Checkered Past

If your shop isn't on Papa Joe Hendrick Boulevard, it's over for you

If you had asked me going into Saturday night's Bank of America 500 how the Chase playoffs would play out, here's what I'd have told you: Johnson would run well at Charlotte, like he always does.

And, next week, at Martinsville, Jeff Gordon would run as well as he generally does there.

That would further separate the two Hendrick Motortsports drivers from the rest of the field and make the playoffs strictly a Hendrick show.

There are, at this writing, less than 30 laps to go and Gordon is leading at Lowe's Motor Speedway and Johnson is rallying from trouble. Oh, and trouble is about all the rest of the Chasers - except for Clint Bowyer - have had.

I still say it's a Hendrick show from here on out.

Anyone want to bet against that?

Of Talladega and Concord

By Bob Henry

I’m looking forward to this weekend’s races at Talladega Superspeedway. Always do. And next weekend, the circus will be in the Charlotte area. That’s Concord, N.C., to be more precise.

I don’t know whether there will be any resolution in the Bruton Smith vs. Concord Smackdown by then, but I have to wonder how all that impacts ticket sales at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. See Dennis Terry’s blog if you haven’t. There’s a good debate going on there about many of the issues involved.

The fall racing at Lowe’s Motor Speedway doesn’t have the attendance of May’s double-whammy weeks, with the all-star race and all the rest. May is still relatively early in the season and the excitement is still building for many fans.

By this time of year, though, there’s a lot more competition for the sports-entertainment dollar, as well as fans’ interest and time. Face it, some of the fan favorites are so far out of contention by now that some people simply care a lot less about stock car racing than they did in May.

If some fans are sitting on the fence, wondering whether they want to go or not, this week's headlines might help them decide. One way or the other.

For want of a tank of cheap gas

There’s no such track owner-neighbor animus around Talladega currently, but scenedaily.com is reporting that track officials expect smaller-than-usual crowds this weekend anyway. The site, part of the NASCAR Scene outfit, blames higher gas prices, saying that as many as 75 percent of Talladega’s ticket buyers travel from out of state.

The Jacques flak

Concern about having Canadian Jacques Villenueve on the track at Talladega apparently isn’t confined to the Nextel Cup garage. Jeff Gordon said last week he thought the former Formula One champion and Indianapolis 500 winner needed a few more NASCAR races under his belt before he strapped on a Talladega race.

Participants in a ThatsRacin.com poll agree, by a more than six-to-one margin.

I’ve voted with the minority and readily acknowledge that, yes, Villenueve has never raced at Talladega. But there have been lots of rookies, no shortage of bone-headed moves and plenty of "Big Ones" at the fast Alabama track over the years.

So why automatically assume that racing at Monaco, Monza or Spa prepares a driver any more or less for the rigors of Talladega than any number of laps on a short track - dirt or asphalt - in the Carolinas, Kansas or Missouri?

A good day for ESPN2

TV ratings for last weekend’s Nextel Cup race were down, which has happened so often this season that it’s getting harder every week to call it news. But the decline was significant, even if there was one of those silver linings attached.

Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Daily reported that ratings for the ABC portion of the afternoon and evening’s festivities were off 17.6 percent from what NBC posted a year earlier. The race coverage changed channels, to ESPN2, after the rain delays, and the numbers fell a little further, too.

But it was still the most-watched race ESPN2 has ever handled.

Total viewers? The sports business publication put that number at 4.1 million. The posse is still trying to track down those 71.9 million other NASCAR fans.

Good racing, good reading

Not to brag too much on our friend David Poole (I suspect he's pretty much immune), but he might have by now replaced the late James Brown as the "hardest-working man in show business."

The bragging part refers, specifically, to Thursday’s installment in his “Half the Battle” project about Jeff Burton and last season’s Chase.

Give it a look and see if his description of the toe-to-toe heavyweight match between Burton and Matt Kenseth at Dover last fall doesn’t vividly remind you not only of that great race, but why we're as nuts about this darned sport as we are.