NASCAR - Sports Rumors

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After winning the Sprint Cup race at Kansas Speedway two weeks ago, Jimmie Johnson provided a remarkable bit of self-evaluation.

"I sucked my whole life until this level of racing," the two-time defending Cup champion said.

That's why, Johnson said, it's hard for him to think of himself as the guy everyone is shooting at as this year's Chase for the Sprint Cup reaches its midway point with the Bank of America 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

"I know it is hard for everyone to understand, but that is me," said Johnson, who will start from the No. 1 spot in Saturday night's race after qualifying was rained out Thursday. "My whole life I have worked really hard and have done OK. ...Through it all, I ran just well enough to make it to the next spot and still have hope and show...that I could do the job."

Johnson said he tore up a lot of cars as he drive off-road trucks and then moved into stock cars in the American Speed Association and then what's now the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

"All I did was show up and try to learn," he said. "And at times I was a slow learner who made a lot of mistakes. ...But once I figured something out I didn't let go of it and that's really been my path throughout my career. It might take me a little while to sort something out but when I've got it, I've got it and I don't let go of it.

"It has worked out, I just didn't know that it would take 18 or 20 years of my racing career to develop all the skills needed and then I'd have my chance.''

Source: Charlotte Observer

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Greg Biffle isn't angry with teammate Carl Edwards for starting a 12-car crash at Talladega Superspeedway. Neither is Matt Kenseth. Kevin Harvick? Not quite over it.

Witnesses said Edwards and Harvick scuffled Thursday in the Nationwide Series garage at Lowe's Motor Speedway after Edwards walked into Harvick's garage stall and the two engaged in a heated argument. Harvick appeared to try to walk away but, witnesses said, Edwards reached for his shoulder to turn him back around. Harvick then shoved Edwards, who stumbled onto the hood of Harvick's car, and the two had to be separated.

Witnesses claimed a member of Harvick's crew had Edwards in a headlock as numerous people tried to separate the two.

Harvick was unavailable for comment.

Edwards didn't deny the two argued, but wouldn't discuss the incident.

"The deal with me and Harvick is between me and him and there's nothing else to talk about," he said. "I'm not talking about that. That's just what it is. We know where each other stand and that's it."

Source: Associated Press

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Regan Smith says having — and taking — the chance to win Sunday at Talladega was worth everything that happened on the controversial final lap.

"To be in that position is what you are there for and it was a great feeling," said Smith, the Cup rookie who passed Stewart for the lead only to have NASCAR rule he did it by going below the yellow "out-of-bounds" line on the inside of the tri-oval. Smith was penalized for the move and dropped to an 18th-place finish with Stewart getting the win. I can honestly say in a five minute period there I completely ran the full spectrum of emotions," Smith said. "They say in racing you have the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, and I felt all of that in a pretty short period of time."

Smith, driver of the No. 01 Chevrolets for Dale Earnhardt Inc., said he knew he had to try something on the final lap.

"If I had just sat back there in second place, I would have had 400 people at Dale Earnhardt Inc. mad at me," he said. " ... When you have that type of opportunity, you have to go for it.

"I told the guys on the plane coming home that I'd much rather finish 18th going for the win than finish second by not trying for the win, and they all knew exactly what I meant. If I had to do it again, I'd still go for it."

Source: Thatsracing.com

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We're only four races into NASCAR's 10-race Chase for the Cup and already half of the dozen drivers in the Chase are longshots to win the championship. Tony Stewart won the fourth race Sunday at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway and climbed to seventh from 11th in the standings. Yet he's still a distant 203 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson.

"We could still by theory win the next six races in a row and still not win the point championship," Stewart said after celebrating in Victory Lane.

That's because Johnson and the other drivers ahead of him will be tough to dislodge from the standings unless they have a string of poor finishes, an unlikely scenario. Even the typical wildness at Talladega didn't change the standings much.

Stewart's Toyota was the top survivor at the high-banked, 2.66-mile track where, to no one's surprise, there were multi-car crashes that collected several Chasers. They included Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr. — and Greg Biffle, who won the first two Chase races in Loudon, N.H., and Dover, Del.

Yet the top four Chase drivers coming into Talladega are still the top four. Johnson —- who won the third Chase race at Kansas a week earlier — leads Edwards by 72 points, Biffle by 77 and Jeff Burton by 99.

And for the drivers fifth through 12th, winning the Chase this year looks increasingly remote, even if they're still mathematically alive.

Source: Los Angeles Times

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Goodyear and NASCAR officials say tire wear has improved significantly during this week's testing at Indianapolis.

This is the second test conducted at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway since July's Allstate 400 turned into a series of 10- to 12-lap sprints because the tires wore out.

NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton said on Tuesday that cars in the tests were running at least 20 laps on Goodyear's new tires, built using a compound similar to that used during the second race in Dover, Del., this year.

Pemberton also did not appear overly concerned about tire problems during Sunday's race in Talladega, Ala. Several drivers had blowouts during the race, which Pemberton attributed primarily to punctures.

Source: Miami Herald

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e tempest of discontent that has followed Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway was as predictable as night following day.

Hey! Regan Smith got to the finish line first. He should have won.

No! He went below the yellow line to pass. That automatically knocks him out.

Hey! Tony Stewart forced Smith down there. So Smith should have won, anyway.

No! It doesn't matter. You go below the yellow line, you get the death penalty.

And so it goes.

And so it will continue. This will happen again at Daytona or Talladega, and there will be more controversy about it. As long as NASCAR remains inconsistent in its rules enforcement and allows areas to be even slightly gray, there will be controversy.

Although NASCAR stressed that the yellow-line rule is black and white, some past decisions have fallen somewhere in between those colors.

The solution is simple. Buy a bunch of asphalt-colored paint and do away with those yellow lines at Talladega and Daytona. Let the big dogs eat.

Racing is all about risk and reward. If there's room to race on the deep inside on the last lap at Daytona or Talladega, let those who want to take a chance by making a move there do it.

Source: SceneDaily.com

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Despite Regan Smith's last lap penalty for passing below the yellow line and Martin Truex, Jr.'s day ending in a crash, Sunday's AMP Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway was a shot in the arm for Dale Earnhardt Incorporated.

Team officials spent the week leading up to Talladega answering questions about its future in the wake of Paul Menard's announcement and pending departure to Yates Racing in 2009.

But while its business plans still remain up in the air, DEI's on track performance on Sunday was very solid.

All four of its cars qualified in the top ten and each of the quartet of drivers ran with the leaders at some point.

Source: RacingOne.com

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Promising efforts at Talladega Superspeedway and the addition of another driver and sponsor for the 2009 Sprint Cup Series season has Yates Racing looking ahead to the future. Despite Travis Kvapil and David Gilliland both being eliminated from Sunday's AMP Energy 500 in accidents, it was an up week for the team and co-owner Doug Yates.

The team signed Paul Menard as a third driver for the 2009 season and is coming off a pole run with Kvapil at Talladega.

"It's been a great week for Yates Racing," Yates said. "Max Jones and myself have worked hard to try to get Yates Racing back in a position where we would be competitive week-in and week-out and I feel very good about the job that we've done this year and getting re-established. This last week with signing Paul Menard as a driver for our organization and bringing the Menards sponsorship over as well is huge. We'll look back and probably say that was one of the moments that helped us take it to the next level where we want to be. We're all looking forward to next year."

Adding Menard to the stable no doubt bolsters the team which is planning on keeping Kvapil and Gilliland if sponsorship can be found to field a three-car effort.

Source: RacingOne.com

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This past weekend's on-track action at Talladega Superspeedway will be remembered for three notable things. One is the shear number of lead changes (64, the most since the Talladega 500 in July, 1984). Another is the now infamous judgment call that gave Tony Stewart the victory and dropkicked Regan Smith back to 18th. But the one underreported factor that was prevalent all weekend were Goodyear tires - as well as their propensity to fail once again on the top level of racing competition they work for.

Many of the commentators almost made it sound like a new issue at Talladega, but there have been a fair number of tire failures at the 2.66-mile track since the resurfacing two years ago. Also, this issue did not seem to be Goodyear's fault. If it were simply a Goodyear issue, then the ARCA race would not have been affected by tire issues. But it was, and the ARCA Series runs Hoosiers instead. In fact, the ARCA RE/MAX Series' ARCA RE/MAX 250 was marred by multiple blown tires. A right rear blowout on Brian Scott's No. 16 caused "The Big One" in Turn 1 on lap 12. That particular crash eliminated 11 cars from the race and damaged a couple of others... and it wasn't the only crash caused by tire failure.

Goodyear representatives basically didn't have a definitive answer for why all of these tire problems were occurring. ESPN, to their credit, interviewed Goodyear representative Rick Heinrich during the race. He admitted on air that Goodyear was almost 100 percent positive that David Reutimann's tire failure was caused by a basic cut. For the others, he said that those tires would have to be analyzed back at Goodyear's lab in Akron, Ohio.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr., after seeing the issues not only with his own car on Friday but in the ARCA race as well, opined that there could be an issue with the track surface. It's a surface at Talladega that, since the 2006 repave, has been glass-smooth but resulted in more abrasive wear. Indeed, if the track surface is the real problem, then we could be looking at a somewhat similar issue to what happened at Indianapolis - only not as extreme.

Source: The Frontstretch