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There’s an old saying that goes like this: “Luck is where preparation meets opportunity.” If that’s true, and it is borne out in the world of sports over and over again, then the Dupont Chevrolet team at Hendrick Motor Sports featuring driver Jeff Gordon and Crew Chief Steve Letarte are the best prepared team in NASCAR these days.

Though Gordon qualified third, he fell back and generally ran mid-pack most of the race. Once again, we see shades of Gordon’s performance at Talladega. In each of these last two races, I’ve found myself thinking that Jimmie Johnson, Clint Bowyer, Kurt Busch or Tony Stewart had the car to beat. Heck, Bobby Labonte and Junior looked outstanding at times. But wouldn’t you know it? Bad luck starts picking off drivers.

Stewart gets caught in pit traffic with Mark Martin and Kasey Kahne. In this same mishap, Labonte (who is running second at the time) gets caught in his pit box with Stewart in his way. The #8 car looked strong at times, but Junior just had all kinds of problems at the end. Jimmie Johnson looked DOMINANT throughout much of the race, and it looked like another win for the #48 on his sponsor’s home track. But then Johnson runs into trouble and it costs him track position. It’s a testament to the strength of his car that he still pulled out a respectable finish. Speaking of bad luck, I forgot Matt Kenseth. He took his turns looking like a winner, but it was one problem after another. “17″ gets credit just bouncing back time after time. You could tell he felt terrible for his sponsors and fans for the premature end to his night. Then there’s Ryan Newman. If qualfying were all it took for racing greatness, then Newman’s the man. His pole for this race makes 42 for his career, though his win total just barely scrapes past double digits. He had nothing to lose and really looked fast at times, but he went for broke after that re-start at the end of the race, apparently slid on the track cleaning materials and smacked himself out.

If Newman, Kenseth are the “bugs” of NASCAR, then Gordon’s the windshield. He was precariously close to running out of gas, but hung on at the end to win it, and boy did he drive it like he had stolen it on the green-white-checkered. In comaring the top drivers of today with the greats of yesterday, you often hear Tony Stewart compared to Dale Earnhardt for his aggressiveness and passion for racing anytime, anywhere. If that’s the case, then I make the case that Jeff Gordon is a latter day David Pearson. I never really got to see him at a time when I understood the sport, but I always hear how he treated his equipment with great care and his cars looked clean at the end of the race. Pearson got many of his 105 Cup wins laying in the weeds and striking at the end, thus the monicker, “The Silver Fox.” He was slick.

Jeff Gordon’s looking a lot like Pearson these last couple of races.

Very interesting little suaree we had in the Busch Series race tonight. You combine hard tires, a hard surface with a little crisp autumn air, and you have a bunch Cup drivers (Chasers no less), driving like Stephen Wallace. Maybe more like Gieco commercial star Loren Wallace. Imagine what the Chase standing would look like now if that had been the Cup race?

I have little doubt that Buschwhacking Chasers gained valuable information tonight. It was surreal watching 103 laps go by in rather nondescript fashion, to be followed by a wreckfest. Now grant you I expect lots of wrecks in the Busch series with over-eager youngsters trying to prove they are the next Dale Earnhardt. What I don’t expect is to see Jimmie Johnson spun out the wrong way and young Clint Bowyer losing it in the turns.

You could just see things begin to turn as the sun went down. It seems so simple, but we saw it plainly true. The cold night air just stiffens things up. I expect the same story tomorrow night. What will be interesting to see is what effect it has on a more experienced field of drivers.

I expect the spoils will go to a veteran driver. For the chasers, that would favor a Jeff Burton, Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth, or a Jeff Gordon.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that J.B. sweeps the weekend. Non-chaser Bobby Labonte has a great shot if his equipment holds up.

Keep your tires warm boys, keep ‘em warm.

NASCAR’s iron man Ricky Rudd returns this week for his last hurrah. The separated shoulder has healed enough for Ricky to give it a go at Charlotte. We’ll get to see ol’ 88 for the handful more races on the calender in 2007 before he hangs it for good- ending 30 years on NASCAR competition for the Virginia native.

I remember being 13 years old and catching my first NASCAR action in 1977. A few names stick with me: I remember seeing Buddy Baker on the track, along with Cale Yarborough, Bobby Allison, David Pearson and Darrell Waltrip. Then there was Ricky Rudd. In that day where Southern boys ruled the sport, Ricky Rudd seemed like a fitting monicker for a race car driver. I was thoroughly shocked to learn this year that he was still racing.

While 23 wins doesn’t rank you as one of the all-time greats, certainly longevity accounts for something. Rudd made over 900 starts, including this ridiculously long streak of consecutive starts. Rudd also went 16 years in a row where he won at least one race. You also have to appreciate how he’s avoided controversy- except the Kevin Harvick incident a few years back. Even then, it didn’t seem that Rudd did anything wrong- he seemed quite dumbfounded that Happy came after him. That aside- I’ve never really heard a negative word about the guy.

I’ll be be bummed to see him go. He is one of few remaining connections I have left to my origins with the sport. But that’s what you have to love about NASCAR- how many guys can still compete in their 50’s? All my favorite ballplayers from 1977 are long gone. In NASCAR, we still have 64 year old Morgan Shepherd competing- amazing!

Well- I wish him the best. He deserves a break, and I’m sure that he has plenty to catch up on after all these years of roaming the country racing cars. This sport’s history is too short to know whether or not anybody will remember him in 20 years…but they should. NASCAR has been good to Ricky Rudd, and he’s been good to it.

In racing, some things sneak up on you. Jimmie Johnson can tell you a bit about that in pondering his narrow loss to Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon. Just when you think someone has gone away, whoosh! See ya! That’s why I’m saying we better not be so fast to count out Richard Childress drivers Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick out of the chase for the Nextel Cup crown.
Here’s what impresses me about Bowyer: he has zero, count ‘em zero DNFs this year. Remember the season opener at Daytona? He finished on his head! No question Jack Daniels’ favorite driver has had some bouts of bad luck (like the battery switch snafu at the Pepsi 400), but he’s finished the race in the car every time! Never mind he’s had only one win. He almost captured a second in his home state of Kansas. He may yet win another before the year’s out, and even if he doesn’t grab the brass ring this year, he will have come away a big winner, having gained a much larger share of the spotlight. Not only that, I think he WILL put a couple of championships under his belt before it’s all over.
As for Harvick, I’m impressed he’ still there and checking in at number five. “Happy” hasn’t had a lot to smile about thus far in the 2007 home stretch, but he’s made the most of every ride. It seems like every week, the #29 car comes limping home with something out of whack, and we’re not talking about problems that are the result of foolish driving. In fact, Harv’s been a real survivor, dodging pile up after pile up. If Kevin Harvick wins the 2007 Cup, it will be on sheer guts and determination. It’s kind of fitting for a guy who cut his cup teeth in Dale Earnhardt’s old ride.
For many fans, it seems the only question is one of which HMS driver wins the championship this year. Seeing how quickly things can take a turn for the surreal, I wouldn’t be drafting that acceptance speech just yet. A dark horse could emerge on to NASCAR car glory. And don’t be surprised if it’s a dark colored horse with the #07 on the sides, or a bright-colored horse numbered 29. Stranger things have happened. And they often do in NASCAR. That’s why we watch.

Like a snake in the grass, Jeff Gordon snuck up and slithered through the field for the 80th win of his career at Talladega. Knowing how much fans hate him down there, I thought it was fitting he swept the ‘Dega stop in 2007. That man can win anywhere! Super Speedways, road courses, short tracks, you name it. And to think he did it leading only the last 1/3 lap of the 188 lap race. I was sure Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman or Jimmie Johnson would take the checkered flag. Heck, I thought Dave Blaney had a chance. Did you see Gordon slip between Johnson and Stewart? Classy move by Smoke not to rub the Rainbow Warrior off the track.

Some observations:

Can we all now say that Jacques Villanueve deserves a little credit? After qualifying 6th, the driver of the #27 Unicef Toyota put himself in the back of the field. He and his crew chief mutually concluded that with the car in qualifying and not racing trim, it would be best to let the first time Cup driver slip to the back. I thought that showed humility for the former open wheel champ will do a lot to earn him respect. Oh- the 21st place finish wasn’t bad either.

Drafting, drafting, and more drafting. Today’s winner admitted to yawning during the race. Junior complained of a boring race, though he did a nice job of leading for several laps. They all looked like a flock of flightless geese! It was nuts. Kind of interesting to see who would partner with who. You can definitely see that there’s more work in store for the Car of Tomorrow.

The not-so “Big One.” That 10 car pile-up triggered by Bobby Labonte fell well short of some of the Talladega wrecks we’ve seen. Not even “43″ himself has any idea what happened. Still, between crashes and engine failure, there was a lot of field missing at the end.

Speaking of engine failure…… Teresa haters are in full force tonight. As we know, DEI and RCR share an engine program, and one by one, we lost Martin Truex, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Burton, and on and on…….

The Chase Has A New Leader. He’s baaaack. Jeffrey Michael Gordon is now your new Nextel Cup standings leader. He leads HMS teammate Jimmie Johnson by four, with Tony Stewart and Clint Bowyer not that far behind. Kyle Busch sure has a hang dog look and seems to be ready to mail it in, Burton and Kenseth’s chase chances have been greatly injured. Besides the top four mentioned, I still think Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch, and Martin Truex will make noise. Poor Kevin Harvick may be stuck in the lower division with RCR teammate Burton.

All in all, it was a good race. There were some long, boring stretches, but we had a little bit of everything- including a final lap steal by the guy I think is the best racer in the business today.

Now it’s off to NASCAR’s home turf.

Perhaps the biggest dance in the Chase, Talladega, will get underway tomorrow in what could be the most eventful race of the season. You always hear sports writing types referring to a big playoff event as the “big dance” and I am quite sure there are many in NASCAR Nation who mark this date on their calendar. It’s a mixture of Mardi Gras, Super Bowl The Final Four and a little bit of the Fear Factor mixed together. It’s a HUGE party and there’ll be a lot of dancin’ (as they say in these parts) goin’ on.

“The Talladega Flip.” Everyone will be keeping their eyes out for the “Big One.” As I mentioned earlier this week, this track is famous for huge wrecks. Between restrictor plates slowing cars down, and the “Car of Tomorrow” equalizing drivers, the potential for there to be large packs of drivers and one mistake “collecting” several at one time is great. The difference is we’ll be less likely to worry about one of them getting seriously hurt.

“The Foreign Foxtrot.” Canadien-born Jacques Villanueve makes his Nextel Cup debut tomorrow, to the chagrin of many drivers and fans. Oh, nobody really dislikes the guy like they might Colombian driver Juan Montoya, they just question the wisdom of the former open-wheel champ making his maiden voyage here. Running here will qualify Villanueve to apply to run at Daytona, so he has to start here at a restrictor plate race. Scotland’s own Dario Franchitti debuted in an ARCA event Friday night. This is also Toyota’s first year at Talladega, and did they ever make a big noise today with four, count ‘em four (!) Toyota drivers qualifying for the top five spots in the line-up.

“The Monster Mash.” Did I mention there’d be lot of wreckin’? A big factor will be all these drivers out there with differing race agendas. Chase drivers Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart (who’s finished 2nd 8 times here), and Jeff Burton would love to put the sad memories of Kansas behind them with a win or solid finish here. These are just three of twelve drivers vying for the great Nextel Cup. Then you have another collection of drivers who are playing out the string with their old teams and will be looking for employment next year. Tony Raines is one journeyman driver who comes to mind, and then there’s others such as David Stremme (who may be taking the #10 car away from Scott Riggs) and there are rumors Jeff Green will be forced to move on. Speaking of Scott Riggs, his chances fo showing this week were cut off by his failure to qualify. The convergence of these two distinct camps could make for high emotions a la Denny Hamlin vs. Kyle Petty and Kyle Busch vs. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and a few big fender benders.

“The Budweiser Boo-galoo”. Talladega is famous for being the wildest party stop on the tour. I’ll bet worker productivity in Talladega is lower the day after a NASCAR event than January 1st. This is not a race I’d take my young kids to. There’ll also be Budweiser flying out on to the track if a hated (in these parts) driver like Jeff Gordon or Jimmie Johnson wins it. If it were me, I’d wear a raincoat.

“Break (away) Dancin.” This could be “Separation Sunday” in the Chase. A poor showing by Denny Hamlin, Jeff Burton or Kevin Harvick would doom any real shot these guys have a winning the title.

I’m really looking forward to this race. As a Toyota fan and a guy who generally roots for the underdog, I’m happy to see often-maligned Michael Waltrip on the pole, and Toyota cars qualifying so well. Count me also as a guy pleased to see open wheelers coming over to the NASCAR party. It says a lot of good things about the style of racin’ we all love.

It will be a fairly tame but fun affair in our home. I’ll be cooking up the sausage dogs, the soda will be cold, and the only dancin’ I’ll be doing will be with my beloved bride. Hey, we’re an inclusive sport now, to each his own, right?

I’m not all that inspired tonight, but I was reminded of the guts NASCAR drivers have when a guy on Yahoo Answers! invited us to take a look at some crash footage he found on YouTube.

Naturally, I took the bait and looked, and once again (as I have done more than once), I looked at some other famous NASCAR crashes. There was Elliott Sadler doing the “Talladega Flip” on the final lap of the 2003 race, and lo and behold, the former driver of what is now David Gilliland’s car did it again in 2004, only this time “Rabbit Release” landed on his wheels after flipping and finished!

Have you ever seen the crash of Richard Petty where all the parts came flying off his car? What about the big wreck Dale Earnhardt got in back in his days behind the wheel of the #15 Wranglers Chevy? Then there’s the grandaddy of them all- a 37 car pile-up at Daytona back in 1960. Can you imagine running 61 cars at once? What were these guys thinking?

What amazes me is to think these drivers will get back in a car and race again. I am also reminded of safety innovations that have made racing safer. Earnhardt was the last guy we lost, over six years ago. I remember hearing about Kyle Petty breaking his leg, Earnhardt’s separated shoulder, Rudd doing the same thing this year. You no longer have a guy like Bobby Allison getting all messed up physically anymore.

I know there are fans out there that bemoan the Car of Tomorrow, restrictor plates, HANS devices and caution flags for what amounts to hankies flying across the track. But at least now, we have the nervous thrill of a crash, and the guy can still walk away from it.

Some notable 2007 crashes:

Bowyer at Daytona. I’ll never forget the #07 crossing the finish line on his roof. I know Clint had ol’ DW worried.

Mikey’s Fireworks Show. Ol’ Mike had a good scare there, and that HANS device sure makes it hard for a big guy to get out his car.

Jimmie’s Eye Brow Job. Jimmie Johnson put on quite a fireworks show himself. It was the 2nd Pocono race wasn’t it? JJ if you’re concerned about your eyebrows, may I suggest a waxing next time.

Robby Gordon’s plow job in the Busch Series. Looking back, Marcos Ambrose probably deserved a good tap, but “Trash” Gordon sure looked like a 4 year old on that brain fart.

Gordon crashing his pretty car in Charlotte. You remember the Coca-Cola 600? Gordon gets this special paint job with the Department of Defense on the hood, and he gets it mangled about 1/3 of the way through the race. He really hit that wall too.

Check out YouTube. There’s a ton of footage there. There are also some other good NASCAR clips.

Good night, everybody.

Needless to say, there’s a lot of buzz in NASCAR Nation today over many things that happened on the track yesterday. We had an insanely long rain delay, lots of conversation over the Busch-Earnhardt wreck, Tony and Greg’s “stay out with the damaged fender” snafu, but front and center around the NASCAR water cooler (or maybe it’s a beer keg) is the way this race ended.

When the race ended, I gave no second thought to the idea that the driver of the #16 AFLAC Ford- Greg Biffle- had taken a step towards salvaging his lost season with his 1st win of 2007. Then, came the Jimmie Johnson interview. Johnson contends that Biffle did not maintain “reasonable” speed and that hometown favorite Clint Bowyer won it. Honestly, Bowyer looked a little clueless about the ensuing brouhaha, but the idea of winning in his home state sounded good to him. Naturally, Jeff Gordon chimed in and said the win was not Biffle’s.

There’s speculation that Biffle had run out of gas. Naturally, like those baseball players who swear they’re not on steroids and will gladly test to prove only to back down when the pressure’s on, Biffle offers to start his car on the spot to prove it. Of course, he KNOWS he won’t have to. Yahoo columnist and former NASCAR driver Ricky Craven says he’s certain Biffle was as dry as a Baptist wedding. Bowyer and Johnson will both tell you THEY maintained “reasonable speed”, passed Biffle up and are the rightful winners. For their part, NASCAR officials maintain the field was “frozen” under a yellow caution flag, and that there’s no passing allowed under caution, and under that logic, Biffle wins. End of story where Brian France and company are concerned. That’s where things really get nasty.

I’d hate to be France or Mike Helton being recognized in the grocery store. Some comments I’ve seen on line lead me to believe these two would lose a popularity contest with O.J. Simpson. From NASCAR’s inception, the France family has ruled with an iron hand. I don’t know how it was with Bill Sr. and Bill Jr., but to hear the old schooler tell it, Brian’s gonna kill the sport. I don’t know about that, but I DO know they are their own worst enemies on the P.R. front.

For my part, I don’t generally have a problem with the way NASCAR is run. I know some people would love to throttle me because I am “Pro Chase”, but I think it’s a good thing and its made what would have been a run away title for Jeff Gordon more thrilling. Funny- I don’t hear him complaining. Ah, but back to the grand scheme of things. NASCAR’s leadership shows a responsiveness and willingness to change things if something doesn’t work. Matt Kenseth winning a Cup title with 1 win in 2003 wasn’t good (admit it people), so now we have the Chase. In 4 years, it’s gone from 10 drivers to 12. Other changes like the Lucky Dog and others have come along- some good, some bad (like the top 35 owner points for qualifying, in my opinion). Try chaning rules like this in Major League Baseball. Ha! I think it’s also commendable how they’ve handled the Aaron Fike situation. The NFL wouldn’t have the intestinal fortitude to do that with their guys.

But the willingness to “draw it up in the dirt” or call an audible is what gets these guys in trouble. Part of the reason fans get so upset over this stuff is because the rules are too open for interpretation and they SEEM like they change all the time, giving rise to conspiracy theories (all of which are pure poppycock).

While I maintain that NASCAR’s logic is correct in awarding Biffle the win, I think the real mistake occurred by not ending the race on the 2nd red flag at lap 148. I could have told you the finish to the race was going to be a train reck. It always is! Yes, I know that means the dreaded Tony Stewart would have the win, but he would have won under clean conditions.

This won’t by any means ruin the season. Biffle’s a non-player in the championship and the other two top 3 drivers won’t really be hurt by it. The chase is still fun, and it’s still wide open. I just hope someday that the powers that be at NASCAR would think these scenarios through and have a consistent game plan for them. They can then just fall back on the rule book. This is one good lesson they could learn from the NFL.

Yet, there will always be that one scenario that someone didn’t think of. Like yesterday.

See what you started Juan Pablo?