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HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL fiH mSB jfWjMK BBS j&BS 9 sjaßra '''.*'¥: sss& aBBr As Wm SmSe Wk -&9 jijjl? BBSs f g«RllStaa : The law west of the Poconos Carl Edwards, who had been third In the Chase the previous year, never recovered from the second Pocono race, when he was apparently the unwitting vic tim of Tony Stewart's anger. Early in the race. Edwards was watching Stewart and rookie Clint Bowyer warily, the field hav ing been bunched up by one of those delightful NASCAR inven tions. the “competition caution.” What followed the caution defi nitely wasn’t cautious. TV replays showed Stewart shaking his fist at Bowyer even as he drove his car into the side of Bowyer's. Naturally, the car damaged most severely was Edwards' Ford, which had nowhere to go when the firebrands in front wrecked each other. After repairs had been made. Edwards returned to the race many laps down. During a yellow flag, he drove up alongside Stew art on the back straight and raised both hands, palms open, conveying the "What were you thinking?" message, Stewart's reply? Another well-known ges ture involving the same digit on both hands. As the two drove down pit road on lap 67, Ed wards rammed Stewart's car. If there's any consolation, though, Carl, Tony didn't make the Chase either. Say what? Early in the season, a re porter asked Denny Hamlin, who would go on to be Rookie of the Year and finish third in the Chase, if it was difficult to inter act with teammates Stewart and J.J. Yeley. Hamlin, from Chester field. Va., grew up racing stock cars; his teammates graduated from the sprint cars and midgets. "Well," said Hamlin, “I think those guys learned a lot of car control that helps them a lot. But, I think, what can be the equalizing factor for a guy in stock cars like me is running on dirt tracks.” “I'm sorry," said the reporter. “I didn't realize you raced on dirt tracks when you were getting started." “I never drove on a dirt track in my life,” replied Hamlin. Said by Said After being spun out from be hind by Reed Sorenson's Dodge at Indianapolis, Boris Said's ex planation was: “It was just one of those racing deals where he was doing his deal and I was doing my deal, and our deals ended up col liding, so it's a bad day for me." There is, however, no truth to the rumor that Sorenson replied by telling Said: “Deal with it.” rt^e^PSANPtiOßg^l Trivia time Questions 1. Halfway through the 2006 Chase for the Nextel Cup, who was the leader? 2. Who won more races during the Chase than any other driver? 3. How many men have won at least one championship in the history of NASCAR's premier series, now known as Nextel Cup? 8Z (£) PBM9IS Xu OX uoping ysr SJ9MSUV ■ "Racing is what I do for fun. I’ve got to be honest. Golf's a cool sport, but if I’m going to go out and do something, I’d rather go racing." Robby Gordon ■ "I don't know nothing about nothing, but what I know about, I know.' Mark Martin ■ ‘lf these fans are going crazy in the stands, these guys in the cars will be on each oth er’s asses.” wrestler Hulk Hogan, grand marshal at Dover. ■ “You’ve got to understand that the totem pole on our team is horizontal. It's not vertical.” owner Chip Ganassi, failing to re alize that a totem pole can't pos sibly be horizontal. ■ “I felt like Rocky Balboa in the 15th round." Boris Said, after finishing fourth in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona. ■ “Race-car driving is a little like sex. All men think they’re good at it. So when you're out there by yourself, you're actually good at it until somebody else comes on the track.” talk show host Jay Leno, after driving the pace car at the Daytona 500. ► If you have a question or a comment, write: NASCAR This Week, c/o The Gaston Gazette, RO. Box 1538, Gastonia, NC 28053 Harvick’s 'moonlighting' further proof of his racing skills Kevin Harvick won the Busch Series cham pionship and finished fourth in the Nextel Cup points standings in 2006. That's quite a season's work. What's more, Harvick won his second Busch championship by the widest margin. 824 points, in history. He won nine races, one shy of Sam Ard's 1983 record, and piled up 32 finishes in the top 10. There were only 35 races altogether. Nothing can undermine that remarkable level of consis tency. In terms of Harvick's performance, the biggest complaint about the current status of the Busch Series is invalid. Many observers consider it a bit unfair for Cup regulars to com pete full time in the Busch Series, as well. It's kind of like the St. Louis Cardinals winning Chasing Favorites Picking favorites for next year’s Chase pretty tough to do By Monte Dutton NASCAR This Week ■ Soon, previews will begin appear ing with predictions regarding the 2007 season. Foremost among them will be the issue of which drivers will make the Chase for the Nextel Cup. ■ Four drivers who failed to make the Chase in 2007 two-time champi on Tony Stewart, ex-champ Kurt Busch, Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards will undoubtedly be carefully con sidered as contenders to return to the elite field. ■ If those four make it, who doesn’t? The 10 Chase drivers from the past season were, in order of finish, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton, Kasey Kahne, Mark Martin and Kyle Busch. ■ One obvious opening will occur be cause Martin is no longer scheduled to compete full time in Cup. ■ Another item of interest will be the performances of Casey Mears, who is moving to Hendrick Motorsports, and Brian Vickers, who will move to Toy ota’s Team Red Bull. Those two were 14 th (Mears) and 15 th in the 2006 stand ings. ■ What of Ryan Newman, who made the Chase in 2004-05? And Clint Bowyer, who had a solid rookie season at Richard Childress Racing? Another upwardly mobile driver might be Scott Riggs, who finished 20 th in the 2006 standings. ■ Edwards figures to be the favorite for the Busch Series championship. He was runner-up to Harvick, who won’t compete full time in the series next year. At present, the only other Cup Parsons hampered by additional health issues By Monte Dutton NASCAR This Week Benny Parsons, the 1973 Winston Cup champion and longtime television analyst, has suffered additional health set backs in the wake of treatment for lung cancer. The 65-year-old Parsons re ported that he was having trou ble breathing. A body scan re vealed no cancer, but the radia tion treatments necessary to eradicate the growths caused irreparable damage to his left lung. The tumor there had been so large that the radiation treatment was more than the lung could withstand. Parsons’ right lung is healthy and strong, and doctors hope that, with time, he will be able to adjust to breathing with one lung. For now, however, he re quires constant oxygen, through a breathing apparatus, to function. .■ Busch Series sponsor Clint Bowyer, entering his sec- ’ Wt I W ' \ W\ Harvick J.J. Yeley, Kyle Busch, Greg Biffle and Reed Sorenson, not to mention the two Busch Series "specialists," Paul Menard and Johnny Sauter, who also finished in the top 10. The ranks of the full-time “moonlighters" I hate the term “Busch-whackers" will be BURNING ISSUES ] John Clark/NASCAR This Week Dale Earnhardt Jr. leads a group of cars down the front stretch in Daytona. How the contenders next season will line up Is anyone’s guess. drivers planning to compete full time in Busch, as well, are Dave Blaney and David Ragan. ■ Toyota’s entry in Cup will be watched closely. The Japanese manu facturer's performance in the Crafts man Truck Series improved each year, culminating in Todd Bodine's champi onship and a runaway victory for Toy ota in the series’ manufacturer stand ings. If Toyota used trucks as a model for its Cup participation, the plan suc ceeded. ■ The coming season will be partic ularly taxing to Cup teams, thanks to ond year in Nex tel Cup, will no longer compete full time in the Busch Series, but he will have BB&T Corpora tion as primary sponsor for 17 Bowver Busch races during the next two seasons. BB&T, based in Winston- Salem, N.C., operates more than 1,450 financial centers in the Carolinas, Virginia, Mary land, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Indiana and the Dis trict of Columbia. Bowyer, from Emporia, Kan., has won three times in 87 Busch Series starts. In Cup, Bowyer, 27, had four top-five and 11 top-10 finishes during his rookie season in Richard Childress Racing’s No. 07 Chevrolet. ■ On a dare Truck Series driver Brendan Gaughan re cently completed a half SPORTS IN THE SPOTLIGHT both the World Series and the International League. In Harvick’s case, howev er, it can't be said that he won the title against inferior competition. Eight Cup driv ers finished in the top 10. He and his Richard Childress Racing team had to outper form Carl Edwards, teammate Clint Bowyer, Denny Hamlin, ■ NUTS AND BO) Gaughan tary Appreciation Program, one component being a rela tionship with the A-10 Tactical Fire Squadron School at Nellis Air Force Base. Gaughan and a Sgt. Freeman in Gaughan’s words “a special operations guy” competed in the half marathon on Dec. 10. “He (Freeman) basically called me out,” said Gaughan. “He called me a chicken, and, in the words of Michael J. Fox’s character in ‘Back to the Fu ture,’ nobody calls me yellow. “Right now, I think every joint in my body hurts,” said Gaughan the day after the event. quite a bit smaller in 2007. Harvick has an nounced he won't compete for the Busch title again, though he will be around for a lot of the races. The latest estimate is that only Ed wards, Dave Blaney and David Ragan will com pete full-time in both series. That, of course, makes Edwards the odds on favorite. Though obliterated by Harvick, Ed wards won four races and collected 25 top-10 finishes, which are numbers that would proba bly win the title in most seasons. For what it's worth, there isn't any historical problem with Cup drivers making appearances in the Busch Series from time to time. The de sire of prominent drivers to be active in other series is as old as the sport itself. A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti, among many others, used the gradual implementation of the so called Car of Tomorrow. The COT will be used in 16 of the 36 races, while the existing chassis design will be used in the other 20. As a result, teams must build and maintain two completely different sets of cars. It won’t be easy, and it won’t be inex pensive. ■ Sometime in January, NASCAR chairman Brian France will finally an nounce whatever changes are to be made in the format of the Chase. It ap pears more and more as if the changes will be relatively minor. Chevy in USAC Two-time Nextel Cup champion Tony Stewart announced that Chevrolet will provide power and sponsorship for his entries in the United States Auto Club and World of Outlaws next year. Levi Jones and Tracy Hines will drive for Tony Stewart Racing in the USAC National Midget and Sprint Car divi sions. The two will also com pete in the Silver Crown events scheduled for dirt tracks. Paul McMahan returns for a second season driving TSR’s winged sprint cars in the World of Out laws. ■ It’s spreading The Hooters Pro Cup Series announced re cently that it will adopt the so called “lucky dog rule” - i.e., a free pass back on the lead lap for one driver during each cau tion period - next year. Naturally, it will be officially referred to as the “Aaron’s Lucky Dog.” “The Hooters Pro Cup Series marathon in his hometown, Las Vegas, as a re sult of a chal lenge from a friend in the Air Force. Gaughan’s team has a Mili- ■ SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2006 ♦ to show up at sprint-car tracks while they were winning Indy-car titles. But too many Cup drivers can stunt the growth of the young drivers coming up, and that's the situation that was in place in 2006. Cup drivers won every Busch race but two. Menard won once, as did David Gilliland. As Cup teams began filling vacancies, the common view was that all the talent had been tapped. Why was there a shortage of talent? In part, it was because the Busch Series had run dry, and most of the water from the well had been guzzled by Cup drivers and teams. By Monte Dutton NASCAR This Week • rtmt/ Ur 1 Tlc TVtXn r> ■ .< s ,|j Earnhardt Dale Earnhardt Jr. vs. Teresa Earnhardt In a Wall Street Journal interview, the driver had his commitment ques tioned by his stepmother, who sug gested Junior might spend too much of his time engaged in activities oth er than racing. NASCAR This Week's Monte Dutton gives his take: “This is all about posturing. Earnhardt Jr.'s con tract is up at the end of 2007. The biggest story here, by the way, is that Teresa Earnhardt granted an in terview, and she seized a fine oppor tunity to float a trial balloon.” FAN All ' d s |HK "m- 1 W m CIA Stock Photo f Jeff Gordon and new wife Ingrid Gordon placing premium on family It has been a holiday season Jeff Gordon won't soon forget. He announced on Dec. 13 that his new wife, Ingrid Vandebosch, is pregnant. In a statement on his Web site (www.jeffgordon.com), Gordon said: “We're obviously very excited. Christmas came early for us this year. This is a very special gift for us, one that we're both looking for ward to. The due date is early July, and Ingrid and I can’t wait to be par ents. We've known for a little while, but we couldn't wait any longer to share the good news with our friends and fans." On Dec. 16, he helped cut the ribbon at the Jeff Gordon Children’s Hospital, a 28-bed pediatric unit at North East Medical Center in Con cord, N.C. Gordon, who made chil dren's charities a top priority of his foundation, pledged $1 million of the roughly sll million needed for the project. Monte Dutton has tried to level the playing field on many fronts, and the ‘lucky dog’ is just an extension of that,” said series director Tony Cox. “If somebody has some bad luck early in the race, we’d hate to think that their chances of winning were over.” ■ Friendly wager During the Chick-Fil-A Bowl in Atlanta on Dec. 30, the outcome will de cide the outcome of a wager between the presidents of Richmond International Race way and Atlanta Motor Speed way. Rlß’s Doug Fritz has Vir ginia ham and peanuts wa gered on Virginia Tech. AMS’s Ed Clark has Georgia peaches and pecans riding on the Uni versity of Georgia. Odd, by the way, that the peanuts come from Virginia, not Georgia. Contact Monte Dutton at hmduttonso@aol.com 5B Earnhardt V E R S U S