I want to be the first to make this point today: the Brickyard 400 can only be described as a (very unfunny) comedy of errors.  And those errors get pinned to the collars of no one but NASCAR and, even more, Goodyear.

It hasn't been a secret this season that tire wear has been a problem.  Indianapolis is known to be an abrasive track.  The tire test done here was done at a time of the year when the air and track temperatures were cooler.  It's not exactly rocket science to deduce that bring a softer tire to this track will result in major issues.

So far today -- at less than 50 laps into the event -- tire issues have plagued Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Juan Pablo Montoya, Carl Edwards, Mark Martin and Matt Kenseth.  And Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson have both run the tires completely down to the cords and were probably each a mere one or two laps from having a catastrophic blowout.  And that was on just 12 laps of racing!

NASCAR needs to postpone the remainder of the race until Monday, have Goodyear ship in about 500 harder-compound tires from their Ohio factory, and pick up from this point around 10:00 a.m. so the track is cool as long as possible.

This is sad.  Just plain sad.  And we, as fans, are being ripped off.  This isn't a race, it's a battle of attrition.

I will continue this thread as the day rolls on.  Chime in with your thoughts, because I know you all were expecting a race today, not this load of ####.

I'm about to make a startling admission that isn't nearly so startling when you find out what I was up to this weekend. Here goes: I didn't watch a single lap of Daytona competition.

Go ahead, call me nuts. I have a great reason. I am a NASCAR fan second; I'm a racing fan first. I spent the weekend in one of the national hotbeds of dirt track racing -- western Pennsylvania. I attended near-rainout events at Dog Hollow Speedway, a small, well-run track that runs five divisions each week; and Thunder Valley Raceway, my hometown track in Central City, Pennsylvania. It was fun. It was great racing. And, for a combined $25, I got more enjoyment than I have at any $100-per-ticket NASCAR event at Dover International Speedway. More on that in a minute.

NASCAR is now a traveling circus. Yes, it's fun. But the quality of the racing is way down in recent years. Given the chance to see other forms of racing -- where the drivers' pure passion for the sport trumps any amount of money they can win or lose in a given night -- I'm going to jump on it. And until the powers that be figure out how to rein in the upward-spiraling costs of doing business in the sport, things won't change. Only when the smaller teams can afford to compete will the competition return to its glory days of the 1970s through the early 1990s.

A little background on western Pennsylvania's racing pedigree: it is to late-model racing what the midwest is to modifieds.  Some of the best in the business have come from that area, including guys like Tom Peck (who raced for about 10 years in the Busch series) and current World of Outlaws Late Model driver Rick Eckert, who won the 1999 Dream 100 at Eldora, as well as the 2001 and 2002 Xtreme DirtCar Series championships.  Oh, also some guy named Chubb Frank...

So I ventured into the wilderness that makes up most of the stretch between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg. Dog Hollow is a place so far back in the sticks that it makes my hometown of 1,258 people look like a megalopolis. The stands are nothing more than bleachers on the side of a dirt hill, with some gravel beneath to keep the mud and dust down. We (my brother and I) drove 50 miles through constant downpours to make our first-ever visit to the track. Literally a half-mile from the track, the rain stopped. As proof that God loves dirt track racing, the only clear spot in the sky -- I kid you not -- was directly over the track. All night long. The racing was as good as I've ever seen, with the pure stocks providing the most entertainment. It's not often a guy enters turn three in third place and a second and a half behind on the final lap and winds up winning, but that's exactly what went down. A hard-charging second place driver finally made a run to the outside in turn one as they took the white flag and made it stick, getting a nose ahead off two. He had half a car-length in three, gave plenty of room to the previous leader, and then...got clobbered. Clearly unhappy about the prospect of losing the race after leading from the green flag, the previous leader drove in waaaaaaaaay too deep and simply plowed the other driver across the track and over the berm (no walls at Dog Hollow). As entertaining as it was, it was painful to watch someone come from the back of the pack, take the lead on the final lap, and then not finish the race. The other guy should be ashamed of himself for what he did.

The following evening, we made another rain-soaked trip, but this time it was only a few miles. It had rained off and on all day long, but not on the side of the mountain where the track sat. Again, the skies threatened but miraculously remained clear above the track. This time, however, it was the "lowly" four-cylinder class that provided the best entertainment. Father and son...uncle and nephew...brother and brother...whatever it was, all we were really sure of was that the guys who battled for the win were family. One led nearly the entire event, the other had fought traffic for the first half of the 33 lap (yes, 33 laps in a four-cylinder race on a half-mile track; it was a long night). Similar story, really. This time, the hard-charger managed to get by briefly with about seven laps to go, only to get passed again. He spent the remainder of the race trying to get by on the outside, only to pull a Days-of-Thunder-esque move coming off turn four on the final lap, going low after faking high getting into three. The come-from-behind win was complete, with a margin of victory that couldn't have measured more than three inches. Of course, at the speed they were traveling, I would imagine he won by about two and a half seconds.

About the 33-lap feature: the night was known as the "Windmill 100" -- the "windmill" part had no significance to racing, but rather was a reference to the 14 newly-installed wind-powered turbines visible from the stands as if they were put there for the sole purpose of being seen from the race track.  The "100" consisted of 33 laps each per class being run Saturday night.  The final lap was actually a reference to the pace laps for each event, with the pole position being vacated in memory of track founder (and long-time family friend) William "Billy" Will, who passed on earlier this year.

What did you watch? Bad drafting and utter proof that Toyota just has too much horsepower? Suckers.

• Apparently, DEI is for sale.  This whole thing stinks like my daughter's diapers.  Last year, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. offered to purchase 51 percent of the company but was denied.  A year later, the company is up for grabs?  Hopefully, Junior can get the right kind of scratch together to make a bid -- and, given the lowly state of the company, he could do it on the cheap.  It would be a real shame to see that team fall into non-Earnhardt hands.  Theresa Earnhardt may know how to run a business, but she can't run a race team.  Now it's time to put it in the hands of someone who can.
• I read a columnist yesterday who was praising J.J. Yeley's performance as a sub for Tony Stewart, claiming that J.J. can perform in a winning car.  First, I hardly consider a top-20 finish "performing," and second, Yeley spent three years behind the wheel of the #18 car -- the very same team that has won one out of every three races this year.  Sorry, Mr. M...J.J. should stick to open-wheel.
• Dale Jr.'s eighth-place finish was a disappointment after he led the most laps, but it was good for a jump to second in points when combined with Jeff Burton's hard luck.  This is now the highest he's been since he led following his October Talladega victory in 2004, if memory serves.  Kyle Busch's dominance will be hard to overcome, but if this team starts to sizzle at the right time, the younger Earnhardt could make his strongest run at a championship yet.
  

If you read what I wrote here Saturday, you would understand why I believe Sunday's race ending short because of rain is sweet, sweet irony.  Come on, the sponsor was able to get the race expanded by a single lap so they could say they "go the extra mile," but then the race was cut 17 laps short (if I'm off a little on that number, oh well; I pulled it out of thin air)?  That's divine intervention at work.

So, a company called LENOX Industrial Tools -- makers of things like pipe wrenches -- had their namesake event cut short by, essentially, a water leak.  Sure, God's great expanse is a pretty big thing in which to fix a leak, but it still makes for classic, reap-what-you've-sown humor.

Here are the high-and-lowlights of the weekend:

• Juan Pablo, I'd like to shake your hand and slap you in the back of the head at the same time.  Sure, Shrub deserved a good punting after all the arrogance he's displayed on the track since Day One in the big leagues, but that's not the way to do it.  Take a lesson from Kevin Harvick (you know, the guy you got up close and personal with last year at Watkins Glen?): wait until you get out of your car at some point, then go after him.  It's a lot more entertaining for the fans, and you aren't going to risk taking out half the field doing it, either.
• Jamie, hire a new spotter.  The only two people in New Hampshire who didn't know Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was pitting were you and the guy telling you where to go.
  
• Jimmie, you get the quote of the week.  While he's gotten better about it lately -- probably because of the six-year championship drought that is likely to expand to seven at the end of November -- Jeff Gordon* has walked around for a decade acting like he's entitled to whichever piece of asphalt he wants, and if you're in his way then that's just too bad for you.  Calling your own teammate -- your own shop mate! -- a "spoiled brat" on the radio after he failed to give you any semblence of room off the corner?  Priceless!**
• Is it just me, or did Tony Stewart look like he was about to cry after the race?  A softer, kinder, gentler, post-menopausal Smoke?
• Casey Mears led a bunch of laps -- two days after the world found out he wasn't going to have a job after the season ended.  When was the last time all four Hendrick drivers were mentioned in the same race recap?
• And, finally, a shout-out to race winner Kurt Busch and, more importantly, our own Kristen, the eternal Kurt optimist.  Miller Lite all around!  And then a beer to wash it down!
  

* - I am not a fan of Jeff Gordon.

** - Or Jimmie Johnson.

Marketing has taken a very prominent role in NASCAR over the last two decades.  The selling power of guys like Dale Earnhardt, Sr., Jeff Gordon and now Dale Earnhardt, Jr. has brought NASCAR from country music and Budweiser to rock 'n roll and fine wine.  Some teams have sponsors lining up to make sales pitches, whereas it used to be the exact opposite.

Let me point something out before I run with this thought any further: I am all for adjusting the race distances when necessary.  I read this week the idea of shortening all races to around 300 laps/miles and only counting green-flag laps.  Having essentially lived at the local dirt tracks in western Pennsylvania as a kid, I'm a huge fan of not counting caution laps.

But changing race distances should be reserved for strategic purposes, not marketing.  The LENOX Industrial Tools 301 (as in, "we go the extra mile")?  Come on guys, really?  The Aarron's 312 and 499 races are bad enough, but at least those are product/service tie-ins, and not just a mockery of cheesy, over-used, we-can't-think-of-anything-better marketroid drivvel.  Has NASCAR really come to this?

Officials have spent the first half of the season trying to convince us that they want to "get back to basics" this season.  Well, guys, listen up.  The list of ways to get back to basics boils down to these things that made NASCAR so entertaining for five decades before it became the Mongolian Cluster$%@& is is today:

1. Drivers used to have personalities.  Darrell Waltrip was known for his big mouth when he was young.  The fist-fight in turn three at Daytona in 1979 was one of the biggest reasons NASCAR has "made it" in mainstream sports.  And Jimmy Spencer knocking Kurt Busch's block off?  That was a thing of beauty.  And if the talking heads at NASCAR want us to believe them when they tell us they're letting the drivers be themselves this year, they really should try harder to convince us than privately telling the drivers to shut up about the new car's problems and actually fix the problems.  Actual quality goes a lot further in the long run than perceived quality.
2. Let them race.  All the boundaries NASCAR has put up "in the name of safety" has taken away the exciting, ballsy moves guys used to make.  Telling them they have to race between the yellow line and the wall, have to cross the commitment line entering the pits, can't race back to the yellow flag, etc. reminds me of the carnival scene from The Jerk (with Steve Martin) where he is explaining to a guy what he cn win if his character can't guess his weight: "Uh, anything in this general area right in here. Anything below the stereo and on this side of the bicentennial glasses. Anything between the ashtrays and the thimble. Anything in this three inches right in here in this area. That includes the Chiclets, but not the erasers."
3. Include the manufacturers.  Now, more than ever, Ford, Chevy and Dodge need NASCAR.  This is an American sport and, while I generally have no issue letting foreign manufacturers compete, I do take issue with the amount of money NASCAR is allowing Toyota to pump into the system while the other three are struggling to simply break even in the marketplace.  Sure, it's their own fault they've fallen by the wayside in auto sales, but NASCAR essentially kicked the manufacturers out of the sport when they went to a common template.  The manufacturer battle used to be a very entertaining part of the sport; now it hardly gets mentioned, because you have to see the stickers on the front of a car to know what company "made" it.  There is no manufacturer identity, and therefore no reason to actively participate.  Toyota has taken advantage of this, and the fact that their entry into the sport was the number one story line entering the 2007 season.
4. Get rid of the cookie-cutter tracks.  I don't think I need to elaborate on this one besides this statement: the fans want variety, and we aren't getting it anymore.  In a four-race span during the chase, the series goes to Texas, Charlotte and Atlanta -- three tracks with nearly identical layouts.  At the very least, take two of those races out of the chase and give us something unique.
5. And, finally, stop giving in to the almighty dollar.  It may be vital to the sport, but it shouldn't drive every last decision you make.  The founders of the sport are, no doubt, turning laps in their graves right now.

Now, on to the predictions.

This looks like it could be an off-week for Toyota.  Only one Toyota wound up in the top 10 in each of the first two practices, and the best in Happy Hour was Kyle Busch in 12th.  To top it off, only two qualified in the top 20 (A.J. Almendinger in 10th and Denny Hamlin in 12th).

From all appearances, this could be a battle between Juan Montoya and Kevin Harvick.  Montoya was in the top three in each practice, and was the fastest in both race-trim runs.  A weak qualifying run may hamper him, though, as he has a long road ahead of him from his 32nd starting spot if he plans to get to the front.  Harvick was first, sixth and fourth in the three practice sessions, and has a much-better fourth starting spot.  The other contenders are the usual suspects: the three J's (Jeff, Jimmie and Junior) from Hendrick Motorsports, who all had solid practices -- although Junior (fifth) is the only one of the three starting in the top 15 tomorrow -- Kyle Busch with solid but unspectacular practice runs, and Greg Biffle.  The darkhorse could be Dario Franchitti, who 1) is well-rested from his injury recovery, 2) has been no worse than 13th in practice, and 3) starts seventh tomorrow.

My call?  Kevin Harvick wins the LENOX Industrial Tools 303 -- because, with the history this place has, there will be a wreck in the final few laps of the scheduled distance, making the drivers "go the extra two miles."

Finally, a fantasy update.  Sunday Drive 2008 is still hanging around the top five in the Monster Milers.  Last week I gave up fifth spot, but thanks to a close battle at the top and five bonus points from yesterday's qualifying, I've got a three-point margin on sixth place.  If not for engine woes for Boris Said, it probably would have been a better week than fifth out of 14.

This week's team is Clint Bowyer, Bobby Labonte, Robby Gordon and Brian Vickers.  Not exactly a team full of all-stars, but I'll live with it.  Bowyer won here last year and has been okay in practice, as has Gordon -- another past-winner.  It could be a good week or a very slim one -- there's no in-between with this unpredictable group.

I was talking with some relatively new NASCAR fans over the last week, and it amazed me that few people remember Infineon Raceway being called Sears Point.  To me, it will always be such, just as Lowe's Motor Speedway will always be Charlotte, North Carolina will always be The Rock (if it ever makes it back into the NASCAR schedules) and New Hampshire Motor Speedway wil forever remain New Hamshire International Speedway (or, perhaps, just "Loudon").

It's really interesting to look back at how the Sonoma race course has changed over time.  I can still vividly remember Dale Earnhardt, Sr. driving through the "Carousel" (turn six, if I recall correctly) with a slim margin over Mark Martin on the final lap of what would be his only career road course victory.  That was the premiere -- nay, the only -- high-speed passing point on the racetrack.  Now it's been replaced, or at least circumvented, by the Chute.  Then they made the chute boring by putting a low-speed corner at the bottom that, strangely enough, is almost impossible to use for a passing opportunity.

I bring this up because yesterday's race made me feel a little nostalgic.  You know, back to the days when races at the California track were exciting and, um, eventful.  Anyone else remember the accident involving Derrike Cope and John Krebbs in which the two guys plowed through a tire barrier, cleared the embankment, and Krebbs went tumbling end-over-end after getting about 20 feet of air?  Well, you don't have to -- it's right here:



Those were the glory days of road-course racing in NASCAR.  Nowadays, Infineon is a pretty crappy place to watch a race.  Thank God for the fact that I live on the other side of the country and, thus, have no urge to buy a ticket.

Yesterday, there were two -- two -- passes for the lead on the track.  And one of those was in the middle of a wreck after leader Greg Biffle suffered a severe brain cramp and decided to go foot-to-the-floor the whole way up the hill.

The Oh-####-I-Made-It Award goes to David Gilliland, who somehow managed to be the only one of five cars in the #### created by Kevin Harvick's attempted powerslide just before the Chute to stay pointed in the right direction.  He went from getting passed for fifth to being in second place.

Tony Stewart was my pick to win yesterday, and it seemed from lap 30 on that the racing gods were simply conspiring against him.  He gets caught having not pitted prior to the first caution and fell way back in the pack -- all the way back to 39th, actually.  Then, after making his way back to the front, he got punted by Harvick.  But, it's hard to keep Smoke down, and he rallied back for a top-ten finish.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. kept up his string of consistency, picking up his 14th finish in the top 15 -- his only finishes outside the top 15 were California, when he was wiped out by Casey Mears, and Dover, where he nearly avoided the big one early on before being plowed from behind.  As of now, he is on pace to match or exceed his career-best 2004 numbers for top-fives (16 in '04, 7 so far in '08), top-tens (21 in '04, 11 so far in '08) and percentage of laps led (.11%).  He also suffered four DNFs that season; this year he has been running at the end of every race.  Compared to '07, he's on pace to obliterate his numbers, having already equalled his top-five total, is just one away from equaling his top-ten total, and has surpassed his win total.  In fact, at this time last year, he was mired in 16th in the standings.  This year, he has improved by 13 spots to third, behind Infineon winner Kyle Busch and the uber-consistent Jeff Burton.  Not bad, especially considering he currently has a 174-point advantage on teammate and two-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson, and 215 points on Jeff Gordon -- also a teammate, and a four-time champion.  Nay-sayers, beware.  He's proving the equipment at DEI has held him back.

Look for a similar break-through for Martin Truex, Jr. when he leaves at the end of the season.  And he will leave, mark my words.  Rumors have him in the new fourth team at Richard Childress Racing.  But that seat in the number 5 car could be awfully tempting, considering his good buddy Dale Jr. would be sharing a garage with him once again.

Well, that's all I have time for right now.  I'll be back to the normal schedule (preview on Friday, follow-up on Monday) this week.

Editor's Note: I give up. I had a really good intro to this thing, but FoxSports.com censors 97 percent of the English language, so it ruined it for anyone who wants to leave censoring on. Here's the bland version instead.

That 800-pound #### (if that's censored, and you don't want to disable censoring, just know that it's a hairy jungle animal that tends to hang out in the mist) that sleeps wherever it wants? It needs to find a new place to rest, because there is no longer room at the inn on Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s back.

The conspiracy theorists are already at it. Junior passed the pace car, he should have been black flagged for it, blah, blah blah.

Get over it, people. He's not the first to pass the pace car and won't be the last. And of the hundreds -- literally, hundreds -- of times it has happened in my 27 years, I have never once seen NASCAR do more than warn people about it unless it involved passing the pace car while the driver was attempting to get on to or off of pit road. Never. End of discussion. I've even heard that NASCAR warned him three times to stop it -- amazing, since the only mention of it during the broadcast said that "NASCAR has told the 88 team that they will be penalized if they pass the pace car again" or something very similar to that. And I was tuned to his pit communications the entire race, too. Eury only made mention of it to Earnhardt once.

Another good one I read a few minutes ago was that Kasey Kahne pushed Junior across the finish line, in which case it shouldn't have counted. There are two things wrong with that: 1) If Junior couldn't maintain an acceptable speed, Kahne would have been declared the winner. Why, in God's great name, would he have helped a competitor? And 2) I had Junior on RaceView as well, and was keeping a very close watch on his speed through three and four, and down the front stretch. He crossed the finish line at around 75 miles per hour, and never once accelerated as if someone was pushing him.

What about Vickers? I can't comment, they didn't show where he was at the moment of caution. Considering the two wildly different perspectives in the Steven Wallace/Carl Edwards incident under caution at Kentucky Saturday night, it's obvious that what a driver sees through his windshield is often very different from what actually happened.

The best of all was that "NASCAR gave Junior two cautions." Okay, let's analyze: first of all, Sam Hornish, Jr. spun on lap 197, but didn't hit anything. Could the race have continued green? Possibly -- but had that been the case, it would have helped Junior if it had stayed the way it was. He had enough fuel in the tank, as we saw, to get to lap 203 with four laps of caution. Using the two-caution-laps-to-one-green-lap rule, and considering the Hornish yellow was four laps long, he would have made it to lap 201 -- more than he needed. Also keep in mind that Kurt Busch spun earlier in the race all by himself and they threw a yellow. For once, NASCAR was actually consistent in their caution flags.

And the final caution was obvious: Patrick Carpentier spun on the white-flag lap with other cars coming behind him. In this situation, and not including the 2007 Daytona 500, NASCAR has always thrown a caution in the name of driver safety. Plain and simple. If you don't believe me, go look at the video from previous races, all the proof you need is right there.

The fact of the matter is that there are people who don't feel Earnhardt has lived up to the family legacy, or is capable of it. I refer you to the 2004 season, in which he won six races and only fell out of contention for the championship after he misjudged how close he was to Carl Edwards at Atlanta. He's finished in the top five in points three times in his career, and did an awful lot the last two years in what can only be called inferior equipment. Last season alone, he had five engine failures while in the top 10. This year he has the resources to be competitive, and he's leading the Hendrick stables -- a team that includes two drivers with a combined six championships.

He's going to be scrutinized -- it comes with the family name. His dad spent years under the microscope because he was "Ralph Earnhardt's kid." But to say some of the things I've seen this evening on message boards is just ludicrous. A lot of people are calling it a cheap win because it was a fuel mileage win. Well, guess what? Here's a quick list of guys who have won races because they could go further on gas than anyone else: Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt, Sr., Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton, Mark Martin -- just to name a few. Heck, Jimmie Johnson did it at Phoenix earlier this year. These are distance races, not sprints; the point is not to have the fastest car, but to be the one who gets to the prescribed distance first. Sure, racing in traffic has a huge impact on it, but pit strategy is part of the game, and fuel mileage has a long history at Michigan. If you don't like it, tune in to the World of Outlaws. They don't make pit stops.

And one final word on the fuel mileage: Junior made a pit stop on lap 150. That ultimately required that he drive 53 laps on a single tank. He was running lap speeds around 165 to 167 miles per hour at a point in the race when the guys not saving fuel were averaging 171 to 173 miles per hour. That saved him four, maybe five laps. There were also seven caution laps, plus the extra measures he took during those caution laps (literally coasting with the engine shut off for more than half of each caution lap). He had been getting 41-42 laps per pit stop, and Eury, Jr. originally calculated he would be six laps short. That's 44 laps on a tank. In reality, he only needed to make up nine laps between all the caution laps and the fuel-saving tactics.

Yes, I'm biased toward the Earnhardt family. It's harder for me to see things involving that family objectively at times. But, for the love of God, if you're going to call B.S. on the win today, have at least half o####ood argument.

It's no secret that running a NASCAR team is expensive.  The old cars, from the numbers I can remember, cost several hundred thousand dollars each.  The new car is supposed to cost less, but the up-front costs can't possibly be much different.  The savings are supposed to come from uniformity -- a car used at Talladega has the same basic configuration as a car used at Martinsville.

Unfortunately, the old car put such a distance between the top teams and the rest of the pack that it's hard for the backmarkers to catch up now.  The gap is huge, and now, when testing is needed most to further acclimate the drivers to the new car, the teams that had the most success with the old car have the greatest financial reserves from which to draw in order to pay for test sessions outside the NASCAR-sactioned events.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. recently gave some insight into how often the front-running teams test compared to the also-rans, indicating that he has tested more in the last two months with his new team at Hendrick Motorsports than he usually did in a year at Dale Earnhardt, Inc.  With seven championships since 1995, Hendrick has achieved the kind of success that allows for those kind of expenditures.  Joe Gibbs Racing has won three championships since 2000, and they employ the current championship-leading team.

This week, we saw Petty Enterprises effectively change ownership.  While the Petty family still maintains a large stake in the company, majority ownership is now by a large investment firm.  This isn't the first time we've seen outside investment in NASCAR, either: Bobby Ginn had no physical interest in auto racing prior to entering the sport as an owner.  The ownership team of the Boston Red Sox -- technically a team within a competing sport -- have purchased a large stake of what used to be known as Roush Racing, now Roush-Fenway Racing.

NASCAR has clearly missed the obvious signs.  The sport has its roots deep in the soil of American automobile manufacturers, but as the tree has grown taller, the new growth is getting further and further from those roots.  The cars on the track once were the same cars we drove on the street.  Now, the only visible difference between a Ford Fusion and a Toyota Camry is the nameplate.  Toyota has a good reason to pump money into the teams: they're the new kid on the block, and they are trying to make a name for themselves in the only racing continent where they haven't already made a huge splash.  The money they have thrown at their teams -- particularly Gibbs Racing and Team Red Bull -- likely exceeds the gross domestic products of several developing nations.

The incumbent manufacturers, on the other hand, have less reason than ever to financially back their teams.  What was once a test bed for development and a high-speed showroom for their car models is now nothing more than a four-hour-long commercial each Sunday.  And considering how little resemblance there is between the cars on the track and the cars in their show rooms, there's just no direct tie from the race cars to the vehicles in our garages besides a name plate.  The manufacturers know this, the fans know this, and the sponsors know this.  The only people who seem to be missing the message are the people inside NASCAR HQ.

NASCAR desperately needs to cut costs.  The only way to do this is to get the manufacturers involved in the sport again.  That's a difficult task right now, considering the struggles of America's Big Three over the last decade, but proper planning could lead to a huge step forward for both sides. 

Something has to be done, before Victory Lane is renamed Wall Street.

Contrary to what the subject claims, we'll do this chronologically. Come back in time with me five days.

Last Sunday saw one of the better Pocono races in recent memory. That's not saying much, because Pocono has never been a nail-biter. As Klvalus said Monday, I almost nailed it with my call of Carl Edwards winning after he and Kasey Kahne took turns dominating. In a way, I was very close: the two had the best cars, but a late flat tire almost derailed Edwards' day entirely. The most exciting thing to watch was Edwards' late-race run through the field, from 32nd to 9th in the final 20 laps. That was followed closely by Dale Earnhardt, Jr. managing to pull off a top-five finish on older tires than the rest of the leaders. The finer points:

• I'd like to take a moment here and praise NASCAR's RaceView. If you can swing the $69.95 annual fee, it's well worth the money at less than $6 per month. It was insane watching Kyle Busch's accident look exactly the same on a computer simulation as it did in real life. NASCAR has a real winner here.
• Speaking of Busch's accident, what was he thinking? His spotter never actually cleared him, and he relied on his instincts. He's proven time and again that, while he can handle a car with the best in history, his instincts almost always result in mangled sheet metal. He has a long way to go before he can be considered a top-tier driver, no matter how many times he wins.
• I was somewhat impressed with TNT's RaceBuddy. The multiple camera angles are fun to watch, but it has a deal-breaking flaw for me: there's no way to completely disable the audio. I prefer to listen to a specific driver at any given time, but it gets drowned out by the track audio from RaceBuddy. I hope they fix that, because I'd like to see more of it. It's a novel idea if nothing else.
• The high line is now the fast way around two out of the three corners at Pocono. Satan just called, he asked for his winter coat.

This week, NASCAR got sued! A former black female official (if you haven't heard about this already, trust me, her gender and race are critical to the story) has sued the organization for wrongful termination, sexual harassment and racial and sexual discrimination. I will withhold most judgment, but for now, but I will say this: most of me wants to call B.S. on the case based solely on the fact that her claims encompass almost every current, pop-cultural stereotype of both blacks and women, as well as the stereotypical country bumpkin. I've lived in Texas and I currently live in North Carolina; to hear her tell it, NASCAR employs every #### in the south. That, and her case reads like a press release for an joint venture between the NAACP and the Women's Lib movement.

This week's fantasy update: Carl Edwards (9th), Martin Truex, Jr. (17th), David Reutimann (19th) and Jamie McMurray (20th) gave me all four drivers in the top half of the finishing order; unfortunately, only one was in the top 10. Not the best two-week stretch I've ever had. This week it looks like Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Ryan Newman and A.J. Almendinger as the starters right now, but I have Carl Edwards, David Ragan, Kyle Bush and Travis Kvapil waiting if my starters don't show me something in practice tomorrow.

On to Michigan! Starting with Pocono, we're now in the throes of the Fuel Mileage Fast Lane™. Two trips each to Pocono and Michigan, plus two road courses and a venture to Auto Club Speedway (California), mean that seven of the twelve races between last weekend and Labor Day Weekend have a significant chance to have the outcome decided by who can go the furthest on a tank of gas. Bristol is in there somewhere, though, as well the Soft-drink Swap 400 (Pepsi 400 becomes the Coke Zero 400 this year), so it's not an entire loss this summer.

Who takes the checkers this week? Well, I'm torn between Kenseth and Edwards as the "typical favorites" here. The recent surge by Red Bull Racing's Brian Vickers and A.J. Almendinger could be the x-factor, though. It's a big, wide-open track, and the Toyotas definitely have a horsepower advantage. If Hendrick Motorsports can get a few more horses this week, they could be a threat too. Jeff Gordon is historically good here, and Earnhardt has been up front here a lot over the last two seasons. But Kasey Kahne has won here, too, and he's the hot driver in the series right now. Add in the fact that qualifying got rained out and this week really is wide open. Scary.

The Final Word: NASCAR hastily called a meeting today for all drivers and team members. The content of the meeting is up for grabs at this point: NASCAR officials say it was entirely a reminder that the racing is all about the fans, and that nothing else was discussed. Drivers seemed to hear, "stop pissing and moaning about the new car," and claim that the topic of the fans never came up. The two sides only agreed that the pending lawsuit was not part of the discussion. InvertedMind sides with the drivers; NASCAR officials had time to align their stories and rehearse responses. The drivers were caught off guard by it, whatever it was about, and all had independent opinions that NASCAR is fed up with the competitors throwing the car under the bus. If that's the case, they better stop saying it's about the fans, and that they want the drivers to express themselves more. Telling them what they can't say is bordering on fascism.

Pocono is one of the harder tracks to predict. It's not that it's got such incredible competition -- on the contrary, as I alluded to a few days ago, it becomes quickly clear who found the setup and who didn't. No, the predictions become difficult because Pocono is a schizophrenic racetrack.

Sometimes, there are 10 cautions and a late-race shootout. Other times, it's a fuel-mileage race (isn't it weird how some tracks have a tendency to be decided by fuel mileage, and there's always a bunch of guys really close to running out, but other tracks never seem to have the pit sequence come up just right for fuel to be a factor?). And, still, other races wind up with a 30- or 40-lap green-flag run at the end that results in a typical pit sequence, after which that one guy who found the setup late in the race runs away and hides.

Add to that the fact that the CoT(oday) (I'm going to trademark that...) makes its Pocono debut tomorrow, and it looks like we're setting up for either a really sloppy race or a snoozer, by the standards of casual fans. I, for one, do not believe in the equation that states that "wrecks equal exciting racing" but that's a topic for another post. As for the potential for a sloppy race, I'd have to say the chances are marginal at best, for two reasons:

1. The "patch" that runs from the exit of the tunnel turn through turn three has made it possible to run two-wide competitively through what was once a hard place to negotiate side-by-side; and
   
2. We've already seen from most of the races this year that this car is orders of magnitude more difficult to get sliding sideways.

So, what does Swami I.M. predict for tomorrow? Well, considering my own mother rarely takes me seriously (and with good reason), I feel it's safe to predict the following without potential for ridicule: Joey Lagano will begin running to Pocono from Nashville at the moment the green flag drops, arrive in Pocono by lap 75, do a green-flag driver swap with Casey Mears* (who should be four or five laps down in a beat-up race car by that time anyway), fight back to the lead lap without the aid of a Lucky Dog free pass, and then win it going away. Given that he has -- and this is just hearsay at this point -- moved mountains with nothing more than a paper clip and a dirty look*, and is rumored to be the man who will bring peace to the Middle East**, it seems like a safe bet.

And, in case I'm wrong about that one (highly likely since Lagano isn't scheduled to be anywhere near Long Pond, Pennsylvania by my calculations), I'll give you a backup prediction (if Jeff Gordon can wreck his primary in the All-Star race, jump in a backup car and go on to win, I think I have at least a snowball's chance in Maui to be right here): Carl Edwards wins after he and Kasey Kahne take turns dominating throughout the day.

• So, how did InvertedMind's fantasy team do last week? Greg Biffle (3rd), Martin Truex, Jr. (6th), Jimmie Johnson (7th) and Sam Hornish, Jr. (18th) combined for 341 points, good for 5th out of 14 for the week. Coming in to this week, I had leap-frogged from 6th to 4th overall.
• This week's fantasy team: Carl Edwards, Martin Truex, Jr., Jamie McMurray and David Reutimann. The one I am most iffy about on the list is Reutimann, but not so much because of his 36th-place starting spot. The real problem is how ready he'll be tomorrow after racing to a hard-fought 3rd-place finish in Nashville tonight. I suppose only time will tell.
• The Final Word: I'm not entirely sure what to make of TNT's "RaceBuddy" that will debut on NASCAR.com tomorrow. It's free, and having access to an in-car camera at all times is pretty cool. I also like the pit road camera, and fan chat will add to the experience. Here, though, are my top three concerns:
• Is it just me, or is the "mascot" somewhat stereotypical of the southern NASCAR fan? A baseball cap that seems to be styled after a trucker cap, work boots, and what appears to be the beginnings of a mullet. Hand the guy a Budweiser, take his shirt off and paint a big, red "3" on his chest*** and he'd look like every male fan on top of an infield RV.
• The in-car camera is voted on periodically throughout the race, and changes every 50 laps. Given that Dale Earnhardt, Jr. inevitably wins every poll he's ever listed in, how long will it be before TNT removes him from the list of drivers eligible?
• NASCAR.com's RaceView and PitCommand (obsessives like me require both) are already almost maxing out my aging laptop. Add in the driver audio and the network is almost fried, too. Which will I have to sacrifice in order to experience RaceBuddy?
• Bonus Concern (4 for the price of 3!): It's TNT, for God's sake. These are the people who felt like Alan Bestwick was best suited for work on pit road, while believing the perpetually mind-numbingly boring Bill "My Mom Thinks I'm Clever" Webber was the right choice for the booth. Much like the glory days of Monday Night Football were in the mid-1990s with Frank Gifford, Al Michaels and Dan Dierdorf, so too was the high point of NASCAR broadcasting when we could tune in to hear Mike Joy, Buddy Baker, Benny Parsons (RIP) and Ned Jarrett. I long for those days of country music and more racing than commercials. Of course, I also loved watching American Sports Cavalcade on TNN after their race coverage, so I don't know how psycho that makes me.

* - I had J.J. Yeley here first.  I guess I should have checked the lineup before I opened my big fat fingers.
** - Cleary, if Chuck Norris hit MacGyver with nothing more than a bare fist, it would create temperatures high enough to cause nuclear fusion. According to Mark Martin and anyone in the Joe Gibbs Racing garage, Joey Lagano would be the end result.
*** - Lagano has been treated like the second coming of Jesus Christ up to this point, so this sounded like a pretty sound rumor to start.
**** - Rest in Peace, Dale Sr. We miss you every day. The fact that you still inspire r3dn3cks (EDIT: I had to spell it that way; can you believe FoxSports.com censors that word?) of all walks of life to honor you with body paint is a tribute to your lasting legacy, no matter how tacky the display may seem to some more "modern" fans. I, for one, smile every time I see it to this day.

It seems like everyone these days has a complaint or seven about Pocono and its Baja 1000-like marathon race days.  Unfortunately, the track combines the great elements of exciting racing -- speeds in excess of 200 miles per hour, heavy braking zones that can ruin someone's day with nothing more than a simple locked-up wheel, a unique shape, varied turn radii and banking -- but combines them in a way that essentially creates a perfect storm of boredom. 

First of all, usually one or two guys can find a really good setup.  Second, the weather in the Pocono Mountains can change quicker than a schizophrenic under extreme duress.  And the track is viciously large, meaning it can be a long time before a leader gets mired in lapped traffic and allows others to catch up.  We're talking about a place where lap times exceed 50 seconds by a long shot.

Someone had to do it.  Someone had to come up with a way to make the race more exciting.  So here's my list -- and it will not include "shorten the race to 400 miles."

1) Turn loose a roving pack of two dozen white-tail deer on the racing surface.  PETA may not be happy with you, but it would make a three-wide battle for 31st position down the Long Pond straightaway a lot more exciting.

2) Land mines in the tunnel turn.  As if this wasn't one of the most difficult turns in NASCAR already.

3) Make half the field run clockwise.  And then, at the midpoint of the race, make all drivers reverse their current direction.  Under green.

4) The top-12 drivers in points have to race blindfolded.  In Kyle Busch's case, he may wreck fewer drivers than normal.

5) Two-drink minimum at the drivers' meeting.

6) Le Mans-style dash to the cars when the green flag drops.  Throw in "dizzy bats" and it would put a whole new twist on the phrase, "running start."

If NASCAR isn't down with these ideas, then they can always do something...I don't know...logical?  The aforementioned shortened race distance is a good start, but the length of the race isn't the problem.  The perceived lack of competition is.  Shrink the fuel cell, use softer tires, etc. 

Or maybe -- just maybe -- the fans can start to appreciate that Pocono is truly a driver's race track.  It's a place where the cream rises to the top, similar to places like Darlington, Dover and Phoenix.  These are places that are unique, and require the driver to learn how to race the track first, and the competition second -- like the good, old days, when men were men and racing was about who could conquer a unique and adverse day, not just get an optimally prepared car to perform on an optimally configured, cookie-cutter race track.  Pocono is a place where a gifted driver can take an average car and look like a god for a day.