July 2007 Archives

Tony Stewart was fined and penalized in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series standings for using an expletive on ESPN after winning the race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
NASCAR also fined Greg Biffle and placed him on probation for not meeting his media obligations after the Busch Series race at O'Reilly Raceway Park near Indianapolis.
Stewart was fined $25,000 and docked 25 points in the Cup standings. He is still in fifth place in the Cup standings and 17 ahead of sixth-place Carl Edwards.
In his post-race interview on ESPN, Stewart said: “This one is for everyone in the stands who pull for me and have to take all the bullshit from everyone else.”
After the race, Stewart was asked if he was concerned about using profanity during a television interview.
"A little late to be concerned about it now, isn't it?," Stewart said. "It pretty much is what it is. Whatever happens, they still can't take this trophy away from me today. Whatever happens, happens."
Biffle was fined $5,000 and placed on probation until the end of the year for not talking with the media after the Busch Series race at O'Reilly Raceway Park. He finished second in the race. Usually the top-three drivers in a race meet with the media in a post-race news conference.

Carl Edwards has one win in five races at Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania. He is sixth in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series standings and looks like he will be in the Chase.
The car his team is bringing to Pocono is the same car Edwards raced at Texas Motor Speedway earlier this year. He started 10th and finished 12th in the Texas race.
"I'm excited to go to Pocono," said Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Ford for Roush Fenway Racing. "I feel like over the past several weeks our team has made some great improvements and I'm really proud of my Office Depot team. We certainly have what it takes to run well there, even though we struggled some at Pocono on our last visit."
Edwards finished 14th in the rain-shortened June race at Pocono. He started 32nd and made up 18 spots, the most of any driver in the race.
Edwards will also be in the NASCAR Busch Series race in Montreal, Canada. Edwards leads the Busch Series standings by 852 points over David Reutimann.
"This weekend will be especially exciting since I'll be traveling between the Busch and Cup Series races," Edwards said. "I'm looking forward to racing Montreal and hopefully I'll be able to a win races in two different countries in the same weekend."

Six races to go before the Chase starts and things do not look good for driver Jamie McMurray.
The winner of the Pepsi 400 is 15th in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series standings and is running out of time to qualify for the Chase. The top 12 drivers in the Cup standings will be eligible for the Chase.
The next race for the Cup drivers is at Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania. The last time the Cup drivers were there in June, McMurray finished 29th in the rain-shortened race. His team is bringing that same car back to Pocono.
“Last time we visited Pocono, I thought we had a pretty good car going into the weekend, but when we put the car on the track, it didn’t perform like we thought it would," said McMurray, driver of the No. 26 Ford for Roush Fenway Racing. "After the shortened race, we brought back all the data we collected over the weekend and made a lot of changes for this trip back to Pocono. It’s a track that I really enjoy racing at even though my results really don’t reflect that, I really do. It’s a track that is so different from any of the other tracks that we run at."
McMurray is coming off a 33rd-place finish at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“This past weekend at Indy, I thought we had a pretty good car, certainly one capable of running in the top 10," McMurray said. "However, the bad luck continued. I’m glad we didn’t lose that much ground in terms of points, but it’s one of those weekends you wish could have played out differently. Hopefully we have worked out all the bad luck and can focus on the upcoming races.”

Kevin Harvick Inc. and Richard Childress Racing were the latest to announce a combination of resources, although their relationship has existed for several years.
KHI and RCR join Robert Yates Racing, which announced a merger with Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing of the Champ Car World Seres, and JR Motorsports joining forces with Hendrick Motorsports. JR Motorsports is the NASCAR team owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The agreement between KHI and RCR expands an existing arrangement. RCR provides engines and support to Harvick's Busch and Truck Series teams.
“The goal of this increased relationship is to make both programs stronger,” said Childress, president and CEO of Richard Childress Racing. “Our plan is to field a fourth NASCAR Nextel Cup Series team for 2008 so we’re going to work more closely with KHI on the Busch side. Kevin and DeLana have put together a very good program and I have all the confidence in the world that we’re going to have a better overall program than what we have already.”
DeLana Harvick is Kevin's wife and shares operation responsibilities with her husband at KHI. Harvick, as a driver, has won 29 Busch Series races for RCR and two Busch Series championships. KHI has won three Busch Series races and seven Truck Series races.
“Richard has been very supportive of everything DeLana and I have attempted to do here at KHI,” said Harvick, co-founder and CEO of Kevin Harvick Inc. “As he goes forward with the planned expansion of his Cup program, I believe this partnership will continue to build on the success we have both enjoyed in the Busch Series.”
The merger between JR Motorsports and Hendrick Motorsports will eventually lead to two full-time Busch Series teams for JR Motorsports starting in 2008. The two teams will combine operations before the end of the 2007 season with plans to expand in 2008.
Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports, will be listed as car owner of the No. 5 Busch Series team and Earnhardt Jr. will be owner of the No. 88 team at JR Motorsports.
“It’s a great opportunity to have the wholesale support that Hendrick Motorsports is going to provide,” said Earnhardt Jr. “Being a relatively new team owner in this sport, this is a huge step for me and everyone at JR Motorsports. It was never part of the equation when I was deciding where to drive next year, but it seemed to be a natural progression once Rick and I began talking about the transition into 2008.”
Earnhardt Jr. will be driving for Hendrick in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series in 2008.

It's been a tough year for Toyota in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series. The teams driving Toyotas have been struggling to qualify for races and only one driver is in the top 35 in the Cup standings, which guarantees teams a starting spot in races.
Toyota, which is making its debut in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series and Busch Series, won its first stock car at O'Reilly Raceway Park near Indianapolis over the weekend. Jason Leffler won the Busch Series race at O'Reilly. It has given Dale Jarrett, driver of the No. 44 Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing, a little hope that Toyota is going in the right direction.
"I think it’s a testament to how hard all the Toyota people have been working all season long," Jarrett said. "Obviously Jason and his whole Busch team did a great job. They should definitely be commended for all their hard work. All the Toyota teams and all the people from Toyota have been working long hours and doing everything they can to figure this whole thing out."
As challenging as it's been for the Toyota drivers in the Cup and Busch Series, the Truck Series drivers have been winning races and championships on a regular basis. Mike Skinner, who drivers Toyotas for Bill Davis Racing, leads the Truck Series standings.
"This is such a competitive sport and the learning curve is definitely steep," Jarrett said. "Everyone has seen what Toyota has been able to accomplish in the Truck Series in a relatively short period of time. And although they did have a little tough going early on, they are now finding a lot of success in that series. I expect that we’ll see that same thing in the stock cars as well with the Busch Series and Cup Series. We’re excited to be a part of this and look forward to all of our teams at Michael Waltrip Racing to continue to help Toyota build a strong foundation in NASCAR.”

Apparently there was some debate on whether Tony Stewart's NASCAR Nextel Cup Series team would take the same car that won the race at Chicagoland Speedway to Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Stewart is glad his team chose the Chicagoland car, even though it wasn't his first choice.
Chassis No. 143 was up against a car that won three races last year. Stewart was leaning toward the three-time winner, but crew chief Greg Zipadelli chose the Chicagoland winner.
“We debated about which two cars we should bring back,” said Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing. “I wanted the car that we didn’t run. That’s why he’s the crew chief and I’m the driver. I get in the one that has my name on it and that’s the one I drive that weekend.”
The car that won the races at Chicagoland and Indianapolis is a new one. It is two-for-two in Cup races.
No word yet on if the car will make the trip to Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania for this weekend's Cup race.

Kyle Busch has made little progress in finding a new NASCAR Nextel Cup Series team to drive for next season. Busch asked to be released from his deal with Hendrick Motorsports when it was clear that Dale Earnhardt Jr. was going to join the team in 2008. Busch is one of four drivers for Hendrick Motorsports and NASCAR rules dictate that Cup teams can have no more than four cars.
But Busch he doesn't have anything signed with a new team. About all he did say was that he has eliminated a number of teams from consideration. He was not specific, but said he has only narrowed his options.
"We are still talking to a few teams, we haven't quite narrowed it down to just one; we are still in the process," said Busch, driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. "There have been a few teams we have eliminated. We, of course, had an awful lot of calls so we had to eliminate a few of them there at the beginning and through the middle process."
Busch also said he is no hurry to sign a deal with another team. He wants to takes his time with what he calls a career-defining choice.
"You can't just say this is where you want to go. You have to sit down and look at it and review everything to look at the best possible choice for myself because whether or not I make the correct decision, which of course, I am hoping to make, this could be the final play that I stay," Busch said. "If I make a little bit of a wrong decision, I still might be able to move one more time, but I would like to make it the last time."

J.J. Yeley crashed in the final practice for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The car will not be able to race Sunday. He will have to use the team's back-up car.
"The car got going the wrong direction," said Yeley, driver of the No. 18 Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing. "We went out made three or four runs and the car was really good. We were going to make an eight lap run to see how our tire wear was and for whatever reason it got loose on the exit of turn four. It really caught me by surprise. We did a couple of things and the car was actually a little bit snug at that point. I was already on the throttle at that point and winding the wheel to get to the exit, the car got sideways. I thought I had it saved for a minute, I just couldn't keep it the car caught up. It spun around and the left side hit the wall real, real hard."
The car Yeley crashed had yet to race and was a new one the team brought out for this race. Yeley was not injured too badly in the single-car crash. He said he hurt his elbow and should be able to qualify and race.
"It is a shame, it is a brand new car and it was driving really, really good," Yeley said. "We hadn't done any kind of qualifying yet. We will have to go to a backup car and go from there. I am fine, I hit my elbow. Any time you hit the wall at 180 m.p.h., something is going to hurt."

Someone, presumably a member of the broadcast media, asked Tony Stewart what is so special about Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Stewart, who once raced in the Indy Racing League, was one of the few drivers to attempt to race the Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 on the same day, shot back, quite offended with the question.
"You're kidding, right? You don't know the answer to that already? You really don't know the answer to that?" said Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing. "Do you want me to find somebody to tell you that real quick so we can go on with the stuff that people don't know the answer to yet? If they don't know that by now, they won't figure that out. That's been asked for nine straight years. And it hasn't changed. So if your viewers have watched for the last eight years, they'll know exactly what it means."
Stewart is coming off his first win of the year. He won the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway two weeks ago. It has made him more relaxed coming into Indy with a win in his last race.
"Definitely last year, the stress level wasn't as near as high," Stewart said. "It wasn't trying so hard to win. Now we've won. It's not that you don't try to win, it's that you've got that bit of pressure off your back to win the first one and you have the knowledge of how you won the first one. So it's actually a lot less pressure because you're not sitting here trying to figure out what you have to do to win. You know what it takes to win. You just have to figure out how to make those things happen again."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was asked if he knew the merger between Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Ginn Racing was going to happen, would it have changed his mind about leaving the team his father founded.
By combining the two teams' resources, the new one will be a four-car operation and have twice the space and equipment available to run those teams. Before the merger, DEI was a two-car operation with a third team, the No. 15 car, running a partial Cup schedule.
Earnhardt Jr. said if he knew about the merger, it wouldn't have changed his decision.
"We all forget, you know, I didn't leave because we didn't have a seven-post. I didn't leave because we didn't have 25 CNC machines," said Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 8 Chevrolet for DEI. "It didn't have anything to do with whether we were a three-, two- or four-car operation. There were things about the team that, in racing, you always have to progress. You can't never sit still and everybody at DEI knows that. That was just something I wanted to aid in and be a bigger part of but the things that are happening now are great for the company. I believe they're going to be good things for the company. I don't think it's a bad move but it wouldn't have changed my opinion, I don't believe."
Richard Childress, who owns a three-car team in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series and was the owner of Dale Earnhardt's Cup team, said he expects one day Earnhardt Jr. will leave Hendrick Motorsports and return to DEI.
"I think that working with Rick (Hendrick) is going to be a lot of fun," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I think that we have anticipations of things that we want to accomplish and do. That will be a good relationship and that will be a chapter or two that we'll write together and then I'll decide whether I want to go back or do something else."
Earnhardt Jr. said he believes his relationship with DEI is still healthy, even though he has not talked to his stepmother, Teresa Earnhardt, who runs DEI. But he said he doesn't anticipate wanting to switch teams again for a long time.
"But that's just such a long ways down the road," Earnhardt Jr. said. "There's so many things that can change. The sport could be in a whole different place. Who knows what we'll be doing then."

Jeff Gordon is one of only two Cup drivers with multiple NASCAR wins at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He has won four races. Dale Jarrett is the other with two.
Gordon won the first Brickyard 400 and has won about every third race since NASCAR Cup cars have been racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
But Gordon, the leader in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series standings, is in the midst of a five-race winless streak. It's certainly not the worst streak to have nor the worst winless streak of his career, but it's been a while since Gordon has won a race. Incidentally, it was the June 10 race at Pocono Raceway.
Pocono and Indianapolis share some similarities, so it might be Gordon's turn to win another race at Indy.
"I think it is just evolution of set-ups and cars changing and technology changing and other teams becoming more competitive," said Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. "I think what happens is that we build our team up like the team we have this year and this is a track that really takes a great package. You have to have the total team package here from power to good handling and obviously the driver has to do his part along with the pit crew as well. So you have to have the whole package. The best teams win here. In years where we've won here, they are times when we were really on top of our game."
Winning at Indianapolis has been an indicator of who will win the Cup championship in previous seasons. The year JImmie Johnson won at Indy, he went on to win the Cup championship. Tony Stewart pulled off the feat in his second championship season.
"And so that's sort of the coincidence of the past couple of years year with Jimmie winning and then winning the championship and Tony winning and then winning the championship," Gordon said. "Those were the best teams at the time."

Mark Martin's role with Ginn Racing changed dramatically this week. Part of his duties with Ginn Racing was to mentor Regan Smith, the team's young driver who was in Martin's No. 01 Chevrolet for the races Martin decided to skip.
Now Martin has four young drivers to mentor. Martin Truex Jr., Paul Menard and Aric Almirola, in addition to Smith, are now part of the team that was created when Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Ginn Racing merged.
Martin visited the DEI shop on Monday and said it wasn't until he set foot at their shop that he realized how big a deal the merger actually was.
"It's something that I could have never scripted or dreamed that it would happen," said Martin, driver of the No. 01 for Ginn Racing. "It just wound up that way. It transpired very quickly. But I'm really excited about it. There are a lot of distractions right now for my team and me and all of us and I really can't wait to strap in the race car and get on the race track so that we can focus on the performance, which is what the U.S. Army team really needs right now."
Working with young drivers is something Martin says he enjoys. He will get a chance to prove it with the drivers at DEI. But he said working with Roush Racing's young drivers, Kurt Busch in particular, was worthwhile.
"I've always wanted to help people that wanted to help," Martin said. "For them to think that I can provide some kind of leadership to help them, is great. I'm not sure I can. But if they think I can, then I will. That's what is special. I'm not sure that I have had any impact on Kurt Busch or Regan Smith or anyone else that's come along, but they think so. So that really makes me feel good. I know that Paul Menard is a tremendous raw talent. He's excited. He wants to absorb that 25 years of experience and hopefully those guys can sort through that stuff that's been official and the stuff that's just old fogy stuff."
Martin said he remembers being a young driver new to NASCAR Cup racing and what the veterans had to offer at the time.
"I know when I came in and I listened to the old timers, they spent a lot of time talking about how much better it was back in the old days than it is today," Martin said. "I wasn't really interested in that. I was more interested in how could we make today and tomorrow better. Hopefully they'll be able to sort through that when they're around me. Hopefully I can have some positive impact on their careers."

Martin Truex Jr. is the future of Dale Earnhardt Inc. Mark Martin will most likely be its biggest star, but Truex has the opportunity to accomplish some great things, if the merger between DEI and Ginn Racing proves successful.
Once Dale Earnhardt Jr. leaves DEI at the end of the season, Truex becomes the team's most seasoned and potentially talented full-time driver.
"I'm excited about it. It's going to be a lot of fun, I think," said Truex, driver of the No. 1 Chevrolet for Dale Earnhardt Inc. "The first thing is we need to run well, obviously. We've been doing that and that's the first step in the right direction. It will be a lot of opportunity for me and my team. They'll have a lot more eyes on them and get a lot more recognition for the great job they're doing. It'll be great for all our sponsors."
What DEI loses in Earnhardt Jr., it gains in Martin. Truex said he is excited about having Martin as a teammate and thinks it's going to add a lot of great things.
"I'm a huge Mark Martin fan. I always have been I like the way he goes about his business," Truex said. "I like the way he races. The amount of knowledge he's got is incredible and I look forward to tapping into that. I've talked to Mark for 20 minutes already (Friday). I've always gotten along with him really well and I'm looking forward to learning things from him in the future. He's going to be a great asset for our whole organization."
As excited as Truex is about having Martin as a teammate, he is upset that Earnhardt Jr. is leaving.
"Well, it stinks, obviously," Truex said. "He's a great friend and has been a great teammate for me; not just this year, but the past couple of years. When I drove his Busch car I learned a lot from him just by being with the same team. But we've got some great stuff going on and I'm real excited about this deal with Mark and his whole team. We're still looking for that fourth driver for next year. So I'm excited about the future. I'm looking forward to seeing what we can learn hear short term from the 01 team and the things they are doing and seeing how much better it can make all of our teams."

Kyle Busch spent his week off from NASCAR Nextel Cup Series racing by testing at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee. Busch won the Cup race at Bristol in March, the first race with NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow. But since that race in March, the track has been resurfaced. Busch participated in tests for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Busch Series and Cup Series at Bristol.
The next race for the Cup drivers is at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Busch has been in two Cup races at Indy and has two top-10 finishes. He was seventh in last year's race at Indy.
"Some guys put so much emphasis on this race and it kind of puts added pressure on you as a driver," said Busch, driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. "If you can put all that aside, you can race the track and not worry about the trophy. Jeff Gordon has won there four times and it's because he races the track. He's been there at the end. The configuration (of the track) is so different than any other place we race at, that it truly is a driver's track. Hendrick Motorsports puts a lot of emphasis on this race because you need so much motor to get down the long straightaways. It's a total team effort and I believe we can win it."
Even though Busch was able to finish seventh in last year's race at Indianapolis, he said he could have finished higher. He credits crew chief Alan Gustafson for leading him to a better finish than his car was capable of.
"Last year, we could have had a better run and we were struggling a little," Busch said. "Alan made a great call for me to stay out on the track late in the race. I led a little, but was a sitting duck. All the guys behind me had fresh tires. We finished seventh with a 30th-place car. It's all about the finishes. This year I think we will be way better and maybe race our way to a top five or a win."

Jamie McMurray's best races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway came in his first two. He was third in his first Cup race at Indy in 2003 and followed that with a seventh-place finish in 2004.
His most recent trip to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, site of Sunday's NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race, produced a 26th-place finish, his worst in four trips to the track.
But McMurray, who is 15th in the Cup Series standings and not among the top 12 who will make up the Chase field, said he likes the tracks coming up on the Cup schedule, starting with Indy.
“There is a good stretch of tracks coming up that I feel we are going to run really well at," said McMurray, driver of the No. 26 Ford for Roush Fenway Racing. "We have Indy this weekend, then Watkins Glen, Michigan, Bristol and Fontana. A lot of those are some of my favorite places to race and places we ran well at the first time we visited them earlier this season. I’ve said before, it’s not about having good luck it’s about avoiding the bad luck. Hopefully, last weekend at Chicago, we got all the bad luck out of us."
McMurray, winner of the Pepsi 400 earlier this month, was 38th in the race at Chicagoland Speedway two weeks ago. The car his team is taking to Indianapolis has never raced before. And his back-up has only tested at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March.
"After the last race in Chicago, I’m really looking forward to Indy this weekend," McMurray said. "Indy is a place that I’ve always run really well at in the past and even had a shot at winning a few years ago. It’s a place that every driver wants to win at and a place that has so much history behind it. We didn’t run very well at the last flat track we visited (Pocono), but I feel we have a pretty good car for Indy this weekend. We went back to the shop and looked at what worked and what didn’t at Pocono, so I think that should help us in Indy."

The August issue of Men's Journal contains an interview with NASCAR's Tony Stewart and NHRA Funny Car driver Ashley Force. Here is a bit of the interview with Stewart, who was asked among other things, about a bet he made to raise money for Kyle Petty's Victory Junction Gang Camp, his first car and a special trip to Phoenix.

Tony Stewart on the biggest bet he ever made: "I’ve made a deal that if somebody will raise $100,000 for the Victory Junction Gang Camp— that’s Kyle Petty’s charity for children with life-threatening illnesses— I’ll wax my chest and back. NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick says he’s going to raise the money and be there to witness the pain, because I’m like a Chia Pet on steroids. I mean, I make Chewbacca look bald."

Tony Stewart on his first car: "My parents wouldn’t let me get my license until I was 17, even though I was already racing go-karts. I finally bought a ’79 Plymouth Volare, white with a blue vinyl top, for $350 from a friend whose father used it to deliver mail. I got a Camaro about a year later and sold the Volare to a guy who ended up living in it for five months."

Tony Stewart on the adventure that changed his life: "In ’93 I spent every dime I had on a plane ticket to Phoenix to drive in the Copper World Classic sprint car race. I placed second, and my prize money was $3,500. At the time, I was making $5 an hour at a machine shop in Indiana. So I was trying to figure out how many $5 hours I had to work to make that much. That’s when I decided to race cars for a living."

Robert Yates Racing has a news conference scheduled this morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway to announce its plans for the 2008 season. Currently, David Gilliland, a driver from Riverside who spent time racing on the Southwest Series and West Series before moving up to Cup, and Ricky Rudd have been the drivers for Robert Yates Racing this year. Gilliland is in the No. 38 Ford for the team and Rudd drives the No. 88 Ford.
Rudd has raced at Indianapolis 12 times. He won the Brickyard 400 in 1997. But his past three races at Indy have ended in crashes. The last time he raced at Indy was in 2005. He started ninth, but crashed and finished 41st.
“Well for me personally it’s just the history of the facility that makes it unique," Rudd said. "Going there as a young kid and seeing the museum and taking the tour around the speedway when I was 11 or 12 years old really left a lasting impression on me. I just remember going there as a kid and thinking about how I was going to race there one day since at the time I was kind of heading down the open-wheel racing route. We did eventually come back to the Brickyard and we were lucky enough to be one of the teams that was selected to go and run one of the first tire tests there in the early '90’s for NASCAR and that was a pretty neat experience to actually come to this facility and drive. “
The car his team is taking to Indianapolis is the same car that raced at Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania in June. It finished 27th in the rain-shortened race.
It's been 10 years since Rudd won a race at Indianapolis, but it still has tremendous meaning for him.
“For me it just goes back to when I was younger, there weren’t a lot of races that were televised at that time, but the Indianapolis 500 was always televised," Rudd said. "Where I grew up in Virginia we were a little more familiar with stock car racing rather than Indy car racing. I just remember watching a lot more of the Indy car races on TV when I was a kid so I think I had it in my mind even as a child how important any race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was. Even though I knew that stock cars and Indy cars were different, there are a lot of similarities when it comes down to winning at Indy. I think what helps make wining at the Brickyard such a unique experience is that fact that for many years they only had the one race with the Indianapolis 500 and with that one race there was just so much prestige in a victory there. It’s just such a historical facility and I think that’s why it carries so much glory when you have the chance to win there.”

This will be the first time a Toyota has raced at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series. But Toyota is no stranger to Indy.
Gil de Ferran won the 2003 Indianapolis 500 in a Toyota-powered Indy car. And Toyotas raced at Indianapolis in the Indy Racing League for years before leaving the series two years ago.
Dale Jarrett, driver of the No. 44 Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing, is a two-time winner at Indy. He won the Cup races at Indy in 1996 and 1999. But qualifying for the race this year will probably be as monumental for Jarrett as winning those two races.
“Indianapolis is a difficult race track," Jarrett said. “It’s a totally unique track with four distinct corners. If you’re off just a little bit, it really magnifies because of the long straightaways. The teams that are on their game are usually the ones you’ll see doing well.”
For a time, it looked like A.J. Allmendinger was on his way to racing at Indy in an open-wheel race car. Allmendinger was racing in the Champ Car World Series before making the switch to NASCAR and the Toyota-powered Team Red Bull to start the 2007 season.
“If someone asked me about racing a stock car at Indy, I would have said: ‘You’re crazy,’ ” said Allmendinger, driver of the No. 84 Toyota for Team Red Bull. “But, I’ve quickly learned -- especially with everything that happened to me last year -- you never know what you’re going to get in your career. I’ve lived a pretty comfortable life in the sense that I was with the same team in Atlantics and moved up to Champ Car with them for three years. Then, I found out what racing is really like -- you get fired and go to a new team, and you switch series. Now, I know that it’s a racing career and it’s a racing life, and one day to the next you never know what’s going to happen. So, I could be on jet skis next week – you never know.”

NASCAR Grand National Division West Series driver Brian Ickler won $10,000 from NASCAR for recording the most points during the second portion of the leader bonus program.
Ickler earned the most points between the sixth and 10th races of the West Series season, the second portion of the leader bonus program, to win his share of the $50,000 NASCAR awarded to drivers in the West Series.
Ickler won two of those races, including the West Series race at Irwindale Speedway. He added a pair of sixth-place finishes on two road course races, at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma and Miller Motorsports Park in Utah.
Mike David, the leader in the West Series standings, recorded the second most points in the leader bonus program and won $6,000. David had top-five finishes at Irwindale Speedway, Colorado National Speedway and Miller Motorsports Park.
The prize money was part of a $350,000 point fund award for 2007.

Dale Earnhardt Inc. gained a star. Ginn Racing gained the support to challenge for wins in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series. With the announcement that Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Ginn Racing would merge, it appears both teams will benefit immensely.
DEI was looking for a driver to replace Dale Earnhardt Jr., the most popular driver in the Nextel Cup Series, and who is leaving the team his late father founded for Hendrick Motorsports in 2008.
The team found a star in Mark Martin, the part-time driver for Ginn Racing and one of the most recognizable drivers in the Cup Series. He is still committed to a part-time racing schedule in the Cup Series and will be sharing driving duties in the No. 01 Chevrolet with Aric Almirola.
The new four-car team with consist of the No. 01, No. 1, No. 15 and No. 8 Chevrolets. Martin Truex Jr. will drive the No. 1 entry, Paul Menard is in the No. 15 and Earnhardt Jr. will be in the No. 8 car until the end of the season.
The No. 13 Chevrolet for Ginn Racing is being eliminated from competition. NASCAR will only allow Cup teams to have four cars.
“This merger is great for both companies,” said Max Siegel, president of global operations for DEI. “Our stated goals included an expansion to four cars as quickly as possible and, in order to do that, we had to acquire more shop space. This relationship with Bobby Ginn and his company allows us to accomplish both which makes this a perfect transaction.”
Bobby Ginn is the owner of Ginn Racing. He started the season with three cars, the No. 01, No. 13 and No. 14. Martin and Regan Smith shared driving duties in the No. 01 Chevrolet in the Cup Series before the merger. Smith will continue to drive for the team, but it looks like his Cup races will be limited. His next race will be the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at O'Reilly Raceway Park.
"NASCAR's cap of four teams per company meant we had to give something up," Ginn said. "We felt so strongly about this merger that we surrendered the intangible value of the 13 car. We all were completely comfortable that the benefits of working together far outweighed the value of points."
Siegel said there were key benefits -- having Martin as a driver among them -- to agreeing to the merger with Ginn Racing that will give Teresa Earnhardt, the owner of DEI, the ability to work with Ginn on strategic development projects that she has been planning for years.
“The value of additional square footage is easy to see, but the value that Mark will bring to our company is harder to measure and may be even more impactful," Siegel said. "Mark has pledged his complete support to our young drivers and our entire company in an effort to make us all better. Given his stature in the sport, this type of benefit cannot be quantified.
“Teresa and Bobby have discussed some very high level strategies concerning her development objectives and who would be better to partner with than Bobby? This is a win-win relationship in its truest form."

Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Ford for Roush Fenway Racing in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series and the leader in the NASCAR Busch Series standings, injured his thumb in a race accident at I-80 Speedway in Nebraska on Sunday.
A representative from Roush Fenway Racing reported that Edwards will be able to race in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend despite the injury to his thumb.
Edwards injured himself in a dirt track late model race at I-80 Speedway. He was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital in West Omaha. X-rays and preliminary examinations revealed Edwards had a dislocated right thumb. He was released from the hospital on Monday.
Edwards will also be racing in the NASCAR Busch Series event at O'Reilly Raceway Park on Saturday.

David Reutimann, driver of the No. 00 Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing, will be carrying The Simpsons on his race car for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
"The Simpson Movie" will be released on Friday. The Allstate 400 at the Bricyard is on Sunday. Reutimann said he shares some qualities with one of the Simpson characters.
“I’ve watched numerous episodes of ‘The Simpsons’ over the years and I know the movie is going to be really funny,” Reutimann said. “If I had to compare myself to a character on the show, it would have to be Bart Simpson because he’s always getting into something. I have lived vicariously through him. I really never got into trouble growing up because I was too scared to get in trouble. If I got in trouble, I knew that would mean that I wouldn’t be able to race the next weekend.”
In conjunction with the release of the new race car, Burger King Corp. has also launched a new web site, Simpsonizeme.com, which will transform users into Simpson characters.
“Now, anyone can get a yellow makeover,” Reutimann said. "You can choose your own hairstyle, body type, outfits and so on. It’s so much fun. I encourage everyone to go to Simpsonizeme.com and get Simpsonized.”

ESPN takes over coverage of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series this weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Part of that coverage will include the ESPN Dish Tech Center, what Norby Williamson, ESPN executive vice president, studio and remote production, calls a unique and significant element of the network's NASCAR coverage.
The tech center will include cut away Chevy Cup cars and the Cars of Tomorrow. The traveling studio will also have room for other race car elements such as engines, transmissions and shock absorbers.
"We will now present segments within the telecasts that originate from a specially-designed environment with no exterior interference, allowing us to add to the viewing experience and give NASCAR fans even more information," Williamson said.
ESPN broadcaster Tim Brewer, a two-time Cup championship winning crew chief, and other ESPN analysts will report from the tech center during race telecasts through the rest of the season.
"Dish Network is thrilled to partner with ESPN to provide NASCAR fans with one of the most cutting-edge and educational race viewing experiences ever developed," said Carl Vogel, president of Dish Network. "The ESPN Dish Tech Center is a strong complement to our sponsorship of Roush Racing and the Team Dish All-Stars, including Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Jamie McMurray and Busch points leader Carl Edwards."

The organizers of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach have created a ticket package aimed at fans of the American Le Mans Series.
The American Le Mans Series made its debut at the Grand Prix of Long Beach in April. Apparently fan response was positive. As a result, race organizers will offer a Super Saturday ticket package for $57.
"The Grand Prix of Long Beach has such great history," said Scott Atherton, President and CEO of the American Le Mans Series. "Its 34 years of tradition have made it America's premier street course race. It is more than just a race. It is an event. It is an experience. It is where the greatest street race culture in North America meets the most relevant race car culture in North America."
The ticket package will include the American Le Mans Series race, Toyota Pro/Celebrity race, Champ Car final qualifying and the Team Drift Challenge.
"Our drivers, team owners, manufacturers and corporate partners all felt our inaugural experience was an unqualified success and a great way to premier our Series in Southern California," Atherton said. "We look forward to coming back and making the Saturday show even better."

Terry Labonte will be driving the No. 55 Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Labonte was in the No. 55 Toyota, normally driven by Michael Waltrip, for the Cup race at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma.
“While we’ve planned to bring Terry back for the Watkins Glen road course event, I felt having him in the car next weekend at Indianapolis would be a great opportunity for me to continue to evaluate my entire organization from an owner’s perspective,” said Waltrip, owner of the three-car Michael Waltrip Racing. “The feedback related to road course racing that Terry was able to provide my team after Infineon Raceway was very valuable. We look forward to more of the same input after Indy.”
Labonte, a two-time Cup champion, started the race in Sonoma 25th and finished 35th.
“It felt good to get back in the car in Sonoma and while it wasn’t the finish I had hoped to deliver to the guys at MWR and NAPA, I believe we learned quite a few things in which we can build on,” Labonte said.
In 11 starts at Indianapolis, Labonte's best finish came in 1996, when he finished third driving for Hendrick Motorsports.

Ken Schrader will be back at BAM Racing for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Schrader, who was driving for the Wood Bros., will return to the No. 49 BAM Racing Dodge for the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.
Then driver Mike Bliss will take over driving duties for BAM Racing for the Cup race at Pocono Raceway.
Dean Johnson and David Hyder are also returning to BAM Racing's crew. Johnson will be the crew chief and Hyder is a suspension specialist.
“We are so excited to have Dean, David and Mike back together again,” said team owner Beth Ann Morgenthau. “No one can deny that there is a unique chemistry between this combination that equates to consistently strong on-track results. Although we have faced difficulties this season, everyone involved is committed to turning our program around across the board.”
In the final seven events of 2006, Bliss qualified on time for six races. He almost finished in the top 10 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
“The first part of the 2007 season was a challenge,” Bliss said. “When I decided to part ways with the team, it was a very difficult decision for me. I have complete trust in Dean as crew chief and Hyder is one of the best in the sport when it comes to setting up racecars. I am eager to return to BAM Racing and to build upon the success we achieved last season.”

ESPN's Ultimate NASCAR week begins Monday with a series of documentaries leading up to the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 29.
ESPN racing announced Dr. Jerry Punch hosts each show. Actor J.K. Simmons, who played Ralph Earnhardt in the ESPN movie, "3," is the narrator. The shows feature commentary from motorsprots writers and broadcasters including Chris Econamaki, Dick Berggren, Jack Arute, Ned Jarrett, David Poole, Ed Hinton and Monte Dutton.
The first is "The Explosion" on Monday. It examines stock car racing as a national craze.
"NASCAR for so many years lived on ESPN and grew on ESPN," said ESPN Executive Producer John Dahl, "and we thought a great way to commemorate and celebrate the return of the Nextel Cup to ESPN and ABC would be a defining series on the evolution and the history of NASCAR."
"The Dirt" will be on Tuesday. It focuses on racing on dirt tracks with comments from Tony Stewart, a fans of dirt tracks and owner of one.
On Wednesday, ESPN will show "The Cars" with Jeff Gordon and Darrell Waltrip talking about their favorite and least favorite cars throughout their years of racing.
"Speed and Danger" will be on Thursday, with particular attention on tracks and how they earned their nicknames, like The Track Too Tough To Tame and The Mosnter Mile.
"The Families" will be on Friday and tells the stories of three NASCAR dynasties: the Pettys, the Allisons and the Earnhardts.
"When you really drill down into NASCAR's history, you'll see that along with the legendary France family, those three families have basically been the heart and soul of NASCAR," Dahl said.

Bob Bruncati recorded his second NASCAR Grand National Division West Series win with driver Jason Bowles at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah.
Both of Bruncati's wins have come on a road courses this year. He also won the West Series race at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma with David Gilliland as his driver.
For Bowles, a rookie on the West Series, it was the first win of his West Series career and his first in only 10 starts. It was also the first time he ever led a lap in a West Series race.
The next road course event on the West Series schedule is at California Speedway on Aug. 11.
Mike David won his second pole of the year at Miller Motorsports Park. Mike Duncan leads all West Series drivers with three poles. David and Brian Ickler, who won the West Series race at Irwindale Speedway on July 4, each have two.
There have been eight different winners in 10 West Series races this year.
Alex Haase, 17-year-old West Series rookie driver from Las Vegas, posted his best career finish to date. He was second at Miller Motorsports Park in a car owned by NASCAR Nextel Cup Series driver Kyle Busch. Haase is also second in the rookie standings and ninth in the overall West Series standings.

A pair of rookies finished 1-2 in the NASCAR Grand National Division West Series race at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah on Saturday night.
Jason Bowles won the Big-O Tires 150, the first of his career in the West Series. Alex Haase was second, his best finish in a West Series race.
"I don't know that I expected to win my first race in my rookie year," said Bowles, a driver from Ontario, Calif. "When we unloaded on Friday, the car was really good right out of the trailer. We just all kind of had a feeling that it might be our weekend."
By winning the race at Miller Motorsports Park, Bowles earned a spot in the NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown at Irwindale Speedway on Oct. 19-20.
Mike David leads the West Series standing. He has a 114-point lead over Johnny Borneman. Bowles is fourth in the West Series standings and leads the rookie standings. Haase in ninth in the West Series standings and tied for second in the rookie standings.
The next event on the West Series schedule is at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, Wash., on Aug. 4.

Associated Press

In addition to owning a three-car NASCAR Nextel Cup Series team, Joe Gibbs is the coach of the Washington Redskins.
But unlike his NASCAR team, which has won two Cup races this year and three Cup championships during his tenure, his football team was last in its division last year and won only five games.
Gibbs visited his NASCAR teams this weekend at Chicagoland Speedway, where Tony Stewart won his first race of the year. Gibbs decided he needed to give his drivers and teams a little pep talk before the Cup race after seeing Stewart and Denny Hamlin, two of his drivers, take each other out in the Pepsi 400.
J.D. Gibbs, Joe Gibbs's son and president of Joe Gibbs Racing, was asked if Stewart will be invited to give the Redskins a pep talk, especially if they have another five-win season.
J.D. Gibbs said if his dad wins five games again this year, he will be back with the NASCAR team full-time.
"Tony made a few appearances up there and it's kind of neat to watch those guys interact," J.D. Gibbs said. "But I'm not sure if my dad's going to have him give any pep talks up there any time soon."

Associated Press

Apparently Joe Gibbs felt it was necessary to visit Chicagoland Speedway before Sunday's NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race.
He wanted to help ease the tension between his drivers, Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin. They wrecked each other the week before in the Pepsi 400. Both cars were good enough to win the race, but neither of them finished.
Stewart didn't wreck at Chicagoland and won his first Cup race of the year.
The meeting Gibbs had with Stewart and Hamlin was quick, but apparently effective.
"It was a good meeting. And the good part was that it was fairly short because Joe can get long-winded sometimes," said Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing. "Joe Gibbs's strength is that he knows how to motivate people and how to keep a team atmosphere and attitude. It was a great meeting. The good thing is Denny and I talked and we had a great conversation."
Despite the rough Pepsi 400 race, Stewart said he and Hamlin are becoming better teammates.
"Denny is a young guy. And as far as teammates, we're only a year and a h alf into our relationship and out of a half-hour meeting (Saturday), it's probably going to make us stronger than ever and today was a good example of that," Stewart said. "We worked really well together and will continue to do that."

Associated Press

Jeff Gordon has about as many supporters as he does enemies in the NASCAR world. Fans have been known to shower Gordon with beer and debris after winning races, especially at places like Talladega Superspeedway.
Gordon said he doesn't mind the boos.
"I smile and I wave and try to win races," said Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. "When I win races and they throw things at me, I revel in it. It only makes it that much more rewarding. I'm not encouraging people to throw things but I'm just saying that those things only motivate me that much more, the boos, because I know there's a lot of fans out there that do pull for me and so if I didn't have that, it'd bother me but we have a great fanbase and a great support from those fans and so I'm very content with it all."
Gordon has been a polarizing figure in NASCAR almost from the day he started racing Cup cars. Fans of Dale Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt Jr. particularly have a disliking for Gordon. Now that Gordon and Earnhardt Jr. will be teammates at Hendrick next year, some wonder if there will be a shift in the fan base.
"The thing about Earnhardt fans is that they are very committed and so those guys and gals are not going to sway, you're not going to be able to change them and we're not trying to and don't expect them to," Gordon said. "I think that a lot of my fans, they look around and they respect other drivers and sometimes they pull for other drivers but I think they are also loyal when it comes to pulling for me and I think that there's no stronger loyalty than an Earnhardt fan."

Associated Press

The roller coaster NASCAR season for Casey Mears looks like it's on the upswing again.
He won the pole for Sunday's NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway and is coming off a 19th-place finish in the Pepsi 400 where he led three times for 11 laps.
He struggled early in the season when his Hendrick Motorsports teammates were winning races and solidifying their spots in the Chase.
But Mears broke through by winning the Coca-Cola 600. There have been some bumps in the speedways since then, but things look like their on their way back up, especially after winning the pole at Chicagoland.
"I don't know if it's as much confidence as, for me, relief to where we got rid of that monkey off our back a little bit and could just focus on what we need to do week in and week out," said Mears, driver of the No. 25 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. "We've had a little bit of trouble. We lost our power steering at Sonoma, got into it with somebody at Loudon and knocked the toe out of the car. Had a bad couple of races after the 600 but we obviously were in contention there at Daytona."
Mears won the first race of his NASCAR career at Chicagoland when he was in the Busch Series in 2003.
"Chicagoland has been a great race track for me and sitting on the pole here in the Busch car and winning a Busch race," Mears said. "Always run real well in the Cup car and I'm looking forward to it. Obviously our team is on a little bit of a roll. Definitely all the guys are thinking positive and have got great attitudes. Constantly figuring out how we can get better. Even though we're running well, figuring out how we can get better and make t hings better all the time. This is the car we ran at Charlotte and they worked on it to try and make it better so I'm just real proud of the job they've done."

Associated Press
The crew for Mark Martin's Ginn Racing team replace the motor in the No. 01 Chevrolet. Martin crashed in practice and will have to race his team's back-up car in Sunday's Cup race

Mark Martin ripped off the rear end of his car in a crash with the wall during practice at Chicagoland Speedway. He will have to use his team's back-up car and start Sunday's NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race from the back of the field. He had qualified fourth on Friday, but will have to give up his spot because he is being forced into his team's back-up car.
"It's just absolutely inexcusable," said Martin, driver of the No. 01 Chevrolet for Ginn Racing. "This U.S. Army team built me one of the best cars I've ever had in my life and there is just no excuse for me letting that happen."
Martin's primary car, the one he wrecked in practice, was a new chassis. His back-up car last raced at Michigan International Speedway in June. He finished 29th in that race. The car also finished seventh at Pocono on June 10.
"I'll probably never get over it as long as I live," Martin said. "I've really never seen a shock change make that much of a difference, but that should not have happened."

It won't happen until Dale Earnhardt Jr. makes the move to Hendrick Motorsports in 2008, but Budweiser will no longer be a sponsor of his team.
Hendrick Motorsports announced that long-term contractual agreements to existing sponsors will preclude Budweiser from continuing as primary sponsor of the car driver by Earnhardt Jr.
Earnhardt Jr. will most likely be driving either the No. 5 or No. 25 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports next season. The No. 5 is sponsored by Kelloggs and CARQUEST. The No. 25 is sponsored by the National Guard.
"We have agreements in place with sponsors for the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, which prevent us from having a relationship with Budweiser," said team owner Rick Hendrick. "Honoring our commitments is important to us. The trade-off is missing an opportunity to bring Budweiser, a marquee brand synonymous with NASCAR and its fans, into the fold."
Earnhardt Jr. decided to leave Dale Earnhardt Inc., the team his later father started, to join Hendrick Motorsports in June. Primary sponsorship of Earnhardt Jr.'s car with Hendrick Motorsports has yet to be announced.
"To climb into that red Budweiser car each weekend has always been a privilege," Earnhardt Jr. said. "Although Budweiser and I will be unable to continue our partnership beyond this season, I remain committed to driving for Bud the rest of this year, and will continue to make it my beer of choice. I'm a race car driver. All I can do is drive as hard as I can for my fans and sponsorship partners, and give my best effort each weekend."

As hard as it is to believe, Hendrick Motorsports has won only one NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway. Jeff Gordon owns that distinction, winning last year's Cup race at Chicagoland.
Casey Mears has a win at Chicagoland, but it was in the Busch Series in 2003. It was also the first NASCAR win for Mears at any level.
"I love racing at Chicagoland," said Mears, driver of the No. 25 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. "I'm not sure what it is about that place, but from the very first time I put a tire to the track there, I've been fast. And obviously, it's a special place for me because I got my first Busch Series win there."
Mears will have a winning car in the Cup race at Chicagoland. His team is bringing the same car that won the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in May. It also finished fourth at Michigan International Speedway in June.
"The biggest thing is that your car can get really tight there, so you have to be plenty free enough early in a run to be good after about 10 laps," Mears said about racing at Chicagoland. "So basically, you're just hanging on in the beginning so that when guys start to tighten up, you can start to get underneath them. Momentum is also huge at that track and getting through lapped traffic is critical. Lapped cars can cost you two or three seconds if you get held up behind somebody who's a half-second slower than you are."

Kyle Busch has steadily improved in his NASCAR Nextel Cup Series career at Chicagoland Speedway. He finished a career-best third in last year's race, the second of his Cup career at Chicagoland.
"The Cup race was tough for me the first year at Chicago. Last year, we figured it out a little bit and finished third," said Busch, driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. "I was running the top side of the track and it worked out pretty good for us. Chicago is a fun place. I like going there. It's a neat facility, especially now since the track has seasoned. You are able to run from the bottom to the top, which really helps."
Busch's team is taking the same car it raced at California Speedway in February. He finished ninth in that race. He is also coming off a second-place finish in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway. It was one of the cloesest finishes in NASCAR history.
Allan Gustafson, Busch's crew chief, said there has been some speculation that his driver is not getting the best equipment from the Hendrick camp. Busch is leaving Hendrick Motorsports at the end of the year and Dale Earnhardt Jr. will be joining the team. Gustafson said there is no discrimination as to who gets what at Hendrick.
It's the same as it's always been," Gustafson said. "We finished second last week -- I'd say we were the best car out there. We are here to make the Chase and win a championship. That goal won't change regardless what the 2008 plans are. I expect the Kellogg's/CARQUEST team to win this weekend. We're right on the brink, like we were last year at this time. We have a lot of momentum and I think Chicago is as good a place as any for another win."

Kyle Busch said he thought his Hendrick Motorsports teammates didn't offer much help at the end of the Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway. Busch finished second to Jamie McMurray -- a mere .005 seconds behind.
Busch singled out Jeff Gordon in particular for not helping in the draft in the final laps of the race, then blowing Busch off afterward.
Gordon said during the NASCAR teleconference Wednesday that Busch's reaction and comments may have been made out of frustration.
"If he was driving my car he'd understand that I didn't really have the opportunity to get down there and help him as easily as it may have looked," said Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. "My car just didn't work good all night on the bottom groove. I had to stay up top. So there wasn't really much I could do for him. And I will admit there were some times throughout the race where I felt like he could have helped me, I could have helped him, and that did not work out."
Gordon said he is moving forward from the way the Pepsi 400 ended.
"And after the race I was doing an interview, he came by and kind of grabbed me on the shoulder and said, 'Good race,' or something, and I gave him a thumb's up," Gordon said. "So I'm not exactly sure where that came from on the blowing him off."
Gordon added that he is obviously a huge supporter of Busch's team even though Busch will not be with Hendrick Motorsports next year. Busch asked to be released from Hendrick Motorsports after Dale Earnhardt Jr. decided to join Hendrick next year.
"And you know, we've got a lot of things that are going to happen this year also moving forward," Gordon said. "It's only in our best interest to work together and make the best of the situation. You know, I've just got to guess that the heat of the moment, that maybe Kyle said some things that maybe he wished he hadn't. But yeah, I love racing with him, and I look forward to working with him the rest of the year as best I can."

In two career NASCAR Nextel Cup Series starts at Chicagoland Speedway, site of Sunday's race, Carl Edwards has finished no better than 20th.
That came in last year's Cup race at Chicagoland.
This time around, Edwards will be driving the same car that won the Cup race at Michigan International Speedway in June. Combine that with a fourth-place finish in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway and Edwards has a lot of confidence going into Chicagoland.
"We are coming off of an awesome race at Daytona, where we got a great finish, helped a teammate win and gained some points," said Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Ford for Roush Fenway Racing. "I think we have the potential to do really well this weekend. We are bringing the Michigan car, which is an amazing car and helped us get a win for Office Depot a few weeks ago. Even though, I haven't had the best finishes in the past at Chicago, I feel confident that we'll do great this weekend."

Tony Stewart is still winless in 2007. He is normally a second-half driver, winning most of his races during the second half of the season.
That winning tendency came in to play during last year's Chase when he won three races even though he wasn't in the Chase, the 10-race playoff to determine the Nextel Cup Series champion.
Through the first 18 races of this season, Stewart has yet to win one. But Stewart has been finishing high enough in races to be in Chase contention this year. And few teams have been able to beat the Hendrick Motorsports cars up to now.
"It's not like we're not running well, because we are," said Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing. "We've just had some circumstances that haven't gone our way. You'll have that. We're decent in points and we tend to be a late-blooming team anyhow."
Still Stewart said he would rather be winning races than not.
"We plan on doing the same thing we do every week. We're not changing our approach," Stewart said. "Every week our goal is to win the race, and that's not going to change. That's how we've won two championships. If we go out and win the race, the points take care of themselves. It's always been that way, and it always will be that way. We'll try to go out and win the race each weekend, and at the end of the day we'll look at the point standings and see where we're at. If we don't win, we'll try to get as many points as possible."
It looked like he had a car capable of winning the Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway. But he crashed with teammate Denny Hamlin while leading the race and ended any chance of winning the race.
"Denny and I can handle anything that happens on the race track with each other," Stewart said. "We're both professional drivers and can handle it. Everybody is good and we're all focused on doing what we all do every week. We're over that hurdle."

Dr. Bruce Shawn Kennedy, husband of Lesa France Kennedy, was killed in a plane crash in Florida this morning.
Lesa France Kennedy is a NASCAR board member and president of ISC.
Dr. Bruce Kennedy was 53 years old. He was a plastic surgeon with a practice in Ormond Beach, Fla. He is survived by his widow and son, Ben. They live in Daytona Beach, Fla.
Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports, said: "It is with profound sadness that I extend our thoughts, prayers and sympathies to those who have been touched by this tragedy. It is my sincere hope that the families are given the time and space they will need during this, the most difficult of times."
Hendrick had a similar tragedy affect his family. Several members of his family, including his son Ricky, were killed in a plane crash before a race at Martinsville Speedway in October 2004.
Michael Alan Klemm of Glandorf, Ohio, was also on board with Dr. Bruce Kennedy when it crashed. He was 56 years old and a senior captain with NASCAR Aviation for the past 21 years. He lived in Daytona Beach, Fla.
Jack Roush, owner of Roush Fenway Racing, said his team was deeply saddened with the news of the plane crash.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with Lesa, her son and their entire family as well as all the families that this tragic event affected," Roush said. "Bruce was a committed father and husband and he will be greatly missed."

Dr. Bruce Kennedy, the husband of NASCAR board member and ISC president Lesa France Kennedy, was killed in a plane crash this morning in Florida.
NASCAR released the following statement regarding the plane crash that claimed the life of Kennedy and Michael Klemm, a senior captain with NASCAR Aviation:
"This morning, at approximately 8:40 a.m. Eastern time, a Cessna 310 registered to Competitor Liaison Bureau, Inc. of Daytona Beach, crashed in a Sanford, Florida, area neighborhood. At this time, we can confirm there were two people on-board, including the pilot, Dr. Bruce Kennedy and Michael Klemm, a senior captain with NASCAR Aviation. Both were killed in the crash.
“Dr. Kennedy was the husband of NASCAR Board Member and ISC President Lesa France Kennedy.
“It is clear that numerous families were affected by this terrible tragedy and unfortunately several people were deceased or seriously injured. Our deepest sympathies and prayers are with all of those who were involved in this tragic accident and their families. We will provide additional information as it becomes available.”

It appears Kyle Busch was looking for a little help at the end of the Pepsi 400 and couldn't find any from his Hendrick Motorsports teammates.
Busch finished second to Jamie McMurray in one of the closest races in NASCAR history. Busch said Jeff Gordon had a few opportunities to help in the draft, but that Gordon chose another line. Busch found the most help from his older brother, Kurt Busch, who drives for Penske Racing.
"We got by the 24 (Gordon) there and I ducked all the way down to the inside and was on the inside lane and Jeff I think was clear or was clear the lap later and could have came down and helped us and got three Hendrick cars in a row -- me, him and the 48 (Jimmie Johnson) -- but chose not to do so and chose to stay up high and help another Roush car," Busch said. "It was just frustrating with that and then Jimmie got booted out of there I guess and Kurt got up there. Then Kurt and I got together and that was probably the best tandem that we had all day long and the best situation we were in. We just didn't have quite enough in order to keep it in front of that 26 (McMurray). He was pretty strong."
Kyle Busch said he got the cold shoulder from his Hendrick teammates after the race as well. Kyle Busch is the lame-duck driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. He asked to be released from his contract when Dale Earnhardt Jr. decided to join Hendrick Motorsports in 2008.
Kyle Busch said he is like a driver without a team.
"That's what I'm alluding to basically but walking down pit road saying congratulations to Jeff Gordon I got blown off so I guess I'm the outsider looking in now and I'm probably not going to be invited into the team meetings next week so I think bliss is over at Hendrick Motorsports for Kyle Busch," Busch said. "We'll get ready for 2008."

Tony Stewart won the Pepsi 400 in 2004 and 2005. He joined David Pearson, Cale Yarborough and A.J. Foyt as the only drivers to win consecutive 400-miles races at Daytona International Speedway.
But Stewart's bid to win three in a row ended when he crashed with his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin. Pearson remains the only NASCAR driver to win three straight 400-mile races at Daytona.
Team owner Joe Gibbs said sometimes two competitive drivers in two good cars car can end up crashing into each other during a race.
“It was one of those unfortunate things," Gibbs said. "Both guys were going as hard as they can and I think both of these guys are real competitive. They’re good teammates, but both guys are frustrated. It’s a shame because we had two good cars, but it's a competitive sport. And when you’ve got good stuff and you’re up front like that, it can happen. I hate it, but it did.”

If there is a road-course specialist on the NASCAR Grand National Division, West Series, it would be Justin Lofton.
His two best West Series finishes have come on the road course at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma. He was fourth in last year's race and fifth in the West Series race there in June.
The West Series race at Infineon Raceway attracts a number of NASCAR Nextel Cup Series drivers. David Gilliland, P.J. Jones and Boris Said, all drivers with Cup experience, were first, second and third in the West Series race at Sonoma in June.
When the West Series races at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah in Saturday, Lofton won't have the Cup guys in the field this time.
The Big O Tires 150 at Miller Motorsports Park is the second of three road courses on the West Series schedule this year.
“I think it’ll be a blast,” Lofton said. “The only way I’m familiar with the track is watching it on TV. I’ve talked to a couple of people from the Grand Am Rolex Series. I haven’t been on the track, but it looks like a lot of fun.”
The third and final road course race on the West Series schedule will be at California Speedway on Aug .11
Eric Holmes was the only West Series regular who finished ahead of Lofton at Sonoma. Lofton said he expects Holmes, Brian Ickler, Eric Hardin and Andrew Myers to be tough at Miller Motorsports Park.
“We should do really good there, probably better than most people,” said the 21-year-old driver from Westmorland, Calif. “Brian is going to be tough there, along with Eric (Hardin) and Andrew. Because we’re from the off-road background, we drive what we see, not what we’re use to. A corner won’t surprise us, because we’ll be looking out for it.”

The NASCAR Nextel Cup Series will be the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starting Jan. 1 it was announced Saturday at Daytona Beach, Fla.
“NASCAR has an incredibly loyal fan base, and we listened closely to fan feedback to help make this decision,” said Tim Kelly, chief marketing officer of Sprint. “It was a long and thorough process to determine how to integrate our NASCAR sponsorship into our overall brand strategy, while still keeping the NASCAR fan at the heart of the decision."
The NASCAR Winston Cup Series became the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series in 2004. That was the first year of the Chase, the 10-race playoff system to determine the Cup Series champion.
“Sprint is a premier brand that Americans have known for decades,” said Brian France, chief executive officer of NASCAR. “The company’s new brand direction is focused on speed and that has always been our business. It makes perfect sense for the Sprint name to be attached to our premier series. Sprint Nextel has shown an incredible commitment to the sport and our fans in the first few years, and we are excited about the technology enhancements they are planning for the future.”
Sprint is the flagship property of Nextel.
Brian France, the CEO of NASCAR, said Sprint is a premier brand that Americans have known for decades.
“The company’s new brand direction is focused on speed and that has always been our business," France said. "It makes perfect sense for the Sprint name to be attached to our premier series. Sprint Nextel has shown an incredible commitment to the sport and our fans in the first few years, and we are excited about the technology enhancements they are planning for the future.”

Tony Eury Jr., the crew chief for Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s NASCAR Nextel Cup Series team, returns after serving a six-race suspension.
Earnhardt Jr.'s car had an illegal mount on his rear wing in the race at Darlington Raceway. Earnhardt Jr. was penalized 100 points and Eury Jr. was fined for the infraction. This is Eury Jr.'s first race since being suspended six races ago.
"I'm looking forward to it, should be a lot of fun," Eury Jr. said. "The team's done great with him being absent and hopefully we'll just be stronger now."
Earnhardt Jr. will start the Pepsi 400 in 13th after rain washed out qualifying.
"We didn't really make a mock run (Thursday) so we didn't know what the car would run but about what we expected," said Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 8 Chevrolet for Dale Earnhardt Inc. "We're not really that good by ourselves but in the draft we're fine."

Michael Waltrip, A.J. Allmendinger, Jeremy Mayfield and Boris Said never had a chance in qualifying for the Pepsi 400.
All are outside the top-35 in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series owners standings. Because rain washed out qualifying for the Pepsi 400, the starting order was determined by the owners standings.
Jeff Gordon, the leader in the Cup standings, will start the Pepsi 400 from the pole.
"I definitely don't feel comfortable being in here right now," said Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorspors. "As much as we needed rain for as bad as we qualified, it's really upsetting for those guys who were outside of the top 35, especially guys like Boris who put up such a great effort."
Said had one of the fastest cars in practice before qualifying was supposed to begin for the Pepsi 400. Gordon said he was excited to see Said running as good as he did in last year's race at Daytona.
"So, I know they are disappointed," Gordon said. "It's unfortunate that you can't control Mother Nature and the rules are the rules. It's hard to be too overjoyed about this pole because I do feel for those guys. But certainly from where we're sitting, we trimmed the car out to get it to race as good as we can and knew we took a lot of the speed out of it. And the only thing we were lacking is a good starting position. This certainly turns all that around."

Rain wiped out qualifying for the Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
The starting order for the race was determined by NASCAR Nextel Cup Series owners points. Jeff Gordon, the winningest driver in Cup this year, will start on the pole. Denny Hamlin, who won last weekend's Cup race at New Hampshire International Speedway, will start next to Gordon on the front row.
It was Hamlin's first win of the year. He said he is starting to get a championship kind of feel to his season.
"It's really going well and once the Chase starts I think that's when we're really going to hit our stride," said Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing. "The only thing we got to be concerned with is what we're going to do over the next couple of months is really throw caution to the wind when it comes to bringing cars to the race track that we know nothing about and things of that nature."
In addition to winning his first race of the year last week, Hamlin has five top-three finishes in the first 17 races.
"We're in a comfortable position right now to where we feel like we can kind of shoot for wins and just experiment but there's going to be weekends I have a feeling in the next couple of months where we're going to run probably 30th at times and that's part of it," Hamlin said. "I think we're not worried about where we're at in points going into the Chase as long as we're in there. I think these next few months it's going to be tough to really maintain a good attitude when we're probably not going to run well at times but we know deep down inside we've got a great race team and we're going to get back to our stride really when the Chase starts."

The Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway is an impound race. That means teams will not be allowed to make adjustments to their cars after qualifying.
It presents quite a problem for drivers and teams outside the top 35 in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series owners standings.
They are not guaranteed starting spots in the race. They have to choose between setting up their cars with a more aggressive qualifying package or try to get into the race with a conservative strategy.
Dave Blaney, who won the pole at New Hampshire International Speedway last weekend, the first for Toyota, said qualifying for the Pepsi 400 is his team's biggest concern.
"We have to determine how far to go with the car -- as far as putting qualifying things into the car -- to make it go fast and then take the chance of not making it through the whole race," said Blaney, driver of the No. 22 Toyota for Bill Davis Racing. "We have to make it through qualifying day first and then I think we’ll be fine because we raced real well there last time. Getting through qualifying will be the tough part.”

The Pepsi 400 marks the start of the second half of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series schedule.
Andy Graves, the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series program manager for Toyota Racing Development, said the Toyota teams are looking forward to second half of the season despite a rough start.
Dave Blaney gave Toyota its first pole in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series at New Hampshire International Speedway last week. But it was one of the few highlights for Toyota in the first half of the season.
None of the Toyota drivers are in the top 35 in drivers points and all have struggled to qualify for races at one point or another in the first half of the season.
“We’re definitely looking forward to the second half of the season,” Graves said. “We feel like it’s going to be much better for us. We’ve tried to measure our competition and evaluate where we stand. Obviously, we want to be more competitive than we are today and that’s just the racer mentality in all of us."
One of the reasons Graves said he expects the Toyota teams to improve is because they are returning to some tracks for the second time. Daytona International Speedway, site of Saturday night's Pepsi 400, is one example.
“With Daytona being a restrictor-plate track, I think it will still be a challenge,” said Graves. “But, we’re really looking forward to getting started on the second half of the year. I think we’ve gained the respect of our competitors and hopefully from the fan base through the first part of the season. We saw some of that after earning the pole at New Hampshire -- where we received congratulations from the other Toyota teams, as well as from our competitors.”

It would make sense that the car that won a NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedy in Alabama would be a threat to win again at Daytona International Speedway.
But that's not necessarily the case with Jeff Gordon's car.
HIs team will be bringing the winning car from Tallladega to Daytona for Saturday night's Pepsi 400. But Gordon said despite being restrictor-plate tracks, there are few other similarities.
“It doesn’t seem like there would be, but there’s a big difference between Daytona and Talladega,” said Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. “Daytona is more of a handling track. At Talladega, you want the car to be ‘slick.’ "
Gordon finished 10th in the season-opening Daytona 500 and he said he was disappointed with his team's effort and his results in the first race of the season.
“We weren’t happy with how we ran in the Daytona 500, so the guys have been working hard on the body of this car with an emphasis on downforce,” said Gordon who has six wins at Daytona over his Cup career. “We’re putting very little emphasis into qualifying this weekend. Our focus will be on the handling of the car during race conditions."

Tony Stewart has won the past two Pepsi 400s at Daytona International Speedway.
But the car that won last year's Pepsi 400 was wrecked beyond repair in the Daytona 500 in February. He won't have it for Saturday night's race.
Instead, he will race the same car he had when he won the Bud Shootout in February.
"It’s already a proven winner at Daytona," said Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing. "It does give me confidence. We feel that our cars are better at Daytona in July than they actually are in February because the track is so much hotter and slicker. We seem to be able to find a balance that our car really likes. So yes, we have a lot of confidence that we can go back and win again.”
David Pearson, Cale Yarborough and A.J. Foyt are the only drivers to win 400-mile races in July at Daytona. The traditional Fourth of July race has gone by many names over the years, including the Firecracker 400 and currently the Pepsi 400.
Stewart can become the first driver to win three straight July races at Daytona in NASCAR's top division.
This will also be the last restrictor-plate race at Daytona for the foreseeable futrure. The Car of Tomorrow will be used in every NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race next year. Stewart said it doesn't what he races at Daytona.
"You’re still racing with the same group of guys," Stewart said. "The goal every week is to beat the guys that you’re there racing with. It doesn’t matter what type of car it is. You just want to win.”

Kyle Busch returned to his hometrack Tuesday night for a super late model race at the Bullring in Las Vegas.
He entered the Night of Fire race in his own car for Kyle Busch Motorsports.
"That's where I got noticed and that's why I'm here today so it's great for me to go back and visit my roots, race and have some fun," said Busch, driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports.
From there, he went to Dayona Beach, Fla., to prepare for this weekend's NASCAR races at Daytona International Speedway. He will be entered in the NASCAR Busch Series and Nextel Cup Series races at Daytona.
In the season-opening Daytona 500, Busch was involved in a last-lap accident and finished 24th after running with the leaders for most of the race.
"We ran so well during Speedweeks this year, I really hope that this time we can capitalize and finish in a better position," Busch said. "We only led four laps in the Daytona 500, but we led a ton in the Shootout and in the Busch Series race. With one lap left in the event, the 'big one' happened on the frontstretch. I had a great view because I was in the middle of it. We ended up going from third to 24th in less than a second. Everything happens so fast at Daytona, you just have to stay 100 percent focused, 100 percent of the time."

Jack problems and a 47-second pit stop cost Carl Edwards any chance of a decent finish in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at New Hampshire International Speedway on Sunday.
And Saturday night's race at Daytona International Speedway doesn't hold much promise either.
In five NASCAR Nextel Cup Series races at Daytona, Edwards has one top-15 finish. That was a 12th-place in last year's Daytona 500.
"After the disappointment of last weekend in Loudon, I'm really looking forward to going to Daytona and having a strong run," said Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Ford for Roush Fenway Racing. "I know a lot can happen at Daytona and I haven't had the best finishes there, but I feel really confident in my team and our equipment. If I can keep the Office Depot Ford out of trouble and finish up front, I think we'll be in good shape."
Despite the poor finish at New Hampshire, Edwards is seventh in the Cup standings and solidly in position to capture on of the 12 Chase spots.
"We have a fast car and a great team so it's not out of the question to finish well at Daytona," Edwards said. "It would be pretty neat to win there and that's what we are going there to do."

Casey Mears finished second to Jimmie Johnson in last year's Daytona 500. It was Mears' best finish in any NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway, site of Saturday night's Pepsi 400.
Darian Grubb was Johnson's crew chief when he won the Daytona 500 in 2006. Grubb was serving as Johnson's crew chief because Chad Knaus, Johnson's regular crew chief, was suspended by NASCAR when the team's car did not pass inspection after qualifying.
Mears was driving for Chip Ganassi Racing in that race. Now Mears and Johnson are teammates at Hendrick Motorsports. And Grubb is the crew chief for Mears
The car Grubb has decided to bring to Daytona is the same one that Mears wrecked in the Daytona 500 in February. It is also the same car that led 18 laps and finished 18th in last year's Daytona 500 with Brian Vickers as its driver.
Mears said at a place like Daytona, he wants to focus on working with his teammates and make as many friends as possible during the race.
"You need those relationships to get to the front and stay there," said Mears, driver of the No. 25 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. "I tend to want to stay with a teammate or drafting partner for as long as I can, even up until right before the end, because two paired together is stronger than one. Working with someone down to the wire can put you in a better position to take a risk at the end and to make a big move off that last turn for the win."

With nine races to go before the Chase starts, driver Jamie McMurray is 14th in points and going to a track where his finishes have not been that good.
In nine career NASCAR Nextel Cup Series races at Daytona International Speedway, site of Saturday night's Pepsi 400, McMurray has two top-10 finishes. In his other seven races, he has finished 31st or worse.
On the plus side, the car his team from Roush Fenway Racing is taking to Daytona is the same car that finished fifth in the Cup race at Talladega.
"The car we are taking is the same car that I’ve run at every restrictor-plate track since I’ve been over here at Roush Fenway Racing," said McMurray, driver of the No. 26 Ford for Roush Fenway Racing. "It’s the same car that I was driving when we were third this year at the Daytona 500 before getting wrecked, and the same car I drove to a fifth-place finish in Talladega a couple months ago. Needless to say, I really enjoy the car we are taking and think we have a really good shot at a strong finish this weekend in Daytona.”

Winning a race in the NASCAR Grand National Division, West Series, gets the driver a invitation to the Toyota All-Star Showdown at Irwindale Speedway in October.
Brian Ickler, a driver for Bill McAnally Racing, became the latest to earn a spot in the Showdown. He won the West Series race Saturday night at Douglas County Speedway in Oregon, the first of his career and his first in 19 career West Series starts.
The West Series will be at Irwindale Speedway Wednesday night for the King Taco 200, the ninth race of the year.
There have been seven winners in West Series races this year. Scott Lynch won the season opener in Texas. He was followed by Joey Logano, Mike David, Sean Caisse, Mike Duncan and David Gilliland.
Gilliland, a driver from Riverside who races for Robert Yates Racing at the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series level, won the West Series race at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma. He also is a Showdown winner, earning a spot in the Showdown when he was racing in the West Series before moving up to Cup.

Jeff Gordon will make his 10th appearance as co-host of the "Live with Regis and Kelly" show on ABC. He is scheduled to appear on the July 9 show, after the Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
Gordon, the leader in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series standings, will fill in for Regis Philbin.
He will join Kelly Ripa in hosting the show.

Throw out the road course race at Infineon Raceway and Martin Truex Jr. has not finished outside the top three since winning the NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover International Speedway on June 4.
That's four top threes in the past four oval races. For the record, Truex was 24th at Sonoma.
Still, Truex is in the midst of an impressive run.
"Well, obviously we feel good about our program and our race cars," said Truex, driver of the No. 1 Chevrolet for Dale Earnhardt Inc. "I feel great about the job that the guys are doing for me and the cars they are bringing to the racetrack, and that's all you can really ask for. They are doing a great job and I'm real proud of them."
As good as his car has been running, Truex said there is still room for improvement before the start of the Chase, the 10-race playoff to determine the Nextel Cup Series champion.
"We've got a lot of confidence, but we still need to work hard and try to find areas where we can get better and just keep digging and try to be the best we can be when that last 10 comes around," Truex said.

By most accounts, Jeff Meendering did a stellar job as Jeff Gordon's crew chief for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at New Hampshire International Speedway.
Meendering became Gordon's interim crew chief after Steve Letarte was suspended by NASCAR for a rule violation at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma.
Letarte will not be able to attend the next five Cup races because Gordon's car did not pass inspection before qualifying for the race in Sonoma. The fenders on his car did not meet NASCAR specifications.
Meendering was calling the shots Sunday for Gordon and led him to a second-place finish at New Hampshire. Gordon was in position to challenge for the win, but Denny Hamlin was able to hold him off and win his first race of the year.
As difficult as it must have been, Gordon said Letarte tried not to interfere too much with Meendering's preparation, especially during the race.
"You can only do so much away from the racetrack," said Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports and the leader in the Nextel Cup Series standings. "Sometimes that can get confusing. You've got to have confidence in the person that you put up there on that box, and we have confidence in Jeff."
That doesn't Letarte was completely removed from preparing Gordon's car for the New Hampshire race. Gordon said Letarte had quite a bit of communication with the Meendering and the team all week relaying strategy and setups for qualifying and the race.
"So I feel like he was well prepped," Gordon said. "And I think that we had enough guys up there helping him between Ken Howes and our engineer and all. An additional person on the phone or texting would do is complicate things a bit more."

Dave Blaney won the first pole in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for Toyota for the race at New Hampshire International Speedway. He led the first 30 laps of the Cup race at New Hampshire, but handling problems relegated him to a 29th-place finish in the race.
“Our set-up just died in the long run, especially once some rubber got put down on the track," said Blaney, driver of the No. 22 Toyota for Bill Davis Racing. "Just a few laps into the race we were done because the car just got so tight. Then we would lose most of our brakes after about 10 or 12 laps so we just couldn’t go anywhere."
Blaney said his car felt as good in the race as it did in practice Saturday, "but it couldn’t seem to keep going after about 10 laps."
"Then they said a bunch of rubber got put down on the track and that made it feel tighter," Blaney said. "We just couldn’t seem to get the car adjusted right no matter what we did.”