Brian De Los Santos

Well, I called it.

Back in July we debated about the five who should be inducted into the inaugural class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame in an edition of the Feud of the Week. I figured the Frances, Earnhardt and Petty were no brainers, while I chose Junior Johnson based on his contributions as an owner and driver.

Sure enough, those that actually had a voice in the matter agreed.

But you can't please everybody, and there are some out there unhappy with some of the selections. Johnson is the only one I think you could possibly quibble with, but you're really picking nits.

Our own Pete Pistone doesn't believe Earnhardt should have been in the first class, an opinion with which I strongly disagree. I don't get the argument that NASCAR needed to recognize the pioneers of the sport in its first class. The contributions, accomplishments and impact of the chosen five on NASCAR were really unparalleled.

It's a wonderful accomplishment to be the first NASCAR winner, first NASCAR champion or first Daytona 500 winner, but I don't believe that trumps the career feats of others that came down the line.

David Pearson's omission seems to be drawing the biggest outcry. He's a great driver -- arguably the greatest of all-time -- but here's my problem with making him a first-ballot Hall of Famer -- he was only a part-timer most of his career. Had he driven full-time he -- not Petty -- would probably have owned all the records. But he didn't race full-time and thus he doesn't own a record 200 wins or seven championships.

Pearson, no doubt, will have his day next year. And I'm sure Lee Petty, Red Byron, Glen Wood will join him, if not next year, shortly thereafter.

But I wouldn't change a thing about this inaugural class.

Yesterday I gave my Chase predictions, but I thought today we'd look back on my preseason top 15, for better or for worse.

It's rare that a season plays out exactly as one thought it would. You try to make judgments based on late season momentum from the previous season and driver history, but rarely is it that easy. More often than not, the prediction biz is a lesson in futility. But year after year, I take a good look into the crystal ball.

Without further adieu, here's how I ranked them and what I wrote back in February:

1. I don't know that anybody foresaw the complete collapse of RCR this season. Making matters worse, I left Clint Bowyer out of the preseason top 15 figuring he be the one to falter, and he's actually having the best season of the bunch.

2. Jamie McMurray. Maybe if the season only ran from October through November he'd be a title contender. Februrary to September, forget about it.

3. No Brian Vickers. There are probably about 10 to 15 other drivers -- maybe more -- that I would have pegged to make the Chase ahead of Vickers.

1. I expected a down year for Joe Gibbs, I just picked the wrong driver to experience the struggles. One of the key differences for Hamlin this year -- and I mentioned it in my preseason comment -- is the team's ability to make the most of its bad day. He had only 22 top 15 finishes last year, he already has 20 this season. Those points add up.

2. I had Earnhardt eighth in my preseason rankings which was very, very wrong. But I did say I didn't think he and Eury would be able to win a title as long as they're together. Hendrick finally split them up.

3. Well I had Edwards winning it all, which doesn't appear likely, though it's still quite possible. But if he does, he may do it just like he said he'd do it -- without winning a race.

1. I was one of the few in the media who thought Stewart would be capable of making the Chase this season -- so I consider this pick a success. Now I didn't think he'd dominate the regular-season points like he did, but I had a lot more faith in him than the ninth-place preseason ranking might show I had in him. I think all the doubters entered my head and caused me to lower my expectations a little. Should have stuck with my gut.

2. Newman and Montoya. Yeah, yeah, I know I didn't have them in the top 12, but at least I had them in the mix. Few thought Stewart would be a Chase contender, so you can imagine what they thought of Newman's chances. I said I wouldn't be surprised if he made it into the Chase, and I'm not. As for Montoya, I said the switch to Chevrolet would do wonders, and indeed it did.

3. Johnson, Gordon and Martin. At least those three lived up to expectations.

In case you haven't seen it, Pete Pistone gave his full field Chase predictions as part of our Chase driver profiles package.

Well, I want to get in on the fun, so here's my predictions on how the final 12 shake out.

1. Jimmie Johnson -- I think the 48 team's recent struggles of late are misleading. He took a couple of disappointing finishes in races that he dominated because of miscues or bad pit decisions. I don't think you'll see 48 team making those same mistake during. As I said in this week's Feud, I expect they'll pick up at least three wins during the Chase.

2. Denny Hamlin -- The 11 team has really gotten it's act together over the past couple of months and I expect he'll continue his run of top level consistency throughout the Chase and give Johnson a run for his money. 

3. Mark Martin -- There's no doubt he has the equipment to capture that elusive championship this year, but I can't help but think he's going to get snakebit a couple of times during these final 10. I'm already envisioning his pessimistic speech following a big wreck at Talladega.

4. Jeff Gordon -- It's weird. He had a strong regular season -- his 12 top fives in the first 26 races were second most behind Tony Stewart -- but it seems a lot of people are forgetting him in favor of Johnson, Martin and Tony Stewart. He's going to be in the thick of the hunt for a fifth title.

5. Tony Stewart -- I'm a big more concerned with his performance down than stretch than I am with Johnson's. The 48 team has proven what it can do under pressure. The 14 team is still an unknown. I think he'll be good during the Chase, but not up to the same performance level he was at during the summer.

6. Brian Vickers -- The 83 team is riding similar momentum to that of Hamlin's 11 team. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he picked up a couple of wins during the Chase. But the rest of the time it will be top 15s intermingled with a few top 10s, which I don't think will keep him up in the championship mix.

7. Carl Edwards -- He was my preseason pick to end Johnson's reign as champion, but his regular season didn't instill much confidence in me. Still, I've made him my sleeper. Winless so far in 2009, there are several tracks at which I think he could end that skid -- Dover, Carlifornia, Charlotte, Texas come to mind. However, I don't think the 99 team will find that consistency that had eluded them all year.

8. Juan Pablo Montoya -- The goal for this year was to make the Chase and the 42 team accomplished that goal, reining in Montoya's aggressiveness -- no DNFs after experiencing nine a year ago. How aggressive will they allow him to be in the Chase, and will it necessarily lead to a uptick in production? If they take the leash off, it could just lead to a rash of wrecked cars. If they stay the course, a middle of the pack finish in the Chase seems about right.

9. Ryan Newman -- The 39 team seems to have climbed out of that midseson malaise that had them sweating out their Chase position. But they haven't displayed enough strength or consistency to believe they're huge title threat.

10. Kurt Busch -- He has yet to put more than three consecutive top 10 finishes together this year (and that happened just once). The announced departure of crew chief Pat Tryson doesn't seem to be sitting too well. A couple of bad runs and this team could go in the tank.

11. Kasey Kahne -- The merger with Yates and impending switch to Ford, with whom Kahne doesn't have a great relationship, could prove to be a championship killing distraction. His 10 top 10s during the regular season were the fewest of anbody to make the Chase.

12. Greg Biffle -- Statistically, he's having a season comparable to that of Martin in terms of top fives, top 10s, etc. The key difference is the four victories Martin picked up vs. none for Biffle and I don't see that skid ending during the Chase, even as the defending champion of the first two events.

So yesterday's news regarding the merger of Richard Petty Motorsports and Yates Racing came as quite a surprise. It's rare that such big news sneaks up on the NASCAR media like it did on Thursday. Usually there's a leak somewhere resulting in rumors around the garage. Not since Kurt Busch left Roush Racing for Penske Racing have I been like, "Woah, where did that come from?"

Now I'm not really surprised by the actual news. It's no secret that RPM and Yates were both hurting financially. My surprise was that they were able to keep it hush-hush that they were working on a deal.

Considering the two teams' financial situations and the marketplace, I can't find any fault with the merger. Seems like a good idea. But it does mean two fewer rides available in a shrinking Cup field.

Consider that the 2010 version of RPM was once three distinct organizations that -- in a thriving economy -- would likely be fielding four teams each. So that's up to eight rides off the market right there.

Here are some other observations on the merger:

Sadler left RYR midway through the 2006 season after 3 1/2 seasons in the 38 car. And the team he left for was Evernhan Motorsports, which of course is now RPM. On top of that, RPM tried to cut ties with Sadler prior to the start of this season before he forced their hand to keep him in the No. 19.

So why retain Sadler when it would seem there could be some ill will and resentment? Perhaps for the same reason they had to keep him this season -- his contract. He's reportedly signed through 2010. He'd have to walk away on his own to get him out of the 19 car. There had been a report that Sadler had been looking elsewhere, possibly as a replacement for Casey Mears at RCR, but it doesn't seem to have legs.

But there's also this -- despite mediocre results, sponsors seem to love Sadler the same way they do Michael Waltrip. And as I've said time and time again, sponsors drive this sport.

But are the hearts of the HOF owners really into it? Jeff Moorad, one of the principal owners of the organization, is in the midst of buying the San Diego Padres. I can't imagine HOF Racing is a top priority for him at the moment.

Even though McMurray never lived up to expectations since coming aboard as the replacement for Kurt Busch, Jack Roush reportedly still has a soft spot for him and if McMurray didn't find a ride elsewhere, he figured to hook him up with Yates, which had been basically operating as a satellite for Roush (see Darnell, Erik). Well, that's out the window.

Unless there's still more to the Sadler situation, McMurray has no options at RPM. His best option may be a reunion with Chip Ganassi as the replacement for Martin Truex Jr. in the Earnhardt Ganassi No. 1 car. That's if Ganassi will welcome him back. That appears to be the best ride available with a marquee team.

In case you were wondering when NASCAR was planning to announce the inaugural class for its new Hall of Fame, mark down Oct. 14 on your calendar.

From NASCAR press release:

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Sept 10, 2009) – The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) has announced that “Voting Day” for the inaugural class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame will be Oct. 14 at the Charlotte Convention Center in Charlotte, N.C.

The NASCAR Hall of Fame Voting Panel, consisting of members of the Nominating Committee along with 29 others representing NASCAR, the NASCAR Hall of Fame, major race track ownership groups, retired drivers, owners and crew chiefs along with motorsports media representatives, will meet in a closed session to deliberate and vote on the 25 candidates eligible for this first class. The vote will be followed by a press conference announcing the inaugural class of 2010.

The class will be chosen from the 51 votes cast by the panel and the nationwide fan vote – which ends Sept. 27 – conducted through NASCAR.COM. The accounting firm of Ernst & Young will preside over the tabulation of the votes.

The hall’s inaugural class will consist of five members and are scheduled to be enshrined into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in May 2010.

The nominees, which include many of the sport’s legendary names and were announced in July, include:
Bobby Allison, Buck Baker, Red Byron, Richard Childress, Dale Earnhardt, Richie Evans, Tim Flock, Bill France Jr., Bill France Sr., Rick Hendrick, Ned Jarrett, Junior Johnson, Bud Moore, Raymond Parks, Benny Parsons, David Pearson, Lee Petty, Richard Petty, Fireball Roberts, Herb Thomas, Curtis Turner, Darrell Waltrip, Joe Weatherly, Glen Wood and Cale Yarborough.

The NASCAR Hall of Fame broke ground in Charlotte on Jan. 25, 2007 and will open May 11, 2010. The facility honors the history and heritage of NASCAR and the many who have contributed to the success of NASCAR.

It seems DEI is getting into the coaster/amusement park business as a second Dale Earnhardt-inspired coaster was announced today.

Last week I blogged about a coaster dubbed Intimidator 305 being constructed at Kings Dominion in Virginia.

Well, a little bit closer to the NASCAR homebase in Charlotte, N.C., another Intimidator is going up at Carowinds, a sister park of Kings Dominion.

Carowinds is dubbing their Intimidator as "the tallest, fastest and longest coaster in the southeast", though it won't be quite as tall or as fast as the 305. I guess "southeast" is the keyword there. It will have a slighly longer track and running time than the 305.

The unique feature of the Carowinds Intimidator is the ride cars that will feature open-air stadium-style seating with a T-bar restraint rather than an over the shoulder harness.

So if you'd like further details about this particular Earnhardt coaster, check out this web site: http://www.intimidator.carowinds.co
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Looks like yet another amusement park I'll have to pay a visit in the coming summers.

As a coaster enthusiast and Dale Earnhardt Sr. fan, imagine my intrigue when an e-mail came through my inbox announcing an Earnhardt-inspired coaster dubbed Intimidator 305.

And this thing sounds awesome. Set to open in April of 2010 at Kings Dominion in Virginia, it features a 300 foot first drop and reaches speeds in excess of 90 mph with a ride time of three minutes. The ride trains will take inspiration from Earnhardt's famed black No. 3 car (though from the virtual renderings it doesn't appears as if the No. 3 appears on the actual train). The coaster is being built in parternship with Dale Earnhardt Inc.

You can check out a web site dedicated to the ride featuring artist renderings, virtual ride video and more: http://www.intimidator305.com/

Eventually I hope to visit all the great coaster parks like Kings Dominion and Cedar Point, but I'm waiting for my kids to get a little older. Hopefully they'll enjoy coasters as much as I do -- and at an earlier age as I was a late bloomer. It wasn't until I was in high school that I really became a fan. For years you couldn't even get me to go on Disney's Space Mountain, which aside from being in the dark, is a fairly tame coaster. But now I'll go on anything.

While reading the post-race transcripts from Sunday's Cup race at Michigan I came across this gem from Brian Vickers regarding his battle with Kyle Busch from Saturday's Nationwide race. Vickers is only one year older than Busch, yet displays so much more maturity.


Q. Brian, how much more comfortable are you on the post race podium today as opposed to yesterday? How did the emotions of yesterday play into today?
 
BRIAN VICKERS: You know, there's some people that you meet in life that are just gonna do stupid things. You just learn to accept it. You just don't let it bother you. You know, you have patience. You just live your life and run your race.
 
I mean, yesterday was ridiculous. It was unnecessary. I had a lot of fun. It was a hard race. I wanted to win bad. Congratulations to the 88. He did his job. We ended up second. I let it go at that.
 
In a lot of ways I feel sorry for Kyle, that he lives that angry about stuff, something so small. I hope that he can get past it. I don't have any hard feelings. I'm ready to just go race. That's the way approached today.
 
I told him, I've always told him this, from any incident we've ever had in the past, I'm going to race you the way you race me. I'm going to handle you and treat you the same way you treat me. That applies to any driver out there. It applied today. If Kyle and I started racing each other, he raced me clean and hard, I was going to treat him with the same amount of respect. If he didn't want to do that, I was going to treat him the same way he treated me.
 
But today was a different race, a new day. I just wanted to focus on my life, my race. I could care less about what happened yesterday. Life is too short to worry about stuff like that.

So the Arena Football League is dead.

I know most people could care less, but I for one am disappointed to see it go. Perhaps its because I grew up in a city that featured one of the league's all time great franchises -- the Orlando Predators.

For a couple of years in the mid to late '90s I actually had season tickets. Predators games were great fun and ticket prices reasonable.

It almost had a college football type atmosphere, especially games against the rival just up I-4, the Tampa Bay Storm. No wine and cheese crowds at Predators games that's for sure.

The early Predator teams featured a player by the name of Barry Wagner and he was a beast. In one unforgettable game, back when I was a true diehard and would make sure the catch Predators games on the tube, Wagner (a wideout/defensive back) would catch two touchdown passes, get two two-point conversions and recover an onside kick all within the final 49 seconds of the game to help the Preds rally from a 42-32 deficit to a 50-49 victory.

Admittedly though, after moving from Orlando, I hadn't paid much attention to the sport. I catch a Predators game here or there when I came across it while clicking through the channel lineup, but Arena football wasn't appointment television.

I'm not really sure why that is because I truly enjoyed the product. Yeah it had a short field and funky rules, but in its heart it was football, and I love football.

I think a lot had to do with the major media never treating it as much more than a niche sport. And maybe that's because the fans never really demanded it be treated more than a niche. Maybe it was poor marketing by the AFL. Imagine how cool AFL fantasy football could be?

I think the biggest problem is that the league watered itself down with too much expansion. There's only so many good football players to go and the best, of course, head to the NFL. I think the AFL was at its best when it had 12 teams, 14 teams max. And af2? What the heck was that all about?

Coincidentally, I was actually in attendance at one of the very first AFL games -- maybe even the very first. It was the summer of '87 and we were in the Chicago area visiting relatives. The Rosemont Horizon wasn't very far from where my grandparents lived and as I recall the big sign outside was advertising a game between the Chicago Bruisers and Pittsburgh Gladiators. All I knew about it was that it was a new fangled football league and, as I said earlier, I love football, so I was able to talk my mom into taking me to the game.

I can't really remember all that much about the game (it was more than 20 years ago after all and I was 12), but I still have the game program tucked away somewhere in my closet.

In any case, I'll always have fond memories of the Arena League and the Orlando Predators.

So I was watching the rally car competition at the X-Games on Sunday, and who to my surprise was a competitor ....

Kenny Brack.

A successful open-wheel racer, Brack was the 1998 IndyCar Series champion and 1999 Indy 500 champion. But his open-wheel racing career all but ended after a terrifying crash in the IRL season finale in 2003.

See the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2ORmCDb_sM

Brack was left with multiple fractures, breaking his sternum, femur, shattering a vertebra in his spine and crushing his ankles. He spent 18 months recovering from his injuries.

In 2005, he raced in the Indy 500 as a fill-in for Buddy Rice, even setting the fastest qualifying speed in the field. But it would be his only appearance in the in open-wheel series after that wreck.

So it was a wonderful surprise to see him racing at the X-Games. A let me tell you, Brack was schooling the competition. While the youngsters were spinning their wheels and losing traction with their drifting, the 43-year-old was smooth as all get all on the rally car course.

Brack would face Travis Pastrana, a veteran of rally car racing and the X-Games at the ripe old age of 25, in the final. But it was the X-Game rookie Brack who would take the gold, with Pastrana spinning and pinning himself into a tight spot from which he couldn't escape, ending his run.

I don't know if Brack will be back to defend his title next year, but it sure was a pleasant surprise to see him competing again.

Brian France called into “Sirius Speedway” on Monday for an impromptu interview with Dave Moody. 

Though I know France has many detractors, I figured many of you still might want to see what he had to say. Here's a transcript courtesy SIRIUS XM Radio...

Host Dave Moody: “Nice surprise.  We weren’t expecting you today.”

Brian France: “Well, I listen to you guys, like most of the NASCAR community does, frequently and I love just calling in once in awhile to check in and say hello.  And, obviously, we had a lot of exciting things happen over the weekend so it’s good to be with you.”

On Juan Pablo Montoya’s pit road speeding penalty Sunday at Indianapolis:

Brian France: “There’s nothing that dropped our hearts more than to see that speeding violation flash up on the computer which is in the television booth which is in our booth.  Everybody has access to it, which they should.  And it is what it is.  It’s sort of like a team that’s dominated a football game or something and they step out of bounds on the crucial play that would have gotten them in the end zone.  That’s just the way it is.  Now, that’s the bad news for Juan Pablo and Chip Ganassi and Felix Sabates.  The good news is they’re going to be a contender, I think as it’s turning out, for the whole thing.  I think they’re going to make the Chase.  At least that’s how they’re running.  But nothing would have made us happier had he earned - and he definitely had the best car and he was driving the wheels off – to have [had Montoya] won that race and made a little history with the Indy 500 and the Brickyard 400.  But the rules are rules.”

France: “There are some rules, as you know, that have some subjectivity to it.  This just happens to be one that there isn’t any subjectivity to it.  You either do or you don’t.  And he understands that.  I’m sure it was disappointing as it could have been but there’s no position that we can take on that.  When you get past the frustration of watching somebody that should’ve won the race, earned it and it would have been great for everyone, but didn’t, well sure, there’s frustration that happens.”

On the Jeremy Mayfield situation:

France: “Where we are is we’re going through the process of the legal system, which was not our choice but we will deal with that.  And we have not made any comments at all other than, ‘We’re pleased with the ruling,’ or something like that since I went on back around the Coke Zero [400] and discussed our policy, and I didn’t discuss that particular ruling.  The judge has respectfully done what he needed to do and the appellate court has done what they need to do.  That’s just really in the hands of the courts.  We wish everybody well.  As anything, you can appreciate that we have to defend our policy but we’re zeroed in on running great events and that’s where we are.”

Dave Moody: “Is it frustrating that the racing has been so good and the Race for the Chase has been so captivating and yet people like me spend a lot of our time here lately talking about methamphetamine and urine tests and things that we never really had to know that much about before?”

France: “Well, sure, it’s a distraction for everybody.  Our preference is to never have anybody test positive for anything and the world would be perfect, right?  That would be our best case scenario.  But random tests pick up what they pick up and we’ll deal with the rest of it, if there’s ever a rest of it, like we are in this situation.  It is unfortunate but on the other hand we understand that it is important.  It’s important for the other competitors to recognize that they’re in a safe environment as much as humanly possible.  And it’s important to have a policy that works for everyone, not just a few people.  So we understand the kind of reviews that go on when these topics hit at a high level but, look, I think at this point we just have to go down the legal process.  We’re dealing with that.  That’s really not anything that affects anything on the racetrack today.  And, actually, we wish, I wish, anybody who has an issue the best.  I mean, look, we’re all at the end of the day human so we’re pulling for anybody that has some issue, even somebody who is battling with us.  In the end, we want to see people get better, rejoin the program and race clean in front and put their best foot forward.  That’s our goal.”

On the new double-file restarts:

France: “The net of it is the drivers - beginning, middle, late in the race - it has really, really put people in contention that would typically, under the old format, would have had a tough time passing lapped cars and battling for the lead.  I mean, Chicago was electric [with] what happened in that whole situation, having Denny Hamlin, as an example, who got an opportunity to mix it up.  In the old situation he would have been too far back to even be a contender for that race win.  You bet.  And, look, the fans really, really weighed in before we did that and the drivers, in our town hall meeting, recognized that there were some definite challenges for them and we’ve tried to help them with them with respect to letting them pick a lane and so on.  They realized that this as going to create a different dynamic but they’re also very, very supportive and we’re getting a great result.  The racing’s never been better in a  long time.”

On the Nationwide Series “Car of Tomorrow”:

Moody: “Have you got a line yet on what each of the four manufacturers want to do as far as the look of this car, the body style of this car, and how devoted is NASCAR to making this division look a whole lot different than the Cup car?”

France: “We’re always looking to distinguish one series from another while giving it the obvious flavor of NASCAR, which is close, competitive, reasonable costs for the teams, so that we can field more competitive cars on any given Saturday or Sunday.  That remains the case.  With the new car potentially, we are certainly talking to the manufacturers but we’re zeroed in also on how do we make sure, from a timing standpoint, that we don’t burden the team owners with an enormous amount of cost into the system that we’ve been talking for quite a while, for good reason, about getting cost out of the system because the teams are going through, as everybody in this economy is, lots of difficulties trying to figure out a new business model in some cases.  So we’re having to balance all this along with trying to make some progress.  But we’ll get there.  We’ve got really, really smart people working on it.”

France: “The other thing we do now – I think we do it better than we ever have and I think we were always pretty good – that’s buy-in from the industry on any significant thing that we would do.  And we listen with our fan council, as an example.  A lot of our dedicated fans are terrific in responding to our questions every week.  We’ve got tens of thousands of fans on our fan council.  For all the talk that we kind of cruise along and don’t necessarily think about everything, I understand where that might be a perception but the reality of it is any significant issue that we are going to put forward with NASCAR, we will do a lot of work with anybody that is affected, starting with our fans - which are the most affected with anything we do – all the way down to the drivers, the team owners, the sponsors, manufacturers and the tracks and so on.  And that’s a lot to try to get input and a whole bunch of different opinions, to kind of get all that information in a way that really will be good for everyone.  That’s one of our biggest tasks but that’s what we do.”

So this week's Feud brought me a few derisive e-mails and message board posts. For the life of me, I can't understand why there are so many hardliners in favor of consistency in crowning a champion.

First off, let me state for the record, I'm not saying the driver with the most wins automatically deserves the title. For some reason I always get that thrown in my face even though that's not what I'm saying at all. But if top fives, top 10s, top 15s are generally equal between two drivers, if there is a huge discrepancy between the two in victories, give me the guy with the wins.

Some felt I was too critical of Matt Kenseth, which wasn't my intention. My criticism is toward NASCAR which penalizes more for poor finishes than it rewards for wins.

Terry Labonte's championship in 1996 is probably a better example of the ridiculousness of the NASCAR point system than Kenseth's 2003 title.

In 31 races, Labonte had 2 wins, 21 tops fives, 24 top 10s, 24 top 15s and 25 top 20s

Jeff Gordon had 10 wins, 21 top fives, 24 top 10s, 25 top 15s and 25 top 20s

Gordon led 2314 laps, more than twice as many as Labonte who was second in laps led with 973.

You show that stat line to any Joe Schmo on the street and ask him who deserved the title and 100 percent will tell you Jeff Gordon.

Yet Labonte takes the title. Why? Because his six finishes outside the top 25 averaged out better than Gordon's six finishes outside the top 25. The fact Gordon had EIGHT more wins than Labonte rendered meaningless.

Hypothetically, lets say the Chase doesn't exist and it's a straight up 36-race schedule. Utilizing NASCAR's current point structure, a driver could win 30 races while leading the most laps in each of those wins and still lose the championship to a driver who doesn't even lead a lap. Seriously. That's the point structure you so vigorously support?

Yes, I realize it's an extreme example, but you don't find that the least bit wrong?

I thought I'd address some of the interesting rumors that have made their way across the NASCAR wires in recent weeks.

The biggest name in the NASCAR rumor mill has been ... Danica Patrick?

That's right. Patrick is in the final year of her contract with Andretti-Green Racing in the IndyCar Series, so of course stories pop up that she's interested in making the jump to NASCAR.

That part of the rumor you can believe. Even with the toll the economy has taken on NASCAR in recent seasons, it's still the top racing circuit in America. It would be a mistake for her not to test the waters.

Even if she stinks, the curiosity factor would be a boon to NASCAR. So I do think it's a legit consideration for her from a money making standpoint (for one season at least).

Now for the second half of the most recent rumor about Patrick -- that Hendrick Motorsports would replace Dale Earnhardt Jr. with Patrick in its driver lineup. Earnhardt Jr. would move over to his JR Motorsports operation, which would move up from the Nationwide Series to Cup and, like Stewart Haas, receives engines and technical support from Hendrick.

Don't buy it for a second. It just doesn't make a lick of sense to drop the series' most popular driver, who does have the ability to succeed despite the growing cries of his critics, for an untested stock-car driver. Hendrick may not lose much on the popularity/souvenier sales scale with that switch, but to think she'd have more success behind the wheel than Earnhardt is ridiculous.

The rumor that makes the most sense with Patrick is Ganassi ... in the IRL. That also gives her an in into NASCAR if she's truly interested in trying it out. All in all, I'd be stunned if she's driving a Sprint Cup car next season.

The other big rumor making the rounds involves Michael Waltrip Racing. A MWR press conference has been scheduled for July 7 as which time Waltrip is expected to announce that Martin Truex Jr. will drive the NAPA car.

That's not so surprising because that rumor has been going around for months. The twist in this rumor is that Truex would come aboard immediately.

While I won't argue that Truex won't be joining MWR, I just don't see it happening this year. Maybe for the last few races of the season if Earnhardt-Ganassi, Truex's current employer, is feeling generous.

I'm not saying it's not possible that Truex makes the switch now, but based on the history of how these things happen, I have my doubts.

Keep up with the latest Silly Season rumblings on CBSSports.com:
http://www.cbssports.com/autoracing
/story/10817811

It was great to see the Magic back in the Finals this year ...

But if there was any doubt who the better team was, the Lakers dispelled all doubts in Game 5, stepping on the Magic's throats with some excellent defensive play in the second quarter and never looking back.

I could go on and on about the Magic failures in the series, but what's the point. It's over. Time to to move forward.

Plain and simple, the Lakers were the smarter, more disciplined team.

I was hoping for so much more, but from the coach on down, the Magic made too many mistakes and dumb decisions vs. the Lakers.

Which stinks because even with a great player like Dwight Howard manning the middle, you never really know when/if they'll be back. You need to take advantage of your chances while you got them. The Eastern Conference has some formidable teams to deal with such as the Celtics, who probably have a couple of years left in the tank with Garnett, Allen and Pierce. And, of course, there's the LeBrons, who will certainly fill the holes they discovered after their loss to the Magic in Eastern Conference Finals.

Without a doubt, Dwight Howard needs to hone his offensive game. The Lakers took advantage a great hitch of Howard's as he continually brought the ball down to his waist, allowing smaller players to swipe at the ball. This led to a boatload of turnovers for the big man during the series. He could do worse than to watch how the Lakers' Pau Gasol manages his offense.

Anyhow, that's enough Magic talk for awhile. Looks like I'll have to wait a little longer to end my championship winless streak.