Dustin Long

From Daytona to California, Dustin Long covers the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
Read all of his stories on PilotOnline.com's Auto Racing channel. And follow him on Twitter.

Category: NASCAR

■ 20 November 2009 | 4:26 PM

Dale Jr. on his season, confidence, team & hot tubs; Kahne on his future

Dale Earnhardt Jr. spent a few minutes chatting with reporters after qualifying and talked about his season, the National Enqurier story that suggested he was on a death spiral, his confidence in his team and more. (Below what Dale Jr. said, are comments from Kasey Kahne about his future and how might not include Richard Petty Motorsports after 2010). First to Dale Jr.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

“Everything seems to be going pretty good. It’s the last race of the year. Wish we could keep going to the race track, I guess, a few more weeks before we have to stop and prepare for Daytona. We sure could use the extra racing to try to learn some more.’’

Q: You know how tough it is to win titles, can you put into perspective what 4 in a row with Johnson would mean?

DALE JR: “It’s stating the obvious when you say that nobody has ever won four in a row, but you’ve got to put Jimmie up there in the top of our sport. He was already kind of there, but this definitely cements him as one of the best drivers that this sport has seen. You’ve got to give Jimmie his credit. He’s earned the respect we should give him. He’s a helluva person. He doesn’t cause any trouble. He’s not too vanilla. If you get to know Jimmie, you understand he’s a decent guy. He’s got a great personality. Like I said, he doesn’t cause any trouble. He’s great for representing the sport. I hope that this championship and his deal with HBO will sort of catalyst him into a new level of the public eye in a way of how people look at Jimmie as a race car driver, how he stacks up against all the other greats in the sport.

“You definitely have to put him there in with my father, Richard and David Pearson, and all them guys. You definitely have to put him there. He was already there before in a lot of people’s list but four in a row. Why can’t they go for five? That team is that good.

Q: Do you feel like after this rough year you guys are in a better position to win next year? Do you see improvement?

DALE JR: I see improvement, but we’ve got a lot of work to do in the offseason. We’ve got to really focus and challenge ourselves to be as good as we can next year. I think the team, these guys are really good people, they work hard and they deserve better. Hopefully, we can evolve and learn and prepare ourselves for next season and have a better year.

Q: Lance McGrew said he really wanted to change the dynamic of the race shop. Have you seen that happening?

DALE JR: “He’s made some good changes and we’ll see. Hopefully, some more of that as we get closer to Daytona, but he’s already done some pretty good changes. He’s done a pretty good job of us improving as a team. I know it’s hard to see and the results don’t say that at all. If I didn’t feel confident in this, I would have a hard time showing it.

Q: Was there any truth in that National Enquirer article?

DALE JR: “No. I got all tore up about how we qualified at Charlotte and got in front of you guys (the media) and said how I feel and a couple of the metaphors I used such as “end of my rope’’ and all that stuff really put me in within range of those guys. They played target practice on that. I actually researched online how many people had sued the Enquirer and how many had won, but reading through my article, they sort of twist the words to where you really can’t … they sort of twist the sentences around where they’re not really calling you out hard. They’re worded so that you really can’t go after it. I don’t know. It really doesn’t bother me that much. A lot of people say that any publicity is good publicity. We’re 25^th in points and we’re still relevant for the National Enqurier.

Q: Sort of like the hot tub story a few years ago the Enquirer did on you?

DALE JR: “Yeah. The hot tub story was kind of true. When we filled it up with beer. Filling it up with beer? Who hasn’t done that? (a reporter says no) Even when you were in college (reporter says no). Holy ….

Q: Do you consider this your worst season?

DALE JR: “I wouldn’t declare this my worst season. It’s been hard. This is our worst season statistically. Performance, all signs point to this being far worst than any other. A lot of good things happened too. It’s been interesting. Every year is worth going through no matter how it works out. Hopefully, next year will be better. I want to keep racing because I think we need more racing. We’re not good as a team yet. We need to race more. We don’t need to say, all right, let’s get this year over with and get ready for next year. We need to race more, so I wish the year wasn’t over, but, unfortunately, it is and we have to try during the offseason to fix what we can without being able to go to the race track and seeing if that’s working. Hopefully, when we show up at Daytona that we’ve made the right calls. It’s going to be a challenge for us, but I feel real, real confident in Lance and I feel good about my guys and I hope that the racing Gods are kind to us when next year comes around.

Q: What have you learned this year and how is your confidence? Dale Jarrett said he saw your confidence low earlier this year but sees it rising some lately.

DALE JR: “I feel better than I did earlier this year. I’ve got a long ways to go to get back my confidence that I need. When the car is there it’s easy to be confident and have swagger and all that, but I said it talking to you the other day, we sort of live and die how each day goes. Every lap in practice. If it starts bad, it sets the tone, it’s really hard to stay positive. That’s the hardest part and the one thing that I focus the most on is maintaining my attitude throughout the day because confidence ain’t quite there where it needs to be, so every little thing that happens during the day, whether it be on race day or Saturday or Friday, it can change how you feel and you’re confidence in the car and you’re ability to go out there and get it done. The team’s ability to make the car better or whatever on the next run. That needs to get better and that’s what I’ve worked the hardest on, trying to show my guys that even if we miss this and we tried this and it didn’t work, that I feel good we can go back out and improve.

Q: It’s confidence in the guys and them having confidence in you?

DALE JR: “That’s where it starts. I need to believe that they believe and vice versa. If they get the feeling that I don’t believe in them, then we are done. That’s the worst thing I can do and it’s a two-way street between every employee on that team. That has to work all the time.’’

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Kasey Kahne talked to reporters Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway and discussed his future. He'll be a free agent after the 2010 season, so he's got one more year with Richard Petty Motorsports. Here's what Kahne said:

WITH ALL THE UNCERTAINTY THAT YOU HAVE GOING INTO THE OFF-SEASON, IS IT TOUGH TO THINK ABOUT NEXT YEAR? “Yeah. It’s definitely different because things aren’t done. Because we don’t have a ‘for sure’ yet (agreement between RPM and Yates Racing). I think the season needs to get over with for the management side of things and just figure out exactly what we’re doing; get us pointed in the right direction so that the teams can start working and preparing for 2010. As far as the 9 team, I think we’ve done a pretty good job throughout the year. I don’t feel like I need to be done racing for the year. I’m still pretty excited at where we’re at right now. I think the company needs to be done. (The company) needs be able to focus on getting things straightened out and pointed in the right direction. There are too many unknowns.”

REGARDLESS OF WHAT HAPPENS NEXT YEAR, WILL NEXT YEAR BE YOUR LAST YEAR WITH RPM? “That’s hard to say. Come January, I can start looking around; I can talk to other people. I would imagine the Gillett’s are going to talk to me at that point. But as of right now, the Gillett’s haven’t talked to me and I’m just kind of doing my job, doing the best that I can through the end of the season. The ups and downs of the team has made it difficult for me to really say, ‘Man, I’m going to be here for 10 more years.’ I really don’t know what’s going to happen. Truthfully, I don’t know what’s going to happen right now.”

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■ 20 November 2009 | 2:17 PM

France talks, Gordon's future, Montoya's dilemma

A busy at Homestead on the final weekend of the season. From NASCAR Chairman Brian France speaking to the media for about 45 minutes to news from some other drivers and more. So, let's go.

# Hendrick Motorsports announced that it has signed Jimmie Johnson to a contract extension through 2015. Sponsor Lowe's is signed through 2013. As for crew chief Chad Knaus, car owner Rick Hendrick said Knaus has a multi-year deal and "Chad and I have talked about retiring together. So we're in the process of getting that all prepared.'' Hendrick joked he couldn't borrow enough money to sign Johnson to a lifetime contract.

# Car owner Rick Hendrick also addressed Jeff Gordon's future: "Jeff and I have an agreement. As long as he drives in Cup, he's going to drive our car. I'm hoping he's going to drive a bunch more years. We know it's going to be at least three or four. So we're excited about that.''

# Earnhardt Ganassi Racing will pair crew chief Kevin Manion with Jamie McMurray in the No. 1 car next year.

# Juan Pablo Montoya has competition in his house for attention, espeically with his son. "My son is actually a huge Kyle Busch fan. I'm not lying. If you look by my motorhome, I just got an M&M hood that I'm going to put in his room. I have to put a Target one as well. But it's incredible. He understands what I do, The girl, not so much but the boy knows. He'll tell you who drives a car, what car. Like with Kyle, it's actually pretty funny. When Kyle drives the Nationwide car, he knows what car it is. When he drives a truck, he knows. It's kind of freaky.''

# Comedian Frank Caliendo will serve as the host of the NASCAR Sprint Cup banquet on Dec. 4 in Las Vegas. Singer/songwriter David Gray will be the muscial entertainment. Broadcasters Mike Joy and Krisa Voda will serve as emcees.

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NASCAR Chairman Brian France spoke to the media about many subjects. He talked about Talladega, the economy and its impact on the teams, testing policy, Brad Keselowski, fans, the car and the Jeremy Mayfield case.

Q. The two hot topics this year were the Jeremy Mayfield situation. How confident are you in the drug policy you have? And also Talladega, the drivers were so critical there. What are you looking at doing specifically there, if anything?

BRIAN FRANCE: Well, look, taking the first things first, on the drug policy, we believe that we made the right decisions to make an already tough policy even more tough. We think we have to do that with the circumstances that go on in the country today and in sports in general, and the fact that we have a 200-mile-an-hour racecar, we think it was very imperative that we improve our follow, which we did. We will stand behind that, very clearly.

"In the future, when it comes to Talladega, there were a lot of things that were sort of in my view misrepresented. We had an exciting race. I know a lot of people will debate that. In Talladega, when you look at lead changes, whatever else, we had an exciting race. But we always look very carefully at Talladega in the fall, because it changes. It was the bump-drafting that we didn't create a new rule, but what we obviously did was made sure the old rule was carefully followed.

"But usually what comes out of Talladega in the fall, as to what we adjust, if anything, but usually we'll make adjustments going into Daytona, because it's a similar package for the teams, the superspeedway, plate racing, all that. We always learn things out of the last Talladega race that serve us better when we kick off the Daytona 500.

"I know our group has already had some tests. We tested Monday and Tuesday after with various packages at Talladega. We'll be looking at those in the future. Those are our signature races, no question about it. Starting with the Daytona 500, going to the Pepsi 400, going to Talladega twice, those are the highest television-rated races. We've got to make sure that the racing is safe for sure, and then we need to make sure that it's a typical Talladega, Daytona kind of race. That's what we'll be working on.

Q. Brian, I'm sure you saw there was a story this week talking about how a lot of top teams still have inventory available for sponsors next season. By my count there are at least five teams that ran the full season this year that are either going away next year or looking to scale back because of sponsorship. With all that in mind, do you think there will still be full-fields next year? Is it a case that maybe NASCAR needs to adjust its business model for a Sprint Cup team? It seems, with the economy getting back in things, the cost structure is out of whack.

BRIAN FRANCE: The cost structure is a function of the free market and what is available at the time in terms of sponsorship, in terms of other related revenues that the teams can obtain. We had this same conversation this time last year when the economy was even worse. There were a lot of predictions.

"There are always teams at this time of year that are under-funded, that are looking for sponsors. That's not anything new. I think clearly the sponsorship market is tougher than it's ever been in my memory. I don't anticipate that getting remarkably better. Although I will tell you we're starting to see, get inquiries in our New York group, the teams which do the selling of the sport, they're starting to feel the ice thawing on that. I think you'll see some companies over the off-season that are very close to joining us at one level or another.

"It doesn't mean it will be all perfect from a sponsorship standpoint, everybody will have everything that they want from a sponsorship on the car standpoint, you know. For that matter, the tracks are working hard to renew and secure their track sponsorships. They're doing a pretty good job of that. My sense is it will be difficult, but it's going to be fine.''

Q. This has been the first full year of the no-testing policy. The policy is announced for next year. It relaxes the restrictions a little bit and broadens the universe of racetracks they can go to slightly. Do you anticipate looking at that on a year-to-year basis and perhaps as the economy improves to evolve back to the policy that was in effect prior to this year? Have you seen any perceptible effect of the no-testing policy versus testing on the level of competition?

BRIAN FRANCE: You know, I would answer this way. There's some balance between no testing at all, which is the best savings equation for the teams, for sure, and having testing the way it was done in the past, which was a lot of testing. There's more publicity for the markets when teams are testing, getting the events revved up in advance. Rookies, teams that are behind from a competition standpoint, can make up some ground in the testing deal if it's available to them. So there's some perfect balance.

"We obviously have chosen to go the route of the cost savings, knowing that that has some consequences that are not perfect for all the things I just described. As we can dial it back, as the economy gets better, we will. I don't think we'll dial it back to the level we were two or three years ago where there was an enormous cost, some benefit, but too much cost. So we'll be dialing it as we go, as we watch the economy.

Q. For maybe 18 months or so you've said you want to open it up, let these guys get back to being personalities, whatnot. Last weekend we saw some old-school retaliation in the Nationwide race. What did you say to Brad Keselowski? How bad does the sport need that old-school kind of payback fun?

BRIAN FRANCE: Look, we don't go into private discussions we have in the trailer with our drivers. But suffice it to say what we want is drivers who are driving hard, that are driving to win. When that happens you're going to have some situations where there's contact. We're a contact sport. You didn't see us overrespond when that happened. What happened in the Nationwide race in Phoenix, what you're always worried about, with retaliation, all those things, is escalation, unintended consequences.

"But on balance, there's no question, we're encouraging drivers. When Carl last year made the last-lap attempted pass, Kansas City, you heard us applauding that. You didn't hear us saying anything other than that was a daring move by one of the better drivers. So we're pretty much committed. But we also regulate the events. You have to make sure that there are limits to hard driving and rivalries and whatever. But we certainly want them. We know how important they are. We're going to do what we can to encourage them with some obvious limits as we go along.

Q. NASCAR has always been described in the past as the benevolent dictatorship. At this tough time, it seems that NASCAR is listening to the fans more than ever before. Is that true? How do you balance listening to public opinion, not tipping your hand, altering how you would have run the sport in the past?

BRIAN FRANCE: Well, you know, I can comment to my time at running NASCAR, since 2004. I said when I started that we were going to be the most inclusive that we have ever been in our history. We did that with a new car. We did that with a lot of things. We continue to do that. We've started the Fan Council where we speak directly to 12,000 fans every week on a variety of issues, and obviously with our teams, which we've done town hall meetings, we'll do more. The idea is to get as much input as we can.

"In the end, you know, you want it to be where we can be decisive and make decisions, and we are. That's the way you get progress and you get to move forward. You want to take all the information in. But, look, we're a sport where there's a lot of opinions of how to do this, that or the other thing. And 43 teams in each national division all have different agendas. They have different goals of how things affect them, who likes this rules package better than the other person or this tire or whatever it is.

"So the good news is we have a lot of people that have been doing this for 10, 20, 30 years, who understand how to filter the opinions, the reactions, and the advice that we get into a way that gets the best outcome for the sport. We're not perfect. We'll make mistakes. But by and large, year after year, we will make far more good decisions than we will poor ones. And the poor ones that we make, we'll try to fix them as fast as we can.

Q. I wanted to ask you about the car. Do you feel like you need to make any tweaks to the car or do you believe it's good enough as it is? There's also been talk about allowing the manufacturers a little more freedom with the body. Is that a priority? How close are you on that?

BRIAN FRANCE: You know, we did have, as I said earlier, some very fluid, good exchanges in our town hall meeting that Mike Helton and I chaired in May. We had most of the team owners, a lot of the crew chiefs, some of the drivers. It wasn't just on the new car, or the car, but obviously there was a lot of focus on that.

"What we came away from it with was there probably were some things that we could consider, but there was no unanimous, Boy, if you just did this, it would improve that, whatever. What we netted out was we will take a look at some things in the off-season as you would expect us to do. There are a couple things we'll be looking at.

"But one of the things we felt strongly about is if we change something in May or June, it would counter what we had said in the beginning, which is the car is going to take a little while to figure out, but when you did, we were going to have better racing by far and we were going to have safer racing. If we change things too much too fast along the way, we'll never get everybody comfortable with what they have.

"So that was the decision that we ultimately, after listening to everything, because there's not anything that -- most of the drivers are getting comfortable and they don't feel like they need a lot of help one way or the other. But we will look at some things in the off-season, going into Daytona, to see if we can make a car and the racing better than it is now. That is absolutely our goal, and it's always our goal.

"Absent having passes every three seconds and photo finishes every race, which we would prefer, love to see that, if we don't achieve that, then we're going to keep pushing forward and looking at ways to achieve somewhere between great racing that we have now and Utopia, which is up here.

Q. Brian, I wanted to ask you about the Jeremy Mayfield case. His attorney this week publicly made the comment in light of NASCAR asking the judge to make a judgment on the pleadings, his comment publicly was a desperate attempt by desperate people, referring to NASCAR. I wanted to ask you about that comment and also their side, looking at additional depositions, including yourself, but also including your exwife in that, your feelings about that situation.

BRIAN FRANCE: Well, I will say it this way. You know, I've had a lot of experience with trial lawyers, more than I would like, and I didn't see the comment that you're referring to, but with trial lawyers, I've never been surprised with them, what they will say, to get some outcome for somebody that they're representing.

"We're going to deal with it like we said we would. We made all the comments we can make in terms of what we think has happened. We are going to go forward. It's regrettable. Our preference is never to be in litigation over anything. We make rules and we hope everybody abides by them. If you go get a trial lawyer and you go do something, that's out of our control. Our only control at that point is to do the best we can in representing the entire sport's interest in matters that affect them. We will continue to do that.

Q. Just about them trying to bring your exwife in.

BRIAN FRANCE: I said nothing surprises me with trial lawyers in the 21st century. They're an amazing group of people.

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■ 19 November 2009 | 4:19 PM

Will you be watching NASCAR history?

If you didn't get to see the championship contenders press conference on Speed Channel today, the point of emphasis is history.

Consider: Jimmie Johnson is going for a record-breaking fourth Cup title in a row. Or Mark Martin could become the oldest Cup champion if he wins his first crown. And car owner Rick Hendrick will tie Petty Enterprises with 9 Cup titles and earn a record-breaking 12th crown among NASCAR's top three series (Cup, Nationwide and Trucks), breaking a tie with Richard Childress Racing.

With Sunday's race the season finale, the question is if history is enough to make you want to watch the race? Will you watch it regardless? Of do you want to see history? Which type of history do you want to see? Johnson winning a fourth? Or Martin becoming the oldest driver in series history to win the crown? Why?

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A FEW ODDS AND ENDS IN REGARDS TO THE 48 TEAM

Chad Knaus calls working on the 48 team a lifestyle. So what does that entail? Many things, including following Chad's rules of tucked in shirts and be clean shaven, among others. But, wait a minute, Johnson wore a beard earlier this season and not everyone on the team is clean shaven, so how did that fly?

"He did that just to (tick) me off,'' Knaus said of Johnson's beard and then explained. "I don't have a problem with the beard, so that's why it was OK. Beards are OK. I don't want two-day old scruff face. You're either going to have a beard, you're going to have a mustache or you're going to have a goatee of you're going to be clean shaven. It's going to be like that and that's the way it needs to be.''

On what drives Knaus:

"I want to figure out how to beat (the competition). I always want to beat everybody else. It's cool because there are so many other teams out there. You're never trying to beat the same person (that's) where it's different from football. Say we're going to play the Bills and we know we've got to beat T.O., we've got to ... keep T.O. double-teamed. That's easy in all respects. That's one team that you've dissected that and you've found their strengths and now you've got to try to hold them down. Try to do that to 42 other teams. it's extremely difficult. It's fun, man. I love what I do. I just absolutely love it.''

Sitting up on the pit box with Knaus is lead engineer Greg Ives. He joined the team eary in the 2006 season, thus he's been there for all of Johnson's title. Although the Michigan native comes from a family that raced (he even drove late models) and did all sorts of mechanical work for the family run business and also for UPS, he went to college not for engineering at first. instead, he was pre-med. He wanted to be a pediatrician or surgeon. Things changed, when, he said, he "really felt like I could be a much better engineer than doctor.'' So he changed his major and the direction his life was headed.

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LAST TIME AROUND

This weekend's race marks the final time some drivers will be with their teams. A look at those moving on.

# Jamie McMurray runs his last race in the No. 26 car for Roush Fenway Racing. He moves on to the No. 1 at Earnhardt Ganassi Racing as Roush shuts the 26 down to meet the NASCAR rule that car owners can have no more than four teams.

# Reed Sorenson runs his final race in the No. 43 for Richard Petty Motorsports. He has not announced his plans for next year, although he likely will end up with a ride in the Nationwide Series. Good bet he could be driving for Braun Racing.

# Martin Truex Jr. runs his final race in the No. 1 at Earnhardt Ganassi Racing. He moves on to the No. 56 at Michael Waltrip Racing next year.

# Casey Mears COULD be running his final race in the No. 07 at Richard Childress Racing. Organization is looking for sponsorship but there is question what will happen to this team. Unless Mears finds a sponsor, he might be on the outside looking in even if this car runs next year.

# Erik Darnell's status is uncertain with the 96 car of Hall of Fame Racing since the team's future is uncertain.

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ONE LAST NOTE:

# Rusty Wallace Racing announced Thursday that it will switch to Toyota beginning next year in the Nationwide series for Steve Wallace and Brendan Gaughan.

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■ 17 November 2009 | 4:07 PM

How would you answer these questions about TV coverage of NASCAR races?

NASCAR reaches out to its fans and asks their opinion of various aspects of the sport by what it calls the NASCAR Fan Council.

The Fan Council is capped at about 12,000 members and surveys are sent out a couple of times a month or so to members. Double-file restarts and earlier start times for races were items that NASCAR asked fans about before implementing. Not long ago, NASCAR received a couple of honors for the Fan Council and its platform for fans.

Now the most recent survey, which typically has about 20 questions, features a few about the TV broadcasts. Obviously, NASCAR has had a lot to say about TV commentators lately and Brain France even told me about what he saw as excessive criticism of the sport by some of the broadcasters. I talked to NASCAR spokesperson Ramsey Poston, who said the TV questions were planned before the Talladega race. Remember that Poston wrote a blog questioning the ABC broadcasters on how they portrayed the race. Poston said the questions on TV in this survey were something they do at various times.

Here's a look at a few of the questions NASCAR is asking members of its Fan Council about the TV broadcasts. How would you answer these questions?

QUESTON: Have you ever watched a NASCAR race on TV with the sound turned down and listen to the MRN/PRN radio broadcast of the race at the same time?

A. Yes, this season

B. Yes, in previous years, but not this year

C. No

QUESTION: In a typical season, how many races do you watch on TV with the sound turned down and listen to the radio broadcast of the race at the same time?

A. All

B. Most

C. Some

D. A few

E. Rarely

QUESTION: Typically how much of the race do you watch on TV with the sound turned down and listen to the radio broadcast of the race at the same time?

A. The entire race

B. Most of the race

C. Half of the race

D. One quarter of the race

E. Less than a quarter of the race

F. Listen only during the TV commercial breaks

QUESTON: Why do you watch the race on TV with the sound turned down and listen to the radio broadcast of the race at the same time?

A. It's more exciting on the radio

B. Get more information on the radio

C. Like the radio announcers better

D. Radio covers more of the race.

E. Dislike the TV announcers

F. Other

G. None of the above

OK, so how would you answer those questions?

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■ 15 November 2009 | 10:06 PM

And down the stretch ...

One more race left in this season. Whether that's good or bad, only you can decide but come next week, you'll likely see Jimmie Johnson raise the championship trophy for a record-breaking fourth consecutive time.

Johnson's victory Sunday at Phoenix gives him a 108-point lead on Mark Martin. Nine times in 265 races Martin has outgained Johnson by 108 or more points in a race, including once this year (Texas when Johnson was wrecked). That's a success rate of 3.4 percent for Martin. All Johnson has to do at Homestead is finish 25th or better and he wins the title.

So, when you look at this title Chase, Johnson has a lead like Secretariat did at the Belmont in 1973 to win the Triple Crown.

And Martin suggests Johnson's streak might not be ending any time soon.

“From my experience from 1981 to today, no one has been able to sustain the kind of performance they have,’’ Martin said of Johnson’s team. “It might come unraveled at any time, but I don’t see that. I see that continuing for a long time.’’

So, then how can Martin and his team beat Johnson?

“I’ve got to find a way to work harder,’’ said Martin, considered among the most dedicated drivers in the sport. “I’ve got to dig deeper. I’ve got to find some more.’’

Here's what Johnson said about his win, which came a week after the Texas crash that cost him 111 points.

"Pretty bummed out after last week,'' Johnson said. "(Crew chief) Chad (Knaus) did a great job of kind of steering the team, keeping everybody's spirits up, focused on the right things. Very proud of the team, how we can bounce back, stay focused on the right things and get the job done. I'm very excited. A great position to be in, but Texas last week, as we all know, anything can happen. That was proof of it. So, looking forward to Homestead. Yes, I am excited. We need to go down there, qualify up front, run up front all night long and stay out of trouble.''

Johnson's win marked the sixth in a row for Hendrick Motorsports at Phoenix International Raceway. It was Johnson's fourth Phoenix win in the last five races. So, what is it about this track and Johnson? Let third-place finisher Denny Hamlin tell you.

"For whatever reason, turn three, everyone enters that corner the same, but he can just accelerate off the corners much, much better than a lot of guys,’’ said third-place finisher Denny Hamlin about Johnson. “That's what makes him so strong on the short tracks and one of the guys you usually have to beat every time.’’

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Did you notice that Jeff Burton finished 2nd and has really had some good runs lately? This was his third consecutive top-10 finish _ somethign he hasn't done all season _ and marked the fifth time in row he has placed in the top 15 (again something he hadn't done until now).

"Obviously we're real happy with the way we ran,'' Burton said. "We had a long way to come. I did not a very good job on Friday qualifying, got us behind. Made a lot of spots up early. We made a lot of spots up in the pits, too. We had one pit stop early that wasn't good, but the rest of them were really good. I picked up a lot of spots.

"We had the car to win the race, we just didn't have the track position to win the race. That goes back to what we did on Friday. I got to get better at that. I'm 42, still learning. I will get better at it.

"We're building on something. We're working hard on our equipment, working hard on our communication, working hard on paying attention to how I drive. Everybody's looking at themselves in the mirror, and the results are showing.''

Also, Richard Childress Racing teammate Clint Bowyer finished seventh. But teammates Casey Mears (27th) and Kevin Harvick (24th) did not have as good of days.

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# Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s struggles continue. He barely ran in the top 15 until he spun and caused a multi-car crash. Earnhardt finished 35th. He's placed 30th or worse 10 times this year and has only 5 top 10s to counter that. Ouch.

Here's what Dale Jr. said about the incident: "I hate it for everyone who got caught up in that. Tht was a pretty big mess. I was trying to spin the car down the track, just driving it wide open into the inside wall, and I couldn't get out of everybody's way. We got something broke on the motor where it's got an oil leak and we can't find it. It's been like this the whole race and we just got to find out what it is and try to get back out.''

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Martin Truex Jr. on his fifth-place finish and his thoughts of going into Homestead _ his final race with EGR _ before he moves on to Michael Waltrip Racing.

"It's huge to me because those guys are just like brothers to me. We're just like a family. I wanted it so bad all year. I've been trying all year. I think sometimes we try to hard and that's what gets us in trouble and causes problems.''

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SHORT TAKES

# Rick Hendrick is assured of a ninth Cup title _ four titles with Jeff Gordon, three with Jimmie Johnson, one with Terry Labonte and one with either Johnson or Mark Martin next weekend at Homestead.

# None of the top 22 spots in the driver standings changed after Sunday's race.

# Only four drivers led at least a lap Sunday. Jimmie Johnson led 238 of the 312 laps.

# Denny Hamlin finished third. This has been his Chase (in order): 2nd, 22nd, 5th, 37th, 42nd, 1st, 38th, 2nd and 3rd. Can you say up and down?

# Kurt Busch followed his Texas win by placing sixth Sunday.

# Jeff Gordon finished 9th. In his last three races he's placed 20th, 13th and 9th.

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■ 14 November 2009 | 8:10 PM

Hamlin on Keselowski: "He is just a complete moron''

The feud between Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski continued Saturday at Phoenix, taking some of the spotlight away from Kyle Busch needing only to start next week at Homestead to clinch the series title. (UPDATED WITH BRAD KESELWOSKI QUOTES AFTER MEETING WITH NASCAR OFFICIALS AT BOTTOM)

Hamlin and Keselowski have had numerous incidents on the track since last year in the Nationwide series. Keselowski's aggressive driving also has ruffled other drivers. Keselowski has not apologized for his driving style.

Saturday, Hamlin and Keselowksi got into it again. Hamlin said he got into Keselowski in the center of turns 1 and 2 and Keselowski returned the favor. Then what appeared to be a second hit from Keselowski, Hamlin spun. "He spun us,'' Hamlin said.

After the race, this is what Hamlin said:

"I'm just happy that I signed up for next week's Nationwide race,'' Hamlin said. "There's a lot of guys that owe him. There's a lot of guys that have a lot of chips that they're going to cash in. I'm just going to be the first to the pay window.''

Keselowski met with Joe Balash, Nationwide series director afterward. Hamlin said he heard about the discussion and returned to the Nationwide garage to talk to Keselowski and NASCAR. "I heard he was talking to Balash, I said I wanted to get in on this conversation,'' Hamlin said.

Of how the conversation wtih Keselowski went, Hamlin said: "He said, OK, I'm not mad. OK I'm not mad. I said, alright, I just want you to know when I wreck you don't be mad. We still won't be even, but I'm just. I told Balash, "You know what I have to do. He said I totally understand.' There you go.

Hamlin said Balash told him that NASCAR will sit Keselowski down "that his head is just out of control. That's what they said,'' Hamlin stated. "I don't know. Whatever. Can't wait. Next week.

On what he said to Keselowski, Hamlin said: "I'm telling you, I could talk to this (expletive deleted) concrete right here and it would talk back more to me than what he did. He is just a complete moron. I just wanted to say, Hey look, you wrecked me at Watkins Glen last year, you wrecked me at Dover this year, you forced me into the three-wide wreck at California. I said how many times have I wrecked you? Zero. Never have I wrecked you. Until I get back in a Nationwide car.

"it's a self-policing garage. OK. NASCAR doesn't want to get in the middle. They don't need to be in the middle of it. They don't need to. I said, if it's the opinion of me or one other guy, then, hey, maybe it's me. But every driver in the garage that comes up to me, says That guy is a complete whack job. Not everyone is wrong and he's right. The thing is I asked him, he says, "Well what do you want me to say? I says, You don't want to say your sorry or nothing? It's cool. You would think that's the way he races. He says: I'm cool.' All right, we're cool then.'

Hamlin was then asked by a reporter: He said we got into a pushing match. He did it to me and I could save it. I did it back. I guess he couldn't save it:

Hamlin's response: "Let me tell you something. The one thing he ain't got is more talent then me.''

Joe Balash, Nationwide series director, told Scenedaily.com that he would not approve retaliation.

"Race drivers, in the heat of battle, say a lot of things,'' Balash told Scenedaily.com. "We had a conversation. A lot of things were said. There will be a whole different scenario when we get to the race track next week. We've got a whole week to manage the expectations of next week. You never condone retaliation.''

Sunday morning, Brad Keselowski was called into the NASCAR hauler and met with President Mike Helton, Robin Pemberton, VP of competition and Joe Balash, Nationwide series director. Meeting lasted about 20 minutes. After coming out of the hauler, Keselowski did speak to reporters.

Here's what Keselowski said:

(On the meeting with NASCAR)

KESELOWSKI: "We just had a ham sandwich. It went real well. That’s probably been the most impressed I’ve ever been with NASCAR, I honestly will say that. I’m not brainwashed in saying that, either. I really respect the fact that Brian France walked in there. That meant a lot to me. It’s really the first time I’ve ever had a conversation with him. I think that’s a good sign for the sport that he was involved in that conversation. I think the biggest, without talking about things that were talked about privately, I think the biggest message was, because I don’t want you guys to speculate on, was just trying to pick and choose who you want to be your friends and enemies in the sport and making sure that I understood that process, what it takes to make it at this level and how you’re going to need friends down the line and make sure that you don’t alienate everybody but at the same time to not give up on being a hard charger.

"I think that was the basic tone of the conversation, of just trying to figure out what it takes to be successful at this level. I certainly don’t feel like I have all the answers but I’m doing the best I can and will welcome any of the advice I can get.

(Do u have to change your driving style?)

KESELOWSKI: "Do I have to? You’re always changing your style, you’re always progressing as a driver. Do I need to do things better, yeah all the time. Is that specific to being aggressive? Sometimes, soemtimes not. Being aggressive is what got me here. Nobody has handed me anything in my career. I’ve dug and clawed for everything I’ve got and the only way to do that is by being aggressive. So that’s not to say I need to be aggressive every race. No. There’s races where you need to play it cool and be smart. So it’s just trying to learn that timing and learning who you need to be your friends and who you can accept as being your enemies no matter what you do.

(Do u need to talk to denny?)

KESELOWSKI: "I don’t really want to engage that. I’m quite satisfied with my own role in the sport as it is with the other drivers. So I don’t feel the need to engage that situation.

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■ 13 November 2009 | 10:50 PM

Hornaday becomes oldest champ; Robby Gordon looking for sponsorship

Ron Hornaday, who is 51 years old, becomes the oldest champion in NASCAR's national series after winning the Camping World Truck series title on Friday night at Phoenix. The previous oldest champion was Ted Musgrave, who was 49 years, 11 months and 1 day when he won the 2005 series title. This is Hornaday's fourth title.

Hornaday captured the title by finishing fourth, while teammate/boss Kevin Harvick won the race. Hornaday clinches a race early. The truck series concludes its season next week at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Hornaday says he's not done yet. Hornaday noted that his team is racing the Billy Ballew team for the owners point title (Ballew's ride is the one Kyle Busch has raced much of the year).

Kyle Busch has a chance to clinch the Nationwide series title on Saturday at Phoenix, which also would come a week ahead of that series' season finale at Homestead.

# Robby Gordon says he has only sponsorship for eight races next year and he'll put those on his car at the beginning of the season, giving him fully sponsored rides through March.

Gordon also said that he's run nearly one-third of the races this season on his own dime even though he kept sponsor decals on his Cup car.

“We’re set through March, which buys us time because it gives us the rest of the winter to sell and the first three months of next year to see where the economy is at,’’ Gordon said.

One of Gordon’s sponsors, Jim Beam, announced a couple of months ago it would not return to the sport after this season.

“Obviously are results are not the best,’’ said Gordon, who has run a fulltime schedule with his own team since 2006. “It’s easy to go out there and blame the economy for everything, but if we ran better _ you see teams get sponsorship that win races.’’

Gordon is 34th in the driver standings. Other than a third-place finish in the Coca-Cola 600, he has not placed in the top 10 this season. Asked if would have to lay off personnel after this season, Gordon said: “We’re going to have to do some of that but everybody does that at the end of the year. That’s the part we don’t like.’’

Gordon has been searching for money all season and says he’s been funding some races himself even though he kept sponsor decals on races instead of having a blank car. Among the tracks Gordon did not sell sponsorship for this season were both races at Martinsville, Richmond, Dover, Pocono, Fontana, Calif., and one race at Michigan.

# Denny Hamlin says he thinks NASCAR should have a driver advisory board. He's still upset about Talladega where some drivers went to NASCAR asking series officials to not allow any push-drafting or bump-drafting in the corners. Jeff Gordon said last week at Talladega that he was one of the drivers who asked NASCAR to make such a change. That has not sat well with Hamlin.

So, Hamlin was asked about having a driver's board.

"I think we should probably have a board and it should be six or seven guys,'' Hamlin said, suggesting Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson be on it along with some younger drivers. "

Asked about how he's become more vocal about his opinions lately in public, Hamlin said: "It just bugged me when I heard the whole Talladega thing. That really just bugged me. I thought it was just NASCAR saying we're doing this on our own and we just came up with it, but when I heard that someone influenced them that kind of got on my nerves.''

# Carl Edwards says his plan is to run the Nationwide series fulltime the next two seasons. "That could change,'' he said, "but I enjoy it.''

# The U.S. Army announced that it will be back as sponsor of Ryan Newman's car for next season. The Army will be the primary sponsor on Newman's car in 15 races -- 7 fewer points races than this season. This season the Army paid $11.6 million to be on Newman's car for 23 total races (22 points races and the All-Star race). That equates to about $500,000 per race.

# Carquest will be a primary sponsor on Mark Martin's car for eight races in 2010 and 2011, Hendrick Motorsports announced.

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■ 13 November 2009 | 3:43 PM

A title contender energized, former driver coming back; a look at a sanctioning agreement

Unfazed. That's how Jimmie Johnson's team is after last week's race at Texas where his points lead fell from 184 to 73. Yes, there is pressure, crew chief Chad Knaus admits, but they're still doing a lot of the same things as any other week. Knaus did tell me about a meeting he had with the team this week.

"We don't have a lot of formal meetings,'' he said. "We have open-forum discussions. We got together this week and we talked about things we could have done better in the crash repair, how could we do it better for next time, what tools, what resources do we need to call on to try to get that stuff done better and faster in case something again happens. Then we just went on into it and talked about the thing that is going to win this championship is preparedness and if you're prepared going into the next 712 laps we have to race (312 laps at Phoenix and 400 at Homestead), we should be able to win this championship. If we don't, it's not life-threatneing. It's not the end of the world. It means that we go into 2010 and we try to do it (win a championship) again. We've got to make sure we dot our I's and cross our T's and have the tools and resources ready and at our fingertips to make this deal happen and then go race.''

Even Jimmie Johnson was not professing too much concern at least publicly on Friday morning before practice started _ where Johnson was a regular in the top five in speeds from the beginning.

"I'm used to leaving Texas with a strong performance, a lot of momentum, coming into the Phoenix race with a ton of momentum,'' Johnson said. "I don't really have an emotion for how last week went. Obviously, it's a negative one. I'm disappointed to lose the points but we didn't perform poorly. We didn't have a chance to perform good or bad. I'm kind of just at this blank spot with how last week went.

# Carquest is returning as a primary sponsor for select races for Mark Martin in Cup through 2011, the team announced Friday. GoDaddy.com already has been announced also as a sponsor for the car in a majority of the races.

# TRG Motorsports plans to announce a driver and sponsor for next season on Saturday. Foxsports.com,citing unidentified sources, reports that Bobby Labonte will remain with the team. That would make sense with Jamie McMurray reportedly going to Earnhardt Ganassi Racing next year (announcement is expected at Homestead).

# Jerry Nadeau was at the track Friday. He flew out with Jay Frye, general manger of Red Bull Racing and the team. Nadeau, as you might recall, suffered a head injury in a crash at Richmond in May 2003 and has not raced in a major circuit since. Here's the story I did on him last year on the fifth anniversary of his crash. He says he's trying to put together a deal to run in the Grand Am circuit next year but will need to find more than $300,000 in sponsorship. Nadeau is excited about the prospect and hopeful he can return to racing.

# I"m sure many of you have heard of the sanctioning agreements between a track and NASCAR but haven't seen one. Here one is for the Dover events for next year.

# While you likely have heard of sanctioning agreements NASCAR has with the tracks, here's a copy of one such agreement between NASCAR and Dover for its two races. Lots of interseting nuggets buried within all the type. Here's the sanctioning agreement.

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■ 12 November 2009 | 8:12 AM

Odds and ends

A few things from throughout the sport:

# While NASCAR's drug testing policy has come under question, especially in the Jeremy Mayfield case, it has scored high marks in at least one area. The Wall Street Journal examined the antidoping policies of 22 major sports or governing bodies and gave them what the paper calls a "clarity quotient,'' based on the presence of a policy, its accessiblity to the public, severity of sanctions for offenders and administration of the code itself. NASCAR ranked higher than most, including the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball but was behind the International Olymic Committee, International Tennis Federation and International Boxing Federation. Here's the list.

# The car Jimmie Johnson will drive at Phoenix this weekend is the same one he drove to a second-place finish at Martinsville last month. Johnson has run the car four times this year and has never finished worse than ninth in it, including a fourth at Phoenix in the spring.

# Johnson, who leads Mark Martin by 73 points heading into Phoenix could clinch the title if he leads by 195 or more points after the race. If he averages a fourth-place finish the next two races, he'll win the title regardless what anybody else does.

# Kyle Busch could clinch the Nationwide series crown at Phoenix this weekend. He leads Carl Edwards by 247 points _ NASCAR docked Busch 25 points on Wednesday for improperly attached weight to the car at Texas. Ron Hornaday Jr. also could clinch the Truck series this weekend at Phoenix. Hornaday leads Matt Crafton by 197 points. Both Busch and Hornaday would need to leave Phoenix with a 195-point lead to secure the title heading to Homestead.

# Speed Channel will broadcast the Sprint Cup Series Awards Banquet in Las Vegas. Speed will air it live at 9 p.m. Eastern on Dec. 4. The show will go to 1 a.m. (Dec. 5). Steve Byrnes and Jeff Hammond will be the hosts. Mike Joy and Krita Voda will be presenters.

# The ProCup series won't be the only series to race at North Wilkesboro Speedway next year, track officials announced this week. The ASA Late Model Series will hold its season finale there in November and PASS Super Late Model series plans to run there next year, although a date has yet to be announced. The ProCup series will race at the venerable track next October. To keep up with things at the track, check out this site.

# Lesa France Kennedy, chief executive officer of International Speedway Corp., was interviewed for the show "$ports Take,'' which will air Nov. 17 on Versus Network. In it she discusses a number of topics. The network released some quotes. Here's some of what Kennedy said on the show:

Kennedy discusses how NASCAR’s connection with the fans has helped during the current economy:

“I think everybody obviously is affected by the economy but the one thing that we have is we have that direct connection with the consumer and we can put a product or a message in front of so many fans each week just here at the track or on television and that’s been a great benefit for our sponsors and how we’re able to get the message out.”

Kennedy discusses the plan to have a casino around the Kansas City track:

“I do think it’s going well. We still have some state approvals that we need to get but we have a partner, Penn National Gaming, who has a great expertise in this casino area and it’s going to be terrific located next to the track as well for the overall area to give people a lot to do.”

Kennedy discusses whether there are plans in the work to bring NASCAR to Denver:

“No, right now, overall, we’re focused on our core facilities, the fan, and some of the experiences and challenges we’re all going through. So I think that we’re dropping back and we’re taking a look at our experiences and how to provide more value for the fans. That’s where we’re focused right now with our growth.”

That will do for now. Got to catch a plane for Phoenix.

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■ 10 November 2009 | 12:46 PM

Montoya on NASCAR: It's the greatest racing

Juan Pablo Montoya says if you don't like the racing in NASCAR, you're missing something. Montoya makes his comments based on his experience in Formula One, Indy Car and NASCAR.

Here's what Montoya said in regards to the racing in Cup:

"I tell you the truth, I think people that complain about a NASCAR race they haven't watched anything else of motor racing,'' Montoya said. "Honestly, if you don't like what you're seeing, you shouldn't be seeing it because it's the greatest racing you can have in any Motorsport scene. It doesn't get any better than this, I'll tell you the truth.

"I've been in Formula 1. I've been in IndyCars, I've been in CART. I've been in you name it, Grand Am. And the best racing is right here. I'm not saying this because I'm here. I'm saying this because I've lived all of them, and nothing compares to this.

"I don't get it. You know, I understand maybe complaining a lot of times. The Talladega race with people being very conservative and then a huge wreck. But if you go to Talladega, you can expect that. It's not something new. I don't know why people complain about it when the racing is so good.

"Like last week was good racing. You know, it was a blast. A lot of things happened, so it's very ‑‑ I don't understand when people complain about things like that.''

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Hampton Roads, VA - 11/20/2009
	60^°	Scattered Clouds
Forecasts \| Doppler Radar
Traffic Cameras & VDOT Alerts

Dustin Long

Dale Jr. on his season, confidence, team & hot tubs; Kahne on his future

France talks, Gordon's future, Montoya's dilemma

Will you be watching NASCAR history?

How would you answer these questions about TV coverage of NASCAR races?

And down the stretch ...

Hamlin on Keselowski: "He is just a complete moron''

Hornaday becomes oldest champ; Robby Gordon looking for sponsorship

A title contender energized, former driver coming back; a look at a sanctioning agreement

Odds and ends

Montoya on NASCAR: It's the greatest racing

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