Good news everybody! Even though it was a night race I saw it (although this has nothing to do with staying up and everything to do with Sky repeating it on Sunday night - I hate them with a vengeance, but occasionally I love them).

And from what I saw it looked like NASCAR had taken a leaf out of a supermarket car park at times. I have never seen cars pitted at so many different angles, including A.J. Allmendinger's fabulous backwards service routine (that's not one you see on the Pit Crew Training video). I'm hoping for a reprise in the Pit Crew Challenge this week, I don't car if it's not fast - it's fun.

However, the piece-de-resistance came as Jimmie Johnson attempted to parallel park into his pit. Now, those of you who take notice of these intro rambles will remember my beloved lady's record behind the wheel. Parellel parking is one of her many downfalls (along with other stuff like steering left, steering right (I'm a bad, bad person),) so maybe there is hope she can start making her way up the NASCAR ladder in the next few years - perhaps she can join Patrick Dempsey in his entry for Le Mans next month.....

Scott Riggs - Scott and his Tommy Baldwin Racing employers are fast moving down from the group of plucky try-ers (the home of the Papis' Gillilands' and pre-narc Mayfield's) to the pit of the start and parkers (whose names I dare not type) whether this be financial, talent or actually mechanical (yea, right) is anyone's guess, but the weekend's 101 lap jaunt, before "brakes" parked the car in 39th position. How exactly do you park a car with no brakes, perhaps my beloved will know.................9/10

Sterling Marlin - Mike Bliss' place in AFNK moves, like his ride, to Sterling Marlin. And Sterling didn't do himself too proud. A 39 lap start-and-park is a thing of beauty, and a feat in itself. More seriously I'm starting to have the same problem with this year's Phoenix Racing as last year's Haas CNC. They just need to stuck with one driver. So BK is on contract with Hendrick, then pick Bliss or Marlin, or someone, hell I'm free. Just get some stability, for Pete's sake. Hire someone called Pete - anyone know a free Pete?....................10/10

Dave Blaney - Look at the back of your milk cartons. There are a missing 7 laps somewhere in the Darlington area. The TV announcers said on lap 49 that Blaney was in the pits. I know it was lap 49 because I looked and saw 49, and we all know what that means. However, look at NASCAR.com's results page and you will see that Blaney completed 56 laps. 56! Fifty-six. Where did the other 7 come from? When did they do 7 more laps? Why did they do 7 more laps? Is this the first sign that NASCAR is starting to challenge the start-and-parks? All these and other important questions answered next week on...................................10/10

Tony Raines - 25th. That's where Tony finished. That beats all but one of John Andretti's #34 finishes - a 19th which came at Daytona. Is that a damning indictment of John Andretti's current level of talent? No. How about the fact that he can apparently be awful with or without fenders, having wrecked in Indy 500 practice and he still needs to qualify for the field this weekend...................6/10

Jamie McMurray - And we're back on the Cupcake Wagon (which sounds like some sort of AA for people addicted to Betty Crocker). And we're back on the "why-do-crap-things-happen-to-me-all-the-time" wagon as well (which sounds far less fun). Jamie was, again, holding down a fine top-10 showing before Jamie, again, found himself in a car with a tempremental self-destruct function. This week he had a tyre blow out on lap 275, next week actual Gremlins are expected to tear the car apart as part of All Star Week.............4/10

Greg Biffle - I think the Roush cars need to be thoroughly checked after the next few races. We know from the Gibbs NW cars that teams are not averse to cheating with magnets and I think there are magnets in the Roush cars. Why else would they carry on crashing into each other so often? Biffle was half of this week's Roush accident troupe as he spun out Carl Edwards (before the NASCAR gods rewarded Greg with a spin of his own). Aside from that Greg was the class of the field, leading the most laps and finishing 8th, now if it wasn't for those meddling team mates.....................2/10

Dale Earnhardt Jr - Now you know when any AFNK gets introduced with pit stop shenanigans, and Dale Jr is on the list this paragraph writes itself. And so it was that on Tuesday NASCAR felt the need to, alongside confirming whatever Jeremy didn't take, deny rumours that they had greased pit road to try and bring everyone closer to Dale Jr.'s level of ineptitude. It worked, but Dale Jr. still managed to slide through his pit box (I thought Mike told them not to grease that bit!), before sliding into a wall (or two) and down to a 27th place finish..................6/10

And the Brikkie goes to........

David Ragan! Reinforcing and adding to my Roush crash magnet theory, David moved into the realms of Michael Waltrip as he tried to cause the most cautions in a single race. It was a good attempt, which included a rare hatrick of yellow flags between laps 160 and 193. However, his record attempt  fell falt when his third accident did a little more than cosmetic damage.

And the inaugural John Force Award for Retirement Greatness goes to.......

Who else but the master of the caution flag (sit down Sam Hornish!). Michael Waltrip. Michael was already headed to the Hall of Fame (or should that me a Wall of Fame) after his Camry did it's best impression of a Solara Funny Car by lighting up the Carolina sky. However, what sealed his greatness was his post retirement interview. If I here a mention of a primary sponsor smoother than that all season, I'll eat my hat.

Next Week

I'm awarding myself a week off for All Star Week, but I'll be back for the 600, and there won't be a Roush car in sight. Instead we have Dave Blaney, Sterling Marlin and David Gilliland, Clint Bowyer and A.J. Allmendinger (funny those two together again) and the boss and the boy pairing of Dale Earnhardt Jr and Brad Keselowski (who may of may not be entered).

P.S. We all sucked royally at excuse bingo, with no-one managing to match a single excuse to a position. It appears these start and parkers are more resourceful than we thought! 

I hate night races. With a vengence. Which is a pain, because I like Richmond, and Richmond only has night races, and does pretty well from it as well.

While I am the sole guinea pig in a small experiment to make the human race completely nocturnal, the night races start at 1am over here, which at this embrionic stage in the experiment is a little too far, too soon. So, while you (apparently) were settling in to watch NASCAR, and got Baseball, I was sitting down and trying to push the boundries of human endurance.

The bottom line is, I failed. Between starting behind the pace car and Dave Blaney's early wall-and-wallet assisted exit I lost interest very quickly, and it's very difficult to follow a race through the inside of your eye lids.

On with the show, try and stay awake, please.

Scott Riggs - I though a week without field fillers in AFNK was too much, and so it proved. Having been a proper racing team for every other they've got to Tommy Baldwin took to the tried and tested route of pulling off and posting a random mechanical reason for your retirement - it was electrical, in case anyone's playing excuse bingo. However, their technique clearly needs some work as a quick look reveals they completed 54 laps. 54, that's far more than 49, tut tut.......................10/10

John Andretti - Hands down John Andretti has been field filler of the season. You can't even be sarcastic about him, he's just plain old rubbish, although admitedly his brainfade with Dave Blaney at Bristol condemned him in my eyes. And after another typically Andretti performance John of 32nd he has bid his farewell from NASCAR (at least for the time being, although we can dream) as he's off to go and clog up another series at some tin pot race at, let's see if I can get this right, Indian-a-police, or something like that. It'll never catch on..................................9/10

Matt Kenseth - Matt had a typical mid field Richmond race, the only thing that made him unusual this week is that he didn't end up facing the wrong way at somebody else's expense. He was down a lap, got it back, got into the wall, and still managed to walk away with a decent finish in 13th. I suppose that's the same logic as why you never seem to see a scratch on a pin ball..................5/10

Greg Biffle - Greg had a similar weekend to Matt, finish in the teens, lap down, free pass etc etc. They even had run ins with the same unguided missile, a certain Joey Logano. The only difference is that Greg ended up facing the wrong way and making a little bit more contact with the wall. However, in a race when making contact with the wall only seemed to make you faster that was never going to be an obstacle, perhaps after having cars held together with tape last week the teams have decided to make thier cars a little stronger.........5/10

Jamie McMurray - Jamie is desperate to stay at Roush. So he wants to show he's part of the team. He wins with the team, he loses with the team. He spins with team. And so it was in lap 167 that seeing a opportunity for some inter team bonding with Carl Edwards, Cupcake dutifuly spun down to meet Carl for some team brain-storming. However, Jamie overstepped the mark, hitting on Carl in a way that would land you in a sexual harrasment suit in the office. Carl declined Jamie's advances and drove off, probably glad that this week spin down the front stretch wasn't tracked by radar at the local ATC..................4/10 

Mark Martin - Is anyone else getting fed up with Mark Martin? I've actually forgotten what year was meant to be his last - when he went round the country on some grand tour. However, since then he's had more races "retired" than many driver do in a whole Cup career, and apparently he's not done yet. Just friggin' retire already! On the bright side there must me companies queueing up to be on the hood - denture creams, hip replacement clinics, cat rescue homes, erectile dysfunction tablets - what, you mean, he already did that?...............4/10

Jeff Gordon - There was no return to dram of the battle for 37th with Kevin Harvick we saw last week - Kevin was trying his hardest, Jeff was no where to be seen. He was too busy being, arguably, the class of field. He led laps at just about every juncture, didn't get spun by Joey Logano (or Sam Hornish, I'm getting warmed up for him), and didn't even end up backwards, once. Unfortunately, the only thing that stood between him and a victory was a birthday boy, and everyone know's you have to be nice to someone on their birthday.............2/10

And the Brikkie goes to........................

It's Sam Hornish Jr.. After a promising couple of weeks, bearing in mid his pre-wreck and pre-swine flu performance at 'dega Sam has come on leaps and bounds with the PR suits at Chrysler (yes, they still employ someone). As part of his new role as one of the flagship drivers Sam was asked to showcase Chrysler's diversifying brand image to the public (they've got to get out bankruptcy somehow). However, I'm not sure how well they judged their audience as Sam demonstration of bulldozers and wrecking equipment seemed to annoy potential customers, especially Marcos Ambrose fans. And those PR suits probably don't work for Chrysler anymore.

Next week

It's back into daylight!! The NASCAR circus and the AFNK minivan (it's a metaphorical minivan, I'm not really there) head to Darlington (or whatever nickname it's got this week). And some resemblence of normality return to AFNK. We have a trio of field fillers in Dave Blaney, Scott Riggs and Tony Raines (who is entered in the #34 car while Andretti goes and embarrases the family name). Mike Bliss falls into the sometimes-crap-sometimes-great category. There's the seemingly obligatory Roush visit to Greg Biffle and Jamie McMurray. Oh, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. I'll start the car now..... 

P.S. Having stumbled across the rather brilliant idea of "Excuse Bingo" I invite you to take part in an alternative trifecta - name the excuses for the retirements of the 43rd, 42nd and 41st placed cars - it doesn't matter who they are, just why they are.

It's not often that the woman in my life is present to see me at my ranting, NASCAR-watching best, as she's normally watching recorded episodes of Grey's Anatomy (or whatever rubbish Patrick Dempsey is pedelling this week). However, this week (due to a lack of truly appalling TV) she was with me watching Talladega.

Now, there is only so much about motorsport you can explain to someone who has failed their driving test a number of times I feel it's my duty as a man not to mention, let alone who all the drivers are. And so it was surprise and potential horror she exclaimed as she believed she'd heard one of the commentary team say how one driver had "picked up Tourettes". It took me a few seconds, flashing past the mental image of someone unexpectedly swearing down the radio (although that would explain some of Dale Jr.'s pit problems this year), to realise what had actually been said - that a driver had "picked up Truex" in the draft.

However, this wouldn't be the last we heard of Tourettes for the weekend, for as Air Edwards set it course fot the fence there was a brief salvo of four letter words your children shouldn't hear, and they weren't just from me. It seems that in a few hours of NASCAR she'd learnt that flying cars weren't good (perhaps those driving tests have taught her something). Of course whether she watches any of Richmond is unclear, but I haven't told her that flying cars aren't an every week occurance.

Anyway, after the longest intro ramble in the AFNK canon........

Tony Raines - Tony successfully avoided being caught in The Big One - assuming there wasn't a highway pile-up on his way home from Phoenix last weekend.........10/10

Michael McDowell - Hooray!! It's not every week that I manage to get a prediction right, but I saw Mike's DNQ coming and come it did. On the other hand I suppose it's good - can you imagine Phil Parsons' reaction if the #66 was caught in the lap 7 wreck? The poor moths, they wouldn't have stood a chance. However, Mike escapes the 10/10 rating thanks to the moronic trio of UK broadcasters Sky Sports, who listed him as actually being in that early crash.........................9/10

Joe Nemechek - Joe, chequered flag, chequered flag, Joe. I felt it best to re-introduce you two as it's been a while since you saw each other. Firstly, a rant (I know, who'd have thought it) unlike what was suggested during the race the presence of a sponsor on Joe's hood is in no way connected to Joe finishing a race - I should know - there have been more lines of Joe Nemechek analysis from my fingertips than anyone else. After the lap 7 crash Joe must have thought that pulling in would be looking a point-laden gift horse in the mouth so he stayed out all the way to the finish. And now let us enter the parallel universe where out of 7 NASCAR drivers, Joe Nemechek has the highest finish, coming home on 14th.............................4/10

Michael Waltrip - Let's get formalities out of the way first, Waltrip finished 21st, from a 31st start, after being caught in the second big one, where some idiot in #48 smudged himself across Michael's bumper. Right, now join me in standing and applauding Michael's save earlier in the race. It would have been all too often that the car ended up hard in the inside wall (and we can ask Robby Gordon what that feels like). However, in a week when the safety zealots have been crying for no blood, let us consider that the car didn't get airbourne (thanks to the design of the car) nor roll (thanks to the tarmac where grass used to be). While everyone is worrying about what could have been, let's just remember what wasn't................5/10

Matt Kenseth - OK, so one way or another Matt was integral to the first wreck, but who's apportioning blame - not me - I have a foam brick for that. Other than that Matt actually had a quiet race, running up front for a fair chunk of race before falling back to finish 17th, three spots behind Nemechek (I know I already did him, but the more often I type it the more likely it is not to be a clerical error).....................4/10

Martin Truex Jr - My predictions were back to their rubbish best as the driver I pencilled in for the win ended the race with a rather shorter car than he began it with. However, for a time I looked like I wasn't mad as he was around the sharp end of the field for much of the race, and managed to get a co-star role in the fantasic sychronised fish-tailing that broke out between him and Kyle Busch....................5/10

Kyle Busch - And so we move from Torville to Dean in the other half of the fishtailing duet, and the one who did it better and more spectacularly. Even so I can't decide if the move to get back on the track while sideways was either an attempt at brilliant driving, or outragously careless and dangerous. I suspect that what side of that debate you fall is directly proportional to the number of things you own with the number #88 on them. Kyle's crew were also back on form, with the return of colour-coordinated yellow Barebond, which seemed to be integral to the car, to the point where if the section on the right wheelarch came off I invisaged the front and rear of the car going in two seperate directions...................5/10

And the Brikkie goes to......................

Step forward, or rather jog forward, Carl Edwards. Of course I can never fault a man for jogging away from a car that's recently been airbourne causing me to swear uncontrollably for 15 seconds. Or can I? In these tough times (I'm talking about the economy, not whatever livestock-derived-disease is going to wipe us out) it has been well published what NASCAR drivers and teams are doing to save money. However, it seems that Carl is impurvious to all of this as he continues to fly short distances privately.

Next Week

It's rather a different look AFNK next week after the 'Dega shuffle as Mark Martin, Jamie McMurray and Scott Riggs take the test courtesy of Matt Kenseth (opps, there I go with the blame). Greg Biffle completes a Roush threesome with John Andretti making up the numbers. While they will all be humbled to be in the comapny of the victor of the incredibly tense and important battle for 37th - Jeff Gordon.  

97 races!! Now that's a streak!

Think of that Jr or Jeff Gordon fans when you consider what mountains of mediocrity you're drivers have experienced (or are experiencing). Until your driver has to go the better part of three seasons without endangering the W column you can't complain (although I'd recommend that Jr fans should start practicing).

Perhaps the most incredible thing, however, was that I only remember hearing the TV team compare Phoenix to a road course once during the broadcast. Which begs the question why do we never hear them comment, half way though a race at Sonoma or The Glen "Y'know, this place drives a lot like a Phoenix or Pocono......."

Now the dust has settled, and indeed started to be kicked up again ahead of Talledega, AFNK can kick certain drivers while their down and raise others back up again into the light, or towards the spinning cieling of doom depending on their performance.

Sterling Marlin - Sterling was in the #09 Missuscokkie (or whatever) car, and managed to do well enough. He got his car in the race and kept it out of the AFNK frame for next week, which is not finishing in the bottom three if you haven't realised already. He finished a whopping 40th, credited with 117 laps and out after an accident, which is odd as I don't remember an accident on lap 117, and I'd imagine it harder to get away with posting an imaginary crash as your reason for parking..................................9/10

Dave Blaney - Something has clearly gone wrong at Prism HQ! After two fine weeks of spot on 49 laps outings, Dave managed to overshoot his mark this week and complete 10 extra laps. In the process he (shock and horror) cost Phil Parsons money, and unwittingly caught out Tony Raines' Dodge team, who had obviously also spotted the 49 pattern and were unprepared to much further in their pursuit of the dollar. After parking the #66 (brakes this week apparently - well, they figured they couldn't use that one next week) Dave was called into the Prism caravan (it's not a trailer or motorhome) and fired for a "Maths Malfunction", to be replaced by Michael McDowell (he must have a better GPA or something) for 'Dega.............10/10

Kevin Harvick - As if you needed me to tell you - all is not well at RCR and Kevin Harvick could pretty much be the canary in the coal mine if you want to assess the health of the organisation. And for every race that the RCR cars are right at the front when it counts, there is another when they're no-where the front and having to fight in NASCAR's sewer, where Joey Logano and Michael Waltrip float by. From last year when they were NASCAR's fourth team they've fallen back into the clutches of Penske and MWR (or two-thirds of it) for that title...............6/10

Juan Montoya - A quiet week for Juan (especially by his normal standards) and a 24th place finish, although quickly adding that that's one spot ahead of the esteemed Mr. J. Gordon lends some respectibility to that result. And now, let us briefly fast forward a week to Talledega. Let's imagine Juan wins (and it's not as daft as it sounds) - it'll make the canning of that same Jeff Gordon a few years ago look like a mere Aluminium shower...............5/10

David Ragan - Maybe I'm to quick to curse David, after saddling him with the AFNK curse last week, but can I add the curse of the breakthrough win to that ever growing voodoo list. The curse is self explanatory - a driver who has had an impending break through win talked about so much and the fans have got themselves so prepared for it that it never comes and the driver slowly disappears into the shadows. I hope it doesn't happen (the same goes for a few other drivers who are in line for the curse) but not everyone can win a race and it might not be them. However, despair not Ragan fan, things are looking up - you'll pleased to know he beat Paul Menard - 22nd to 23rd......................6/10

Marcos Ambrose - Marcos' "how?, who? what?" de facto rookie year in the Sprint Cup continues to knock spots off the real rookies - bearing in mind one of them does actually have spots there's still some way to go. This week saw NASCAR's foremost gold prospector move up from 29th start to finish 14th after yet another dalience with the top-10, which drew yet more surprised comments from the TV and yet abouther random anecdote about him - there can only be so many of them they can bring out before they have to start talking about his driving........................3/10

Sam Hornish Jr. - OK............ Right............. 9th................... Hornish.............. Sam................. I have to say these things very slowly as they are having genuine trouble sinking in. I have said previously within this very column that Dodge might be getting something right and Sideways Sam's very un-sideways run into the top-10 might just be showing it. Of course, I'm taking nothing away from the driver. However, if Sam can keep the car off the wall and other cars this week, why can't he do it most other weeks. It shows some promise, and so may I wonder about Penske shuffling the teams to put Sam with a different crew and see if he can turn top-10s from a novelty to normality.............2/10

And the Brikkie goes to.................................

Well, normally a guy who makes a move like Michael Waltrip would be a shoe in. However, the fact that he euthanised Robby Gordon means that he almost did everyone else a favour. So it's the tag team antics of two previous Brikkie victims - Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Casey Mears - that earn the "award" this week. We know they feel together, being the fourth wheel at their respective teams, but can't keep their little get togethers until they're off the track and out of the way of actual race car drivers. However, in a, rare positive Brikkie moment I am glad to see NASCAR actually put the two of them on probation for six races, when it would have been easier (and less surprising) to see nothing done. And given what happened last time they bolter restrictors to the engine, it's just another reason for Dale Jr fans to be a little concerned.

Next Week

Here's Dega! Tony Raines completes the formality of AFNK, despite not even being on the entry list, Michael McDowell replaces Blaney in the #66 (I can see a DNQ coming) and Joe Nemechek returns to where he belongs - right here. Michael Waltrip makes another appearence while Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth look like potential winners, as does maybe (and whisper this quietly) Martin Truex Jr.

........that's the only way I can explain it. The Texas race was NASCAR's offering for April Fools. After being exposed in all it's glory by the much storied, much argued, Car and Driver article it was clear that France, Helton and company needed something big. So the men at the top set about writing the script for the typical NASCAR race.

An incredibly boring intermediate track race, a Hendrick car wins, Kyle Busch annoys vast swathes of humanity, Dave Blaney runs 49 laps, Sam Hornish spins and Dale Jr forgets to pit.

The joke was very, very subtle. So subtle many would have missed it. Paul Menard. He finished 13th. He didn't crash. Even once. There is no way that happened naturally. It's just, well, unnatural.

This week's AFNK takes a look at 7 of the minor players in NASCAR's great wool-over-eyes project, in the way only AFNK can.

Todd Bodine - Todd didn't even get to try out an encore of his three lap routine, coming in the second slowest in qualifying, over 2/10ths slower than the slowest on time qualifier, and when you think that under 7/10ths covered 1st to 42nd. That's the whole gamut from Hendrick to half-wits. But the surprise wasn't that he failed to qualify, it was that he has a sponsor. Which kind of company (Mambo Restaurants by the way) would want to sponsor Bodine after Martinsville. There are better teams you can get your name on - maybe even Blaney and Nemechek. Either something has gone terribly wrong somewhere of the man responsible for sponsorship for the 64 car could sell ice to eskimoes!...............13/10

Joe Nemechek - Joe too missed the field, and also had a sponsor. However, Joe's failure was far more worthy of a AFNK on the proper scale. He lost out to Dave Blaney .012 of a second, which on a 1.5 mile oval is probably amount this much............................................................................................10/10

Dave Blaney - I have spotted a pattern! Presuming af course not all part of NASCAR's ruse that I have stumbled across, Dave and the Prism team - no sponsor there - completed 49 laps for the second race running. Now, 49 seems to be far too close to 50 for two consequetive for it to be random, moth related, fainting and fluffy cushion caused randomness. So, what betting that, presuming Blaney makes Phoenix, we see 49 laps of Blaney before, oh, I don't know, a "bearings" failure before the 49ers cash in....................9/10

Aric Almirola - Just weeks after AFNK passed comment on the (at least short term) end of Travis Kvapil's Cup career, I get to do it again! If this is the beginning of somesort of AFNK curse can it please take Todd Bodine next? With Earnhardt/Ganassi shutting down the #8 team with immediate effect Texas could well be the epitaph to Almirola's short, uneventful, unsucessful foray. His 33rd place finish, from a 41st starting spot is as good a summing up as you could hope for in a single race - anonymous, deeply average and basically only comment worthy when he's shredding tyres - and that was last week...................8/10

Reed Sorenson - Reed is fast joining the ranks of the Robby Gordon's of this world in the category of "drivers who promise much but never achieve". Another weekend in the 30s - 36th finish, 38th start just about illustrates the level of the glass ceiling Reed is head-butting against. But just ponder this for a second. Reed left Ganassi because, as far as he could see, the team was going nowhere. He wound up in a Dodge - a car that only performs if your name is Allmendinger or Kahne and you're on a good day, while Ganassi merged to Chevy and are giving Juan Montoya career day after career day..............8/10

Mark Martin - It's about time M&M had some good luck. After an off-season move that had many (including myself, quietly) pushing him forward as a title competitor (although I also said Greg Biffle would win the Cup...) his early season has been horrid. Texas finally started so to see him come good, leading laps and finishing 6th, one of the seemingly few drivers who was capable of making permenent progress amongst all the green-flaggery, improving from 23rd. His 6th place, especially in this week's clutch also landed him top AFNK performer, being the only one to finish above 30th....................2/10

David Ragan - It's luckless David Ragan (is this another strike of the AFNK curse as he seems to be here a lot) who was once more beaten by Paul Menard. However, this week it wasn't all his fault as David was the victim of yet another high-profile-good-run ending engine failure that saw him forced to trade in a top 5 run for a big fat DNF...............3/10

And The Brikkie Goes To...............

Can I not just throw a Brikkie at the whole race? No? Damn it! It's going to have to be Dale Earnhardt Jr. again then. Once more Jr showed himself to be, dare I say it, average on the track and just plain awful on pit road. For the umpteenth time this season Dale was bemoaning his pit crew, this time for not being obvious enough, suggesting they'd cut a few feet off his pit pole. Just face it Jr. it's not all going to be their fault. However, there is a way we can put Jr's inability to pit to good use. Stick him in the #66 car! They don't like making too many pit stops, neither does Jr., Jr. makes a hatful of money in merchandise for being average, Parson's moths need the money. Jr. gets more excuses. Oh, and Dave Blaney gets the #88 car. Everyone's happy!

Next Week

AFNK, along with the Cup series takes a week off for Easter, but will return for Phoenix, with what, on paper could be an interesting bunch. David Ragan returns (see, I told you he was here a lot, Sam Hornish tries not to swap paint with anything, old sparring partners Juan Montoya and Kevin Harvick (during a season when their career success levels appear to have crossed, along with Dave Blaney (still in the #66), Mike Bliss (or whoever is in the #09) and seeing which Marcos Ambrose will turn up - the car destroying one, or the surprising top-10 getting one.