compare that to a 2007 season in which Martin’s worst finish up to that point was 17th.

Keep in mind that Martin has a history of being a pessimist in the garage area. He has plenty of reason to be. If not for a 46-point deduction early in the 1990 season, he’d have won the series championship. He also finished 2nd in 1994, 1998 (despite winning 7 races that year), and 2002. He lost the 2007 Daytona 500 in a drag race to Kevin Harvick as the field wrecked behind them. Anything that could possibly go wrong with a racecar has gone wrong for the driver from Batesville, Arkansas.

Has the No. 8 team found something that the rest of the Sprint Cup Series is unaware of?

Regardless of the audacity of his prediction, Martin certainly showed the strength of his car in qualifying. Placing second, behind future Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson, Martin turned a lap one-tenth of a second slower than the 2006 race winner.

Of the 43 starters competing in the race, Martin has the ninth-best average finish at Indianapolis, 14.4 in 14 career starts. His best finish in the race was 2nd in 1998, when Jeff Gordon won the race under caution. In the past three years Martin has finished 7th, 5th, and 6th, respectively, while driving for Jack Roush in 2005 and 2006 and DEI last year. This race actually marks Martin’s 1st anniversary with the team founded by the late Intimidator, as it merged with Ginn Racing this time last year.

Martin’s teammates at DEI, Martin Truex Jr., Paul Menard, and Regan Smith, qualified 25th, 37th, and 42nd, respectively, with Smith one of two drivers to rely on owners’ points to make it into the race. No DEI driver, past or present, has ever won at Indianapolis; however, if any of the team’s stable could become the first, Martin would be it.

(Image courtesy Icon Sports Media

Ryan Newman is on the loose.  From team Penske, at least.  Everyone seems to think they know where he’s going.  But so far, the Rocketman has kept mum. 

You would think that, with the Sprint Cup Series off this weekend, some of this silly season stuff would settle out.  But that probably makes too much sense.   

The Bench Racing blog’s slice of the Loose in Turn 3 pie has to do with Newman’s seat in the #12 Alltel Dodge.

Who is your choice as the next driver at Penske Racing?

Charlie:  I’ve read and heard the Juan Pablo Montoya speculation. I heard months ago, that Martin Truex Jr was headed to Penske, and a fourth car there, along with his Bass Pro Shops sponsor. For sponsors, those deals make sense. But the #12 already has Alltel. I think that Casey Mears is the better teammate for “the franchise”, which is still Kurt Busch. The Mears name and Penske go way back. This could be the perfect place for the talented Casey to flourish.

Bruce:  After the Sam Hornish debacle, and that’s what I think it is, they need to make sure that they get themselves a good talent, and they need to put more into that No. 12 team than it’s been getting. It’s got an odd history of mediocre performance. Mears is a great emotional choice, but if you look at the business side of things, Juan Pablo Montoya would be a great addition to the team. He’s got the experience that Hornish can lean on and Penske and toy the guys with rides in “other” series.

TZ:  The idea of Montoya being a candidate for the 12 car is news to me, but I guess I shouldn’t be too shocked considering the interest he showed when they announced Mears’ departure from Hendrick. But, really, I think Penske comes out of this Silly Season as the biggest loser. They’re not going to field a fourth car next year because they can’t even get any of the three that they already have into the Chase, so they’d just be creating a formula to wind up just like Ganassi. David Stremme gets the 12 car, end of story.

That’s what we think.  What do you think?  Leave you feedback in the comments section of this post.

Then go to TZ’s DoYouNascar and weigh in on this topic….

What are the realistic expectations for the newly formed Stewart-Haas Racing in 2009?

Then cruise over to Bruce’s NASCAR Bits for this one…

Do you think with the purchase of the Budweiser maker, Anheuser-Busch by InBev will have any sort of impact on the sponsorship of NASCAR teams and events?

Photo credit: BethAnne Heisler - OnPitRow.com

Mark Martin will rejoin his DEI teammate, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. at Hendrick Motor Sports.

After weeks of speculation it was made official today that Mark Martin, NASCAR’s annual retiree, will move from part time status at Dale Earnhardt Inc to a full time ride in the recently vacated #5 out of the Hendrick stable. Martin will run full time in 2009 and then again become a part timer in 2010 with a yet to be named co-driver.

The part time shared ride deal was “exactly what he needed” when he “retired” from Roush Racing a couple of years ago. The ability to pick what races he participated in was to be a great transition to retirement. Even though he had retired twice before moving to DEI.

What exactly does Martin bring to Hendrick Motor Sports? Is it a calming veteran presence? No, it can’t be. This isn’t a group of young guns needing a mentor. Hendricks other three drivers are as experienced as Martin and more successful. Jimmy Johnson and Jeff Gordon are both multiple champions. Junior hasn’t been the last guy introduced at the Waldorf Astoria yet, but he is a many time winner on the Cup circuit. Is Martin being brought in to shore up a sagging win total? Again, not likely–wins haven’t been a problem for the Chevy team historically.

Martin’s signing with Hendrick is a totally one sided endeavor. Rick Hendrick is throwing Martin a bone to try and win a championship, pure and simple. Martin was never able to seal the deal while driving the #6 at Roush. He went to DEI to win races and hasn’t been successful at that. Now he will latch on to the fourth car at Hendrick and try to make it into a team capable of winning a championship. Will his abilities, again driving on all types race tracks enable him to win the ellusive championship?

It isn’t bloody likely. The Kellogg’s/Carquest Chevy has been a pig over the last couple of years and adding Martin to the seat won’t turn it around enough to give him a shot at the championship he obviously still craves. A craving that Martin claimed was gone when he moved into the part time situation at DEI.

You have to wonder if Mark has signed a contract with Tony Stewart yet to drive for his race team in 2011 and 2012. Someday, Mark, your prince may come.

Photo Credit: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

Does life ever get in the way of YOUR pastimes? Sometimes life gets in the way of mine. This blog is mostly a blast for me to write in. This week it has been a monster. Hence the title of this post - a reference to the old horror movies I grew up loving. Maybe next week’s version of the Loose in Turn 3 experiment will be attack of the two-headed Turn 3. Until then, check out my part in this serial, right here.

What will become of Dale Earnhardt Inc?

Charlie: If Martin Truex Jr and Mark Martin both leave the team - and their sponsors go too - DEI looks like a buy-out candidate to me. How about this scenario? Dale Junior wants to take his Nationwide Series team where the money is - Sprint Cup. Tony Stewart wants to own at least a share of a Chevy team. DEI has top thirty five owner’s on the #8 and the #1. Junior and Smoke partner up and buy Theresa Earnhardt out, with Tony driving one car, someone else - maybe Brad Kesolowski - in the other. Junior stays with Hendrick Motorsports, as his daddy did with RCR. There are holes in the argument, I know. But it would be one hell of a story.

Bruce: If Truex and Martin leave, DEI becomes a museum. Otherwise, I can’t punch too many holes your idea Charlie. Actually, I wouldn’t want to. Maybe once Tony and Jr. take DEI over, they can move the 8 back to Jr. in HMS. LOL.

TZ: The notion of Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr. co-owning DEI is a pipe-dream at best. Stewart will wind up in an ownership role once he’s done driving … Jr. will bring JR Motorsports to the Cup level within the next couple of years … and, DEI will continue to press forward in its same crummy state for the next few years before either someone else in the family that’s not named Dale takes over, or they just fold altogether.

That’s what we think. What do you think?

Check out Bruce’s NASCAR Bits for this slippage in the third turn…

Do you think Kurt Busch giving up his points to Sam Hornish hurt the team overall?

And TZ at Do You Nascar has this…

With the recent folding of Chip Ganassi’s #40 operation due to lack of sponsorship, is this a trend that we can continue to expect in NASCAR with other teams that have struggled with sponsorship…. teams like Yates Racing?

Kyle Busch won the Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway and with his first Cup Series road course win has answered perhaps every question but one.

Rowdy….I really hate that nickname. Rowdy was Clint Eastwood’s character on the old Rawhide TV show. Kyle Busch is no Clint Eastwood. But, as my friend the Dude would say, I digress. Rowdy is now, in my opinion, a five tool racer.

The “five tool player” moniker is a baseball term. Five tool ballplayers are said to have it all. Wikipedia says this about them…

In baseball, a five-tool player is one who excels at hitting for average, hitting for power, baserunning skills and speed, throwing ability, and fielding abilities.

The road course win was the missing “tool” for the Shrub. In my version the five tools are really five track types that make up the Sprint Cup schedule. Kyle had already won on NASCAR’s prolific intermediate tracks. He has a short track victory at Bristol. This year brought a plate race triumph at Talladega. On one mile tracks, of every sort - flat Phoenix, concrete Dover and tough Loudon - he’s Jack the Bear.

Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick are five toolers. So is Mark Martin. Earnhardt Sr was one, but Junior isn’t. The list is short.

You can win a championship in the Cup Series and not be a five tool driver. Jimmy Johnson has won two straight Cups and he’s a good enough road racer that a win at the Glen or Infineon will probably come, but hasn’t yet. The un-answered question for Kyle Busch is - can he close the whole deal and win a Cup championship?

The evidence for Busch - 9 Cup wins, 15 Nationwide and 8 Truck Series victories - points to a yes answer to the question. Mark Martin fans would tell you not to count your chickens too soon.

Photo credit: BethAnne Heisler - OnPitRow.com

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