By Michele Rahal from Race Day on Fox Sports Radio. Heard Sunday mornings from 6-9am (eastern) on 220 FOX Sports Radio Affiliates and XM Radio Channel 142.

When you think of the old days of stock car racing, you’re drawn back to a time when if it didn’t work out on the track, the drivers worked it out with their fists. Well, those days are gone. All the rage this weekend was the shoving match between Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards. A shoving match, not a fight, not a bench-clearing brawl. No one got put in a penalty box or lost their teeth.  The real story this weekend wasn’t even NASCAR but its stepbrother ARCA.

Going into Sunday’s season finale race at Toledo Speedway the ARCA series had all the underpinnings of an incredible battle for the championship with Scott Speed and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. in a close battle. Not to be outdone, Penske’s new young find, Justin Algaier, and the wily veteran Frank Kimmel had a mathematical chance of taking the crown.

When the flag fell, no one could have scripted the outcome. Speed, who started third and Stenhouse, starting fourth went at it tooth and claw from the get go. Stenhouse repeatedly bashed, pushed and did everything but throw a hand grenade at Speed to pass him. Finally, on lap 27, after Dexter Bean spun relinquishing third position, Stenhouse got into the back of Speed’s Toyota and, very much like the Geico kid, ‘Put him (Speed) in the wall’.

However, unlike the commercial and straight out of the movie Days of Thunder, it didn’t end there. Speed pitted, took four tires and immediately set out on a turkey shoot, the said victim being Stenhouse. He found him after Stenhouse passed Speed, who was lying in wait. What ensued was classic stock car racing retaliation 101. Speed wasted no time in driving straight into the left fender of Stenhouse’s Ford, kept his foot on the accelerator and all but destroyed Stenhouse’s car and like a chapter straight from Sun Tsu’s ‘Art of War’ totally crushed and ended all hope of Stenhouse taking the championship from Speed.

According to Speed, “He (Stenhouse) was on my bumper and he pushed me flat out until I hit the wall,” said Speed. “And then the car was completely un-drivable; it wasn’t even close. It was so bad from hitting the wall; I couldn’t do anything with it. Stenhouse started it and he isn’t going to win this championship with that attitude. That was ridiculous; that was the most blatant thing I ever saw in my life. Honestly, it’s just ARCA; that’s just how it is.” No doubt ARCA was thrilled with that statement, ultimately parking Speed.

Stenhouse, who knew Speed couldn't care less about winning an ARCA championship, did whatever he had to do to win but did not count on the well-calculated payback.

Like every great story there are always two sides, so Stenhouse and the Roush PR machine put a spin on the incident that a Moroccan whirling dervish couldn’t top.

According to Stenhouse, “I got under the No. 2 a couple times there and let him go because he almost wrecked,” said Stenhouse, Jr. following the race.  “Then I went over the rumble strips in turns one and two and that caused them to fade so I was trying to pump them up in turn three and got into the back of the No. 2 car a little bit.  After that he came back on track and got into the left rear of the Aflac Ford Fusion sending me into the wall and ending our chance for a win and a championship.  He’s a great driver but I just don’t think he drives with his head all the time. It’s a bad situation for both teams.  I can’t thank my Aflac team enough and all the guys on the Zaxby’s team that helped get us back out there.  That was pretty cool.”

Rumble strips? Pumping the brakes? Not hardly. The only thing Stenhouse was pressing was the accelerator, probably through the floorboard shoving Speed into the wall. ARCA’s viewer-ship numbers weren’t readily available, but if anyone other than Stevie Wonder was sitting in front of their television screens, what they had to have seen was a methodical, purposeful and open act of crashing someone to win the championship. Anyone can win by crashing their opponent. That is not the reason we race. Stenhouse should have been parked. But he wasn’t so Speed took the matter into his own hands.

Scott Speed may have done more than openly retaliate against Stenhouse, after all, he’s a Sprint Cup driver as of today with the Red Bull team. What he unwittingly may have done was to send a message to everyone in the sport that he’ll race clean, if that’s what you want, but he’s all too happy to take that trip into the wall with you if you intend to race dirty.

Perhaps Sunday night Speed had flowers, a card and a bottle of Dom Perignon waiting in his hotel room courtesy of Justin Algaier but if he didn’t, he should have.

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By Rob D'Amico and Michele Rahal from Race Day on Fox Sports Radio. Heard Sunday mornings from 6-9am (eastern) on 220 FOX Sports Radio Affiliates and XM Radio Channel 142.

“What a Wicked Game We Play” are lyrics made famous by romantic crooner Chris Isaak. On Sunday at the Kansas Speedway Carl Edwards changed the meaning of ‘wicked’ and made it wild.  By now, everyone has seen the footage of Edwards dive bombing underneath Jimmie Johnson, sliding up the track, along the wall and then diving down again to finish a mere two tenths behind Johnson. Edwards statement was that he meant to do it.

Despite the fact that it was a move reminiscent of days of old, Edwards astonished the fans and media alike by stating, “I planned on hitting the wall, but I didn't plan on the wall slowing me down that much,'' Edwards said. He added, "In video games, you can just run into the wall and run it wide open. That's what I did, but it didn't quite work out the same as the video game. I just really, really wanted to win this race.'' Can he be serious?

The use of SIM games has become a regular staple of many of the Sprint Cup drivers as a way of perfecting technique, strategy and generally imprinting the track in their minds in an effort to create a baseline from which to operate. McLaren, the British Formula One organization, uses a $50 million simulator that moves, is peripheral and has intense feedback. So we know that simulators have become serious tools for racing drivers. The Cup drivers have developed very elaborate home systems to get their fix. Carl Edwards included.

However, the question is once again, did Edwards really mean what he said? In that split second he made a conscious, or unconscious decision to switch from reality to the virtual world. It was a chance that he took without taking into account the physics of reality. "That's as hard as I can go there at the end. I couldn't sleep a wink if I didn't try everything I could to win. Now I know it doesn't work the same as in video games," Edwards said.

We are not in outer space where a moving body continues to stay in motion until met with an opposing force. On the contrary, everything about being here on good old Mother Earth says that gravity, opposing forces, such as racetrack walls, will slow you down. Just ask Mark Martin who crashed into the wall the day before in the Nationwide Series so hard he had trouble walking away.

In theory, however, Edwards move was brilliant. If he could have just slightly glanced or not hit the wall at all, he may very well have pulled off a stunning win, but he rode the wall too long. It’s debatable whether it would have ever worked at all, but he certainly tried.

Back in 2006 Denny Hamlin used an EA Sports video game for his first start at Pocono and won, "They got every tree on the site, everything's mapped out perfect, Hamlin said. Visually, I know where my let off points are." He added, "I honestly didn't think it would be this easy."

Let’s face it, some of the things we’ve done in the virtual world, whether in a SIM game or in our fantasies include robbing banks, shooting up the streets of New York, working for the mob or even being the Guitar Hero in the Rock Band Aerosmith. We don't live in fantasy land so consummating that liaison with Angelina Jolie (a real crowd pleaser) is still just that, fantasy. So don't think that it'll work for you, most of us don’t look like Brad Pitt and if we did, it doesn’t mean you would be guaranteed a date with Mrs. Jolie.

The games we play can be tools for learning and that is why racing car drivers, fighter pilots and operators of UAV and UUV (Underwater Un-manned Vehicles) use them to achieve greater results in the real world. We receive a great benefit from their use. But the danger in using these tools without clearly separating the real and virtual world could have consequences beyond what we anticipated.

On the other hand, Carl Edwards delivered exactly what we all craved and anticipated. One hell of a race, Game On!

VIDEO:
> Kansas Race Highlights
> ChannelShift with Rob D'Amico and Michele Rahal

AUDIO:
> Carl Edwards: Talks about using a video game move that did not work for him.
> Cale Gale: (KHI Development Driver) Talks about using video games to train. Cale will join Rob and Michele this Sunday on Race Day.

SPEED RADIO
Catch the weekly radio show featuring weekend previews of all the racing series. Rob D'Amico and the SPEED team get you ready for the weekend every Friday on SPEED Radio!  Click Here To Listen

By Rob D'Amico and Michele Rahal from Race Day on Fox Sports Radio

True Champions have attributes that separate them from the rest of the world. Earnest Hemingway embellished a famous misquote between himself and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Hemingway said simply, “The rich aren’t like you and me”, to wit Fitzgerald replied, “They have more money”. Racing car drivers aren’t like you and me, they have more talent and if the stock car racing world wants to crown a true champion then one would do well to find what that true talent really means. NASCAR needs to add a road course to the Chase for the Championship.

Since NASCAR decided to use the new “chase” format, which is a 10-race shootout with the top twelve drivers in points resetting their points to 5000 each and additionally giving them 10 bonus points for each win during the first 26 races, a road course has not been a part of the equation for the championship. Why?



In all corners of the globe, in almost every form of racing a road or street course is part of the championship. NASCAR should be no different. In a sport that prides itself on history and tradition, road racing has been hand in hand with the boys from the South in every step of NASCAR’s ascension. If we are going to consider NASCAR’s drivers the best in the world then adding a road course to the Chase isn’t an option, it’s a requirement.

If you were to scan the garage and ask the question, should a road course be in the Chase for the Championship you would get many mixed results. “No, I don’t think one belongs in the Chase”, Jeff Burton, driver of the #31 Chevy said. “I think the Chase should have a fair representation of the race tracks we run the majority of the time. I’m a proponent of the fact that we have 36 races a year and two of them are road courses, which is a small percentage, so the Chase shouldn’t have a road course in it because it would be unfairly represented in what we currently know the Cup Series to be.”

Ask anyone outside the United States who the best racing car drivers in the world are and 9 out 10 won’t mention a NASCAR driver. Some say that it’s because NASCAR isn’t very popular outside the U.S. but the truth is, these detractors just don’t take ovals seriously. The rest of the world doesn’t believe that ovals require skill. On the other hand, now that the so-called open wheel invasion in NASCAR has slowed and the drivers who were part of that influx have seen how difficult it is to compete on a level with the stock car racers, that mindset may be beginning to change. A road race would be a significant step towards that change.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races on two road courses a year, Infineon, in California, and Watkins Glen, New York, but neither are included in the all important last ten races of the season. NASCAR has road raced from the day it was created from the beaches of Daytona to Riverside, California to the backwoods of North Carolina where the sport was born.

Ask Junior Johnson if when, in moments of youthful indiscretions, he could only turn left. The police would have merely had to stand there until he ran out of gas. He had to hone skills that all racers do; Up-shifting, downshifting, four wheel drifting, heel and toe braking techniques all the while doing it better than Johnny Law. It’s what made him a legend.

Next comes the question that, if you are going to add a road race to the Chase then which should it be? The answer is obvious. Watkins Glen, New York. “The Glen is just a great racetrack with a lot of history”, Kyle Petty, driver of the #45 Dodge said. “It’s one of the few places in the country where we get a chance to race where Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda and Emerson Fittipaldi competed. My 1992 win there is one of my favorites.”

No other tracks in America, other than Daytona and Indy, have more history and prestige than this magnificent piece of real estate in upstate New York.

It started as a somewhat selfish endeavor in 1948 when attorney Cameron Argetsinger, who is recently deceased, dreamt of bringing European style, street racing to his favorite vacation spot. The 6.6 miles course consisted of asphalt, cement and dirt roads that ran through the middle of this sleepy little town and around the state park, which is listed in the New York State and National Registers of Historic Places.

Labeled “The Day They Stopped The Trains”, it was the first post-World War II road race in the U.S. and for the next five years brought the biggest names in American sports car racing to this small town, but after a car left the road in a 1952 race, killing one spectator and injuring several others, the race was moved to a new location on a wooded hilltop southwest of town.

By 1956 a 2.3 miles permanent circuit was built and the following year the NASCAR Grand National Stock Car Series made their first stop at the circuit where it was Buck Baker finding victory lane. It didn’t last long though for NASCAR as they only raced at The Glen in ’57, ’64 and ’65.

It was 1958 when the true international competition began with the Formula Libre’ race. In 1961 Formula One made it’s mark with the first Watkins Glen U.S. GP and for the next 20 years it would bring in the biggest names in the world such as Jimmie Clark, Graham Hill, Sir Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda and Mario Andretti, just to name a few.

As the seventies ushered in a greater variety of competition and an expansion to the circuit itself, Throughout this period The Glen added Can-Am, Trans-Am, Endurance races, Formula 5000, CART and the Indy Car Series. NASCAR, never to be left behind in an era of opportunistic expansion, would return to the “short” course in 1986 when Tim Richmond started from the pole and won the race for team owner Rick Hendrick.

The NASCAR Sprint cup drivers today have shown that they possess the skill, technique and passion to race left and right, and yes, even in the rain as evidenced by the recent, historic Montreal Nationwide event. Bill France, Sr. believed in road racing having participated in several himself with sports cars.

It should be evident to all how important road racing is to the international racing community and NASCAR is achieving a degree of success in reaching the Global market with its unique product. But in order for the drivers in NASCAR to be taken seriously abroad as truly world class, NASCAR must make that step forward by adding Watkins Glen and it would be sheer folly not to make a huge deal to the world that their champion got there by racing on a road course.

A true champion should be able to say ‘I can win on short tracks, intermediate tracks, superspeedways and road courses’. Precious few other drivers in the World could say that, could they? 2008 marks the 60th Anniversary of the first race held in the streets of Watkins Glen. Let’s make 2009 the year that the World sat up and truly took notice.

Listen to Race Day on Fox Sports Radio with Rob D'Amico and Michele Rahal Sunday mornings from 6am-9am eastern on 216 Fox Affiliates, XM Radio Channel 142 and streaming LIVE 24/7 at www.FoxSports.com

IndyCar announced its 2009 schedule featuring 18 races including two new destinations and bookend dates for the state of Florida; boy does that sound familiar. NASCAR opens their season in Daytona and ends with the last race of the Chase at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

IndyCar season will now open its season running through the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida April 5th and will now end their championship run in Homestead-Miami on October 11th. As you can imagine the excitement that Homestead-Miami has, “That the IndyCar Series has chosen to move its Championship to Homestead-Miami Speedway says more about our facility and Miami as a Championship host city than anything I can put into words,” said Homestead-Miami Speedway President Curtis Gray.

“IndyCar is anchored by such a decorated open-wheel history, and now the series is poised for a phenomenal future driven by the momentum of this year’s reunification with Champ Car, as well as by last year’s stunning Championship finish.”

The season will now feature 10 ovals, three permanent road courses and five temporary circuits including a debut in Toronto on July 12. The Indy Toronto, which dates to 1986, will be the first of back-to-back temporary course events in Canada with Edmonton scheduled for July 26.

You will notice that New Hampshire Motor Speedway was dropped from the 2009 schedule and this has definitely upset the track and fans in this area. “I don’t understand the decision not to include our facility on next year's schedule,” said Executive Vice President and General Manager Jerry Gappens.

“I think it’s a slap in the face to Bruton Smith, our Chairman, and to our company who have both been very supportive of the Indy Racing League since its inception.”

The IndyCar Series will return to Kansas Speedway, The Milwaukee Mile, Texas Motor Speedway, Iowa Speedway, Richmond International Raceway, Watkins Glen International and Infineon Raceway at approximately the same time on the calendar as 2008.

“We are thrilled with the schedule we have developed for 2009,” said Terry Angstadt, the president of the commercial division for the Indy Racing League, the sanctioning body for the IndyCar Series and Firestone Indy Lights. “When unification was announced earlier this year, we talked about the opportunity of developing future schedules on a blank piece of paper, and with today’s announcement we have a solid foundation for developing a consistent, long-term schedule for the IndyCar Series.”

Next season’s schedule will feature four Saturday prime-time events, and unlike the previous two seasons the 2009 schedule affords a couple more in-season off-weekends for drivers and teams.

“Looking ahead to 2009, and with one season of unification under our belts, we know that the IndyCar Series continues to offer the most diverse schedule in all of motorsports,” said Brian Barnhart, president of the competition and operations division for the Indy Racing League. “As our schedule has evolved in the past few years, the race for the IndyCar Series championship has become one that demands the ability of both drivers and teams to master a variety of venues and the challenges each one brings with the end result being a true champion.

“We are also pleased to respond to our teams and offer a couple of more off-weekends during the core of the season.”

Date Location Venue

Sunday, April 5 Streets of St. Petersburg 1.8-mile street course

Sunday, April 19 Streets of Long Beach 1.968-mile street course

Sunday, April 26 Kansas Speedway 1.5-mile oval

Sunday, May 24 Indianapolis Motor Speedway 2.5-mile oval

Sunday, May 31 The Milwaukee Mile 1.0-mile oval

Saturday, June 6* Texas Motor Speedway 1.5-mile oval

Sunday, June 21 Iowa Speedway .875-mile oval

Saturday, June 27* Richmond International Raceway .75-mile oval

Sunday, July 5 Watkins Glen International 3.4-mile road course

Sunday, July 12 Streets of Toronto 1.721-mile street course

Sunday, July 26 Edmonton City Centre Airport 1.973-mile airport course

Saturday, August 1* Kentucky Speedway 1.5-mile oval

Sunday, August 9 Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course 2.258-mile road course

Sunday, August 23 Infineon Raceway 2.245-mile road course

Saturday, August 29* Chicagoland Speedway 1.5-mile oval

Sunday, September 6 The Raceway at Belle Isle Park 2.906-mile street course

Saturday, September 19 Twin Ring Motegi 1.5-mile oval

Sunday, October 11 Homestead-Miami Speedway 1.5-mile oval

* Denotes Night race Schedule Subject to Change

Listen to Race Day on Fox Sports Radio with Rob D'Amico and Michele Rahal Sunday mornings from 6am-9am eastern on 216 Fox Affiliates, XM Radio Channel 142 and streaming LIVE 24/7 at www.FoxSports.com

Internet reports have Ryan Newman verbally agreeing to drive for Stewart-Haas Racing next season. A network website is reporting that a NASCAR source close to the situation told them that the deal and announcement could be made official within the month.

Newman supposedly reached the agreement after Joe Gibbs Racing was unable to finalize a deal for sponsorship to start a fourth team.

JGR president J.D. Gibbs confirmed on Sunday at Indianapolis that it was every unlikely that they could get sponsorship for both Newman and a forth team, making Newman a non-factor. "Another time, another day, maybe. He's a great individual. You would love to have him on your team. It's just all those ducks aren't in a row."

Stewart will drive the #14 for the new company that bears his name, Stewart Haas Racing in 2009. The #14 means so much to Tony and can't wait to run it next year. “It's everything to me. We're going to have both the 4 and the 14. And 4 was my first-ever go kart number that I started with, and obviously unless you don't follow auto racing but about once a year, everybody knows that A.J. Foyt has always been my all time hero. And when this opportunity came about, it was about a five-minute tug of war between, ‘Do I want my first number back or do I want A.J.’s number?’ And it was pretty easy to decide that I wanted the number that my all-time hero had.

So who will drive the #4, well it could be Newman so look for the deal and sponsors to be announced in the near future. Newman has had his hands full with many different options since his announcement that he was leaving the #12 at Team Penske, he's rumored to have been pursued by Evernham Motorsports, Richard Childress Racing and Petty Enterprises who are are still looking for a driver.

Listen to Race Day on Fox Sports Radio with Rob D'Amico and Michele Rahal Sunday mornings from 6am-9am eastern on 216 Fox Affiliates, XM Radio Channel 142 and streaming LIVE 24/7 at www.FoxSports.com

Michele Rahal from www.RaceDayOnFox.com talks about NASCAR's consolidation.

Call it a recession, call it an economic downturn, call it whatever you like. We’ll let the economic pundits argue over the technicalities, or tea leaves if you will, of where the economy is heading.

The marketing departments of the corporations that breath life into the NASCAR Sprint Cup series don’t care what we, or the economists think it is. If the corporations believe its anything even close to ominous, NASCAR is going to feel the pinch for far longer than one might think.

Anyone can clearly see the wagons circling among the Super Teams of JGR, Hendrick and Roush. How? They’ve begun to consolidate the most marketable drivers who are available and, if necessary, helped these drivers extricate themselves from contracts that are nearing an end.

The losers in this consolidation are clearly the satellite operations such as Yates and other teams that have become second and third tier teams such as Ganassi, DEI and, though it seems ironic, Penske.
Dodge has an apparent power-plant problem and the introduction of a new engine this year is still debatable as to what success that might bring the teams who are sticking with the marquee.

What of the newly formed Stewart-Haas team? If Stewart doesn’t choose a marketable driver or drivers and produce relatively quick results, the sponsors won’t remain. The news that GM is cutting costs doesn’t bode well for this team, other than GM has heavily invested in Stewart. GM cannot afford to pull out of Sprint Cup under the perception that Toyota has chased them out. Forget “Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday”, its more a perception of defeat that would further push GM into a financial hole.

However, Troy Clarke, President of GM North America, stated: Motorsports "have not gone without scrutiny. I'm not going to get into specifics about NASCAR. But there will be modifications-changes in our marketing footprint-in this area." He added, "NASCAR, SCCA club racing-we are looking at where we need to be." Funding a championship-winning team such as Chevy's Hendrick Motorsports and drivers of the caliber of Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. costs GM at least $30 million a year.

Very few of the best of the rest have the sponsor or investor power to hang on, Red bull is one that has deep pockets in the person of Dietrich Mateschiz, the owner of Red Bull who fully intends to bring Vickers, Allmindinger and now Scott Speed to the front. Mateschitz does not like to lose and his Formula One efforts have proven that he will spend the money, direct the resources and stay the course until he succeeds.

At the very bottom of this sponsorship crisis lies the basic truth that when a corporation sponsors a team they have to extraneously spend $2 for every $1 they give the teams in order for the investment to pay off in sales, branding or shareholder value. It’s called activating a sponsorship and very few corporations can spend the additional $30-60 million to convert that investment into profits.

On the other hand, make no mistake this isn’t all doom and gloom as NASCAR has seen harder times than we have now. The 1970’s and 1080’s had their share of difficulties with limited manufacture involvement, less expensive sponsorships and, yes, less intensive competition among teams. NASCAR will change, but it will survive.

The pressure to win is great, the pressure to make the Chase is almost unbearable, but the pressure to win the Championship is beyond anything we’ve seen in any of the past years. Toyota has seen to that, thus validating Jack Roush’s cries of more support from Ford.

Roush’s ride through the streets on horseback shouting ‘The Japanese are coming! The Japanese are coming!’ have come true and his early campaign aimed at increased Ford support paid off. Chevrolet stayed the course, introduced a new engine and carefully consolidated its efforts under Hendrick and now Tony Stewart.

Dodge has, unfortunately, found itself painted into a corner as only Gillett-Evernham has risen anywhere near the top. Penske can only skirt the outer reaches of the Chase. Dodge has a great deal of development to do in order to keep from collapsing in its NASCAR efforts. That scenario isn’t so far fetched as the controlling interest in Chrysler is a private equity firm called Cerberus.

Private equity firms have one thing on their minds and that is cost efficiencies. If GM has put their racing programs on the block, imagine what Cerberus might do.

What’s the answer? There is none. The old adage that only the strong survive will be the order of the day and no one will actually have answers about who will be absorbed and who will go away until the Chase is over. Once that happens the silly season we’ve all become used to talking about will seem very small in comparison to who is left standing when we turn our thoughts to Daytona 2009.

Kyle Busch is making his bid to a modern-era record of 13 wins in a season and collecting the most bonus points in the chase for the championship.

After getting win number seven at Chicagoland, Kyle Busch is living the dream “This is a dream season, man,” Busch said. With seven events remaining in the race to the chase drivers hoping to catch leader Kyle Busch should make their moves now because time is running out.

With seven victories in 19 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races this season, Kyle Busch is making his bid towards tying, or perhaps breaking the NASCAR modern-era record of 13 wins in a season, set by Richard Petty in 1975 and Jeff Gordon in 1998.

Busch’s series-high seven wins in ’08 also give him 70 bonus points, 10 points for each win toward chase seeding. That’s a 50-point lead over Carl Edwards and Kasey Kahne who each have 20 bonus points.

Yes I know that Carl Edwards has three wins but with a post-race inspection violation at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March he'll have to forfeited 10 bonus points.

Following race No. 26 at Richmond International Speedway, chase-eligible drivers have their point totals reset to 5,000 and are seeded according to the number of wins the first 26 events. The chase is contested during the season’s final 10 races and coming to an end at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

If the chase began now and we all know it doesn't but Busch would grab the top seed, followed by Edwards (who claims the tiebreaker), Kahne, reigning and two-time series champion Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Denny Hamlin, Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Greg Biffle, Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth.

Remember you still have drivers like Jeff Gordon, Greg Biffle, Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth looking for their first win of the season. Last year all these drivers accounted for 13 trips to victory lane Gordon had 6, Biffle (1), Stewart (3), Harvick (1) and Kenseth (2).

Johnson, Earnhardt, Hamlin and Burton each have one win in '08 but in '07 Jimmie Johnson had walked away a two-time champ with 10 overall wins, three shy of the record.

By Rob D'Amico from Race Day on Fox Sports Radio

This past week Sirius Satellite Radio reported that Teresa Earnhardt has hired Bear, Stearn & Co. to find a buyer or at least a major investor in DEI. Bear, Stearn & Co. recently merged with JP Morgan whose business model is to partner with select clients to find innovative solutions in order to reach their companies goals.

Internet reports have DEI President of Global Operations Max Siegel saying; "We have not engaged Bear, Stearns or Goldman Sachs or anyone else. We are contacted all the time by outside firms about getting involved in the sport. We are not for sale right now. Nothing is imminent. Are we constantly weighing that as an option? Does that make sense? Quite frankly, we don't know.”



Siegel continued to explain how they are contacted all the time by financial companies and they’re not the only ones, "Every team is looking for a way to bring in appropriate resources. Every single one. We haven't engaged anybody. People obviously approach us, they're approaching everybody. We're looking to be around for a long time in future. We're feeling pretty damn good about where we're going, competition-wise.”

So let’s assume for the moment that DEI is on the market, why now?

Is it the economy? Could it be the fact that Dale Earnhardt Jr. no longer races for his father’s company and the value of the teams has plummeted? Could it be that Mark Martin, who drives the #8 part-time will leave DEI for a full season with Hendrick Motorsports in 2009? Doesn’t that sound familiar? Not to mention that it doesn’t look like the U.S. Army will be back with the team in 2009 either. The question begins to more like; Why not now?

Last week DEI made an announcement that Aric Almirola will pilot the #8 team full-time and no sponsor was named at that point. Max Siegel says an announcement is coming soon. “We’re fine,” Siegel said. “We’ll make the announcements of who it is over time.”

It certainly seems that DEI needs some financial and sponsorship backing for 2009 and this is nothing new in the NASCAR Sprint Cup garage. Petty Enterprise, the oldest team in the sport entered into a deal with Boston Ventures, which hopes to leverage the Petty brand, thus bringing in badly needed sponsorship and financial backing to help the Petty’s find their way back to victory lane.

Who would have ever thought the King Richard Petty would let go of the family business, but he did because it’s not your father’s race team anymore its big business. Just ask, Roush-Fenway Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing, Gillette Evernham Racing and others who have also taken advantage of their value in the sport.

So let’s take a look at that value, where does Dale Earnhardt Incorporated fall on the most valuable teams list? According to Forbes Magazine it’s 6th. Four other teams are cited as more valuable as the list below shows. DEI has been valued at $109 million with revenue estimated at $86 million, which is based on past and pending sponsorship agreements and scale of operations.

Forbes Top 10 Most Valuable NASCAR Teams in 2008 are:
(Dollar amount in millions)
1. Henrick Motorsports - $335
2. Roush-Fenway Racing - $313
3. Joe Gibbs Racing - $184
4. Gillette Evernham Racing - $150
5. Richard Childress Racing - $130
6. Dale Earnhardt Inc. - $109
7. Penske Racing - $100
8. Chip Ganassi Racing - $94
9. Michael Waltrip Racing - $86
10. Yates Racing - $74

It wasn’t long ago that Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his sister Kelley Earnhardt-Elledge tried to negotiate 51% of their father’s company but the pair and stepmother Teresa Earnhardt had ‘irreconcilable differences’, ultimately seeing Dale, Jr. move to Hendrick Motorsports.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was asked after practice at Chicagoland if he had interest in buying DEI, if it were for sale and he said "I don't mean this in a bad way, but I would not have any interest in purchasing it." Enough said.

If I look into my crystal ball, just assume I have one, DEI, in my opinion, will have a partner in the near future. It’s just a matter of time. It’s where the sports is heading with primary sponsorships reaching anywhere between $17-20 million dollars per team, it’s not easy for teams to focus on the business and competition side of this sport at the same time.

You know I’m not suppose to say the “F” word, so cover your ears, here it goes. Franchise. NASCAR doesn’t like it but most of the teams want it or least want the benefits of it, because it would give them something to sell if they were to walk away the sport. A value for something that they’ve put their blood, sweat and tears into. Creating ownership partners gets you as close as you can to franchising without saying it’s a franchise.

The reason NASCAR does want franchises' is because it would keep other teams from entering the sport at anytime.

DEI has a long history in this sport starting back in 1996 with a three-bay garage to its current 200,000 square foot Garage-Mahal that sits on 14 acres. So if they plan on keeping it that way then bring on the partners, soon!

Rob D'Amico and Michele Rahal - Race Day On Fox Sports Radio

Two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart has announced he will be leaving Joe Gibbs Racing at the end of this season to start a new chapter in the book of Tony Stewart as an owner and driver with Stewart-Haas Racing.

Stewart-Haas Racing is the new partnership between Stewart and Haas CNC Racing, with the revamped entity slated to run two cars full-time in the Sprint Cup Series.

“This is an incredible opportunity that allows me to race competitively in NASCAR’s top division while carving out a place in this sport long after my driving career is over,” Stewart told the media at Chicagoland. “I’ve won races and I’ve won championships and I know I could’ve continued to do that at Joe Gibbs Racing, but to attempt to do those things as a car owner is something that really appeals to me. There’s a whole new sense of appreciation and satisfaction that comes with success when you’re both a driver and an owner.”

Joe Custer, Haas CNC Racing’s general manager, is obviously pleased with the coming addition of Stewart to the team’s fleet of race cars and to its front office.

“Tony Stewart is a proven champion, on the track and off,” Custer said. “He brings a track record of success to an organization owned by the world’s largest machine tool manufacturer. And while Haas Automation has enjoyed great success in the marketplace, our racing operation has yet to achieve the same kind of success. Tony Stewart is a racer with a keen business sense, and we’re proud and excited to have him as a key partner of our team.”

No drivers, numbers or sponsors were mentions but we do expect an announcement coming in the next few weeks.

If you missed the press conference here are the audio highlights.

Tony Stewart makes announcement to leave Joe Gibbs Racing for his own team called Stewart Haas Racing Click Here

Tony Stewart talks about which drivers will drive for his team in 2009 Click Here

Tony Stewart talks about what it'll take to get back in championship form Click Here

Tony Stewart talks about why he wants to own a team Click Here

Tony Stewart talks about how Joe Gibbs Racing is a family run business Click Here

Tony Stewart talks about when the deal was first offered to him Click Here

Haas CNC Racing GM Joe Custer talks about what this will mean to their company Click Here

News regarding sponsors of Stewart-Haas Racing, as well as the complete driver lineup and corresponding car numbers for the two-car team, will be announced at a later date.

Please post your comments below, is this the right decision for Tony Stewart's career?

Rob D'Amico and Michele Rahal from Race Day on Fox Sports Radio DO NOT see eye to eye on the Juan Pablo Montoya vs Kyle Busch story and as we all know there are two sides to every story.

Michele's Take:

Yesterday at the Loudon, New Hampshire Lenox Industrial Tools 301 Sprint Cup race, Kyle Busch stared into the cameras once again after an on-track altercation on the last caution lap with Juan Pablo Montoya. This time, however, it was a very different Kyle. This Kyle took on the role of the innocent victim, the oppressed and downtrodden. The scene had an eerie Sybil-like look to it.

Juan Montoya had the nerve to spin him out on purpose.

So there Busch stood with that Alfred E. Newman look on his face as if the school principle were standing in front of him asking what role he had played in the schoolyard fight. Busch was spinning his side of the story like a whirling dervish about his role in the incident. “Let NASCAR take care of it” he proclaimed, he added, “I don’t know what his beef is”.

Well the beef appears to be one more example of how Kyle Busch races other competitors. Not the hard driving or brilliant skills that he uses, but rather the bullying tactics of rubbing and repeatedly bumping into people he feels should get out of his anointed way.

On Sunday he ran into the wrong person. Juan Pablo Montoya has bumped wheels with world champions at 200 mph, in an open wheel car and personalities like Kyle Busch don’t scare him. Kyle Busch finally met someone who simply said, “He (Busch) crossed the line”.

Depending on who you believe, Busch had repeatedly bumped and rubbed on Montoya leading up to the caution. When the caution came out, due to Clint Bowyer and Sam Hornish. Jr. colliding, Busch hit him again. Montoya gave him a gesture inferring Kyle’s IQ and Busch rubbed against him again. Then in front of God, America and all the television cameras, Montoya turned into the right rear quarter panel of Busch and took him out.

My bet is that everyone who ever hated Montoya has realized that he had finally slapped the school bully right in the mouth and they’re glad he did. I would be willing to bet that you couldn’t find anyone other than the Gibbs camp who had any sympathy for Busch. He had it coming and someone openly and unapologetically gave it to him.

What did NASCAR do about it? In terms of disciplinary actions of the past, they did virtually nothing. Montoya received a two-lap penalty. That’s it. Even NASCAR itself apparently thought that Busch had it coming, it was on a caution lap, no one in the way and no harm no foul. Not to mention it’s great press.

So what’s next? Will Busch retaliate? If he does he runs the risk of letting his competitors catch up to him in the chase. Trust me, Joe Gibbs has reminded him of that and the race at Daytona this weekend is no place to try and put yourself in the spotlight other than winning. Busch will do nothing at Daytona. The chances are actually good that he’ll leave Montoya alone from this point forward.

Chances are even better that Montoya has finally let everyone in the garage know that he won’t take any bullying from anyone. It’s about time.


Rob's Take:

In the beginning it was all about hard side-by-side racing at it finest. Two drivers with giant egos battling back and forth for position and there’s nothing wrong with that right?

Well until Juan Pablo Montoya decided to make a bone headed move and take Kyle and himself out of the race intentionally. Remember, this is all under a caution brought on when a collision between Sam Hornish, Jr. and Clint Bowyer brought out the yellow, but we'll get to that in another blog. Montoya's lucky that he didn't take another unexpected driver out of the race too.

Some people like Rahal believe that Kyle had it coming for his rough racing out on the track.

Isn't that what we are here to see? Two drivers, both with great talent, fighting for position out on the racetrack? Isn't that racing?

Yes, Kyle swerved his car towards Montoya and yes there was contact but at no point did Kyle take Montoya out of the race intentionally and under a yellow! Kyle just gave him a friendly reminder that if that is how you want to race then game on my friend.

We saw guys all day battle side-by-side, for example did you see pretty boy, ‘I don't do anything wrong’ Kasey Kahne take out Aric Almirola? But here is where it gets better. Almirola gets revenge the smart way. Later in the race he gave Kasey a taste of his own medicine and returned the favor spinning him with a little love tap. Now that's just ‘one of them racin' deals’!

Or did you happen to catch Hendrick teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon doing the exact same thing that Kyle and Juan were doing. Racing side-by-side beating, ####ing and swerving back and forth at each other.

So what's the difference? Jimmie Johnson, nor Jeff Gordon took the other one out under caution. The two drivers chalked it up as ‘one of them racin' deals’.

Do I need to remind everyone why we freeze the field when a caution comes out? It was at this track a few years ago when Dale Jarrett crashed in the middle of the track and everyone was racing around him to get back to the yellow flag. This put Dale Jarrett every other driver, including safety workers in danger.

There is a time and place for everything and retaliation under a caution is not the place.

What I wanted to see was Juan Pablo Montoya get out of his car and go grab Kyle out of his ride. Now that’s punching the bully right in the mouth, at the right time and place!

Or how about putting your money where your mouth is and kicking Kyle’s rear-end on the racetrack by getting a win. Oh wait, that’s to hard!

Michele Rahal - RACE DAY on FOX Sports Radio

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Glad To Be Gone!

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. has probably never been happier to leave a track faster than he left Sonoma, despite a 12th-place finish, road races aren’t his cup of tea, or glass of wine if you will. He will definitely, however, be happy to see the oval at Louden, NW. The ovals are more to his liking and he has shown a consistency in the Hendrick cars that he hasn’t enjoyed in years. Lying third in the points he has a chance to reduce the gap between himself and the superstar formally known as Kyle Busch. Earnhardt is motivated but so are several of the Cup drivers coming off of strong finishes. Bowyer would love to repeat and Harvick would dearly love to break his winless streak. But then there’s a problem. Kyle Busch.

Look for the Gibbs cars to come off the trucks with an attitude that may not be all mental. Chances are that they have positioned the rear of the car with a small degree of yaw in order for them to turn more efficiently on the flat track. This deficiency in the COT may not be problematic for Kyle Busch if he can loosen up his car as his attitude is ‘loose is fast and I’m fast anyway’. Busch has done what all Formula One drivers aspire to do. Outperform their teammates.

Only Hamlin and Bowyer have fewer starts at New Hampshire, each with four, before collecting a win than Kyle Busch with six starts. Look for Busch to adjust his car as the race goes on to make it as loose as possible for the final run. Advantage Kyle Busch.

Kyle Busch Can Rule The World?

My having picked Kyle Busch to win this weekend isn’t a function of being psychic, though I do possess many talents. In fact, you couldn’t place a bet in Vegas and make money by choosing Busch to win in New Hampshire, or the Championship for that matter. What you could do is say that he’s one of a very rare breed of driver that occasionally comes along. That’s right, Dale Earnhardt, Sr., Mario Andretti or Michael Schumacher. All are phenoms and all seemingly genius in their execution of the art form we call racing cars. He seems unchallenged at the moment.

He does, however face challenges and the one that is most ominous to Kyle Busch is Kyle Busch himself. There is no doubt in my mind that as his points lead began to dwindle prior to his brilliant drive in Sonoma, “The Coach”, in typical Joe Gibbs fashion, slammed the velvet hammer down upon the young stars head. It wouldn’t be difficult to imagine Gibbs reminding Busch that a Sprint Cup Championship is on the line and despite the fact that Busch loves to frolic around the racing world proving his prowess for all to see, he is under a contract that is worth millions of dollars to himself, the sponsors and the team. Game over, it’s time to get down to business. If the race is at the same track, go do it, but if you have to travel, forget it.

Kyle Busch has attracted worldwide attention to the point that Toyota, in private circles, is no longer calling his forthcoming test of their Formula One car a “demonstration”, but rather a full blown, full race mapped engine test.

This is no small feat for a tall, brash American to accomplish. A real Formula One test can cost a million dollars when done correctly and apparently Toyota is willing to take that risk.

Being American, it's even more apparent that the manufacturer has designs on using Busch in this event later in December as a reminder to all that Toyota is dedicated to America itself. Great Public Relations and even greater if the engineers give him a fair shake. No full-time NASCAR driver has ever made a switch to Formula One.

Could he really be that good?

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