Kathy's Pit Stop

Three out and two barely hanging on

Edwards swept Atlanta with his win on Sunday, while a few of the Chaser's had some more bad luck.

Three of the Chasers, Rusty Wallace, Kurt Busch and Jeremy Mayfield, are done.  Atlanta was their last chance to turn things around and try to gain some ground, but bad luck reared it's ugly head and they're out.

Mark Martin (143 points behind) and Matt Kenseth (155 points behind) are barely hanging on, they really need good finishes (which they had at Atlanta), but they also need the leaders to have trouble.  They could drop out next week.

Carl Edwards and Ryan Newman are tied (107 points behind), they could benefit with good finishes and the leaders having trouble, but they're not out yet.

The way things are going, I think it'll be between the top two, Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson, but you can't quite count Greg Biffle out yet.  I still think it's up to Stewart to win or lose it, but this is NASCAR and anything can happen.

Slugger Labbe out, NASCAR news and my pick for Atlanta

Ray Evernham has let go crew chief Slugger Labbe, effective immediately.

Wow.  I didn't see that coming. Labbe took Mayfield and the #19 into the Chase last year and this year, but they haven't been very productive in the Chase.  Obviously things aren't working as well as they would like and they will be doing some restructuring for the 2006 season.

Kenny Francis will be Mayfield's crew chief for this weekend at Atlanta, with car chief Mike Shiplett helping him out.  No word on if this will be for just this weekend or the rest of the season.

It's not the letting go of Labbe that's so surprising, the surprising part for me is that he was let go immediately, maybe there is a lot of tension behind the scene that we don't know about.

In other news, Wimmer and Bill Davis Racing will part ways at the end of the season.  Davis hasn't said who will drive the #22 next year and Wimmer doesn't have any set plans either, so all that is still up in the air.

Sterling Marlin signed a multi-year contract with MB2 Motorsports to drive the #14 next year, so Sterling will still be around after being let go by Ganassi.

Reed Sorenson, Rookie in the Busch Series, will make his Nextel Cup debut this weekend at Atlanta in the #39 Ganassi Dodge.  Sorenson will be full-time in both the Cup and Busch Series next year, which I think is a mistake by Ganassi.  Rookies are just being moved up too soon in my opinion.

My pick for the win at Atlanta this weekend is Tony Stewart.  Although I have my favorites and hope for them to win, I think Stewart will have a good day and probably win another one.  Stewart keeps the points lead, but not by much, I think Johnson will have another top-five finish.

Who's your pick for this weekend?

Gordon finally turns things around and wins

It seems like Jeff Gordon may have finally gotten that monkey off his back this weekend at Martinsville.  They had a good car and this time nothing seemed to go wrong, just a small overheating problem that was relieved by removing some tape, and he got the win at Martinsville.  They'll carry this momentum into the next four races of the season and hope they've got all their problems behind them.

Quite a few Chasers had problems and there was a record setting 19 cautions.  A  lot of the cautions seemed to be caused by impatience by some drivers and lap cars getting in the way.  I heard numerous drivers mention that the cars a lap or more down was pretty bad, some were down two or three laps and still got in the lead lap cars way.

Tony Stewart, once again, came out on top of the point standings.  He was lucky enough to miss all the trouble on the track and on pit road.  Johnson is still 2nd in points after a 3rd place finish in the race, only 15 points back.

It still seems like it's all up to Stewart, it's his championship to win or lose, if he falters and Johnson does well, Johnson could easily take over the points lead.  The rest of the Chasers need both Stewart and Johnson to falter to really gain anything and it really doesn't look like that's going to happen.

Craven wins and so does Musgrave

Ricky Craven won his first Craftsman Series Truck race on Saturday afternoon, opting for track position and won on tires that had 147 laps on them.

Dennis Setzer came into the race 5 points ahead of second place Ted Musgrave, but Setzer had problems and finished 19th.  With Musgrave finishing 4th and Setzer's continuing problems, Musgrave is now the points leader by 54 points.

Four races are left to go and it'll be down to just these two to see who gets the championship.  With Musgrave in the lead, it'll take him having problems for Setzer to be able to close up the points.  Maybe this will finally be Musgrave's year to win the championship.

Gordon's got the right idea

Yes, you heard that right.  Even though I am not a fan of Jeff Gordon, he's got the right idea about NASCAR keeping a closer eye on the tracks that they race it and I applaud the fact that he's speaking out about it, but will NASCAR listen?  Let's hope so.

In a recent article I read where Gordon talked to reporters at Martinsville, Gordon had this to say ~

"I can't understand how anybody can touch a track without NASCAR knowing about it or being able to provide input," Gordon said. "And it seems like only after we have major issues do we see them get involved.

"NASCAR needs to have experts (involved) who really know a lot about these tracks and these tires. NASCAR has to have somebody representing NASCAR in these things ... and Goodyear, and race teams too. The more we work together, the fewer issues we'll have."

He's right and that's pretty sad that NASCAR isn't more involved in this issue.  They oversee and mandate many other things.  If they don't want to do it, let the drivers form some kind of committee like F1 drivers have, but something needs to be done.

Also according to the article, some are concerned there may be problems at Atlanta, some drivers had tire issues at the testing session there too.  You know what NASCAR's solution to it is?  They are considering mandating a minimum tire pressure rule even though crew chiefs and drivers alike said tire pressure isn't the problem. Hopefully Atlanta won't turn into a wreckfest like Charlotte.

So I say, good for Gordon for speaking out!

Tire problems rear their ugly head again

Jimmie Johnson may have won, but that wasn't the big story of the night.  The big story was tires, right side tires to be specific.

Tires blistered and blew often and were the cause of 11 of the record 15 cautions on Saturday night, including many Chaser's.  It didn't matter where you were running, whether it be in the middle of the pack or the front, many drivers had tire problems when leading.

NASCAR even threw a second competition caution on lap 200 to mandate minimum tire pressure, telling teams to comply or face consequences.  It didn't help, many tires blew after they mandated and checked.

Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson are now tied for the lead because of Stewart's cut tire while in the lead and Johnson's win.  The points closed up a bit because of this, breathing new life into some Chaser's chances of a championship. 

Not everyone had blown tires, but just about all the teams had blistering and couldn't run 100% because of worries about how long the tires would last.  Although not always the case, the average seemed to be about 30 laps before the tires would give out.

The track is supposed to be resurfaced before the May race and hopefully that will help, but they supposedly fixed the problem after this years May race, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

The points now are...

1. Tony Stewart        Leader
2. Jimmie Johnson    Tie for the lead
3. Greg Biffle            -11
4. Ryan Newman        -17
5. Mark Martin           -51
6. Carl Edwards          -54
7. Rusty Wallace         -92
8. Jeremy Mayfield     -115
9. Matt Kenseth         -124
10.Kurt Busch            -142

On to Martinsville next week!

Martin and Kahne pull off the wins in the Kansas weekend

Mark Martin got his 35th Cup win on Sunday at Kansas.  Mark led the most laps and most importantly, he gained on points leader Tony Stewart, although ever so slightly and moved up two spots in the standings.

The top seven spots were taken by Chase drivers, with only Busch (14th), Mayfield (16th) and Newman (23rd) not finishing in the top ten.  The points are still fairly close from 2nd on back, but Stewart now holds a 75 point lead over 2nd place Ryan Newman.

Newman had a not so stellar day when he got caught up in the early wreck caused by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the team never seemed to be able to recover.  He went from starting the race only 4 points behind Stewart to 75 points behind after the race.

The Busch race on Saturday had an exciting finish, side by side at the line, with Kasey Kahne edging out Greg Biffle.  Biffle said after the race that if it had been the Cup race, he wouldn't have been so nice.  Sounded like he was a bit upset at being beat.

Back to the Cup series.  It seems like it's Stewart's championship to win or lose, if he messes up in any of the races, the points could close up and there could be a fight for the championship, but if he keeps being consistent with top 5's, it won't matter what the rest of them do.

Kudos to Johnson for apologizing

After seeing the replays of the wreck everyone was blaming on him, Jimmie Johnson admitted his role in the wreck that had Sadler and a few others hot under the collar.

During a teleconference Tuesday morning, Johnson had this to say ~

I don't what else I can say. I started a wreck. I've taken responsibility. It's my bad."

Good for him!  I'm glad to see him take responsibility, he's a good driver, no one can really dispute that, but you need the respect of your peers and fans and this will help.

He also went on to say he never intended to cause a wreck and I don't really think anyone actually believes he did, well maybe Sadler did right after the wreck before he cooled down, but apologizing and taking responsibility for it will go a long way in the garage and in the stands as far as respect for Johnson.

Big wrecks shake up the Chase

Idiotic moves in two separate incidents by Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman cause a shake up in the points.  Since I'm writing this while watching it, I don't know the exact points standings, but there were only about three or four of the Chase drivers not involved in some sort of incident at 'Dega.

The first big one was caused by Jimmie Johnson getting into the back of Elliott Sadler and spinning him.  Waltrip went for a wild ride in that one, flipping across the track, luckily for the safety equipment, he wasn't hurt.

The second big one was caused by Ryan Newman getting into the back of Casey Mears, spinning him and Riggs went flipping end over end in that one.

Both wrecks were similar, with only a few differences.  The one Newman caused was when he was supposedly bump drafting, except it was on the turn.  Bonehead move if you ask me.  I may be a fan of his, but that was a stupid move and it also ended up collecting his teammate in the wreck, but I don't think he really cares about that.  He did apologize over the radio after the wreck, but that's not much solace for all the teams that got damaged.

Johnson's wreck was similar with the fact that it damaged a lot of cars, of course, we heard a few renditions about what happened.  Over the radio we heard that he said someone hit him into Sadler, but when the car was getting fixed, he wasn't sure what happened.  He needs to look at the replays of the wreck, he hit Sadler, he caused the wreck, he needs to be a man and admit it was his fault.

Regardless of whether apologies were given or not, both moves were stupid.  Obviously Johnson hit (bumped, whatever you want to call it) Sadler too hard and spun him; Newman's move was equally stupid because he bump drafted in the turn.  Both were stupid moves, especially that early in the race.

*Update* Dale Jarrett wins!  Congrats Dale. 

Harvick's qualifying disallowed again and Berrier ejected from 'Dega

Kevin Harvick posted the second fastest qualifying lap on Friday, but will start 42nd on Sunday.  NASCAR found three violations in the rear of the car during post-qualifying inspection.

• the trunk area of the car was not properly sealed
• it wasn't properly vented to the outside, per the rule book
• the shock doors inside the truck were open, instead of closed, per the rule book

Penalties were expected early next week on the violations.

What did Harvick have to say about it?  He was clearly agitated and said - "Ask NASCAR, They don't know what they're doing from day to day."

As if that wasn't bad enough to dampen the moods of Harvick and the team, NASCAR ejected Berrier from the speedway for the weekend.  Berrier is still on probation from an earlier violation earlier in the year.  Richard Childress plans to work with the team atop the pit box on Sunday and they are hoping to get Gil Martin (Busch Series crew chief for RCR) to act as interim crew chief on Sunday.

I guess the confusing part of it for me is that he passed pre-qualifying inspection.  They get in line and from what I've seen, they don't usually touch the cars other than tire pressure and such while in line, run qualifying and then go through post-qualifying inspection.  Wouldn't they see them opening the trunk of the car?  I would think they would, since inspectors are usually all over the line, but that's just me.

It'll be interesting to see what penalties arise from this.