NASCAR need to stop this!

After the Talledega race, due to which my nearest and dearest expects at least one car to finish in its roof, she was all too eager to support me in my epic bout of sleep deprivation.

In that she left enough biscuits to see me through the night.

So, imagine the mildly twisted glee on her face the following morning (OK, it was the afternoon) when I informed he that, while not on his roof, Kyle Busch crossed the line with his car resembling the Airfix model of a B-17 I made when I was 13, after it had been stood on, by a size 7.

She made me - I cannot emphasise the order of words there enough - to record the highlights program the following day, of which she fast forwarded through 159 laps of racing only to watch the crash from every angle, several times, with a level of interest normally reserved only for Extreme Makeover.

I have now hidden all the sharp objects.

Given the tumultuous change-over to the new (and improved?) community template last week, and the fact that real life sometimes gets in the way - even with the door locked it can get in the window - AFNK took an enforced week off for Loudon, so I return this week, with a mish-mash of Loudon and Daytona, with the "best" seven drivers who would have appeared in these two editions.

Don't understand, good, me neither......

Patrick Carpentier - Even in the new blog layout field fillers come at the top. Patrick, this week managed a (comparatively whopping) 18 laps, before calling it a day. This weeks TBR excuse was "engine", presumably being used as short hand for, "didn't put an engine in", or a by word for the driver being told to stop pressing the accelarator. At least do the decent thing and put sugar in your engine, there's a woman named Teresa who can give you the recipe..........10/10

Dave Blaney - A momentous day everyone, as field filling hit a new low, with Dave managing only two laps of Daytona, usurping Todd Bodine's 3 lap sojurn of Martinsville as a low water mark (of course in distance, 2 laps of Daytona is further than 3 at the paperclip, but why let numbers get in the way of a rant). The excuse was also something to make you bang your head on a wall - "over heating". Fair enough engines over heat, there are many weeks when cars lap, spraying steam and water like Old Faithful, and don't retire. If you're over heating, pull the tape off the front of the car. If it's really bad (and after two laps I doubt it is) wait a while, then go back out and circulate, there are always enough wrecks to pick up some points and extra cash. Yes, that's right Phil Parsons, cash! CASH!...............10/10

Regan Smith - The man in black, oh, I'm sorry, that's sacrilidge isn't it. The man in the black car with the red writing had anothe weekend out on track, and another weeked in the shop window, and did himself no harm at all. The man who almost won at 'Dega last year (remember that - when plate races didn't end under a smoke screen) came home 12th with the part time crew. And I think that the people at Earnhardt-Ganassi must still have his number somewhere..........4/10

Martin Truex Jr - A quiet race for Michael Watrip Racing's latest recruit (I can't make up my mind whether that is a step up or down at the moment), keeping relatively clean and finishing in a lowly 25th.....................7/10

A.J. Allmendinger - A.J. was probably the unluckiest man at Daytona, managing to keep his car clean for a full 160 laps, which is good, and was probably thinking of a mix of what he was going to do this week, and how his car might handle at Talladega, when Whmph! Along comes Kasey Kahne in his slightly used Dodge to send A.J. into the wall. When the team asked A.J. about why he'd brought the car back wrecked I would imagine he resorted to the sort of "bu.....", "I didn....." sort of stumbling you resort to doing when you've been accused of something the dog/cat/sibling did.............6/10

Ryan Newman - If the race was at Talladega rather than Daytona I would suggest that Tony Stewart did a deal with the devil (or Burger King, as both are equally evil) to seal his win (feel free to hum the duelling banjos here). While the #14 was sailing over the finish line, after being seemingly endlessly on screen for every single lap, for a another Stewart win the #39 was crossing the line. Erm....... I don't know. You really could have been excused wondering whether Ryan Newman had actually bothered turning up (which is not really the coverage you want when you're struggling to put paying decals on your quarter panels).  If you are wondering Newman did finish in 20th, apparently after leading a lap, which he did very quietly. Actually, was he in an invisable car?.................5/10

Kyle Busch - Kyle, like many modern day sportstars has many charities and worthy causes close to his heart. However, Kyle goes further than most, all the way to the UK in fact, to Colchester, England where a good samaritan calling himself "Shrub" has been spotted around the town planting flowers in empty flower beds that the town council have ignored. Kyle, has, thus far, decided to remain incognito, only beeing spotted occasionally, and always dressed as a bush. And I'm not even making this up. Well, sort of...................2/10

And the Brikkie Goes too...............

Matt Kenseth! "What!" I hear you say, "Matt didn't wreck, cause any wrecks or even try and run over his (or others pit crew)". No, he didn't but he did drive like my Gran for a few hundred metres. Those of you who have even seen Days of Thunder, Cars or Talladega Nights (and these are increasingly becoming the reference texts for NASCAR - I am looking forward to talking racecars so they can thank themselves on good results) will know that when there is a plume of smoke and debris ahead of you you keep driving. Matt doesn't know this, and with Kyle modifying his car on the wall Matt seems to have stood on the brakes, with Ambrose and Vickers getting past him and Montoya alongside, and several drivers coming very close to having thier own crash because of Matt's sudden tortoise impression (Kahne would have probably got past too, had it not been for a neon green road block).

Next Week

Back to normal wih the yearly trip to Chicagoland, with Dave Blaney and Patrick Carpentier returning Joe Nemechek, John Andretti and Michael Waltrip representing the old (and crash-prone) and Brian Vickers and A.J. Allmendinger. 

With this change over many people have been locked out of their old accounts, and are having to re-join.

I may have found a way round it, that may work for some.

If you know someone is locked out of their old account, then.....

First try and find their old accounts profile page. the URL should be

"community.foxsports.com/theirusername"

Some of these old profiles are in better shape than others (I have seen one that is just a profile picture). There should be a tab somewhere to add that person as a friend. Try and add them.

Now, presuming that they have certain alerts turned on they should get an email, telling them that someone has requested them as a friend, and a link - something like "foxsports.com/login". They should click that.

For me that bypassed the community log in (which seems to be causing all the trouble) and got me to this, my old account.

This may, or may not, work for everyone or even anyone. But I felt it was worthwhile to post it and try and cure a problem or two.

Now, this may seem a little bit premature, but am I the only one who's already looking forward to the 2008 NASCAR season??

Yes, I know this season is just getting good, both at the sharp end (boo Hendrick) and for the race to get into the top 35 runners for next season, which is of more interest to those of us who follow the Camry drivers of the Cup.

For 2008 NASCAR seems to be getting better and better. Not only as just about every other form of motorsport gets worse and worse, with the F1 parade ever increasingly run by lawyers and accountants, and the US Open-Wheel series, both Champ Car and IRL, imploding as far as the number of starters go as well as heamoraging big names to, yes, you guessed it, NASCAR.

Now, you can throw whatever accusations - cheating, favouritism, inconsistency - at the people behind the sport, but it's damning good entertainment. Where else in motorsport, nay, sport at all, can you think at the start of an event "I have no idea who will win". Where else do have more competitors than is safe entered into an event and have to send home competitors.

Anyway, to the point, why, I bet you're wondering is this English half-wit going on about next year??

Three simple reasons.

1) We get to see what Toyota are made of. Now, this hurts as a Toyota fan, but none of the current drivers or teams have the stuff to compete for wins every week, with the possible exception of Brian Vickers. With Gibbs going to Toyota next year the marque gets a championship team with three race winning teams. 

2) NASCAR goes worldwide. Well, ish. Recent races in Mexico and Canada show the powers that be are looking to extend outside the 50 States. Montoya has added a new dimension to the drivers and Cup careers for Australian Marcus Ambrose and Franchitti (if you believe the hype) are just around the corner. This can only be good for a sport which (outside the US) is still seen as a very redneck, backyard sport. If NASCAR want to come and run at the oval at Rockingham, UK, I'll be the first in the queue.

NOTE: In my opinion don't believe the hype, Dario will stay and defend his title, so won't jump head-long into a full NASCAR schedule.

3) Driver's merry-go-round. This silly season, which seems to have begun in about April this year, which may well be the silliest thing about it, seems to have seen more moves in personel in the top teams that most recent year. We've got Jr to Hendrick, We've to Busch to Gibbs, Yeley to Hall of Fame and Raines, Stremme, Marlin, Nemechek and Ryan Newman (I heard that Newman is out of Penske in favour of Hornish, but that may be a product of the American Sports vacuum that exists this side of the Atlantic) all in the hunt for new cars and new teams.

All this means that any resemblence NASCAR 2008 Sprint Cup bears to NASCAR's 2007 Nextel Cup is going to be purely coincidental

Roll on February!!

P.S. Kurt Busch for the title.