Indy-Charlotte double doubtful in 2010; other odds and ends

Indianapolis Motor Speedway released its schedule for the month of May and the Indy 500 and unless something changes, 2010 appears to again be another year where a driver or drivers can't race in both the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway announced that the 500 will take place at 1 p.m. Eastern time. The Coca-Cola 600 later that day is set to start at 5:45 p.m. Eastern Time.

Now, realize that the Indy 500 likely will start more around 1:15 p.m. and typically lasts at least 3 hours and 10 minutes. So that would put the end of the race no sooner than 4:25 p.m. Then there's time for the driver to get out of his car, helicopter to a nearby airport, get on a plane and fly to North Carolina and then helcopter to the track there. Count on that time being well more than an hour for all of that. That puts you around 5:35-5:45 range. Now, a 5:45 p.m. start at Charlotte likely means a green flag of about 6:05 since Cup races typically throw the green flag about 15 or so minutes after the announced start time (unless there's bad weather in the area).

As you can see, there's a possibility a driver could do both but there' a razor-thin margin. If that driver won at Indy, there's no way they'd make it to Charlotte in time for the start of the race. Remember the points in a Cup race go to the driver who stars the race. That's why you've seen in the injured drivers in the past start the race and climb out soon after so they can get the points even though someone else finishes the race.

It's a shame times can't be altered a bit to allow for such a possibility. It would be something to see Tony Stewart, Robby Gordon and maybe others run both in the same day and, hey, maybe some day Danica Patrick run both events in the same day. Wouldn't that create a bit more interest in both races. Wouldn't you want to see how Tony or Robby or someone else from NASCAR did in the Indy 500? I'm sure some IRL fans would like to see how Danica does in the Coke 600 if she moves to Cup.

As for now, though, it doesn't appear that will happen. Maybe next year.

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# In case you haven't heard, Steve Addington will be Kurt Busch's crew chief. As you recall, he was Kyle Busch's crew chief at Joe Gibbs Racing before the team made a change after Kyle failed to make the Chase this year. Of those with crew chief experience, it's fair to say Addington was probably the best out there that was available. So, in that sense it's a relatively easy selection for Busch and Penske Racing. Still, it's interesting, the crew chiefs Kurt Busch has spent the most time with have been Jimmy Fennig and Pat Tryson -- veteran crew chiefs who are viewed as more old school then those from the engineering background. Also those two are known to not be as emotional as other crew chiefs, which works well with Kurt Busch, who'd admit he can get emotional on the radio. Addington fits that mold with being experienced and patient and calm, something that was evident when Kyle would get upset on the radio when the car wasn't what he wanted. It will be interseting to see how this pairing works and if it is enough to get Kurt Busch his second Cup title.

# If you can't get enough Danica and Dale Jr., Speed will broadcast their press conference from JR Motorsports at 11 a.m. Eastern Thursday. It's set up as a session with NASCAR reporters and will feature Danica, Dale Jr., Kelley Earnhardt, Tony Eury Jr. and Tony Eury Sr. It comes a day before Danica begins her ARCA test session at Daytona. ARCA has an open test there from Dec. 18-20.

# TNT airs a one-hour special at 10 p.m. Dec. 20 that features Kyle Petty, Charles Barkley and Dennis Eckersley giving their opinions on topics ranging from sports to world news to entertainment and current events.

# There's some concern about the possibility of short fields for Cup events again next year but I don't think you'll see that. Yes, the No. 26 car has gone away and so has one of the four cars at Richard Petty Motosrports (as it merged three teams with one from Yates Racing -- and Yates losing the 96) but you'll still see 43 cars at the track. Certainly there are questions about the 07 at Richard Childress Racing. One would expect that team, which does not have sponsorship, to run at least the first five races of the season since its  in the top 35 in car owner points and has a guaranteed starting spot for each of those races.

Also wouldn't be surprised that some of the low-budget teams pull out second cars, almost specificially to start and park. TRG Motorsports has Bobby Labonte in the 71 but the team pulled out the 70 car  in a few races late last year to do just that. PRISM Motorsports ran the 66 as a start and park almost all year and ran the 64 the same way. Wouldn't be surprised to see others do the same thing. Recall the 78 with Regan Smith is going from part time to full time this season. Now, saying that, doubt you'll see many more than 43 cars per weekend most of the time and one could argue the quality of the field will go down if there are more start and parkers, which will be the case in terms of the full field. With a little less than two months until the season starts we'll see if more teams pop up. Recall that last year some teams popped up in January.

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