March 2007 Archives

Joe Gibbs Racing had the fastest cars in qualifying, but Dale Earnhardt Inc. had the fastest cars in practice Saturday at Martinsville Speedway.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. had the fastest car in the final practice before Sunday's NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race. He said his car has been awesome since qualifying Friday, but the brake situation with the Car of Tomorrow has him concerned.
"I am a little worried that we might not have these cars understood as far as ducking the brakes and cooling the brakes yet," said Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 8 Chevrolet for DEI. "That is sort of trial and error. Tomorrow is going to be a day of learning for a lot of us."
Earnhardt Jr. qualified eighth for the Cup race.
"I like to qualify good here," Earnhardt Jr. said. "It is one of my favorite race tracks actually to be honest. It is a good place when we have a good car so I am pretty pumped up."
Martin Truex Jr., Earnhardt Jr.'s teammate at DEI, was third fastest in practice and will start 15th in the race.
"This is a tough place to race," said Truex Jr., driver of the No. 1 Chevrolet for DEI. "My luck hasn't been so great lately. Seems like every time we running good, something weird happens. But we are going to give it all we got. Our Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet is really good."
Several Cup drivers have been critical of the Car of Tomorrow. But Truex said he doesn't notice that much of a difference between the Car of Tomorrow and the old Cup cars, especially at tracks like Martinsville. He said he expects the races at Loudon in New Hampshire and Phoenix will be similar.
"It really doesn't feel all that different, it is a little more top-heavy. It is a little more comfortable, has a little more safe feel with all the room around you," Truex said. "Other than that, it is not really a big change. I think it is a lot better suited to the flatter tracks like here and Loudon and Phoenix where you don't have to travel in the front as much. The bigger tracks it is going to be a handful like it was a Bristol. We kinda struggled a little bit, not bad but we struggled a little bit with the travel in front. It is going to be like that on all the banked tracks. On the flatter tracks here, it drives really good."

Denny Hamlin won the pole for Sunday's race at Martinsville Speedway and it looks like Joe Gibbs Racing will have another strong showing with NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow.
This will be the second race NASCAR Nextel Cup Series drivers will race the Car of Tomorrow. The first race was last weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Hamlin and Tony Stewart, both drivers for Joe Gibbs Racings, had dominate cars at Bristol, but ran into trouble and didn't finish the race well.
Stewart will start the Martinsville race seventh. J.J. Yeley, the third driver at Joe Gibbs Racing, earned the fifth starting spot.
Perhaps Joe Gibbs Racing has figured out the Car of Tomorrow quicker than the other teams have.
"I think they are just good teams all the way around and good drivers. They have a great combination," said Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. "I think no matter what car you put out there on the track, they are going to get it figured out."
Hamlin said the key to the success of the team might be because of its Indy Racing League experience. Stewart was a driver in the IRL and a number of the crew members have IRL experience. That might give them a better understanding of how a car with a rear wing performs in race conditions.
"Not to say that is the only reason for our success, because we are on a slower track and the wings don't mean so much," said Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 for Joe Gibbs Racing. "So really, I think we are just one of the teams that has adapted to it. I am not going to say we are the best team, it is kind of conceited to say it. But we are one of the better teams right now."
Gordon said the recent success of Joe Gibbs Racing might be simply because Hamlin, Yeley and Stewart are good short track racers.
"There is no doubt they have their act together," Gordon said. "But is it because they figured out the Car of Tomorrow or is it because they are good? With the old car they may have come in and done the same thing."

Kyle Busch won the first NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race with the Car of Tomorrow at Bristol Motor Speedway. The Car of Tomorrow will be in use again this weekend at Martinsville Speedway.
Busch was critical of the Car of Tomorrow after winning the Bristol race. He said it was difficult to pass and otherwise difficult to drive. Apparently NASCAR didn't take issue with Busch's comments.
"They were open to it," said Busch, driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. "They want to have some criticism of it and everything like that but this week is a different week now so we want to try to get the Impala SS back in victory lane again."
A week after winning his first race of the year, Busch said he still is not a fan of the Car of Tomorrow, but he knows it's not going away.
"Everybody at Hendrick Motorsports have done their part and all the engineering staff and everybody have done an awesome job with it so far," Busch said. "We were able to come out and win the first pole and win the first race and we were the first car through the chassis inspection process and the first car to get a sticker with the Car of Tomorrow. Hopefully we can make it two for two."

Jimmie Johnson has two career wins at Martinsville Speedway and an average finish of seventh place in 10 races, the best of any active driver at Martinsville.
Jeff Gordon, his teammate at Hendrick Motorsports, has seven wins and five poles in 28 races at Martinsville, the most of any active driver.
But the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series drivers will be racing the Car of Tomorrow at Martinsville and past success might not mean a whole lot this time around.
"I know there are probably a handful of guys that were disappointed with the new car coming here," said Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. "(Tony) Stewart has always had a great car coming here. Myself and the No. 24 (Gordon). I am a little bummed that we don't have the same package so we will just have to refine what we have. But it is the same for everyone. I hope that my knowledge of the track and the fact that I like this race track will help me out in the race."

Five Toyotas qualified for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway, the most Toyotas for a Cup race to date this season.
Dave Blaney, Dale Jarrett, Jeremy Mayfield, A.J. Allmendinger and Brian Vickers qualified for the Bristol race, the first race for NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow. With all the complaints surrounding the Car of Tomorrow, it gave Toyota its biggest contingent in a Cup race.
The Car of Tomorrow will be used again for this weekend's Cup race at Martinsville Speedway.
“For the short tracks I don’t think the new car is going to make that big of a difference,” said Blaney, driver of the No. 22 Toyota for Bill Davis Racing. “When you come to these places like Martinsville, we always work on mechanical balance and grip, and that’s not changing much with this car.”
Jarrett said the Car of Tomorrow is creating too much of a fuss.
“They’re just race cars,” said Jarrett, driver of the No. 44 Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing. “There’s a lot being said about the COT, but the only thing you need to do is find out how to make it faster.”

Regan Smith was still lamenting his pit road mistake that led to a 25th-place finish in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Smith, driving the No. 01 Chevrolet for Ginn Racing that Mark Martin put first in the Cup standings after the first four races, was happy he finished the race, his first Cup race at Bristol, but he wanted to finish better.
Martin called Smith afte the race and told him not to get too down. Finishing a race at Bristol is an accomplishment for any driver, especially a rookie driver.
"One thing about Mark -- when he tells you something he doesn't do any sugarcoating," Smith said. "And when he said he was excited for me for finishing the race at Bristol and called it a big accomplishment, that really made me feel good. I told him about the pit road mistake and he told me to shake it off and not to let it get me down. After that call I had a little extra bounce in my step."
Smith will be back in the No. 01 Chevrolet for Sunday's Cup race at Martinsville Speedway. He said heading into the Bristol race there were plenty of distractions. It was the first race Martin decided to skip, part of his partial Cup schedule he decided to run with Ginn Racing.
"Now that we got that race out of the way and did a decent job I feel more relaxed about this weekend," Smith said. "I feel we have the potential of having a pretty good performance. It's exciting to get right back into the Army Chevy."

With all the attention NASCAR rookie Juan Pablo Montoya has received in the early weeks of the Nextel Cup Series, it’s hard to believe there are any other Cup rookies.
One is actually racing as well as Montoya.
David Ragan, the rookie driver for Roush Fenway Racing, is tied with Montoya in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series rookie-of-the-year standings.
At the most recent race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Ragan finished ahead of Montoya. Ragan was 26th. Montoya was 32nd.
Each has a top-five finish after five races. Montoya was fifth at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Ragan was fifth in the season-opening Daytona 500.
In the Cup standings, both are working their way up for a Chase spot, one of the top-12 positions available for the 10-race playoff for the Cup championship. Montoya is 19th. Ragan is 39 points behind Montoya in 22nd.
Ragan said he considers it an honor to be racing Montoya for rookie of the year honors in NASCAR. But he does not consider the Colombian-born, former Formula One driver a rookie.
“I tell my buddies, remind my dad, he’s an Indianapolis 500 winner. He’s won races overseas and all,” said Ragan, driver of the No. 6 Ford for Roush Fenway Racing. “I said, that’s something pretty special. He’s not a rookie. He’s not looking at the rookie-of-the-year the same way I am.”
Ragan is very aware of Montoya’s resume. He has won a Champ Car World Series championship, the Grand Prix of Monaco and some of the most famous races in the world.
“He’s going about it in a little different way than I am,” Ragan said. “But it’s certainly cool to be on that same level playing field and it definitely gives us something to shoot for every week.”
If racing against Montoya for top rookie honors wasn’t enough for Ragan, he is also the driver who took over Mark Martin’s car at Roush Fenway Racing. The expectations for Ragan started high and they don’t appear to be getting lower.
“I think it has been tough,” Ragan said. “Certainly Jeff Gordon could get in the No. 6 Ford Fusion and it would be tough to fill Mark Martin’s shoes. Mark is a guy that’s kind of irreplaceable. He’s a great driver, champion, and you can definitely see by his new team he’s with this year, he's doing a great job with what he’s got to work with.”
Martin left Roush Fenway Racing for Ginn Racing so that he could run a partial Cup schedule. After leading the Cup standings after the first four races with his new team, Martin skipped the race at Bristol. He will miss Sunday’s Cup race at Martinsville Speedway. It was all part of his plan to pick and choose the races he wanted.
Ragan said he feels more comfortable in the race car each week.
“We'll sneak up on this thing,” Ragan said. “Fifteen, 20 races into the year when we pop up with a strong top-five run, possibly a pole, a win or something down the road, it will surprise everyone. “That’s just the way we want it to play into our hands.”

After last October's race at Martinsville Speedway, NASCAR driver Tony Stewart called David Ragan a dart without feathers.
Ragan, who is still considered a rookie in the Nextel Cup Series, answered to that criticism during a teleconference Tuesday.
"When I first heard that, I think my dad called me," said Ragan, driver of the No. 6 Ford for Roush Fenway Racing. "I said, man, that's pretty cool, at least Tony Stewart knows who David Ragan is. Six months ago I was a kid wanting his autograph; now he knows who I am."
Ragan and Stewart have talked numerous times since that last race at Martinsville. Ragan said he expects Stewart to be more critical as their careers progress. But Ragan said he hasn't lost any respect for Stewart because of his comments.
"It didn't bother me at all," Ragan said. "Things like that I think just make you a tougher guy, have more respect for the series that we're competing in now. But after I heard what he said, I was just kind of glad he knew who I was."
Later that year, during the NASCAR races at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Ragan won a charity auction to take a ride with Stewart around the track. Legend has it that was when Ragan decided to confront Stewart about the comments Stewart made after the Martinsville race.
Ragan said that wasn't exactly the case.
"They were all playing up the Martinsville thing," Ragan said. "I really wasn't looking to just do something for Tony, I was looking to do more for the charity and for the young kids that were there that was going to benefit from me spending the money."
Ragan rode in the back of Stewart's truck for a parade lap around the track before the Cup race at Atlanta. Ragan called it a win-win situation for himself and the charity.
"But I did tell Tony that he should match whatever I spent," Ragan said, "and I think he did."

Jeff Gordon, the new leader in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series standings, is coming off a hard-fought third-place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway. It was the debut for NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow and Gordon said his team may have found an edge.
He used more brake than he ever has in his career at Bristol. Because of that, his team will be putting together a conservative brake package for the race at Martinsville.
“I used more brakes at Bristol trying to get the car into the corner,” said Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. “This new car seems to carry so much momentum, and it was pretty loose getting into the corner at Bristol. We played it conservative and upgraded our brakes for that race."
As bad as it was at Bristol, Gordon expects it to be even worse at Martinsville.
“I expect we’ll be using a lot of brake this weekend, maybe even more so than past Martinsville races," Gordon said. "We'll go ultra-conservative on our brake package – maxed-out for brakes and cooling for this weekend’s race."
Gordon has seven wins in his career at Martinsville. Four of those have come in his past eight races. Gordon said, despite the challenges he anticipates with the Car of Tomorrow, Martinsville will be easier to adapt to than Bristol.
“We don't have the loads, the banking and the drop-off transitions here like we had at Bristol," Gordon said. "But the drivers and teams face a lot of unknowns again this weeeknd.”

NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow is here. It's next test will be this weekend at Martinsville Speedway.
Kyle Busch will go down in history as being the first driver to win a Nextel Cup Series race in the Car of Tomorrow. And he will go down in history as probably being the most disgruntled winner in NASCAR.
He had nothing nice to say about the car after winning Sunday's race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Dale Earnhardt Jr. said that the Car of Tomorrow has created a culture shock in NASCAR.
"It doesn't have the same handling characteristics as the old car, so all of the adjustments and all of the changes that you need to make are a learning experience each lap," said Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 8 Chevrolet for Dale Earnhardt Inc. "It reminds me of my rookie year in 2000, when we came from the Busch Series and all of a sudden we had to learn how to make a much different car do the things we liked or were used to before. It takes some time, but we'll be fine. DEI has been working really hard with a lot of test sessions at places like South Boston (Va.) to try and learn what the car likes on a short track like Martinsville."
Earnhardt Jr. finished fourth in the Martinsville race a year ago. He got caught up in two accidents and had to nurse a badly damaged car to the finish.
"We've always been strong at Martinsville, and all I want or expect from my guys is that we're in the ballpark when we unload that car," Earnhardt Jr. said. "If we're close, then we're going to be all right. Get me in the ballpark and I'll drive that thing as hard as I can. The mindset at Martinsville is a lot like Bristol or at a road course: you try to stay out of trouble and survive until the last 100 laps, and then you go racin' to see who's gonna take home the trophy. Last year at this race, we got caught in someone else's mess in the first few laps and still managed to get a top-five finish with a car that was beaten to within an inch of its life. It was cool, but I don't want to have to do that again."

This from the Associated Press:
Eddie Griffin crashed a rare Ferrari Enzo worth $1.5 million into a concrete barrier while practicing at a racetrack Monday, destroying the car but escaping uninjured.
The comedian was practicing for a charity race to promote his upcoming film, “Redline,” when he drove too fast
around a curve at the Irwindale Speedway. Video footage showed the red sports car screeching before
it ricocheted off the barrier with heavy damage to its front.
“Undercover Brother’s good at karate and all the rest of that, but the brother can’t drive,” Griffin, referring
to one his past films, said after the accident.
The film’s publicist, Wendy Zocks, said Griffin was “doing OK.”
“He walked away completely unscratched, but probably a little shaken,” Zocks said.
The Enzo, valued at around $1.5 million, was owned by the executive producer of “Redline,” Daniel Sadek, whose
exotic car collection is featured in the movie.
Sadek said that the car was damaged beyond repair and that he had “mixed feelings” about the wreck.
“I’m glad Eddie came out of the crash OK, but my dream car got destroyed,” Sadek said. “I went to my trailer for
about 15 minutes and I thought, there’s people dying every day. A lot of worse things are happening in the
world.”
Only 400 Ferrari Enzos were ever produced, all between 2002 and 2004.
Griffin’s credits include the comedies “Undercover Brother”; “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo” and its sequel; “Date
Movie”; and “Norbit.”

Doug McComb, David Beat and Joe Herold were opening night winners at Irwindale Speedway on Saturday night.
McComb, the 2004 NASCAR Late Model track champion, won Saturday night's Late Model race in a borrowed car.
Beat won the NASCAR Super Late Model division race that featured five track champions.
Herold won the NASCAR Super Trucks race on a green-white-checkered finish.
McComb, a driver from Thousand Oaks, might have won the only race he will enter this year. He was in a car usually driven by Marty Wallace. But Wallace offered to let McComb race his car. McComb won the race and now wants to continue his season. But he lacks the funding to continue racing. If he can't find the money to race, he won't be able to return to the track.
Rip Michels, one of the five past track champions in the Super Late Model race, said that his car was fast, but it was not quite ready for racing. His team has been putting together his car for the past few weeks and it still wasn't finished for opening night. Still, Michels set the fastest qualifying time. And his goal was to finish the race with the car intact and continue to work on it.
“I just want to get out of here in one piece,” said Michels, driver of the No. 12 Ford, “whether it’s first, fourth or fifth.”
He finished 27th, but kept his car in one piece.
Rod Johnson, another past track champion in the Super Late Model race, was back with a new car built by Dave Jackson.
Jackson, who has a shop based in Palmdale, has a number of cars in the Super Late Model division. Newhall’s Travis Thirkettle, Canyon Country’s Cory Fancy and defending Super Late Model champion Van Knill of Tucson, Ariz., are among those racing cars built by Jackson.
“I’ve wanted one for a long time,” said Johnson, a driver from Canyon Country.
Johnson looked a little frustrated before the races started. He said his car was giving him fits through qualifying.
“It’s been real good in practice,” Johnson said. “But it didn’t run as well as I wanted it to.”
He finished the race in 11th, the highest among the past champions.
Tim Huddleston’s High Point Racing team in the NASCAR Late Model division was off to a good start.
Chris Carmody, one of his drivers, set fast time in qualifying for the NASCAR Late Model race.
“It’s one of the oldest cars at the track,” said Huddleston. “It’s the very first car I ever raced at Irwindale.”
Huddleston, driver and owner of the four-car High Point Racing team and an Agoura Hills resident, was third fastest in qualifying.
His other two cars, driven by Scott Jenkins of Portland, Ore., and Jace Meier of Las Vegas qualified in the top 12. Jenkins was 11th and Meier was 12th.

There were five Toyotas in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway. It was the most Toyotas to qualify for a Cup race to date.
Brian Vickers, Dave Blaney, Jeremy Mayfield, A.J. Allmendinger and Dale Jarrett all started the race in Toyotas.
Vickers, driver of the No. 83 Toyota for Team Red Bull, was the highest finishing Toyota driver. He was 15th.
But his car suffered some damage during the race and presented some problems for Vickers.
“We think that a piece of the tail pipe came off halfway through the race, so heat was blowing directly onto the floor board," Vickers said. "The guys tried to put some lining in the car to protect my feet, but it didn’t really help that much. I basically had to run the whole race with my feet burning and that was just painful."
Vickers praised his crew for getting him through the race.
"I’m really impressed at how the guys kept cool heads today considering the issues we were facing," Vickers said. "We also had great pit stops all day. Without these two things combined, we could not have pulled off such a great 15th-place finish.”

Kyle Busch, winner of the NASCAR Nextel Cup series race at Bristol Motor Speedway, said he did not have the car that was the class of the field in Sunday's race.
That car belonged to Tony Stewart.
Denny Hamlin, Stewart's teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, had a good car too. Even J.J. Yeley had his moments in the race.
All three Gibbs drivers ran into trouble in the race.
Stewart's car had a fuel pump cable break and he finished 35th.
Hamlin had a similar fuel problem and, after leading 177 laps, nursed his car to a 14th-place finish.
Yeley led for nine laps at Bristol before a bad exhaust header knocked him out of the race.
"We certainly weren't the class of the field. Tony Stewart was that," said Busch, driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. "Denny Hamlin was awfully strong as well and the Evernham cars were really good too. They just had bad breaks and had trouble."
Stewart's crew chief Greg Zipadelli said he was proud of the effort his crew put in to get the No. 20 Chevrolet back on the race track and finish the race.
"They kept their chins up and came back here tough and we brought back a really good race car," Zipadelli said. "But, we don’t have anything to show for it. We’ll go to Martinsville next week and try to have a better race."

Regan Smith could not have asked for a better scenario to make his NASCAR Nextel Cup Series debut.
He was in the car, the No. 01 Chevrolet for Ginn Racing, that Mark Martin put in first place in the Cup Series standings.
But Martin decided before the season started that he was not going to race a full Cup schedule in 2007. Sunday's race at Bristol Motor Speedway was going to be the first he would skip.
Smith was the lucky driver to be in Martin's car for Bristol. Smith finished the race, but ran into some trouble late in the race and it cost him several spots on the track. He overshot his pit box on his last pit stop of the race. After a stop-and-go penalty, that mistake knocked him from 18th to 39th place in the race.
Then he was caught up in a wreck at the end of the race. He held on to his 25th-place position, but Smith clearly wanted a better finish.
"I feel it was a huge accomplishment to finish the race at Bristol," Smith said. "We are proud of that because that was the main objective. I'm glad this is over - all the hoopla about my Cup debut. I am looking forward to Martinsville next week. I want all of the soldiers to know what a great honor it is to drive their U.S. Army car."
The crash at the end of the race damaged the front end of Smith's car. He said at least the crash happened at the end of the race instead of near the beginning.
"We almost made it with a clean car, but fortunately the incident happened when it did instead of earlier in the race," Smith said. "Overall, I learned a lot today and I know there's much more to learn. But I am part of a great team and have a great mentor in Mark Martin. I am pumped about the future."
Smith will be driving the No. 01 Chevrolet next weekend at Martinsville Speedway. Martin will make his return to the Cup team at Texas Motor Speedway on April 15.

On a day when NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow became the car of today, Jeff Gordon's third-place car was good enough to put him first in the Nextel Cup Series standings.
When Mark Martin, the Cup standings leader entering Sunday's race at Bristol Motor Speedway, decided to skip the race, it gave Gordon the chance to claim the top spot in points.
But it wasn't easy.
He had a poor performing car for most of the race and had to fight his way in to the top three at the end.
He was in second when the race ended with a green-white-checker finish, three laps to determine the winner.
Gordon slipped to third when Jeff Burton passed him on the closing laps. Neither driver could catch Kyle Busch, Gordon's teammate at Hendrick Motorsports. But the third-place finish put Gordon atop the Cup standings.
"The kind of day it started to be for us, to come home third, obviously, I've got to be very, very happy," said Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. "I didn't really want to see that last caution. We were real, real tight on those new tires at the end. But man, we made such great ground up throughout the day, to go all the way to the back and we were fortunate to stay on the lead lap. It was certainly a lot of work; a handful for us today."
Gordon said the race at Bristol was far from fun. He had to work his way through the field, never an easy task at Bristol, to put himself in position to win the race.
"I don't even think I had anything for Kyle with my new tires," Gordon said. "We were just too tight and I knew that Jeff would be tough on that restart. I made a mistake - I went to the inside. I don't think it would have mattered. Jeff would have drove by me on the inside if I would have gone on the outside. But I'm very happy to come home third."

Casey Mears is teetering on the edge of the top 35 and a guaranteed spot in every NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race from here on out.
Mears, driver of the No. 25 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, is 32nd in points and another bad race could knock him out of the top 35. Racing at Bristol Motor Speedway, site of today's Cup race, brings no guarantees. The introduction of NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow adss another level of uncertainty.
It has Mears a little worried.
"Yeah. It's definitely in your thoughts," Mears said. "I think the best thing you can do is just not think about it. You've got to go out and just run your best race because the problem is if you go out there and - like in qualifying, if I went out there and tried to overdo it and hit the fence, our situation would have been worse. In the race, if we try to be conservative you can get caught up in something that's not your fault just because you're being conservative."
What makes things more frustrating is that his Hendrick Motorsports teammates, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch are having relatively successful seasons so far.
"You just have to go out and run a race like normal and hopefully we come out of here decent," Mears said. "Obviously we'd like to win but if we can get out of here with just a solid finish we can just pad ourselves on the points deal."

When Brendan Gaughan was at California Speedway, the Georgetown University graduate and once a guard on the men's basketball team had yet to see his team play this season. At all.
He is making up for lost time today.
Gaughan is going to Georgetown's regional final game against North Carolina today at the Meadowlands at East Rutherford, N.J.
It is Georgetown's first trip to the Elite Eight since 1996, when Gaughan was a member of the team.
"When you think of the all the storied programs in the NCAA, Georgetown and UNC are part of that – and they are definitely no stranger to each other,” said Gaughan, the driver of the No. 77 South Point Chevrolet in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. “It’s always a big game when they play."
Gaughan said he is surprised it's been so long since Georgetown has advanced this far in the NCAA tournament. The Hoyas played the University of Massachusetts in 1996.
"It’s pretty amazing to think that the last time the Hoyas were in the Elite Eight that I was part of the team on the court," Gaughan said. "Last time we were there, it wasn’t a very good run. We got beat by UMass.
“This time, we’re going to get the Hoyas back into the Final Four. I’m looking forward to a good game.”
After the game, Gaughan will head to Martinsville Speedway to prepare for the Truck Series race.
“I’m getting ready to get on a plane with my buddy who is my traveling mate for all the big Georgetown games,” Gaughan said. “We’re going to cheer on the Hoyas on Sunday, and then I’ll head to Martinsville for work next week.”

NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow in the case of Chevrolet is an Impala. But it is not the first time General Motors used the Impala model in stock car racing. It returns today for the Nextel Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
The last time an Impala won a NASCAR race has a certain degree of historical significance. Wendell Scott, the only African-American driver to ever win a major NASCAR event, won a race at Jacksonville Speedway Park in Florida 43 years ago in an Impala.
"It's not known to many people that the last win by Impala was one of great significance to the sport of stock-car racing," said Ed Peper, Chevrolet general manager. "Wendell Scott's win paved the way for minority racing success."
Scott drove a 1962 Impala to victory at Jacksonville Speedway Park in Jacksonville, Fla. on Dec. 1, 1963.
Scott, a native of Danville, Va. who died in 1990, was elected into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1999.

Jeremy Mayfield and A.J. Allmendinger finally broke through. But Michael Waltrip is still struggling.
Five Toyotas qualified for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series at Bristol. Mayfield and Allmendinger qualified for their first Cup race of the year. Allmendinger qualified for the first Cup race of his career.
Dave Blaney was the highest qualifying Toyota driver. He will start Sunday's race seventh.
"When we came here for the test, we struggled pretty bad," said Blaney, driver of the No. 22 Toyota for Bill Davis Racing. "The guys went home and really got going on both my car and Jeremy’s car. We were both real good in practice today and we were hoping that when we came in here, that we would have made some big improvements.
Mayfield will start the race 23rd. A NASCAR Nextel Cup Series veteran, Mayfield will be making his first start of the season. He did not qualify for the first four races of the year, including the Daytona 500 and the Cup race at California Speedway.
“I feel like we won the race," said Mayfield, driver of the No. 36 Toyota for Bill Davis Racing. "It is just such a relief to know that we are going to get to race on Sunday. We’ve had some time to build some good cars and hopefully now we have turned the corner and things are going to start working our way. I’m just really pumped up. I just can’t wait to get out there and start the race on Sunday.”

One of the things the Car of Tomorrow is supposed to do is create some parity in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series. Lower budgets team should have the same advantages aerodynamically and technologically as the higher budget teams with the way the Car of Tomorrow is designed.
Kevin Harvick said that won't be the case at the Bristol race.
"I think you are going to see the same guys be successful," said Harvick, driver of the No. 29 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing. "This is just one of those places where technique and just getting a rhythm are more important than anything. You still to have your car right but if you find that feel, you are going have the same kind of things happen. I think it is wrong to read in to what we think is going to happen, we are just going to have to see what happens when we race."

When Jimmie Johnson pinched Tony Stewart into the wall at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Johnson said he was impressed with the way Stewart saved the car, then proceeded to give him the finger afterward.
Stewart said he did not give Johnson the finger.
"I didn't shoot him off. I got my fist out there and that's just the heat of the battle," said Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing. "When it was over it was over and by the time we got to the airport I'd calmed down. That shows you just how much we both want to win. Jimmie and I are really good friends and I'd rather be mad at him than any of the other guys so like I said, it was either go ahead and push the issue and both of us crash or back off and end up second."
As for the Car of Tomorrow, Stewart still doesn't have many nice things to say about it.
"I still think it's ugly," Stewart said. "They're all ugly but at least everybody's cars look ugly. We all look evenly ugly. I still don't think they look that good. I couldn't watch that Busch practice and see what a stock car is supposed to look like versus a sports car."

NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow has been met with much criticism from the drivers. But Jeff Gordon, who won the pole for Sunday's race at Bristol, the debut of the Car of Tomorrow, said his opinion of the new car is changing.
"Let me just say it's growing on me a little bit," said Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. "The look of the car is the look of the car. The performance of the car, I feel like we've learned a little bit. I've said the whole time that whether I liked the car or not, we were going to do all we can to be competitive - me as a driver and us as a team. And that was the goal we set out to do. I don't care what car it is. That's our goal."
With each test, Gordon said he is getting more comfortable with the Car of Tomorrow.
"At Darlington, I thought the car was a little bit of an improvement," Gordon said. "Some tracks are going to be extremely difficult to learn, like Dover. The road courses are going to be interesting. Each time I get in the car I learn a little bit more."
Even though Gordon said he is getting used to the Car of Tomorrow, it still does not compare to the old Cup cars.
"Ours was the best of the group today and that's really all that matters," Gordon said. "But there is no way you're going to get the car to feel like our current car. It has twice as much downforce. It doesn't have the limitations that this car does. It's harder to adjust and it definitely creates some more challenges from a drivers' standpoint. Any time you have something that feels good, it's hard to step backwards. But as far as the racing, and as far as competition, it's still my hope that it does everything that NASCAR set out for it to do. And until we get on some faster tracks, we won't know."

This sounds a little complicated, but if you like Coca-Cola products, Champ Car racing and am/pm stores, here's how to get free tickets to the April 13 events for the Long Beach Grand Prix.
Go to am/pm. Buy two 1-liter bottles of any Coke product. Then pick up a voucher near the checkout stands for a free ticket to all the action on Fast Friday, April 13.
The vouchers can be redeemed at any Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach ticket office location any time through April 13.
Additionally, Coca-Cola, am/pm and the radio station Power 106 are promoting a sweepstakes to win a Toyota Tundra. Fans can enter the sweepstakes when they attend the Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Fast Friday includes practice and qualifying sessions for the Champ Car World Series, Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race, Champ Car Atlantics, American Le Mans Series and the SPEED World Challenge GT, as well as the first round of action in the EZ Lube Team Drift Challenge.
The free ticket also includes a driver autograph session and admission to the Tecate Fiesta Friday concert at 6 p.m. starring Enanitos Verdes.

Roush Fenway Racing is searching for its Fan of the Year and wants to bring that fan as a special guest to the 2008 Daytona 500.
Fans can enter by going to www.roushracing.com.
Each week, one winner will be selected and featured on the roushracing.com home page. At the end of the year, the Fan of the Year will be selected from the weekly winners.
The person selected as Roush Fenway Racing's Fan of the Year will take part in a special ceremony at the 2008 Daytona 500 where the fan will be honored by Jack Roush and the Roush Fenway Racing drivers. They will also be given personalized Roush Fenway Racing Fan of the Year merchandise and a trophy with a replica trophy to be displayed in the Roush Fenway Racing museum in Concord, N.C.
They will be featured on the Roush Fenway Racing website and have their own web column, chronicling their life as Roush Fenway Racing's first official Fan of the Year. They will also receive additional gifts and prizes from Roush Fenway Racing and its sponsors and partners.

Kyle Busch has been in his share of scrapes this year. It will take a long time to get the image of him finishing the Busch Series race at Las Vegas backwards and on fire out of anyone's mind.
Busch said NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow, which makes its debut this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, reminds him of driving in the Craftsman Truck Series.
"It's going to be difficult to go from racing the Monte Carlo and then jump in the Impala for a few races," said Busch, driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. "The insides of the cars are different and they don't drive the same. I would compare the Impala more to driving in the Craftsman Truck Series. It's tough. I don't know what to expect."
There is a lot of leaning and banging in the truck races. That might not be the best way to approach a Cup Series race with the Car of Tomorrow, especially with Busch behind the wheel of one of them.
Luckily for the other Cup drivers, Busch said he doesn't think the Car of Tomorrow will lend itself to such aggressive tactics.
"I don't know if we will be able to lean on each other very much going into the corners," Busch said. "I know at Martinsville the trucks beat and bang on each other a little, but I guess we'll have to see how this race goes. The way the car is designed, I don't know if we can. It's going to be an entirely different Bristol this weekend. I think the typical racing at Bristol will be a thing of the past, at least until we can get this new car worked out."

Casey Mears, driver of the No. 25 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, is 32nd in points and having some terrible luck on the race track.
Conversely, his Hendrick teammates are winning races and in the hunt to make the Chase.
Jeff Gordon is second in points and should be leading after this weekend's race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Cup standings leader Mark Martin is not going to race at Bristol and Gordon has no one standing in his way to take over the top spot.
Jimmie Johnson has won two races and has climbed solidly in the top 10 in the Cup standings.
Even Kyle Busch has put together some impressive, albeit aggressive, races and sits 14th in the standings.
The top 12 drivers in the Cup standings qualify for the Chase, the 10-race playoff to determine the Nextel Cup Series champion.
But Mears, the newest addition to the Hendrick team, has been getting caught up in wrecks and struggling to finish races.
"It's been more frustrating than disappointing," Mears said. "At Daytona and Las Vegas, we got caught up in wrecks that weren't ours and that cost us. And we've got a lot of changes to deal with this year -- new driver, new crew chief and now a new car. I want to win just as badly as everybody else and put up big results right away, but we've got to take it one step at a time and build to that."

Mark Martin plans on having a neighborhood barbecue and watching the race at Bristol on his television at home.
Martin, the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series points leader, will be skipping the Bristol race. Regan Smith will be in the car and Martin said he will be watching the race with family and friends on television.
"Yes, I've got a nice 42‑inch plasma and Tivo," Martin said. "So I'll be replaying the wrecks moving them back and going forward and watching them in slow motion. So I will sorely be disappointed if there isn't lots of wrecks, because it seems like there sure is every time I go ‑‑ every time I'm in the race there."
Martin said he is looking forward to see how the Car of Tomorrow performs in its first race. But he seemed happy with his decision to not be one of the drivers in the Car of Tomorrow at Bristol. On Saturday night, he will be at Columbia Motorsports Park in Lake City, Fla., to watch his son Matt and Ricky Carmichael race late models for Ginn Racing.
"Seriously, I'm just going to hang out," Martin said. "Barbecue a little bit and hang out and watch the race. But the biggest thing, I expect to be having a blast Saturday night with Ricky and Matt and everyone. And I look forward to just being relaxed on Sunday."

Regan Smith makes his NASCAR Nextel Cup Series debut amid a swirl of interest. He will be driving the car that Mark Martin vaulted to the top of the Nextel Cup Series standings. And he will driving in the race that NASCAR has decided to introduce its Car of Tomorrow.
Martin, who decided before the season started to run only a partial Cup schedule for Ginn Racing, will sit out the next two races, at Bristol Motor Speedway and Martinsville Speedway.
Smith was tabbed to be Martin's replacement in the races Martin decided to skip.
"No question, I have some really big shoes to fill," Smith said. "But the only pressure I feel is what I have put on myself. Everyone understands the situation and there has been no outside pressure from the ownership, sponsors or the guys.”
Perhaps not. Smith has nothing to lose. If he finishes well, it can be attributed to the quality of the team Ginn Racing has assembled. If he finishes poorly, he can attribute it to Bristol, one of the tiniest and treacherous tracks on the Cup circuit.
"I am only excited and pumped because I'm with a great race team and getting into a great race car," Smith said. "I also take a lot of pride wearing the Army colors and representing our soldiers. I am in a great situation.”
Smith will also be entered in the NASCAR Busch Series race at Bristol on Saturday. He will get a double dose of Bristol this weekend.
"I think everyone would agree that Bristol is not the easiest track," Smith said. "It's a tough place when you're having a good day. The mindset from our end is not to expect a win or a top-10 finish. I want to finish the race, be on the lead lap and have the car in one piece. That's a tall order for Bristol, but with some luck, I think we can deliver that result."
The Car of Tomorrow may be new to most of the Cup drivers. But for Smith, he has little to compare it to. This will be his first Cup race and has little experience in the old Cup cars.
“I look at the Car of Tomorrow as just another race car that all of us have to deal with,” said Smith. “We had a pretty good test in Bristol a few weeks ago. Again, I don’t see it being anything major, it’s a race car and we’ve all driven many different types of cars in our careers.”

Jeff Gordon is off to a strong start to the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series season. He enters the Bristol race second in points in the Cup standings and should be leading when the race is over. Cup standings leader Mark Martin said he is not going to race at Bristol or Martinsville Speedway the following weekend. That will take him out of the Cup standings lead and out of championship contention.
But Gordon said there are no guarantees with the Car of Tomorrow debuting at Bristol.
"Once we get through the race and we understand that car a little bit more then we can probably answer some of those questions but it's going to be an interesting weekend from the time that truck and crews get to the track to the time we leave because it's about going through inspection," said Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hedrick Motorsports. "It's about getting qualified in, getting our cars ready for the race and then going out and racing. I think in the race you shouldn't see too much of a difference other than if guys are way off on their setups."

Tony Stewart is not a fan of the Car of Tomorrow. After finishing second in a harrowing race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Stewart was asked if Bristol Motor Speedway, the first race for the Car of Tomorrow, can yield Stewart's first win of the season.
"I want to win every race. Next week's not a landmark race for me by any means," said Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing. "I'm treating it just like any other race. It's the same cast of suspects and we're all out there trying to do the same thing. Any time you can win at Bristol it's big. Bristol is one of them every year that I'd like to win. I remember when I won the night race there - I've only won at Bristol one time - it's just a huge feeling when you can accomplish a win there, let alone with the challenges we have next week."

Jamie McMurray seems to have turned a corner. After a couple poor finishes, the driver of the No. 26 Ford for Roush Fenway Racing, McMurray has put together two solid races and has shown signs of improvement.
But this weekend's race at Bristol Motor Speedway could change that momentum. Not only for McMurray, but for every driver in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series.
The Car of Tomorrow makes its debut at Bristol. McMurray said this weekend will be really interesting to see how everything comes together.
"I know our team has been putting in a lot of work and overtime to get our program to where we think we will be really competitive at the COT tracks," McMurray said. "Things at the shop and at the track have gotten off to a great start this season. We had some bad luck in the first couple of races, but the last two races we have proved that this team is very competitive. The whole team has done a great job and it’s finally showing on the track for us. Hopefully, this weekend in Bristol we will continue the streak of good runs.”

All three drivers for Joe Gibbs Racing are in the top 12 in the NASCAR Nextel Cup standings. The top-12 drivers in the standings after the first 26 races of the season will qualify for the Chase, NASCAR's 10-race playoff to determine the Cup champion.
Last years, only rookie Denny Hamlin made the Chase. His teammates, Tony Stewart, who won the Chase in 2005, and J.J. Yeley were left out of NASCAR's playoff.
This year things are different. Tony Stewart has rattled off three straight top-10 finishes after finishing 43rd and last in the Daytona 500, and is sixth in the Cup standings.
Hamlin has been consistent, although unimpressive. He finished the Atlanta race in 19th place and sits eighth in the Cup standings.
Yeley, perhaps the biggest surprise of Joe Gibbs Racing, is 12th in points after a troublesome day at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He finished the race a lap down from the leaders and in 22nd place.
But it was still high enough for him to keep a top 12 spot in the Cup standings.
“It’s just these real small things that are the difference between maybe finishing 22nd and finishing 14th or 12th,” Yeley said. “We just have to make sure as a team that we can avoid having any little mistakes, because it seems like a real fine mistake can affect the outcome in a big way.”

Dave Blaney was the highest finishing Toyota driver in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He was 27th.
Dale Jarrett, driving the No. 44 Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing, followed in 36th. David Reutimann in the No. 00 Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing, was 40th. Brian Vickers, in the No. 83 Toyota for Team Red Bull, was 42nd.
Blaney said he expected a better result after races at California Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“We came out of California and Vegas pretty happy with our intermediate track program, but this weekend, we just struggled," said Blaney, driver of the No. 22 Toyota for Bill Davis Racing. "We were up and down all weekend. I don't know really what is right or wrong, but I'm sure we'll take a look at everything and try to figure it out. There was never really a point in the weekend where we got the car where we wanted it, but that's the nature of the beast. Everybody on the team has been working real hard to move us further along, but now we just need to capitalize with a good finish.”
Vickers crashed on lap 231 of the race. But he became the first Toyota driver to lead a lap in a Cup race. He led the race twice for five laps.
“I was driving down the straightaway and all of a sudden I got hit from behind," Vickers said about the wreck on lap 231. "I'm not sure what happened but my spotter said it was Reutimann that hit us. I think that's the first time I've been wrecked on a straightaway. Something happened to the motor early in the race and we don’t really know what it was, but we had a great handling car all day. I was just trying to get to the end, get a decent finish and get some more points.”

Jimmie Johnson squeezed past Tony Stewart in the closing laps of Sunday's NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway to win his second race in a row.
Stewart said after the race that he wished Johnson would have given more room. Despite the close call at the end of the race, Stewart managed a second-place finish.
"Nobody ever likes to hit the wall. That's pretty much a no-brainer," said Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing. "I don't think I ever pinched him or kept him from having room on the race track to race. He had a faster car. He's probably going to get around us anyway but I'd like to have seen him give me room to race him for it."
Juan Pablo Montoya, the Formula One convert making his full time debut in NASCAR Nextel Cup racing, was in the mix with the leaders throughout the race. It was enough for Stewart to take notice.
"I'm pretty impressed," Stewart said. "To come to Atlanta and be able to run that well here and figure this place out. I didn't figure it out in one try by any means. He did an awesome job. Every track he goes to this year will be a new track for him That shows why he got his opportunity in Formula One, because he's a great talent."
As for Johnson, Stewart said he didn't have an explanation for how the final laps unfolded.
"To be honest whatever I say is probably going to be wrong," Stewart said. "We're both racing hard with three laps to go. You don't know if his spotter told him he was clear so he just kept coming. You don't know what the circumstances are with that without talking to him. It is what it is. At the end he's in Victory Lane and we're here talking about finishing second."

Mark Martin still leads the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series standings after a 10th-place finish in Sunday's race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
And he still says he is going to skip the races next weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway and the following weekend at Martinsville Speedway.
"People might not believe it, but they'll have a hard time finding me next week," said Martin, driver of the No. 01 Chevrolet for Ginn Racing. "This thing has really been encompassing. We've worked really hard since January and we've put a lot into this. My team has and I have too. It's been a hard-working stretch and I'm really looking to taking a little break."
By missing the next two weeks, Martin will essentially take himself out of championship contention. Regan Smith is slated to drive the No. 01 Chevrolet in the next two races.
"I feel good, man. I am looking forward to next weekend," Martin said. "I want to thank all the fans that have supported me and especially this U.S. Army Chevy. This team is incredible. We were off a little with the car today, but they fought so hard and this is how I want to do it."
Martin posted his fourth top-10 finish of the year. It was his worst finish of the season so far. Martin was fifth at Las Vegas, fifth at California Speedway and second in the Daytona 500.
"We missed our setup just a little bit but what an awesome effort by the U.S. Army team," Martin said. "We battled it out there and got a pretty good finish but the car was off a little."
The last time Martin started the season with four straight top-10 finishes was 2000. He also did it in 1995. Martin will return to Cup racing for the April 15 race at Texas Motor Speedway.
"Somebody told me I was still leading the points; I don't really know but that will be gone after next week," Martin said. "At least we said we were leading when we took a break.
"It's really cool and kind of a story book to go out leading the points like this. It's the way to do it and I'm just proud of this team to finally get the recognition they deserve. These guys are awesome and I sure wish I had been driving their car a little sooner."

The Andretti Green Racing team led by Valencia driver Bryan Herta won its class in the 12 Hours of Sebring, the season-opener for the American Le Mans Series.
Acura was making its debut in American Le Mans Series competition in the LMP2 division. Herta shared driving duties with Dario Franchitti and Tony Kanaan during the 12-hour endurace race at Sebring International Raceway in Florida. The race started at 10 a.m. Saturday.
The Andretti Green team held the overall lead three times and finished two laps ahead of the Lowe's Fernandez Racing team, which was second in the LMP2 division.
"I can't put it in words. I would rate it as one of the highest emotional experiences I've had," said Robert Clarke, president of Santa Clarita-based Honda Performance Development. "So much work went into this program. It has been a long road, not just for HPD but for Acura, our teams, sponsors, drivers, everyone who is involved in the program. I couldn't have been so bold as to dream of this result."
There were three Acura entries in the race. Highcroft Racing was the highest qualifying Acura team, but ran into eletrical problems during the race.
The Andretti Green Racing team had to make two unscheduled pit stops in the last 35 minutes of the race to add gear oil. Herta was having trouble shifting gears in the closing hour of the race.
"I really couldn't catalog all the problems from the last hour," Herta said. "Right from the beginning we were having battery voltage problems so we couldn't use a lot of the electronics. Then we had problems with the gearbox and gave us troubles. I think in the last 10 laps the car shut off half a dozen times and re-fired.
"I have to take my hat off to the group," he added. "I have never seen a group that has worked so hard and put in so much effort. You wouldn't believe how many problems we had in testing and it's a testament to bring it here and to bring us this result."

Ryan Newman put his Penske Racing South Dodge on the pole for Sunday's NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Altanta Motor Speedway. He will be joined on the front row by Elliott Sadler, driver of the No. 19 Dodge for Evernham Motorsports.
For Newman, it was his 38th career pole and his seventh at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The pole tied him with Buddy Baker for the most at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
“It’s gratifying, and I couldn’t think of a better person to share that record with than Buddy Baker," said Newman, driver of the No. 12 Dodge. "He’s helped me with my racing career. He’s a great friend. He still comes to the racetrack and he’s still a part of the team."
For the first time in a long time, Newman said he sees his team making marked improvements on the track.
“It is a little bit sweeter for sure based on the struggles from last year," Newman said. "We did so well our rookie year and the year after things got better. From that point on it seems like things went downhill. We got more poles, but it never seemed like we had that eight-race win season that we had in 2003."
After a disappointing season last year, when he did not qualify for the Chase, Newman said he hopes his team is on the rebound.
"You’re supposed to get better every year, and as a driver I felt that I had the performance," Newman said. "The entire package just didn’t happen and then last year hopefully was the pit of my career as far as having the struggles. I look forward to running better. This is definitely a huge step in that direction, and I’m definitely enjoying it more."
For Sadler, he credited his qualifying effort to having his team director return to his team and having one of his favorite cars at the track.
"After we went to California and struggled we made a few adjustments, and I got my team director back," Sadler said. "That made a big difference last week at Vegas. This is my favorite car here. I haven’t run it since last year at Dover. It’s an awesome racecar.
Sadler, who joined Evernham Motorsports late in the season, said he is beginning to gel with his new team and it's starting to pay off.
"Last year helped us," Sadler said. "We got all our language barriers and things like that out of the way. Now we can get down to racing. I think the first two races we struggled a little bit. Then I got Josh back and we ran well at Vegas last week the first half of the race and then we lost a little bit at the end, but we still qualified well, and we come back this weekend and qualify well again.”

There will be four Toyotas starting in Sunday's NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Dave Blaney and Dale Jarrett have been the most consistent Toyota drivers to date. Both drivers have started every Cup race this year.
Dave Reutimann and Brian Vickers qualified for the Atlanta race after missing the previous race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
"Last week we knew we weren’t going to be good enough and after those laps I knew it wasn’t close enough," said Reutimann, driver of the No. 00 for Michael Waltrip Racing. "It’s a tough deal just trying to get into these deals on time. Nobody ever said it was going to be easy. We’ll just keep plugging away. The important thing is that we’ll be here on Sunday.”
Vickers will start 31st and said it's tough not being a top 35 team. The teams in the top 35 earn provisional strarting spots for races after the Atlanta race.
"I really like this race track and I’ve always run really well here," said Vickers, driver of the No. 83 Toyota for Team Red Bull. "I think we have a good car and I’m really proud of Toyota and what they’ve accomplished to this point. We’ve still got a ways to go and some gains to make, but I’m real proud of what Toyota and this Red Bull team have done so far.”
Michael Waltrip, Jeremy Mayfield and A.J. Allmendinger did not qualify for the race. It is the third race in a row Waltrip has failed to qualify.
Jarrett got in the race on his past champions provisional. He has used four such provisionals this year. NASCAR allows drivers six provisional starts for past champions.

After the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race in Atlanta, the drivers who earn provisional starting spots in races will be those in the top 35 in points.
The current standings have Kasey Kahne, Scott Riggs, David Reutimann and Michael Waltrip on the outside of the top 35.
With the addition of Toyota to the Cup mix, more than 50 cars have been showing up at race tracks and trying to earn starting spots. For the first four races of the year, the teams that finished in the top 35 in points last year earned provisional starting spots in races, regardless of their qualifying speeds. That has been a significant disadvantage for the Toyota teams, who did not compete at all last year.
After Atlanta, that all changes.
That's good news for Toyota driver Dale Jarrett, who has qualified for every race and earned enough points to be in the top 35.
It's bad news for Waltrip, Reutimann, Brian Vickers, A.J. Allmendinger and Dave Blaney, Toyota drivers who have struggled to qualify for races or finished poorly in the first three races of the year. For Kahne and Riggs, Dodge drivers who are also outside the top 35, the pressure is mounting to finish well in the upcoming races.
Jimmie Johnson, winner of last Sunday's race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was asked if NASCAR should expand the field of cars that start races to accomodate the increased number of teams.
"Well, 43 cars seems like it works out there," said Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. "At some of the smaller tracks it seems a little crowded and congested out on the tracks but I guess we're all used to it so it really doesn't affect me or bother my mindset having that many cars."
He said that with the number of quality teams competing at the Cup level, some of the good ones will have to accept the way the system is set up.
"I'm not sure what opinion I should have on it or if there was a change what I would change," Johnson said. "Again I'm just a creature of comfort and it seems to be working fine now. But I'm not in Michael Waltrip's shoes; to even have a car sent home so I'm not really living it close enough to understand it."

First it was Sunoco vs. Shell. Now it's AT&T vs. Nextel.
Sunoco, the official gasoline of NASCAR, did not appreciate seeing Daytona 500 winner Kevin Harvick covered in Shell logos while celebrating in victory lane.
It went so far that NASCAR asked Harvick to change the paint scheme on his racing helmet to eliminate the Shell images.
Now AT&T is suing NASCAR for the right to put its logo on Jeff Burton's No. 31 Chevrolet.
Burton's current paint scheme is an orange and black Cingular design. But AT&T bought Cingular. Now AT&T wants its logo on Burton's car.
Nextel, the sponsor of the Cup Series, does not like that idea.
Burton said AT&T has put a tremendous amount of effort to get the dispute resolved.
"It's got us in a situation that we certainly don't want to be in," Burton said. "Cingular has been here for a long time and I'd like to believe that reasonable people can come to reasonable solutions. I can't comment about any other company or teams' situation because I don't have knowledge of it but I have a lot of knowledge about what is going on with my situation. We have a sponsor that has been here a long time and changing a name and there has to be a reasonable way to work through that."
Burton's team might have to face a situation in which it loses its sponsorship. In the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series, that would be a death sentence. Without sponsorship dollars, there is little chance of competing with the top teams in Cup.
"From a company standpoint we can't operate without sponsorship," Burton said. "We're going to have to get it resolved. Sponsors just don't fall out of trees. We could be in the position of not having sponsorship and of course that puts me and my whole team in a position to decide what we are going to do. I certainly don't want to be in that position especially when we have a company that is willing to step up to the plate and sponsor us for many, many years in the future. It's an interesting position to be in but it has to be resolved."

The NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Car of Tomorrow makes its debut next weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee. Tony Stewart has been one of its biggest critics since the inception was brought to the race track and teams started testing them.
He said they look prehistoric, despite being touted as the car of the future. He sees nothing futuristic about them.
Stewart was asked Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway if he expected an aggressive race at Bristol, one of the tiniest tracks on the Cup circuit.
"I wish we could crash all of them to where we don't have to drive them anymore but I think it will be the normal race," said Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing. "When it comes to it, drivers are going to race like they are used to racing. I don't think any of us are worried about crashing cars. We drive cars every week. You know if you crash we're not going to have an opportunity to win obviously but we have the opportunity to crash cars this weekend too and it's not anybody's goal to do that but they're still going to race hard."

Jeff Burton was asked is he has put any more emphasis on winning races since NASCAR changed its rules to the Chase. Now wins are worth more points and affect how high a seed a driver has when the Chase starts.
Burton, driver of the No. 31 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing and third in the Cup standings, said he finds it humorous that some think drivers already don't try as hard as they can to win every race.
"When the race starts, 43 can win. Well 20 laps into the race, now there are only 42. Maybe 10 laps later, now there's only 41 and it dwindles down as the race goes on," Burton said Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. "You find yourself in a position in a race where you determine you can't win that race. That doesn't mean you still don't try to finish the best that you can."
There is some confusion, Burton said, when a driver says he's satisfied with a fifth or 15th-place finish.
"I think the problem is you just heard me say that 'Well at least we made a 15th out of it and it wasn't a terrible day.' I'm not saying that I'm really happy we finished 15th. What I'm saying is I'm much happier finishing 15th than I am finishing 30th," Burton said. "So when you finish fifth and you hear a guy get out and he says that was a good point day for us. He's not saying 'Yeehaw, we're happy with fifth.' What he is saying is fifth is a lot better than 15th, but nothing exceeds winning, nothing."
Making wins worth more points or giving them added value to the Chase seeding is not going to motivate drivers to want to win, Burton said.
"The thought that paying more points or paying more money changes how we're going to race to win the race is ludicrous," Burton said. "The whole thing about paying more points and if Brian France was sitting right here I'd say the same thing, the thing about paying points is just to make the fans think it means more. It doesn't mean a darn bit more to me. It doesn't and I swear it doesn't mean any more to Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, Kevin Harvick or Matt Kenseth. It doesn't mean anything more. Getting that trophy is what means something."
Burton approaches every race to finish as high as possible. Sometimes that means winning the race. More often than not, it means getting a top five. If not a top five, then a top 10.
"If they paid 100 points to win the race and five for every other position, things would change without a doubt, but that's not what we do," Burton said. "When we go to the All Star race in May when it doesn't matter where you finish except if you win, then, yeah, things change. But it doesn't work like that in golf or in any sport where there's more than two people playing and that's what our sport is."

The five featured NASCAR Nextel Cup Series drivers were announced for DIRECTVs HotPass service for Sunday's race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Mark Martin, Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Jimmie Johnson, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. will be the five drivers for the Atlanta race.
Martin is the Cup points leader. Johnson is coming off his first win of the season, Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
At DIRECTV.com/hotpass, fans continue to cast their votes to select the fifth featured driver for the NASCAR HotPass service at the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on March 25. Fans will be able to vote for NASCAR HotPass drivers for every fifth Nextel Cup event following the Food City 500 during the season. The next event for fan voting will be the Crown Royal 400 on May 5. Each fan vote will begin two weeks in advance of the respective Nextel Cup event.
This week’s broadcast begins at 10:30 a.m. (PDT)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. sits 28th in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series standings, mostly on the strength of an 11th-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
He would rather be in the top 12 at this point, safely in the Chase hunt. But after two DNFs in the first two races of the year, Earnhardt Jr. was looking to crack the top 35 so he wouldn't have to worry about qualifying after the fourth race of the year, which is Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The top-35 teams in the Cup standings earn automatic starting spots in races after the fourth race of the year. Now that Earnhardt Jr. is 28th, he at least appears to have qualifying taken care of.
"Lemme tell ya, no one looks forward to Bristol and have to worry about being in the top-35 in points," said Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 8 Chevrolet for Dale Earnhardt Inc. "We used up two mulligans early, but nobody wearing a red Bud uniform was too worried because we had run pretty well before we had trouble. It's one thing if you blow up or crash while you're racing for 30th place, but it's another when you have a good car and run in the top-five before you have issues. No one panicked after those first two races."
Earnhardt Jr. refuses to have any regrets about the first two races of the year.
"The media made a much bigger deal out of it than it really was," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I understand it, but what are you gonna do? You can't go back for a do-over, so we buckled down and performed well at Las Vegas. With the team we have, we expect to be in the Chase every year. And a few rough weekends doesn't change that."

Jimmie Johnson has made considerable gains in recent weeks, after a disatrous Daytona 500 to start the season. He went from 39th at Daytona to third at California Speedway to first at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
That has translated into a fourth-place spot in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series standings.
But the defending Cup champion still sees room for improvement.
"I think our pit stops need to be a little bit more consistent," said Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. "We had some troubles at Fontana and then again this weekend. But those guys are so dedicated to doing a great job and extreme critics of themselves that I feel confident that they'll improve in no time."
As good as the team has been in recent weeks, Johnson is a little unsure of how the Car of Tomorrow will affect his team's performance.
"After our last downforce races, we know that we're doing the right things there, but what does the Car of Tomorrow hold for us?" Johnson said. "That's a big focus for us in making sure that we're right there. There are a lot of Car of Tomorrow races in the Chase so we're really focused on that."

The last time the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series drivers were at Atlanta Motor Speedway, site of this weekend's races, Tony Stewart led seven times for 146 laps and won the race. That was in the fall and one of three races in the Chase that Stewart won.
But Stewart did not qualify for the Chase, meaning he took more chances in the last 10 races. Drivers in the Chase were more worried about finishing high and earning as many points as possible while Stewart focused on running out front and winning races.
Stewart said his team knew that missing the Chase was not the end of the world, but still it was a devestating experience.
"But when you look at the season we had and the adversity that we had to overcome, to just be in a position to where we could race to get in the Chase and stay in the Chase – that was a pretty big accomplishment for us," said Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing. "But it didn’t work out for us. It didn't work out for two of the biggest names in NASCAR the year before. It’s just part of the sport, because it shows how competitive this series is."
Stewart missed out on the Chase last year and consequently was not able to defend his Cup championship from the previous year. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon both missed the Chase the same year in 2005.
"When we didn’t get in, it wasn’t the end of the world," Stewart said. "We just switched our focus. We didn’t have the goal of trying to win a championship anymore. Our goal was go out and try to win races, and that’s exactly what we did the last time we were in Atlanta. It was a good accomplishment for our team. We ended up winning five races last year. Chase or no Chase, we had a lot to be proud of.”

Fresh off a 10th-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, NASCAR Nextel Cup Series driver Jamie McMurray is looking forward to this weekend's races at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The Las Vegas marked McMurray's first top-10 finish of the year. Plus, he is going to a track, Atlanta, where he won his first NASCAR Busch Series race in 2002.
"I remember winning that Busch Series race; it seems like such a long time ago," said McMurray, driver of the No. 26 Ford for Roush Fenway Racing. "It was great because we went out and won again the following weekend at Rockingham. That was a special moment for me."
In addition to racing in the Cup race at Atlanta, McMurray will be making his debut for Roush Fenway Racing in the Busch Series. He will race Saturday in the No. 26 Ford.
"It's a pretty neat weekend for a lot of reasons," McMurray said. "Hopefully, we can have another good weekend like last week in Las Vegas. To have a good run on Saturday, and then to follow it up with a strong run for IRWIN Tools on Sunday would be the ideal weekend for me."

The good news is Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished a race.
The bad news is he was penalized late in the race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for pitting when the pits were closed.
Still, Earnhardt Jr. was able to post an 11th-place finish after not finishing the first two NASCAR Nextel Cup races of the year.
But he looked like he was on his way to a top-five finish when he pitted too soon during a caution with less than 20 laps to go in the race.
"I don't like making mistakes. I don't like having any part of 'em. But that was a mistake to come down pit lane," said Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 8 Chevrolet for Dale Earnhardt Inc. "We were talking on the radio about staying out because there was less than 20 laps left, but there weren't that many cars on the lead lap. So (crew chief) Tony (Eury) Jr. said 'I'm thinkin' about pitting here and taking some tires,' so that's what I'm thinking in my mind."
Junior said he wanted to pit to give himself a chance to win the race. He was in the top five, but had to go to the back of the lead lap after pitting too soon. It was too much ground to make up and too few laps left in the race.
"You have to make decisions like that to have a chance to win the race," Earnhardt Jr. said. "But, I just followed the 31 car (Jeff Burton) down pit lane because he was the lead lap car right in front of us. I forgot he was having some sort of engine trouble and needed to pit right then. I never saw the (pit lane) light or the flag. I was just focused on following him and didn't realize the pits were closed until it was too late."

Not that he was looking for an excuse as to why he finished second in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but Jeff Gordon said having a baby on the way might have created some distractions during the race.
His new wife, Ingrid Vandebosch, is expecting the couple's first baby, a girl, inJuly.
"I think I would have won the race (Sunday) if I didn't have a baby on the way because I guess that was my distraction out there, I just lost concentration out there thinking about that baby and what I am going to name her and didn't win the race," Gordon said with a laugh. "There is nothing that is going to take away from what we do as race car drivers when we get inside that car. Honestly I have got so many distractions already, I don't see how it could get a whole lot worse. I feel like I am lacking in sleep now, and I know that is going to get worse, but you just deal with it once you get to the race track."
Gordon said there is nothing more exciting or motivating than knowing he has a daughter on the way and an addition to his family. But he was dreading the prospect of having to one day explain to her why she couldn't celebrate in victory lane if her daddy finished second.
"It is a great start to the season. I feel like we are a much different team than we were last year at this time and even the team we had in 2005," said Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. "I am excited about what we have in store for ourselves. We are bringing great race cars, having a lot of fun no matter where we start in the field."

Tony Stewart was one of the more vocals opponents of the reconfigured, repaved race track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He was not a fan of the higher banking, hard tires and dizzying speeds drivers were recording at the track.
But Stewart finished the race unscathed, with a top 10, and was still complaining when the race was over.
"You had just had to be a lot more cautious than normal,” said Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing. “You knew that if you pushed too hard and got over the edge that it was going to cost you. Just look at how many guys early in the race were wrecked. It was just one of those days where you had to be very, very careful because of the circumstances. You raced as hard as you could with what you had. Everybody did that. I went as hard as I could go without crashing.”
Stewart finished seventh. More importantly, the car his team used in Vegas is the same one it wanted to use this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
“I’m glad to have this one behind me and even happier knowing what’s ahead of us,” said Stewart. “The car we ran (Sunday) is the car we ran last year at Atlanta, and we wanted to make sure we had it for our return trip.”

Ryan Newman had the highest finishing Dodge in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Las Vegas. About the only thing worse than that these days is having the highest finishing Toyota.
Newman finished eighth and said even though he did not have the fastest car, his team has made huge improvements.
"We’ve just got to keep on working making it stick in the corners," said Newman, driver of the No. 12 Dodge for Penske Racing South. "It’s turning around. We’ve just got to get it back up to the top. We didn’t have a good Friday here for sure. I was disappointed, but I didn’t let it get me down. I knew we were a lot better than we qualified. It was a good effort for us to fight back the way we did. We avoided a lot of accidents. A lot of crazy things were happening today, but overall it was a good run for us. We needed a couple of good points races to get the season started off right and get the boys in the shop pumped up. That’s big.”
When asked what his team needs to work on before the next race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Newman said, “We need to take a lot of pictures of the 48 car I think. We’ve definitely got some things we need to work on, but we’re going to work on them as a team.”
Jimmie Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, won his third straight Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Elliott Sadler finished 14th and said the hard Goodyear tires gave him fits the entire race.
“Today was frustrating. We had a great qualifying lap and great track position, but we just couldn’t get a handle on the car," said Sadler, driver of the No. 19 Dodge for Evernham Motorsports. "We were tight all day. The guys did a really good job on the car. We’ve just got to work better together on making changes during the race. We need to get our tire data and get a handle on these tires. We’d make one adjustment and it would go one way, then make the same adjustment the next stop and it would go the other way. It’s just frustrating to lead laps in the first half of the race and spend the second half of the race struggling to finish 14th.”
Kasey Kahne looked like he was headed for a top-10 finish, but slid into the wall late in the race. He fell out of contention and finished 35th.
"We got it as good as we could get it, and I thought we could run in the top 10," said Kahne, driver of the No. 9 Dodge for Evernham Motorsports. "Our McDonald’s Dodge Charger was pretty decent, but we just couldn’t go much better than eighth."
The repaved, reconfigured track was Kahne's biggest complaint. He said he did not want to do much side-by-side racing for fear of crashing. Ultimately, that's what happened to Kahne when he tried to pass a lapped No. 38 Ford driven by David Gilliland.
“You had to lift early getting in when you had a car on the outside of you," Kahne said. "The stuff I’d done all day I did right there and it didn’t work. Things happen. The car wasn’t turning that good and the next thing I know I’m backwards. The 38 was trying to battle me for some odd reason. I don’t even know why. I just kind of let him go. I wasn’t battling back and he wouldn’t pass me. He’s suddenly really fast and then he’s suddenly really slow. Then we’re crashed.”

Mark Martin finished fifth in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, his third straight top-five finish. He extended his lead in the Cup standings by one point, to six, over second-place Jeff Gordon.
But Martin said he is still planning on sitting out the race at Bristol Motor Speedway in two weeks. The race at Las Vegas did little to changes his mind and pursue a run at the Chase and the Cup championship.
“You keep asking -- no change yet,” said Martin, driver of the No. 01 Chevrolet for Ginn Racing, to reporters after the race.
As good as his team has been in the first three races of the year, Martin said he expects it to get better. But he is maintaining his stance on running a partial Cup schedule.
“When we made the announcement in Talladega in October I saw a lot of headlines like: Why Mark, Why?" Martin said. "I believed this was the place for me and I am really happy I made the move. This is a fantastic organization. It isn't as good as it's going to get. We're going to keep working. I think they want me to hang around for a long time and I like that because I love racing and I love the fans and I'm having the time of my life.”
Martin was asked if he is still the leader in the Cup standings after the Atlanta race, and before the Bristol race, if he would reconsider. Martin said he didn't want to dwell on that possibility.
"Let's just worry about that later," Martin said. "I was happy with the run; I'm happy with the team and happy with what I laid out. We don't need to be talking about that right now."

Only two Toyotas started the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Dale Jarrett started 43rd on a past champion provisional and finished 33rd.
Dave Blaney, driver of the No. 22 Toyota for Bill Davis Racing, started 11th, but crashed with Joe Nemechek on lap 17 and had to withdraw from the race. Blaney was 42nd.
Jarrett said his team was able to work on some things during the race, but the biggest problem is adjusting the cars to have more downforce.
"We are just not capable of doing the things that these other guys are doing with their cars," said Jarrett, driver of the No. 44 Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing. "That will help us more than anything, then we can show how good the pit crew is and that we’ve got smart guys, but downforce will make a lot of difference. So, we’ve got to get back and work on our bodies.”
Jarrett said he does not anticipate his team making any considerable changes before the next race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. But he said he expects some changes to come soon.
"Hopefully, before we get to that next point, I guess it would be Texas, we’ll have a new generation of car that will be a lot better for us," Jarrett said.

Mark Martin was trying to explain how he came up with the number of races he decided to enter in 2007. He said he had some help in making his decision. He decided he did not want to race at places like Bristol or Martinsville or Loudon. He doesn't like Talladega or the road courses, Infineon Raceway and Watkins Glen.
He also didn't want to run the first 23 races of the year, then stop.
And he wanted to give Regan Smith, who will be in the No. 01 Chevrolet for Ginn Racing when Martin is not, a chance to race at some of the more challenging tracks on the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series schedule.
"That being said, that leaves 28 races and I'm at 23. Would I add to 28? Yeah, but what purpose would that serve?" Martin said before the Nextel Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. "Same is what purpose would it serve if I ran the first 23 and took the rest of the year off. I could do that but at 23, that's as far as I might want to go or 28 or whatever. So I don't see any real purpose in that."
The first race Martin is scheduled to miss is at Bristol Motor Speedway on March 25. Martin said he doesn't want to run for the Cup championship. He's ready to take a break this year and not have to worry about points from race to race.
"I'll know more about what I want to do after Bristol," Martin said. "If I feel after Bristol how I feel after Mexico last week then I don't know. But if I feel sick that I missed the race or if I feel sick during the race that I wish I was there, which I doubt very seriously, then my life might change. I might change my mind. But right now, I've really spilled it. I've named exactly the races that I don't want to do."
One of those races is the California Speedway race in September. It was a race Martin wanted to do, but he had one complaint.
"Some races like the California race I would love to do; I don't particularly like the time that they start that race - five o'clock or whatever it is on Sunday," Martin said. "There are a few other races, the Poconos and stuff like that I'd like to do but I just did that because I've come up with a limited number. I was asked by the ESPN guys earlier this week 'is there anything that anyone can do to get you to run a full schedule?' And it's like, I don't want to. I don't know what to say. That's where I am on that right now and I don't expect that to change. We've had a little bit of fun going along here but I just don't see that changing. If we can win this race and we could win next week both, I think it would be the coolest thing to continue on with my plan. It think it would be cool. I don't expect to win both but I certainly would like to win one."

Jeff Burton was asked Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway if he thought Mark Martin would change his mind about running a full NASCAR Nextel Cup Series schedule.
Martin, driver of the No. 01 Chevrolet for Ginn Racing, is leading the Cup standings after two races. Martin switched teams in the off-season, moving from Roush Racing to Ginn Racing, so he could run only a partial Cup schedule. He is also racing in the Busch Series and Truck Series and picking the tracks and places he wants to go to.
One of the places he does not want to go to is Bristol Motor Speedway. That is the fifth race of the year. If Martin misses the race, he will in effect take himself out of championship contention. He has never won a Cup championship, but has been the runner up four times.
"I know that Mark Martin truly wants to have a relaxing end of his career. Where he can do it on his terms, when he wants to do it, where he wants to do it and how he wants to do it. That is very clear to me," said Burton, driver of the No. 31 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing. "What isn't clear to me, and I know him pretty well, is that when it comes down to it, not going to Bristol is going to be harder than what he thinks it is going to be."
Burton said he and Martin have talked about his decision. Burton said Martin is emphatic that he is not going to run the full season.
"He is having more fun than he has ever had in his life," Burton said. "He is honestly happier than I have ever seen him. He calls me and sounds like a teenage schoolgirl. It is kind of sickening you know, to be honest. He is happier than I have ever seen him, he is in a better mood than I have ever seen him, he is really relaxed, and he is very calm."
Burton said he remembers the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series banquet in New York. Martin spoke during the ceremony and Burton said he did not recognize him.
"When he got up to talk, I looked at my wife and asked 'who in the hell is that?' That wasn't Mark Martin," Burton said. "He is at a place in his deal where he is really relaxed, really comfortable."
Burton said Martin seems to be happy that he does not have to worry about the weekly grind.
"The personal question for Mark is going to be, does he want to get back in to that routine," Burton said. "Right now he has a hole in the wall, he has a break coming. He is going to be lying on the couch, taking a nap, watching us run Bristol. That is a break and that allows him to be better this weekend because he is more relaxed because he knows he has a mental break coming. He has been really firm about that so it should be interesting. At this point he has almost convinced me he isn't going to run, almost, but not totally convinced."

It might look like an unimpressive 28th-place qualifying run, but Dale Earnhardt Jr. said his team had to scramble through a challenging morning practice session to set up the car to make a decent lap.
He said his team made only about half the adjustments it wanted to. He also said if his team had more time to work on the car, they would have made a better qualifying run than 28th.
"But I'm really happy for the team," said Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 8 Chevrolet for Dale Earnhardt Inc. "We were really, really in the muck this morning. We were working really hard to figure out the tire this morning. I'm really proud of my team. To be able to get a lap like that, I'm really happy for my team. I'm not really sure how good it's going to be."

Before qualifying for Sunday's NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Jeff Gordon was asked how difficult it would be to rebound from a start like the one Dale Earnhardt Jr. has experienced.
Junior has not finished the first two races, the Daytona 500 and the Auto Club 500 at California Speedway.
"It all depends on the kind of team that you have and the driver," said Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. "Those guys are capable of rebounding and getting back in to it. If it continues much longer, confidence starts deteriorating."
But Gordon said Earnhardt Jr.'s team was running strong at California Speedway before his engine blew and he had to withdraw from the race.
"If they can come out of here solid, then I don't think it is an issue," Gordon said. "If they have problems here, then it is only going to make it that much tougher next weekend."

Dave Blaney was the only Toyota driver to make a qualifying run worthy of a starting spot for Sunday's NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Dale Jarrett and his No. 44 Toyota (pictured) will also start the Las Vegas race, but he qualified with his past champion provisional. It is the third time this year that he has used a past champion provisional. He has only three more left, per new rules implemented by NASCAR this year.
Michael Waltrip, owner and driver for his Michael Waltrip Racing, did not qualify for his second race in a row. He also missed the California Speedway race.
“It is not so much my lap, it is my whole company," Waltrip said. "Our cars are not running right. It’s just real dissapointing."
Jarrett and David Reutimann are Waltrip's other two drivers.
Waltrip said he can relate now to some of the challenges Ricahrd Petty's team faced years ago when they were struggling to make races.
"I know how to do this – not just as the driver, but as the owner," Waltrip said. "I know how to connect with people and get them to understand my goal and my vision. I’m not going to give up. Hopefully people will understand that this is just the start.”
But Waltrip said he will be making changes to his team. He was not specific, but it was apparent he was not happy with his team's recent results.
"You cannot define the future by what we are doing here today," Waltrip said. "I love being a car owner and I love having my hands on it – I love driving. I never really realized how much I love driving until this year. When I didn’t get to do it at California and I was doing that pay-per-view thing talking about what happened, I thought ‘Darn, that hurt.’ This isn’t who we are. This isn’t who we are going to be defined as. It is just going to take a little bit of time to get it squared away.”

The Sam's Town Hotel & Gambling Hall has Jimmie Johnson as its favorite to win the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday. Sam's Town is sponsoring the NASCAR Busch Series race at Las Vegas on Saturday.
Johnson, winner of past two Cup races at Las Vegas, was listed as 5-1. Tony Stewart was next at 6-1, followed by Kasey Kahne at 7-1.
The Roush Fenway Racing driver with the best odds of winning the race is Matt Kenseth at 8-1. Roush drivers have won a record five races at Las Vegas. Jeff Gordon and Daytona 500 winner Kevin Harvick are also listed at 8-1 to win the race.
Las Vegas brothers Kyle and Kurt Busch are a couple longshots. Kyle Busch, driving for Hendrick Motorsports, which is also Johnson's team, is listed at 18-1. Kurt Busch, a driver for Penske Racing South, is at 20-1.
Mark Martin, the surprising leader of the Nextel Cup standings after two races, is a 30-1 shot to win the race.
Poor Toyota has three of its drivers as the longest of longshots.
Brian Vickers, Dale Jarrett and Michael Waltrip are all 75-1.

Looks like the rift between Juan Pablo Montoya and Scott Pruett is over.
To review, Montoya knocked Pruett out of his way in the NASCAR Busch Series race in Mexico City and went on to win the first NASCAR race of his career.
Pruett was extremely critical of Montoya's move.
Chip Ganassi, owner of both Montoya and Pruett's NASCAR teams, wasn't exactly happy with the way Montoya won his first NASCAR race.
But the two drivers apparently have decided to forgive and forget.
“Sunday’s race brought out a wide range of emotions from me,' said Pruett, a road-racing specialst driving the No. 41 Dodge for Ganassi in the Mexico City race. "Although I am still upset that I did not win the race in Mexico City or finish 1-2, I do feel a lot better."
The two have teamed up to race in sports car events in the past. Most recently they won the 24 at Daytona in February.
"I spoke to Juan Pablo and he apologized and I do know that what happened was not intentional on Juan’s part," Pruett said. "He and I have worked great together in the past – winning the 24 Hours - and I know we will work together in the future. Racing is an emotional sport and that is part of its beauty. I have been in racing for a long time and sometimes these things happen. I have moved on and now just look forward to getting back to racing.”
Montoya apologized again and said he was just as disappointed as Pruett that they did not finish the Busch Series race 1-2.
"I feel bad that the whole situation happened and told Scott that I was sorry about it," Montoya said. "I completely understand Scott’s frustration as I would feel the same way. I am now just looking forward to Las Vegas."

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Brendan Gaughan has decided to race in the SCORE Baja 250, which starts Friday in Ensenada, Mexico.
This will be the second off-road race of the year for Gaughan.
After hosting an open house at the race shop for his Las Vegas-based South Point Racing team on Thursday, Gaughan said he will leave for Ensenada to enter his class 1 buggy in the race.
“We have the makings of a great race buggy, and we are really excited about this race," said Gaughan. "This is fun for me, and I look forward to every opportunity I have to get out in the desert and race.”
Gaughan was entered in the Laughlin Desert Challenge in January, but had transmission problems. He will start 18th in the Baja 250. He and Billy Holbrook will share driving duties and tested the Baja 250 course last weekend.
“For the first time in seven years, we actually got to pre-run a race course,” Gaughan said. “We’ve won a desert race and didn’t even pre-run it, but what we did last weekend will help. We had a good pre-run. It was also the first time we got to use a GPS and program it ourselves. We’re waking up to the 21st century as far as the technology of the desert goes. That could be either really good or really bad. I’ll either drive really fast off a cliff because I think I know the course now, or we’ll do something right.”

One NASCAR fan will have a chance to be part of Jeff Burton's crew on his No. 31 Chevrolet team for the Nextel Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 17-18.
To be considered for the prize, applicants will have to create and upload a short video on the www.igotshotgun.com web site.
Part of the prize will include having access to the team and crew for a day and riding with Burton in his stock car at the speedway.

NASCAR Nextel Cup Series rookie David Ragan is making his first Cup start at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend. It's only his second NASCAR start at the track. He was in the 2004 Craftsman Truck Series race at Las Vegas.
But Ragan has to be getting comfortable with being in unfamiliar territory.
He is the top driver for Roush Fenway Racing in the Cup standings, fifth in points and leading the rookie standings.
"We’ve got a decent package to go back to Vegas but it’s going to be a learning program for us all this year," said Ragan, driver of the No. 6 Ford for Roush Fenway Racing. "We tested out there about a month or so ago so I learned a little bit about the track and feel a little more prepared for this weekend.I am real happy with how things have been going so far this season so all we need to do now is keep it up and keep improving week in and week out.”

A.J. Allmendinger, one of the drivers for the Toyota-powered Team Red Bull, said after compleing his test with the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Car of Tomorrow at Bristol Motor Speedway last week that the new car reminds him in one way of the Champ Cars he used to race.
“My only comment about the Car of Tomorrow is that it has a wing on it and that’s what I’m used to so I think it’s pretty cool,” Allmendinger said. “It’s only going to help us because we are obviously 20 to 25 years of experience behind a lot of these teams and now with this, we’re still going to be behind because a lot of these strong teams have the people and the resources to build cars and go testing. But at least I think we’ll shorten that gap up a little bit.”
Andy Graves, Toyota's Nextel Cup program manager, offered a little more insight in to the recent tests.
“I think the new car does help, you don’t have the big, thick notebooks that you are racing against with the bigger organizations with the current car,” Graves said. “But at the same time, we have a lot on our plate and a lot to do. We’re trying to spread our resources to do everything in the first year and that makes it a little bit harder as well. We’re definitely looking forward to the Car of Tomorrow races and it’s going to be interesting having the first race at Bristol.”

After winning the pole and finishing in the top 10 in the Daytona 500, David Gilliland struggled at California Speedway the following week.
He finished 25th in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at California Speedway, but maintained his position in the top 12 in the Cup standings and a spot in the Chase. He is 11th as the Cup Series heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
"We would have liked to run better in California but overall I think as a team we are happy with where we sit right now in the point standings," said Gilliland, driver of the No. 38 Ford for Robert Yates Racing. "The next couple of races are important but I feel like Todd Parrott has our team prepared."
Parrott is Gilliland's crew chief. There are a number of changes at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The track was repaved and the banking was increased. Plus the tires the Cup teams are using are harder and the fuel cells in the cars are smaller.
"Everyone is back to square one with the new configuration so with the momentum from our test, we have hopefully laid the foundation for a good weekend," said Gilliland, a driver from Riverside who raced at Irwindale Speedway before moving up to the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series. "We'll get to run the Busch race on Saturday, like several other Nextel Cup drivers, and that should help me for Sunday."

DIRECTV announced its five drivers that will be part of its HotPass package for Sunday's NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
They are: Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne, Dale Jarrett, Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards.
Additionally, viewers will be able to have a say in who the next HotPass drivers will be. Beginning Sunday fans will be able to vote on-line at DIRECTV.com/hotpass to select the fifth featured driver for the NASCAR HotPass service at the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on March 25. Thereafter, fans will be able to vote for NASCAR HotPass drivers for every fifth Nextel Cup event following the
Food City 500 during the season (next event for fan voting will be the Crown Royal 400 on May 5).
For the remainder of the season, NASCAR HotPass customers, whether equipped with interactive or non-interactive DIRECTV receivers, will be able to hear uninterrupted live audio between the featured driver and his crew chief. This on-demand functionality allows viewers to switch back and forth between NASCAR HotPass
channel’s two-man broadcast team and the live audio feed, anytime during the race.
The UAW/Daimler Chrysler 400 broadcast from Las Vegas Motor Speedway begins at 1 p.m. PST.

Not that it's time for Dale Jarrett to hit the panic button, but his provisional starts are already running thin.
One of the reasons Toyota and Michael Waltrip Racing were so interested in Jarrett was because of his 1999 NASCAR Winston Cup championship. Jarrett would be one of a handful of drivers who would make every race with a past champion provisional.
That is until NASCAR changed the provisional rule.
Now past champions will only get six provisional starts, meaning drivers like Jarrett will have to earn their way into races on time or owners standings after his provisionals are gone. He has used two of them already in the first two races of the year.
With his Toyota team being new to NASCAR Nextel Cup Series racing, his Michael Waltrip Racing No. 44 team will have to stay in the top-35 in points when the the fourth race of the year rolls around to ensure a place in each race.
Currently he's 28th.
Jarrett's previous four qualifying efforts at Las Vegas Motor Speedway have been in the top 10. He shouldn't have much of a problem making Sunday's race. However, his previous four qualfying efforts were with Robert Yates Racing. This will be his first race at Las Vegas in a Toyota.
"You know, with the new banking on the track, all the teams are going to have to work off new notes for this weekend," Jarrett said. "Most of the teams got to test in January, and that definitely helped us learn a lot. But no one has actually raced on the new banking."
The track is not the only thing that will be new to all the NASCAR drivers at Las Vegas.
"Plus, Goodyear is bringing a new tire to this race and NASCAR has us running smaller fuel cells," Jarrett said. "So I think the learning curve between the teams is going to be a little tighter. Matt (Borland) has the car ready to unload with some changes from our January test. I think if we can just keep our nose clean all weekend and have some fast pit stops, we should have a car to get us up toward the front and come away with a nice finish.”

The National Stock Car Racing Commission upheld its penalties and fines against the No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing team and the No. 9 Evernham Motorsports team, NASCAR announced Monday.
Both teams appealed the penalties which came after qualifying for the Daytona 500. Drivers Matt Kenseth and Kasey Kahne each lost 50 drivers points. Their owners were also docked 50 points each for violating rules and their crew chiefs were suspended and fined.
Evernham Motorsports and Roush Fenway Racing contended in their appeals that the penalties were overly severe. It was the first time in NASCAR history teams were penalized a loss of points before the season had started. As a result, Kenseth and Kahne began the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series season with a deficit in the points standings.
Kenseth is 12th in points after two races. Kahne is 32nd.

In three NACAR Nextel Cup Series starts at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Kyle Busch has posted two top-three finishes. But he has never won a Cup race at his home track.
Busch, driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, tested a new car at the track last month and his team decided to bring it to the race.
But with the newly paved track surface and reconfiguration, Busch said he does not know what to expect out of the race despite his high finishes in the past.
"It's been a fun track for me, but now that it's completely different for all of us I don't know really what to expect," Busch said. "The Kellogg's/CARQUEST bunch has run very well there in years past, but I don't think you're going to see a very good race as far as passing goes. The key to the race will be starting up front and staying there."
Busch will host his first fan club event in Las Vegas on Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m. at Fast Lap Indoor Kart Racing located at 4288 Polaris Avenue.
Busch will sign autographs, take pictures and race against fans. Tickets and additional information are available at www.KyleBusch.com.
"I'm really excited about my new fan club and spending some time with my core of fans in Vegas," Busch said. "We chose Vegas to roll out the Kyle Busch Fan Club because this is where I got started in my racing career and it means a lot to me. This week is going to be busy with media interviews, fan appearances and racing. I'm just looking forward to having a lot of fun with it all."

Casey Mears was second in the NASCAR Busch Series race at California Speedway a couple weeks ago. He finished behind Matt Kenseth.
During the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race, Mears couldn't match his Busch Series effort, finishing a distant 31st to Kenseth, who also won the Cup race.
"Last weekend had its highs and lows," said Mears, driver of the No. 25 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. "We had a great run in the Busch race, but our No. 25 National Guard/GMAC Chevrolet was a ways off on Sunday."
As his team prepares for this weekend's Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Mears said he and his crew chief, Darian Grubb, have one thing they can build on after a frustrating weekend.
"But during the race, Darian and I had good communication -- we kept talking and trying new things," Mears said. "That kind of communication is only going to make us better. Hopefully, we can make good things happen in Vegas."

J.J. Yeley looked like he was on his way to a top-10 finish at California Speedway a couple weeks ago. But without fresh tires, he slipped to 13th in the final laps.
Still, Yeley, driver of the No. 18 Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing, was able to stay in the top 10 in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series standings. He is eighth.
His team will be bringing the same car it raced at California Speedway to Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Yeley said his two-day test at Las Vegas last month was encouraging.
"Most of the time, we were in the top-10 and top-15 in speeds and the car drove really well," Yeley said. "A lot of the test will be thrown out the window because of the different fuel cell and the different tire, but you still have to have the same basic package and you can work around the small changes that they’ve made."
Yeley, in his second year with Joe Gibbs Racing, said he ran "very well" last year at the 1.5-mile ovals, like Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and he expects the same this weekend.
"To me, I think we have a better package as far as our intermediate track program goes," Yeley said. "We had a really good showing early on in Vegas last year before we had a little bit of an issue in the pits that cost us some track position. We still came back for a 17th-place finish. So if we can build on that, I’m hoping we can log another top-10 or top-15. We will definitely be happy with that.”
In addition to racing in the Cup and Busch Series races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Yeley will be entered in the USAC Sprint Car for Tony Smiley at the speedway's dirt track Thursday and Friday night.
“As soon as I saw that they were going to race on the dirt track the same weekend as the Busch and Nextel Cup cars, I immediately got on the phone to make sure I had a ride lined up so I could figure out what it was going to take to go over and play," Yeley said. "That’s what it is – getting an opportunity to get back to my racing roots and have some fun. There’s not a whole lot of pressure, but it’s fun to have the opportunity to go out there and win some races on dirt.”

In four career Cup starts at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Roush Fenway Racing driver Jamie McMurray has one top-five finish. In fact, he's been lucky to get out of Vegas with a top-20.
In recent tests at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, site of this weekend's NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race, McMurray said his team did not like the results.
They will be bringing a new car to Vegas and hopes of improving on their 36th place in the Cup standings.
"I’m looking forward to getting out there and seeing what we have under us," McMurray said. "I have no doubt that we will have a fast Ford Fusion, as this is one of the tracks that Roush Fenway Racing has excelled at in the past. Hopefully we can finish the race this weekend and post a strong finish, which would help us out a lot in the points.”
Crew Chief Larry Carter said after the test at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last month, he compared notes with the other four Roush Fenway teams and decided to bring a new car for the race.
"We are sitting behind the eight ball a little bit right now and need a strong finish in Vegas," Carter said. "Overall, I’m expecting we made the right changes and are bringing a great car to the track.”

Juan Pablo Montoya is new to NASCAR and even newer to Bristol Motor Speedway, one of the tiniest, toughest tracks where the Nextel Cup Series cars race.
Montoya tested the new Dodge Avengers, the Car of Tomorrow, at Bristol and it was his first taste of what a Cup race at Bristol might be like.
"It’s pretty wild. It’s been a wild experience to be honest with you," said Montoya, who is making the transition from Formula One to NASCAR. "I spun and kept it out of the wall. I was pretty lucky. I think we’ve been OK. We’re a little bit off the pace, but it’s a hard place to find your feet. You’re looking for a really good lap time but when you’ve got everybody around it’ll be a different force."
Montoya had his problems, but he appears to be learning quickly.
"You’re chasing the car and track and chasing whether you’re driving too hard or too slow," Montoya said. "You need to find a good balance and good rhythm. The better balance the easier it’s going to be. That’s what we’re trying to do.”
But running a couple test laps and 500 laps at Bristol are going to be completely different, he said.
“I think you’d be lucky to make it to the end," Montoya said. "I think this is a track where you’d have to be happy just to bring the car home. You’ve just got to be at the right place at the right time the whole race if you’re going to finish.”

David Stremme, driver of the No. 40 Dodge for Chip Ganassi Racing, said after a recent test of the Car of Tomorrow at Bristol Motor Speedway that many of the teams are playing catch up, but the new car will put teams on a level playing field.
"I think whatever teams work well together here and communicates well together will accomplish their goals," Stremme said. "I’m a racer. I’ll race anything.”
After two races in the NASCAR Nextel Cup season, Stremme finds himself as the top Dodge team. He is 10th in points and looking to improve on his 33rd-place finish in the race at Las Vegas Motot Speedway last year, The Las Vegas race on March 11 is the next Cup race.
"We should be sitting with two top 10 finishes right now," Stremme said. "We got caught a lap down last week running with the top 10 guys all day. We just couldn’t ever get a break. We wanted to start ’07 where we left off in ’06 and that’s what we’re doing. It’s still early. Points are up and down. California was a bad race for us last year in both races. We come back and have a bad day of 19th. We’ll take that. We have room for improvement, but we’re more competitive.”

All three of Ray Evernham's teams were penalized and fined when their cars did not pass inspection at Daytona International Speedway for the Daytona 500.
Evernham said once the Car of Tomorrow begins competing at the March 25 race at Bristol Motor Speedway, NASCAR will begin taking closer looks at the cars. It could lead to more penalties and fines and it is something Evernham said he is concerned about.
“Hopefully with the Car of Tomorrow they can clear up a lot of gray areas in the rule book and simply make them black and white," Evernham said. "NASCAR for so long has almost rewarded people for playing in that gray area and almost called them a genius when they invented a shock deal or something like that and get away from it. They almost encouraged playing in the gray area, and now all of a sudden in a gray area we saw the biggest fines and biggest penalties in NASCAR history."
Kenny Fracnis, the team director for Evernham Motorsport, was hit hard with fines and a four-race suspension.
"I think out of 230 penalties, Kenny Francis’ fine for some tape ties the third biggest fine in NASCAR history," Evernham said. "I’m very concerned about it. As I said in Daytona I’m very concerned, but unfortunately in this sport you have to look for an advantage in those gray areas but now you don’t know how far to go.”

Ray Evernham, owner of the three-car Evernham Motorsports, said in a recent interview he has some concerns about the wing that will be used on the Car of Tomorrow. He also said the inspection process NASCAR wants to use with the Car of Tomorrow is going to create problems preparing cars for races.
"The biggest issue right now is something that’s not going to be in your possession – the wing," said Evernham, who has drivers Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler and Scott Riggs in his camp. "If you knock a wing off how soon can you get a wing? Are all the decklids on the cars going to be the same or is NASCAR just going to hand you a decklid with a wing on it and you replace that? That might be the easiest."
Evernham said he anticipates NASCAR confiscating one or two cars per week once the Car of Tomorrow begins competing. That will create a problem in production, he said.
"We are concerned about getting a number of them built in time," Evernham said."I don’t know that there’s a shortage of pieces. Dodge has done a good job of getting us the pieces we need and NASCAR has got all the rules out. The biggest thing is the time. If you can put on 15 or 20 more people and can afford to do that, you can get it done."
But that's only if cars finish races unscathed.
"When you’re crashing cars at Daytona and California and you’re trying to run well and things like that… With us we crashed two cars at Daytona and one at California and you’ve got to try to fix those things," Evernham said. "We’re also going through a change over on the nose of the car. Without going out and putting on another 20 or 25 people you don’t have time to get the things built. I think the teams that can afford to have a completely separate COT program and are doing that separately are the ones that have the advantage.”

Greg Biffle crashed his car in practice Friday for the NASCAR Busch Series race in Mexico City.
He qualified in the team's backup car for Brewco Motorsports and was 25th.
Biffle said he lost control of his car in the middle of the final corner before the straightaway. He is competing in his first race on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodgriuez road course and said being unfamiliar with the track led to his problems.
"Yeah, probably that, and it's just different," said Biffle, driver of the No. 37 Ford Fusion. "Well, it's pretty forgiving in a lot of spots, but it's not forgiving right over there. That's about the only spot really."

Scott Pruett won the pole for Sunday's NASCAR Busch Series race in Mexico City. He was followed by two drivers from Mexico, one from Colombia and Denny Hamlin.
Adrian Fernandez, another driver from Mexico, will start 17th.
“That isn’t what we were hoping for,” said Fernandez after Saturday’s qualifying run. “The car did not have the grip needed for a qualifying run, but we think this will be the right setup for the race.”
All of the Busch Series cars were impounded after qualifying meaning they will race the setups used during qualifying.
Fernandez started last in the Busch Series race in Mexico City in 2005. He was able to work his way to the front and lead four laps before finishing 10th.
“We have come from farther back in the field than this so we have no worries,” Fernandez said.
Carlos Contreras was second in qualifying, followed Juan Pablo Montoya of Colombia, Jorge Goeters of Mexico and Hamlin.
Fernandez said racing at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez will be a special feeling tomorrow.
“This is the track where I made my first laps as a racer. I have won many races here but if we could win tomorrow, that would be something very special to me.”
Sunday’s race begins at 11 p.m. PST on ESPN2.

Adrian Fernandez will be racing in the NASCAR Busch Series race at Mexico City. He will also be competing in the American Le Mans Series in an Acura-powered entry in the LMP2 division.
Furthermore, he is owner of an Indy Racing League team. He was asked during a teleconference on Tuesday if he had any plans to race in this year's Indianapolis 500. He said he was undecided.
"Right now it's not our priority," Fernandez said. "It's so tough. I was very competitive in 2004. I mean, we were so strong. We should have won that race. We were so strong through practice, through the race."
The next year, Fernandez did not race a full season in the IRL and ran a car in the Indy 500 that was funded and maintained in a joint effort between his team and Morris Nunn's
"That was so difficult," Fernandez said. "For me it's so hard to go there into an event, you know, just putting a car together for just that event, without racing the other races, to be competitive. It will be really difficult for me, myself. As a team maybe we will, but at this time we don't know yet."

Adrian Fernandez and Juan Pablo Montoya raced against each other for a couple years when they were on the old CART series. They will be on the same race track again this weekend for the NASCAR Busch Series race in Mexico City.
Fernandez, who will be driving for Hendrick Motorsports, said if it weren't for Montoya, he probably would have never his wife.
The Colombian-born Montoya invited Fernandez, who is from Mexico, to a charity race in Cartegena, Columbia.
"I didn't want to go," Fernandez said. "I went there and met my wife. I marry her. She's a Colombian girl. I met her through Juan Pablo. Thanks for him inviting me there. I wouldn't have met her."
Fernandez also discovered he had quite a fan base in Colombia when he went to the race.
"I didn't understand. Basically it was the years we raced together," Fernandez said. "Everybody on TV, Jorge Koechlin made us very famous in Latin American with his extremely good style of narrating the races in Spanish, got us really famous there."
Montoya will be making his NASCAR debut in Mexico City. He will be driving a Dodge for Chip Ganassi Racing.
"I think I'm as well-known in Colombia was Juan Pablo is well-known in Mexico," Fernandez said. "I believe he will have a good welcome there. I think people are excited to see the Adrian Fernandez and Juan Pablo Montoya fight again. It will be exciting. I haven't been competing actually since the last race we did in Cartegena in go-karts that time. It will be exciting. It will be good to race with him here."

ESPN will have NASCAR driver Juan Pablo Montoya as an in-race reporter for the Busch Series race in Mexico City.
Montoya, who will be driving the No. 42 Dodge for Chip Ganassi Racing, will have access to a camera and microphone during the race. He will be in communication with ESPN analyst Rusty Wallace during pace laps and caution periods. An in-car camera will also give TV viewers a unique perspective during the race.
Montoya's crew chief, Brad Parrott, will also be equipped with microphones and cameras for the race.
ESPN2 will have live coverage of the event beginning at 10:30 a.m. PST, while ESPN will simulcast ESPN Deportes, Spanish-language race of the event, as part of an ESPN Full Circle presentation.
In addition to the race telecast on Sunday, ESPN2 will have live coverage of practice and qualifying from Mexico City on Friday and Saturday. Coverage of Friday's one-hour final practice session for the series will be aired from 2 to 3 p.m. PST on ESPN2.
Qualifying will be televised from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Saturday. Calling the action from the booth will be Jerry Punch with Wallace and Andy Petree.
Allen Bestwick, Dave Burns Jamie Little and Mike Massaro will report from the pits and garage, while Chris Fowler, Tim Brewer and Brad Daugherty will be in the ESPN Pit Studio.

Rain washed out much of the sessions today at Bristol Motor Speedway, where NASCAR Nextel Cup Series teams are testing the Car of Tomorrow.
It was a particularly frustrating day for the Toyota teams, which are competing for the first time in Cup races.
“This is the first time we’ve had it on the race track,” said Brian Vickers, driver of the No. 83 Toyota for Team Red Bull. “So the fact we weren’t at the top of the board wasn’t a surprise to us. No calls for panic – we know it’s going to take time. We know it’s going to take time to catch up with everyone else. And we will.”
The rain started around 10:30 in the morning at Bristol and none of the teams were able to get back on the track.
“Unfortunately this morning we were making a bunch of wholesale changes to make some gains, but we didn’t get a chance to get out and make some laps,” Vickers said.
Despite the limited track time, Vickers said his team gathered some valuable information.
“All in all I thought yesterday was a big learning curve for us,” Vickers said. “I think a lot of people see the Car of Tomorrow as a big opportunity and I definitely feel that way in the long run.”
The first race for the Car of Tomorrow will be March 25 at Bristol Motor Speedway. The Car of Tomorrow will be in 16 of the 36 races this year.

The Car of Tomorrow is going to be used in 16 of the 36 Cup races this year. Jimmie Johnson was asked if he thought switching cars was going to present any problems for the drivers.
“Yeah, there’s going to be a learning curve for the driver and the crew chief to understand the differences, to remind yourself,” Johnson said from Bristol Motor Speedway, where the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series teams are testing the Car of Tomorrow.
“The hardest thing is really in the shop, the hours that the crews are putting in. We had to build speedway cars for the 500, downforce cars, the Car of Tomorrow, then later on in the year we have plate race with the Car of Tomorrow. I know just visibly watching through the shop, our car count is way down from where it typically is. It’s really, really tough on the guys in the shop right now to get all the cars built to the level they need to be prepared at.”

In conjunction with The UPS Store's third annual Toys for Tots campaign, kids ages 5-12 are invited to design a paint scheme for Dale Jarrett's new No. 44 Toyota Camry race car.
The contest is called Design Dale's New Ride. The winning design will be used by Jarrett in the Oct. 28 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, when The UPS Store starts its Toys for Tots donation drive.
Two years ago, Jarrett’s three youngest kids designed a special paint scheme for their father’s car to help The UPS Store raise awareness of Toys for Tots. Last year, 12-year-old Annabelle Huffman of Napa Valley, Calif., took the championship cup when Jarrett raced her special design in the Dickies 500.
The “Design Dale’s New Ride” contest begins today and runs through March 31, 2007. Copies of the contest template, rules, and more information all available at www.theupsstore.com.

Matt Kesneth drove Roush Fenway Racing's No. 17 to victory in the California Speedway Busch Series race. Michel Jourdain Jr. will get his chance in the Ford Fusion at Mexico City.
This will the third NASCAR Busch Series race in Mexico City for Jourdain, an open-wheel racer from Champ Car.
"I am very excited to race at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City this weekend," said Jourdain, Jr. "The past two years, I have run very well but have been taken out before the finish. I am very happy to be racing in front of my hometown crowd this weekend. This should be my best opportunity to race for the win with Roush Fenway racing, and I cannot wait to put on a good show for all the fans down there."
Jourdain competed part-time in the Craftsman Truck Series in 2006 for Roush Fenway Racing in the No. 50 Ford F-150. Jourdain will also drive the No. 17 Dish Network Ford Fusion at the inaugural road course race in Canada on Aug. 4.