Four of the top six winners from last season have yet to visit Victory Lane in a reversal that is not unprecendented but still a bit striking. Former champs Jeff Gordon (6 wins last year), Tony Stewart (3), Kurt Busch (2) and Matt Kenseth (2) have yet to win this season.

 

Gordon continues to struggle with the new car and the new tires, unable to get the feel he wants. Stewart has been strong at times but luck has not gone his ways; and other times he's been the third best car at Gibbs, still not bad but that won't get him into Victory Lane. Busch drives a Dodge and that car has been way off most of the season. Hard to imagine Dodge winning many more races this season with the struggles it has had. Kenseth also has been offset by poor finishes although he scored a nice recovery at Darlington with a sixth-place finish.

 

Of that group one would suspect Steawart would be next to win based on the superiority of Gibbs and Toyota this season. Kenseth could be one to watch at Charlote based on the success of teammate Carl Edwards at the 1.5-mile tracks. It's hard to imagine Gordon going through the upcoming swing of Charlotte, Dover and Pocono without a win. Busch likely will need some help to win.

 

# The more things change the more they stay the same ... Only two drivers in the top 12 in points now weren't in the top 12 a year ago. Greg Biffle is 11th this year and David Ragan is 12th. They replace Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch.

 

# Although Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards each have three wins, Busch has more bonus points (30 to 20). Remember that NASCAR docked Edwards his 10 bonus points for his Las Vegas win. The bonus points are added once the overall points are reset to 5,000 before the Chase begins in September, so, at this point, Busch would open the Chase in the lead because he has the most bonus points.

 

# Petty Enterprises made it official: Chad McCumbee will drive the No. 45 for Kyle Petty at Dover and Chicago with former champion Terry Labonte coming out of semi-retirement to drive at Pocono, Michigan, Sonoma, New Hampshire and Daytona and be a teammate to his brother, Bobby.

 

# The All-Star race marks Dale Jarrett's final Cup ride ... although we'll see if he does what many other drivers have done and run a few races here and there down the road. That champion's provisional can be a valuable thing.

Standing on a photo tower inside turn 1, a reporter turned to me and wrote on his notebook how we are witnessing the infancy of what will be the greatest career in racing. The reporter was referring to Kyle Busch as he was on his way to winning at Darlington.

 

That's a powerful statement in a sport celebrating 60 years and littered with names such as Petty, Earnhardt, Pearson, etc. The point the reporter was making was how Busch can win and has won at any level from Cup, Nationwide and Truck. Count a Late Model race and Busch has won at least some sort of race in each of the past six weeks.

 

Something to consider: Busch scored his seventh Cup win in his 125th start. That's a winning percentage of 5.6 percent. Not great but it's early. He does have 59 top-10s in 125 starts. To compare:

 

By his 125th start, Dale Earhnhard had 7 wins (and one title) and 72 top 10s.

 

By his 125th start, Richard Petty had 6 wins and 71 top 10s.

 

By his 125th start, David Pearson had 7 wins and 61 top 10s.

 

By his 125th start, Jeff Gordon had 20 wins and 73 top 10s.

 

The desire of many is to say whatever is hot is the next greatest thing. Certainly Busch has shown that his numbers compare favorably with some of the sport's icons. When you consider that the level of competition is viewed as higher today than in the early days of some great drivers, Busch's numbers stand out.

 

Maybe we are witnessing a form of greatness that comes around only so often. As you ponder that, a few other items from Saturday night's race at Darlington:

 

# Dale Earnhardt Jr. spoke briefly on his radio to crew chief Tony Eury Jr. after the race about how the car was different in the race than it had been during the past two days. There have been some who question if the Earnhardt-Eury combination is as good at getting a car better as the race progresses. They are better at that area. If not Earnhardt wouldn't have scored his eighth top-10 on Saturday with a fourth-place finish. No doubt this duo will have to be better in late-race decisions espeically with the way Busch (and Carl Edwards) are showing strength on the big tracks. Teams do have some time before the Chase but recall that half of the 10 Chase races are on 1.5-mile tracks. If the Chase started today, it would be hard to pick against Edwards or Busch for the crown. 

 

# Did you notice that David Ragan finished fifth and moved into 12th in the points? This is the same guy who got a bit of a reputation last year for wrecking and wildness. He's more comfortable in the car and the cars are better. Thus, he can be more patient. Nothing cures ills like a well-handling race car.

 

Ragan admits that being 12th is "cool, it's something to talk to about and it's something to enjoy, but guess what, in two more weeks everybody is going to forget about this race and be worried about the next one. This points deal is pretty tight. We don't have much breathing room in front of us and we don't have much behind us.''

 

# Did you also notice the big save Matt Kenseth made? He finished sixth after having placed 38th or worse in the last three races. Kenseth's performace moved him two spots to 20th. He's 133 points out of 12th. He's been further behind later in the season but this team needed to break its recent run of poor finishes. "We've been running so terrible and having such bad luck, I was happy for our finish,'' he said.

 

# In a race called the Dodge Challenger 500, Dodges did nothing. Kurt Busch was the top finishing Dodge, placing 12th. Dodges combined to lead 6 of the 367 laps with rookie Patrick Carpentier leading the way by leading four laps.

 

# Dave Blaney's ninth-place finish moved him into 35th in the car owner points, meaning he's guaranteed a starting spot for the Coca-Cola 600. Blaney knocked rookie Sam Hornish Jr. out of the top 35.

 

# Something else to consider about Kyle Busch. He has three wins after 11 races (as does Carl Edwards). That means both are on pace to win maybe 10 races this season. And people thought that Jimmie Johnson's 10-win season from last year wouldn't be repeated soon.

 

# In case you missed it, I reported in an entry before the race that Terry Labonte is set to join Petty Enterprises for a few races when Kyle Petty goes to the TV booth. That would make the Labonte brothers teammates.

 

Terry Labonte will be a teammate to his brother Bobby at Petty Enterprises starting next month, pending sponsor approval.

 

Terry (and Chad McCumbee) will drive the No. 45 when Kyle Petty gets out for the summer. Petty is scheduled to compete in the Coca-Cola 600 and then miss the next seven races (one for his daughter's wedding and the other six to work as an analyst for TNT)

 

McCumbee likely will drive at Dover and Chicago. Terry Labonte likely will drive in the other five races. Labonte's addition is key for Petty Enterprises because the No. 45 car is not in the top 35 in car owner points. Labonte's second of his two titles came in 1996 -- that makes him the most recent champion not in the top 35 since Bill Elliott's title came in 1988. Thus, Labonte would be guaranteed a starting spot each time he starts, while the Wood Brothers would lose that even with Elliott in the seat.

 

“”For us, (Terry) has always been in our mind because of Bobby,’’ said Robbie Loomis, executive vice president of operations at Petty Enterprises, before Saturday’s race at Darlington. “”We saw him help out Michael (Waltrip’s) deal last year. I think Kyle has always been close to him. It’s a good fit. Kind of a neat deal for us.’’

 

Terry Labonte drove three races last year for Michael Waltrip, competing in the road course events at Infineon Raceway and Watkins Glen. Terry Labonte also drove for Waltrip at Indianapolis last year, making the field on his champion’s provisional. Terry Labonte’s top finish in those races was 30th at Indianapolis and Watkins Glen.

 

This would be the second time the Labonte brothers have run as teammates. Terry Labonte drove in five races for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2005 when Bobby Labonte was there. Terry Labonte ranks fourth in series history with 851 career starts. He won 22 races.    

 

 

Got to ride around the track this afternoon for my first laps ever around this track. Pace car driver Brett Bodine, a former series racer, drove one of the pace cars around the track.

 

One of the interesting things I learned as we did about three laps (topping about 120 mph since there were painters on the track sprucing up the walls) was how drivers treat the track as if there are three straightaways. Knew it was egg shaped but never saw the third straight.

 

"This track really has three straightaways,'' Bodine said as we went around the track. "This is turn 1 and this (between 1-2) is like a straightaway because you run wide open through here.''

 

But it doesn't last long. There's a decreasing radius and that's why that turn 2 wall looks like it just about reaches out and snags the cars every time they come through the corner. Bodine says the tight radius causes drivers to let off the gas and then the key is to get back on the gas ASAP to go down the backstretch.

 

"You'll catch a lapped car (in turn 2) and have to check up,'' Bodine said. "The guy behind you will make up five car lenghts and pass you and you just passed him two laps ago.  You have to anticipate where and how the pass the lapped traffic. That is what will dictate how you'll run all night long.''

 

Another key even with the repaving is getting on pit road. It's tough at this place.

 

"It comes up on you so quick,'' Bodine said. "It's a very sharp turn and then you're on the flat and it's easy to slide out (past the pit road entrance). If you know you're too hot, you're better off just to miss because if you turn too much and hit those (water) barrels (at the edge of the pit road), well, then ...

 

You're night is over. We made it with no problems, although even at the reduced speed it is a sharp turn. It's hard to imagine how tight it really is at race speeds. You almost wonder how they get on pit road.

 

Well, that's Darlington. Enjoy.

 

 

Jimmie Johnson hit the wall early in practice Friday at Darlington and will go to a backup car.

 

"I hit the wall in turn 1,'' Johnson said. "We worked hard over the night to make some gains and we ran two of the fastest laps, those two laps, and, unfortunately, I crashed on my third (lap). But we're very optimistic about the gains we've made, and I'm still trying to understand why we lost it. I lost it early on the straightaway before the corner, so something happened up on the straightaway.''

 

2:55 p.m. UPDATE

 

JOHNSON WRECKS AGAIN

 

Johnson got loose out of turn 4, nearly caught and then went into a long slide down the frontstretch, tapping the wall with the left front and knocking the splitter off. This was in the backup car.

 

 

WHAT SOME DRIVERS ARE SAYING:

 

KYLE BUSCH

 

Q: Your impressions of people comparing you to Dale Earnhardt

 

BUSCH: At least it's not me doing the comparing, it's everybody else. It's flattering, I guess. It's just not what I'm out there concentrating on being. I'm out there concentrating on being Kyle Busch and trying to make sure that I can go out there and compete for wins and win races and compete for championships and try to win championships. Until I get further up those ladders then to me it's just comparisons.

 

Q: Your thoughts changed at all on last weekend's Richmond incident with Dale Jr?

 

BUSCH: No. It's pretty much the same thing, just hard racing. Two guys going after it in the final laps of a race and us two just getting together.

 

Q: What kind of backlash have you gotten from the incident?

 

BUSCH: I really don't know, and I really don't care.

 

CLINT BOWYER

 

Q: What are your thoughts that more attention has been paid to the end of the Richmond race instead of your win?

 

BOWYER: I know where the trophy went, and I know where the money went. That is all I care about. You guys can write whatever you want (laughing).

 

Q: What the Richmond win does for him

 

BOWYER: It gives so much confidence and so much momentum to the team. WE have just got to make sure we are consistent week in adn week out. We have done a pretty good job of that thus far, but the year isn't over with.

 

KASEY KAHNE

 

Q: Key to Saturday's race?

 

KAHNE: Just don't hit the wall. I think every car on the track is going to hit it. It's just how hard everyone is going to hit it. It's really going to be tough to pass.

 

FIRST PRACTICE

 

1. Casey Mears ... 177.685

2. Martin Truex Jr. ... 176.759

3. Robby Gordon ... 176.746

4. Jeff Gordon ... 175.817

5. Jimmie Johnson ... 175.509

6. David Gilliland ... 175.178

7. Denny Hamlin ... 174.804

8. Bobby Labonte ... 174.655

9. Elliott Sadler ... 174.463

10. Ryan Newman ... 174.352

 

2:35 p.m. UPDATE

 

Reed Sorenson hits the wall in the final practice session and also will go to a backup car.

One of the many debates this week _ and even before Kyle Busch and Dale Jr. got together at Richmond _ is how Kyle is the next Dale Earnhardt.

 

While some Earnhardt fans will be upset with the comparison and others will say it's spot on, who better to ask than Dale Jr. on what he thinks of this debate. So I asked him Thursday after the first pratice session at Darlington.

 

This is what Dale Jr. said about the comparisons between his dad and Kyle Busch:

 

"He's fast, he's running well, he's quick, he's aggressive,'' Dale Jr. said. "This is Dale Earnhardt from '89 and earlier. Daddy quit doing that stuff after a while, I don't know. That's the way Dad raced and Kyle has that same style. He's very aggressive.''

 

Then I asked what about the attitude between the two and Earnhardt responded:

 

"Personality wise they're polar opposites. Give me a break. You know my dad better than that. Give my dad a little more credit. They didn't know him.''

 

So, there you go.

 

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Speeds are fast with the repaved track and drivers are already predicting little passing in Saturday night's race. This race typically has been single file but you could pass when the handling went away with the tire wear. Some drivers say that with the harder tire that the cars don't post their fastest lap until about 20 or so laps into a run. Thus everyone could be running about the same speed, leading to a race where there's less passing than normal. We'll see.

 

For a point of reference the track qualifying record is 173.797 mph by Ward Burton in March 1996.

 

Kyle Busch led the first practice session with a lap of 175.522 mph -- more than 1.5 mph better than the track record. Ten drivers bettered Burton's mark:

 

1. Kyle Busch ... 175.522

2. Denny Hamlin ... 174.885

3. Dale Earnhardt Jr. ... 174.780

4. Travis Kvapil ... 174.724

5. Tony Stewart ... 174.519

6. Greg Biffle ... 174.229

7. Joe Nemechek ... 174.037

8. Dave Blaney ... 174.025

9. Casey Mears ... 173.914

10. AJ Allmendinger ... 173.914

11. Martin Truex Jr. ... 173.742

12. Ryan Newman ... 173.644

13. Jimmie Johnson ... 173.295

14. Kasey Kahne ... 173.234

15. Kevin Harvick ... 173.216

16. Jeff Gordon ... 173.131

17. Juan Pablo Montoya ... 173.082

18. Kurt Busch ... 173.033

19. Elliott Sadler ... 173.015

20. Sterling Marlin ... 172.954

 

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What are we doing here?

 

That's the question Ryan Newman had after the first practice session Thursday. The day was added to the schedule since teams did not test here (except for the Goodyear test with Newman, Greg Biffle and Jeff Gordon).

 

"I don't think we needed to come here and test,'' Newman said. "We got the advantage of the Goodyear tire test, that was great. We race as a profession. We don't need to come here and waste our time on a Thursday.''

 

Newman also was against the Charlotte test earlier this week:

 

"It was not needed. No matter what, the strongest teams are always going to be the strongest teams whether you had two extra days to adapt or not. It might give some other guys a chance to catch up a little bit but that's not what we're here for.It's not let the other guys catch up. It's let's go race.''

 

I did talk to Bobby Labonte and ask him if Thursday was needed. He admitted he wondered why teams were here but didn't have as much of a problme with it.

 

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Last Saturday's Cup race at Richmond drew a 4.5 national rating, a 5 percent increase from last year.

 

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8:40 p.m. UPDATE

 

Thursday's final Cup practice session is over. AJ Allmendinger leads the way with a lap of 178.679 mph -- nearly 15 mph faster than last year's pole speed and about 5 mph faster than the track record.

 

Talked with John Darby, Cup series director, and asked him what he thought of the speeds. Here's what he said:

 

"It's much faster than what it was but I wouldn't put it in the column of ridiculous fast,'' he said. "We're comfortable enough in the tire that Goodyear brought. We did some pretty extensive testing and it's all worked out pretty favorably so far. One of the things that Darlington has as a characteristic is that typically everyone runs around the top of the race track, so if you are going to hit you're only going to travel about five feet before you do hit. All of that stuff kind of comes into play.''

 

SPEEDS

1. AJ Allmendinger ... 178.679

2. Dale Earnhardt Jr. ... 178.640

3. Dave Blaney ... 178.620

4. Kyle Busch ... 177.249

5. Greg Biffle ... 176.676

6. Johnny Sauter ... 176.555

7. Joe Nemechek ... 176.555

8. Sterling Marlin ... 176.460

9. Carl Edwards ... 176.252

10. Martin Truex Jr. ... 176.208

11. Denny Hamlin ... 176.201

12. Ryan Newman ... 176.195

13. Tony Stewart ... 175.924

14. Elliott Sadler ... 175.830

15. Jimmie Johnson ... 175.679

16. Casey Mears ... 175.566

17. Kurt Busch ... 175.453

18. Kasey Kahne ... 175.297

19. J.J. Yeley ... 175.222

20. David Reutimann ... 175.022

 

Denny Hamlin had the gait of a man in his 70s Monday in the garage at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Hamlin said he injured his left hip playing basketball Sunday night with friends who tried to get him to do something to forget his race Saturday night at Richmond when he led almost all the way until his tire lost air pressurd with about 20 laps to go and he finished 24th.

 

"I'd like to say I was going up for a dunk, but I think everyone would know that ain't true,'' Hamlin said. "when I went up, the person was lower than than I was and I kind of flipped over his shoulder. I was horizontal to the ground. That was bad on the way down.''

 

He said the hip wasn't getting any better and he might see a doctor soon.

 

When someone said that it hadn't been a good two days for him, Hamlin replied: "It ain't been very good. Just trying to get in the swing of things. It's good to be back at a race track.''

 

Hamlin was cruising to the win when the tire started losing air pressure. Hamlin stayed on the track instead of pitting,  hoping for a caution. He proved to be the caution when the tire let go. He stopped on the track and got the caution and then took off, earning a two-lap penalty from NASCAR.

 

Many Dale Earnhardt Jr. fans _ and Earnhardt _ were upset at Hamlin for pulling the move. With Hamlin's caution bunching the field, it gave Kyle Busch a chane to make a last-ditch run at Earnhardt that turned into their incident.

 

Said Earnhardt after the race Saturday: "Everyobdy knows the deal on that. Everyobyd knows that’s wrong. You all know what to write. I ain’t writing it for you.''

Here's how Hamlin described what happened:

 

"I was trying to get to pit road. The problem was if I ran any kind of speed around the race track I was going to drag the sway bar arm off. It went into turn 3 and that's when I totally lost the entire tire. So I stopped, trying to be able to turn it down on to pit road but I had already crossed (by) the wall (that separates the track from the pits). I didn't want to risk tearing up the car to where we couldn't even finish the race, so I knew I had to stop or else I was going to jeopardize even us finishing the race.

 

Q: You were just looking to create a caution ...

 

DENNY: Yeah. Bottom line we had to stop or else we were going to get a DNF because our sway bar arms, the way they're designed is just that they can't stay on that race track for long and we were already dragging it as soon as the tire started going down. It was just one of those deals.

 

Q: A lot of people said you stopped to help Kyle out.

 

DENNY: I didn't even know where Kyle was at on the race track. For all I knew he was leading the race. It ended up causing whatever happened there at the end but, hell, if I didn't have that (previous) caution, my tire would have never went flat. So, I guess it will all even itself out in the end.

 

Q: What caused the tire to cut?

 

DENNY: No. I think it just destroyed the tire too bad for us to tell. I rode on it so long. The only chance we had was to stick it out and hope we get a caution before I went a lap down.

 

Q: Certainly other guys have stopped on the track to create cautions in the past. Is that tactic accepted among drivers or do you, for lack of a better term, need to apologize for or explain?

 

DENNY: I think everyone has been in that situation, so nobody would say anything to me about stopping. I think they would understand the same thing as I went through. I was already (upset) anyway because I felt like we should have won the race. Regardless if I was running fifth, I would have done the same thing becaues I pride myself on not getting DNFs and if I would have ran that one lap on that flat tire ... we would have been done. I had to do what I had to do regardless of whether it kind of affected someone else or not.

 

Sure Jr. Nation isn't going to believe that. Instead Jr. Nation will debate Busch's actions, motives and, quite possibly, his ancestry after Saturday night's wild, wild west finish at Richmond where Dale Jr. lost his bid to win after contact with Busch in the final laps.

 

Thing is, people will be talking about this finish for a few days. Busch provides that spark. And that's not a bad thing for NASCAR even if it riles the sport's largest driver fan base.

 

 No doubt many people find it easy to hate Busch. He's speaks his mind, rattles feathers and has wrecked some cars because of a white hot desire to win.

 

Saturday wasn't the first time he's been involved in late-race brouhaha this season. Remember that incident in the truck race at Martinsville? Busch wrecked Johnny Benson as they raced for second. NASCAR sat him down after the race to lecture him on his driving.

 

Saturday night at Richmond, NASCAR did nothing after the Busch-Earnhardt incident. No need to. This was a racing deal. Plain and simple. Two guys going for the lead. Earnhardt hasn't won in two years. He wasn't going to give any extra room. And then there's Busch, who doesn't give extra room. Period. Maybe he takes it too far -- and other drivers will pay him back for such actions down the road. Still, this was two guys going for the win.

 

"He gave me room off the outside of (turn) two, so I wouldn't say that was intentional going into three,'' Earnhardt said after the race. "Because if he wanted to, he could have just thrown me in the fence off two.''

 

Moments later Earnhardt added: "I tried to run him pretty tight running up on top, and he just ran into me or got loose or whatever.''

 

Said Busch: "To say that I took away a win from him, you know, it's hard to say. If I wanted to do it deliberately,  I would have waited for the last lap where I probably could have still won the race (instead of Clint Bowyer). We just didn't give each other enough room getting into three. I didn't feel like I slipped, but ... we just kind of banged simultaneously and then that's when I got loose and got corrected and he was gone.''

 

Still many will not be convinced. Some will believe that Busch took out Earnhardt because Earnhardt replaced Busch at Hendrick Motorsports last year. Busch denied such motives. Heck, getting bumped from Hendrick probably did Busch a favor. He moved to Toyota and became one of the signature drivers for a manufacturer that some believe could dominate the sport soon. And, some will believe, that Busch feels he needs to wreck everyone he races for the lead with.

 

That said, there is a danger in Busch's action. He was involved in a mild post-race confrontation with Steve Wallace after Friday's Nationwide race. Wallace hit Busch on the last lap, got by Busch, then lost the spot before ramming Busch after the race. Busch went to talk to Wallace after the race and it ended with Wallace, still seated in his car, grabbing and pulling on Busch's helmet.

 

There is a line and Busch must be careful not to cross it repeatedly or he could face controveries only Tony Stewart knows.

 

Then again, Stewart has not faced anything like this. One person who knows, though, is Brian Vickers after his tap caused teammate Jimmie Johnson and Dale Jr to wreck at Talladega in the 2006 fall race that Vickers went on to win. Shortly after that, Lowe's Motor Speedway put out a press release saying they were offering Vickers extra security in light of upsetting Jr. Nation. Vickers didn't take it and didn't need it.

 

Wtih the series going to Charlotte in a couple of weeks, one has to wonder if the track will make the same offer to Busch after this.

Bobby Labonte has agreed to a contract extension, according to a report by The Associated Press, citing an unidentified source. The report also stated that portions of the deal, including sponsorship, are still being completed.

 

Robbie Loomis, team executive for Petty Enterprises, wouldn't confirm or deny the report Saturday at Richmond. Loomis did say: "I'm 100 percent confident Bobby Labonte is going to be with us, moving forward.''

 

That would take Labonte and Edwarsd off the free-agent market this weekend. Tony Stewart, who said little about his contract status this week, remains the big unknown -- if he'll stay at Joe Gibbs Racing or go and if he leaves when? After this year or after 2009 when his contract expires. Those unsigned include Ryan Newman and Martin Truex Jr.