Montoya penalized for run-in with Kyle Busch

LOUDON, N.H. (AP) -- Juan Pablo Montoya was hit with a two-lap penalty Sunday after he intentionally ran into NASCAR Sprint Cup points leader Kyle Busch during a late caution period at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Montoya spun out Busch, but the move backfired when Busch's car came back across the track and hit Montoya's.

The former open-wheel star, in his second full season in NASCAR, was called to the NASCAR hauler after the race for a talking to, although officials said there would be no further penalties. The penalty dropped Montoya to 32nd place, while Busch finished 25th.

Montoya said after leaving the NASCAR hauler that he was just trying to defend himself.

"On the restart, I got around on the outside of him in turn two and he just went wide like I wasn't even there," he explained. "Then we touched each other and (I) got beside him to the next corner and he starts banging on me like he was trying to wreck me.

"I said, "OK.' I went into the corner and the wreck happened. ... I thought we had a decent car today and I don't appreciate when people race me like that."

Busch said he had no idea what happened.

"I didn't turn down into him and just barely touched his quarterpanel," he said. "Then I got by him in (turns) three and four and he run me up the racetrack in the left rear. Then we came to that caution flag and he thought he beat me to the caution flag and I was just trying to get around the car in front of us there and touched him on the door. He just turned left and spun me down the front straightaway.

"I don't know what his beef is but, obviously, NASCAR should probably fix it."

Neither Montoya nor Busch were contenders during the Lenox Industrial Tools 301.

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SURPRISE FINISH: J.J. Yeley, who failed to qualify for two of the last three Cup events and hadn't finished better than 24th this season, found himself in rarified air at the end of Sunday's race.

Yeley's Toyota was among the eight cars that stayed on track during the final round of pit stops by the leaders, and that was good enough to give him a third-place finish when the race was cut 17 laps short by rain.

"This particular week I found the way to the back door so I could sneak in and sit in this seat," Yeley said in the postrace news conference.

"We got to where we had a really fast race car, just didn't have the track position," he added. "There's a lot of times we ran as fast as the leader for 20 or 30 laps under any kind of run."

Yeley, who drives for Hall of Fame Racing, said the result was an important one for the struggling team.

"It's tremendous," he said. "Last week (at Sonoma) was a big blow because I didn't feel that I was going to miss the race. ... To go out there and miss the race by five one-hundredths (of a second), get ourselves further behind, was devastating. It makes it even worse because I have to stay there Sunday, and I have to do hospitality and I have to go see fans.

"You try to explain to people why you missed the race. It is the toughest thing in the world. It's very surreal. Sitting in the grandstands or sitting in the suite having to watch the entire race makes you want it even worse than you could have ever possibly imagined. It was an extra fire for me coming here after Sonoma."

He added, "Hopefully, this is just a sign of things to come."

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BIG PLANS: Bruton Smith, whose Speedway Motorsports Inc., bought the New Hampshire track last fall for $340 million, is still working on plans for the future of the facility.

But, while SMI also recently bought Kentucky Speedway and Smith has repeatedly said he wants to get at least one Cup date for that track, SMI's chairman said Sunday he has no plans to move either of the NHMS Cup dates.

"Somewhere, as I gaze into my crystal ball, I can see a (Kentucky) date coming from somewhere," Smith said.

Asked if that might be one of the current races here, he quickly replied: "New Hampshire? No. We'll try to accomplish that in another way. We're working on some things."

Smith also said there has been no decision on possible changes to the nearly flat 1.058-mile New Hampshire oval.

He said his engineers will study a topography map to determine the possibility of adding banking to the track, but noted, "I was pleasantly pleased with the races (Modified and Nationwide) we had yesterday and how racy it was. But we'll study it and see if something needs to be done."

Jerry Gappens, executive general manager of the track, said, whatever changes are made, the track will remain a mile oval.

Smith said the idea of building an all-new facility somewhere else on the vast NHMS grounds has been broached by one of his engineers, but the SMI boss said, "I doubt that's going to happen."

Smith said he does plan to add lights for night racing, expand the current motorhome parking by 100 acres, add more restrooms "and make this place more fan friendly."

He also said SMI is negotiating with the IndyCar Series, which already races at the company's Kentucky, Texas and Sonoma tracks, for a 2009 race here.

Smith said there are no plans to build a dragstrip here, but did note that the dragstrip he is building near SMI's Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., will be completed ahead of schedule on Aug. 10, a month before the debut NHRA event.

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SPARK PLUGS: Sunday's race was the 27th consecutive Cup sellout at the New Hampshire track. Track officials estimated attendance at 101,000. ... Winner Kurt Busch's average speed in the race was 106.719 mph. ... There were nine lead changes among eight drivers, with Busch leading only the last 10 laps. ... Matt Kenseth, who finished 18th, fell to 13th in the standings, while Kevin Harvick, who finished 14th, moved into 12th, the final qualifying position for the Chase for the championship. The two are separated by just five points.


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In The Pits: Casey Mears looking for work

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- If nice guys got all the best NASCAR rides, Casey Mears would have a job for life.

But racing is a results-based business, and Mears simply doesn't have them through 53 races with elite Hendrick Motorsports. So team owner Rick Hendrick had to make the difficult decision to cut ties with a driver he considers part of his family.

"He's one of the world's greatest guys, we just didn't have him in the right situation and I take a lot of responsibility for that," Hendrick said Monday. "I am a big Casey Mears fan and I always will be. But this is the part of this business that I hate.

"In almost everything I do, I preach and practice loyalty and friendship. But this business is about performance."

And without it, Mears couldn't survive the job of a lifetime with NASCAR's top organization.

Although winless in four seasons with Chip Ganassi Racing, Mears had mild success and finished a career-best 14th in the standings following the 2006 season. But a seat had opened up at Hendrick, where his best friend Jimmie Johnson was racing for championships and Mears had a strong bond with the owner.

As one of Ricky Hendrick's close friends, Mears became a frequent guest at Hendrick family functions. He also mourned with the family following the 2004 plane crash that killed Ricky and nine others.

Ricky had always wanted Mears to drive for the organization, and when the opportunity came, Hendrick fulfilled his late son's wish by luring Mears away from Ganassi.

Their first season together was decent. Mears scored his first career victory in the prestigious Coca-Cola 600, had 10 top-10 finishes and was 15th in the points. And sometime after Mears' Memorial Day victory, Hendrick showed a commitment to Mears when he had an opportunity to sign Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Even though Mears was clearly the weak link in the powerful Hendrick lineup, the owner kept Mears and instead fired talented but temperamental Kyle Busch to make room for NASCAR's most popular driver. Hendrick said later the analogy had been made during the Earnhardt frenzy that firing Mears "would have been like shooting Bambi."

That's how Hendrick feels about Mears, who is so well-liked it would be nearly impossible to find anyone with a bad thing to say about the clean-cut nephew of four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Rick Mears.

"There has never been anyone who has driven a car for me that represented our company any better," Hendrick said. "He goes above and beyond whatever you need him to do. You know you could count on him. He's just a model person for the company."

Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to keep his seat.

Moved to Busch's old team when Earnhardt came aboard, Mears got a crew and cars that won four races and made the Chase the past two seasons. It should have led to similar results for Mears, but the No. 5 team has instead taken two steps back in what's been a frustrating first half of the season.

Mears heads into this weekend's race in Daytona ranked 23rd in the standings with just two top-10 finishes. Both of them came the past two weeks -- after Hendrick had already made up his mind to release him at the end of the season.

Mears' numbers aren't really that bad considering the struggles Hendrick's drivers have had with the full-time use of the Car of Tomorrow, Mears having to adapt to his fourth crew chief in four years and the bad luck his team had at the start of the season. Wrecks in Daytona and California led to season-opening 35th and 42nd-place finishes that put the team 34th in the standings after three races.

Plenty of teams in NASCAR would overlook his mediocre stats, but Hendrick Motorsports doesn't have that flexibility. Johnson is the two-time defending Cup champion and perennial contender and Jeff Gordon already has four titles. Now Earnhardt is in the mix and he's a Hendrick-best third in the points after recently breaking his 76-race winless streak.

Although sponsors Kellogg's and Carquest loved Mears, the companies wanted the same return on their investment that Hendrick's other partners receive. No matter what change Hendrick made, he just couldn't get Mears in sync with the other three teams.

"We made a lot of changes, he had a lot of crew chiefs, we put him in a lot of different situations and I take as much responsibility as anybody as to why he didn't click," Hendrick said. "But we got to a point where we couldn't move forward without tearing the whole thing down and starting from scratch."

Hendrick already made one bad business decision in choosing Mears over Busch, who has a series-best five victories driving for Joe Gibbs Racing and is leading the Sprint Cup standings. Now, with rumblings out there that Mark Martin might take over the No. 5 in a last-ditch effort to win the championship that's eluded him for 26 years, Hendrick can't whiff again.

But that doesn't mean Mears shouldn't land somewhere else. Despite just 40 top-10s in five-plus seasons, he's an attractive hire with the potential for a long and successful career with the right organization. In hindsight, he was probably in the right place at Ganassi. But a driver can't turn down a chance to drive for Hendrick, even if the expectations exceed the talent level.

So now Mears starts looking for the right fit, and Hendrick is confident one is out there.

"He's a top 15 driver in the sport and he's got the whole package," Hendrick said. "NASCAR needs him, and needs him at the top level."


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Kurt Busch gets rain-shortened victory

LOUDON, N.H. (AP) -- Kurt Busch had strategy and luck on his side. Tony Stewart had neither.

That's how Busch wound up ending his 29-race winless string Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the rain-shortened Lenox Industrial Tools 301, while the frustrated Stewart simply added another disheartening loss to his own winless string that has reached 31 races.

"Sometimes you just don't win 'em the right way," Busch said. "I think we can honestly say that, but we had a lot of work and a lot of effort put in today and we'll take it."

It is the first victory for the Penske Racing driver since September at California Speedway, and it came on a day when two-time Cup champion Stewart dominated, leading 132 of 284 laps, only to see the hard luck that has dogged him all season continue.

Busch hasn't had much to celebrate this season, either.

Since finishing second to teammate Ryan Newman in the season-opening Daytona 500, the 2004 Cup champion had finished in the top 10 only once and came into this event 22nd in the points. But Sunday turned out to be his day, thanks to crew chief Pat Tryson's decision to keep his No. 2 Dodge on track when Stewart and several other lead cars pitted during a late caution period.

When rain eventually ended the race 17 laps short, with the field under a red flag on pit road, Busch had his 18th career victory and Stewart was an unhappy 13th.

"I've been on the flipside of it plenty of times," Busch said. "There's those times when you just grit your teeth and go, "What could we have done different? Why did it happen this way?' So it isn't pretty, but we'll take it.

"That's the beauty of Sprint Cup racing is the competition level is always at its best. Sometimes the guys that have fast race cars don't win because they got outdueled in the pits with pit strategy. You take 'em when you can get 'em because you get burned plenty of times the other way."

Runner-up Michael Waltrip, who had not finished better than 23rd this season, used the same strategy as Busch. The two-time Daytona 500 winner said he was hoping the race would go to the end because he believed he had a faster car than Busch. But Busch believed he could hold the top spot.

"I felt like it was going to be a great duel down to the end with everybody on old tires, everybody would have been slipping and sliding," Busch said. "I felt we had track position and I felt like my fire and desire was going to overcome anything today to get into Victory Lane.

"Once I saw that we were leading and we were out in front with 26 (laps) to go, that good old Kurt Busch jumped up on the wheel and I told myself, "Don't let your team down. This is what you live for. This is what you race for, and that is to get into Victory Lane."

Tryson said Busch could have won even if the rain hadn't been cut short.

"To be honest, we were rooting for it not to rain because we had the fuel milage to make it to the end and the other guys were going to have to pit, so we weren't really counting on the rain," he said. "It just kind of worked out that they all pitted there and then it rained. But it could have worked out the other way, too.

Stewart, who dominated the second half of the race on the 1.058-mile oval, held off a challenge from two-time reigning Cup champion Jimmie Johnson late in the race and appeared on the way to his first victory since August at Watkins Glen, N.Y. But Stewart and most of the other drivers who had been racing at the front of the pack did not have enough gas to get to the end.

On lap 271, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who had been in the top 10 all day, started toward pit road and was hit from behind by Jamie McMurray, who then spun into David Ragan, bringing out a caution.

Stewart and the rest of the front-runners pitted under the ensuing yellow flag, while Busch and seven other drivers who had pitted more recently than the leaders, stayed on track.

The race restarted on lap 279, but there was another caution on lap 280, with Clint Bowyer and rookie Sam Hornish Jr. crashing, then Juan Pablo Montoya slamming into series points leader Kyle Busch, Kurt's younger brother, moments later. Montoya was later assessed a two-lap penalty by NASCAR for rough driving and finished 32nd.

The rain that had been threatening for much of the afternoon began falling during that caution and, moments after the cars were red-flagged onto pit lane just before completing lap 285, NASCAR called the race, leaving Busch on top, ahead of Waltrip, J.J. Yeley, Martin Truex Jr., Elliott Sadler, Reed Sorenson and Casey Mears, all of whom had stayed on track during the previous caution.

Waltrip said it was strategy, not rain, that gave him the solid finish.

"The reason why I'm sitting here is because we got an opportune caution late in the race and took advantage of race position," the owner-driver said.

Within minutes after the race was official, the sky opened up and lightning began flashing around the speedway, emptying the stands in a hurry and forcing Busch to hold his victory celebration in the shelter of the garage area.

Stewart took a while getting out of his car and could hardly believe his fate.

"It's just been the oddest year I've ever seen for this race team," he said. "It's just frustrating. There isn't anybody that's going to tell you any different than that. There's nothing you can do. If there was something we could do about it we'd change it.

"It's not because of lack of effort," added Stewart, who took two tires on his final pit stop and finished 13th. "I've got some of the best guys in the garage area and I've had 'em for 10 years. It's the worst string of bad luck we've ever seen, but there's nothing we can do about it."

Kyle Busch wound up 25th on Sunday, while series runner-up Jeff Burton, who finished 12th, climbed from 103 points behind to just 64 heading into next Saturday night's race at Daytona.


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Carpentier wins first Sprint Cup pole

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LOUDON, N.H. (AP) -- Rookie Patrick Carpentier grabbed his first NASCAR Sprint Cup pole Friday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

The Canadian driver, whose last pole came in a Champ Car in 2004 on the road course in Laguna Seca, Calif., was among the drivers who had to wait out a nearly two-hour rain delay before getting a shot at qualifying for Sunday's Lenox Industrial Tools 301.

"It's amazing," said Carpentier, who took his first pole on an oval track with a fast lap was 129.776 mph. "The car was great. We made a couple of changes from this morning and the car just rotated beautifully through the middle of the corner. It was just stuck on the track. I'm real happy.

"Honestly, if I had won the first pole on a road course I wouldn't be as happy," he added. "I want to do well on the ovals because that is where they do most the racing in this series."

The rain began while series points leader Kyle Busch, the 24th driver in the 45-car qualifying line, was on the mile oval. He completed one lap that was good for 16th best at that point before officials called him in.

The time trials were delayed for 1 hour, 54 minutes before resuming with Busch given a second chance to qualify, this time on a dry track. He was quicker, but still wound up 27th overall.

Although the track was very slick and there was little rubber remaining after the rain, several cars were faster than Reed Sorenson, the leader before the rain delay with a speed of 128.828 mph.

Kevin Harvick followed Busch onto the track and, despite nearly hitting the wall on his fast lap, took over the top spot with a lap of 128.976. Bobby Labonte then went out and took the top spot from Harvick with a lap of 129.059.

Labonte, a former Cup champion who hasn't won a pole since April 2004, was pretty happy with the outside spot on the front row for Sunday's race.

"I was pleasantly surprised," he said. "I didn't think it was going to be that fast with the track conditions what they were, so we' excited to get a good lap and get a good starting spot."

But it was Carpentier, one of the last drivers to make an attempt, who wound up on top in his 16th Cup race. His best previous Cup start was fourth last month at Richmond.

"If you'd have told me I would struggle on a road course last weekend (at Sonoma) and win the pole this week, I'd have told you you were crazy," he said. "I was hoping it was going to rain so that we would make the race (on points). But it didn't and we're on the pole, so it's pretty good.

"Hopefully, on Sunday, we get to start there for a while. But that will be the hard thing."

Scott Riggs was fourth, also at 128.976, followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. at 128.885, Sorenson, rookie Dario Franchitti at 128.824, Martin Truex Jr. at 128.645 and Matt Kenseth and A.J. Allmendinger, both at 128.624. Defending race winner Denny Hamlin was 12th.


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Crew chiefs asked to help set testing policy

LOUDON, N.H. (AP) -- John Darby, NASCAR's Sprint Cup director, had a nice surprise for the series crew chiefs Saturday, offering them the opportunity to guide the sanctioning organization in setting next year's testing policy.

"NASCAR's the policy-maker, but one thing that's really reliant on the teams' input is what we test, how many times we test and where we test," Darby said after a brief meeting with the crew chiefs in the garage area at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

"In the past, it's just been a matter of, "Here, select your race tracks and let's go.' This year, I felt it was time that we just sat down with everybody and talked and said, "Look, we're open to any suggestions you have,' from leaving our testing policy exactly like it was in '08, all the way to going to what I'm going to call wide-open testing, no limits -- any track, any week, any time, as many times as you want to go.

"We're prepared for either way, it doesn't matter to us. We'll listen to what all of the teams come back with for suggestions and formulate a test plan for 09 and go forward."

Darby said his offer was met with some disbelief from the assembled crew chiefs.

"There was a pretty good gasp of air when you got to talking about wide-open testing because the immediate perception is, "Holy cats, we're going to be testing 38 weeks a year,' "he said.

NASCAR officially allowed seven open tests this season at tracks where the Cup teams race. The teams can also opt to hold private tests as often as they like at tracks where the Cup cars do not race.

"After you talk to everybody for a little bit and ask them to count the actual number of tests that they currently do, at all the places that they go to test, and apply that to a wide-open test policy ... there probably isn't a whole lot of difference at the end of the day," Darby said.

Darby noted that part of his thinking on this subject is the fact that testing at a track like Milwaukee to simulate racing at New Hampshire -- which several teams did -- would not likely be as effective as actually testing at New Hampshire.

"There still isn't anything as accurate as making laps on a race track and testing for multiple purposes," he explained.

Darby said he expects the crew chiefs to go back to their teams and talk to the owners and others in their organizations to come up with their own ideas.

"This is just food for their thought and I told them we'd get back together in a couple of weeks and see what kind of reaction we have and starting putting it together," Darby said.

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TRACKING CONDITIONS: This is the first Cup weekend since Bruton Smith's Speedway Motorsports Inc. bought the New Hampshire track and, other than some fresh paint and new personnel, there hasn't been enough time to make big changes -- yet.

But Smith, whose company owns six other tracks which have Cup races, is known for making positive -- and often major -- changes to his facilities.

There has been some speculation that he might decide to alter the nearly flat, 1.058-mile New Hampshire oval to make it easier for the competitors to pass and race side-by-side.

"I don't think Bruton is going to do anything to the track to make it any worse, by any means," Kevin Harvick said. "I think he wants to make the facility better."

He was asked if Smith should add banking to the track?

"I like flatter race tracks," Harvick said. "Richmond is a pretty racy track and it is flat. I think (Smith) is probably looking to make some improvements to the race track in all areas where there is a little bit of banking here and there. I think we will just leave it in his hands.

"(But) we don't want another mile and a half race track. I think I can speak for most everybody in the garage. I think we need some tracks maybe with a little bit different character, but I don't think we need another mile and a half track."

SMI's tracks at Charlotte, Atlanta, Texas and Las Vegas are all 11/2-mile ovals. The company also has the one-mile oval at Bristol and the road course in Sonoma, as well as the recently purchased 11/2-mile oval at Kentucky, which does not have a Cup race.

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NO DECISION, YET: Two-time Cup champion Tony Stewart is still mulling over his racing future.

In the wake of Friday's announcement that Casey Mears will not return to the No. 5 Hendrick Chevrolet next season, Stewart was asked how close he is to making his own announcement about whether he will stay with Joe Gibbs Racing or move on to another team?

"I don't know, it may be pushed back even more now," Stewart said. "We'll wait and see. It's however long it takes to make the right decision."

Would he consider driving the No. 5?

"Absolutely," Stewart said. "You've got to. There's no one in this garage area that's not going to look that direction, so you've got to look at that."

Stewart, whose next ride might include at least part ownership in the team he signs with, said there are still "a lot of variables to look at" before he decides what's next.

"The good news is that we have time to still look," he said. "We're going to have to make a decision at some point."

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MAKING UP GROUND: One week after failing to qualify for the road race in Sonoma, Calif., things are looking up for former open-wheel champion Dario Franchitti.

Last year's IndyCar Series champion and Indianapolis 500 winner, now a Cup rookie, qualified a season-best seventh here Friday and was among the fastest drivers in both practice sessions Saturday on the 1.058-mile New Hampshire oval.

"The results don't show it, but we ran really well at Pocono and really well at Michigan and we really expected good things to happen at Sonoma, and we didn't qualify," said Franchitti, who is just about fully recovered from a broken ankle that also kept him out of five races.

"That was a real low point for us, so to come back here, come back strong, was really, really good. It was a big confidence boost for everybody on the team and gives everybody a spring in their step again."

Asked what would a good finish for him on Sunday, the Chip Ganassi Racing driver said, "Finish where we start would be awesome."

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CANADIAN FEAT: Patrick Carpentier, who will start from the front on Sunday, is only the second Canadian to win a pole position in the history of NASCAR's top stock car series.

Lloyd Shaw, from Toronto, won the pole for the 1953 International 200 at Langhorne, Pa., Speedway. Shaw averaged 82.2 mph on the mile oval, while Quebec native Carpentier's pole-winning speed was 129.776.


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Stewart gets fifth Nationwide win

LOUDON, N.H. (AP) -- Tony Stewart isn't running many races in the NASCAR Nationwide Series this series, so he's making the ones he does drive in count.

The two-time Sprint Cup champion, who hasn't been having much luck and has no wins in the top stock car series this season, drove away Saturday with his fifth victory in seven Nationwide starts in 2008.

Stewart got track position, restarting third after taking just two tires during his final pit stop on lap 129 of the 200-lap event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He took the lead on lap 136 from fellow Cup star Carl Edwards on lap 136 and led the rest of the way.

Teammates Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch finished second and third.

The No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota that Stewart drove has won eight of 17 races this season, including all five by Stewart and one each by Hamlin, Busch and heralded rookie Joey Logano. Busch also has two wins in his No. 18 entry and another in the Braun Racing car already this season.

But this one was special for crew chief Dave Rogers, who grew up in Marshfield, Vt., about 125 miles from here.

It was Rogers who made the two-tire call that Stewart credited with putting him in position to win.

"I look up and they're all coming," Rogers said of the last pit stop for the leaders. "It was a parking lot and I knew if we got back in traffic, we would never make it to the front. This is a track position race."

Stewart gave most of the credit for the victory, his seventh in the series formerly known as Busch, to Rogers, who started with the Gibbs team as an engineer on Stewart's No. 20 Cup car.

"That last stop is what won the race for us," Stewart said. "To get track position and be able to stay up front and not have to overdrive the car or abuse the tires was the key to the win."

Stewart is the 22nd different winner in 22 Nationwide-Busch races on the 1.058-mile New Hampshire oval.

The race ended under caution after Greg Biffle, racing side-by-side with Brad Keselowski for 10th place, appeared to touch the track apron and lose control, sliding hard into the outside wall. Biffle wound up 19th.

Former series champions Kevin Harvick and Edwards finished fourth and fifth, followed by David Ragan, David Reutimann and Mike Bliss.

"It's pretty spectacular," Edwards said about the No. 20 car. "Those guys are doing a great job. There are ups and downs in this sport and, right now, they're on the up side and we've just got to look at what they're doing and emulate them and try to get them by the end of the season."

Stewart, 11th in the Cup standings, and the rest of the Cup drivers will race on the same track Sunday in the Lenox Industrial Tools 301.


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Lots new as IndyCar returns to its shortest oval

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- With more cars than ever in the field and half of them making their first visit to the smallest oval the series races, John Andretti expects Saturday night's IndyCar Series race at Richmond International Raceway to be a physical drain.

Counting Andretti, whose 20-plus previous starts on the 0.75-mile oval have all come in NASCAR, 14 of the 26 drivers in the SunTrust Indy Challenge will be on the track for the first time in an open-wheel race car, and most of them only visited for the first time Thursday.

But Andretti doesn't think 26 cars is too many, and compared the track to Bristol Motor Speedway, which is host to two NASCAR Sprint Cup races with 43 cars in the field.

"I think it's OK," he said Friday. "We'll see tomorrow night."

Throw in the addition of 50 laps to this year's event and temperatures in the mid-90s during the day and Andretti still expects a grueling test when the green flag falls at 8 p.m.

"Three hundred laps around Richmond, I think, is going to be tough," he said.

The laps click by quickly, in an average of about 15 seconds.

"A lot of G loading," Andretti said. "You sort of lay up against the side of the car and hope the car is going to do the work, because there's no power steering in these Indy cars.

"The steering gets real heavy."

Andretti and the other drivers new to Richmond's D-shaped layout were allowed to practice on the track Thursday, and the experience left Oriol Servia somewhat anxious.

"I can see that the race must be really tough in traffic because on your own already everything is narrow, and you already have issues getting your marks," he said. "I can only imagine how it's going to be like with 26 cars and dirty air and this and that."

Series veterans also have new things to be concerned about heading into the race.

Fuel strategy, for example.

"Is this a no-brainer, you must stop three times, or is this a save fuel and stop two times kind of a race?" Danica Patrick said she asked fellow driver Dan Wheldon this week.

"I'm sure I'm not the only one thinking like that," she said.

Track position also will be key, she said, because of the expanded field. The previous highest number of cars at Richmond was 22, and only 19 were in the race last summer.

The potential for crowding makes being fast especially critical.

"You need to be ready to pass because there's a lot of passing anyway on the race weekends here with only 18 cars," Patrick said. "And with another eight or so of us, there's going to be even more, so you're going to need to make sure that that car is good for the race."

Patrick's aggressive style and unwillingness to move out of the way for faster cars drew the ire of some other drivers last week at Iowa, and Wheldon said with 26 cars on a smaller, narrower track, trustworthiness will be important. Wheldon won here in 2004.

"When there's 26 cars, you've got to remember that there has to be a lot of respect shown between the drivers," he said before qualifying.

Wheldon said unfamiliarity with the track shouldn't be an issue for the new drivers because of their talent, but one of the first-timers, Enrique Bernoldi, ran 80 laps Thursday and spun out in practice Friday, the rear of his car slamming into the outside wall.

"I got a bit of oversteer coming out of Turn 4," Bernoldi said.


Shock for Bayer Leverkusen signing Patrick Helmes
Notebook: Indy 500 drivers told to be patient at start
Wheldon steps out of car, onto field
Tough day for IndyCar youngsters


Shock for Bayer Leverkusen signing Patrick Helmes
Notebook: Indy 500 drivers told to be patient at start
Wheldon steps out of car, onto field
Tough day for IndyCar youngsters

Consistent Burton back in title contention

LOUDON, N.H. (AP) -- If consistency can still win a championship in NASCAR's Sprint Cup series, Jeff Burton is a serious contender to win his first title.

In 16 races this season, the Richard Childress Racing driver has one win, four top-fives, 10 top-10s and has not finished worse than 15th.

"I'm good with it, if it yields results," Burton said. "At the end of the day, though, our goal wasn't having an average finish of 8.9 or whatever. Our goal was to lead more laps than we did last year, to win more races than we did last year, to be solidly in the top 12 in points ... and, when the Chase starts, to be a real contender."

Still, it remains to be seen if consistency can get the job done.

After Matt Kenseth won the 2003 Cup championship in ho-hum fashion, winning just once and walking away with the title without making many headlines, NASCAR changed the points format in an effort to insure some excitement.

The 10-race Chase for the championship was born in 2004, meaning a consistent performance in the first 26 races only earns a driver a spot in the top 12 and the opportunity to compete for the title at the end of the season.

That's just fine with Burton.

"If this process and the way that we're doing it right now works out, then I'm extremely comfortable with it," said Burton, who goes into Sunday's Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway second in the standings, 103 points behind five-time winner Kyle Busch.

He will have his work cut out, starting 31st in the 43-car field. But Burton is determined to stay near the front in the points battle.

"I don't really care how we do it," Burton said. "It doesn't matter to me if we do it by winning 10 races or if we do it by winning two or winning none. The key is to win the championship. I just don't have in my head that we're doing it the wrong way or the right way.

"I know areas that we need to improve in, and my team obviously knows areas that we need to improve in, and that's our focus. The results are what matters."

From 1997 through 2000, Burton was a perennial contender driving for Jack Roush. He finished in the top five in the points each season, topped by a third-place finish in 2000. Fifteen of his 20 career victories, including four on the 1.058-mile New Hampshire oval, came during that stretch.

But Burton faded into the pack and out of the title picture for the next few years and didn't regain contender status until 2006, his second year with Childress.

He made the Chase and finished seventh that year, then made the postseason again, turning in an eighth-place finish, in 2007.

So far this season, Burton, who will celebrate his 41st birthday Sunday, has quietly gone about the business of putting himself in position to race for that first Cup championship, and the first one for Childress since the late Dale Earnhardt took the Cup in 1994.

With three more races in a grueling stretch of 12 straight weeks of racing -- including the all-star event -- and 10 more races before the start of the Chase, Burton understands the hardest part of the season is still ahead.

"You've got a lot of people looking and saying, "Oh my God, I'm 15th. I've got to find my way to 12th.' You've got people who are third that say, "I've got to find a way to stay here.' It's pressure for everybody."

"We have three more races to try to perform ... well in and then we get to kind of catch our breath," Burton added. "We've tested a lot, we've asked a lot out of our team. We've done that in hopes that when the summer gets here, we can, not relax, but we can take a little bit of time, recharge, re-energize, because when that little recharge is over, it's going to get big. We're going to hit it really hard. That's our strategy."

Rookie Patrick Carpentier will start from the pole for the first time, with 2001 Cup champion Bobby Labonte alongside on the front row. Series leader Busch, coming off a victory last Sunday at Sonoma, starts just ahead of Burton in 27th.


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Juve continue Alonso chase
Hammers join striker chase

RCR's Bowyer trying for consistency

b LOUDON, N.H. (AP) -- You can forget those rumors about Clint Bowyer leaving Richard Childress Racing.

"I've signed up with RCR for three more years," Bowyer said Friday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where he earned the first of his two Cup victories last September.

Ironically, as far as Bowyer is concerned, that breakthrough victory last year has added to the pressure as he heads into Sunday's Lenox Industrial Tools 301.

"You've got to live up to what you did last time, and there is a little bit more pressure," he said. "But it is what it is."

Bowyer, who was a surprise contender for the Cup championship last year, finishing third, goes into this week's race 10th in the standings. But it hasn't been a particularly consistent season.

After starting the year with three straight finishes of 19th or worse, Bowyer ran off seven top-10s in a row. Then came a 15th-place finish, followed by four straight finishes of 25th or lower before he turned things around last week at Sonoma with a fourth-place effort.

"We just had four bad races," Bowyer said. "We went into Richmond on (six) top-10s in a row, won Richmond, then the bottom fell out. We're just trying to get things turned around. Last week at Sonoma, having a top-five there was a breath of fresh air and, hopefully, a step in the right direction."

------

NO MODIFIED FOR YOU: Kyle Busch has been racing just about anything he could get his hands so far this season, but Joe Gibbs Racing president let his young driver know that racing in Friday's modified race at New Hampshire was a no-no.

"The modified race, J.D. didn't like the idea of that from what happened a couple of years ago with (Tony) Stewart getting into it with a couple guys and what not," Busch said Friday. "It just wasn't a good idea and we decided not to run it."

The Cup points leader, coming off his fifth victory of the season last Sunday on the road course at Sonoma, was supposed to drive the modified owned by Kevin "Bono" Manion, crew chief for Dale Earnhardt Inc. driver Martin Truex.

"I feel bad for Bono because he had to really scratch through and try to find somebody to put in that car, so I hated it for him," Busch said.

Still, it won't be an idle weekend for Busch, who has run multiple races almost every week this season.

He said he still planned to run in Friday's late model stock car event, Saturday's Nationwide Series race and, of course, Sunday's Cup race.

------

NEW FORD BOSS: Dan Davis, who has been in charge of Ford's racing programs for the past 11 years, will retire Aug. 1. He will be replaced as director of Ford Racing Technology by longtime Ford employee Brian Wolfe.

Davis, who has been with the company for 32 years, helped guide Ford to three NASCAR Cup driver's title and four manufacturers' championships. He also aided with the formation of Roush-Yates Engines, the main engine supplier to Ford NASCAR, sports car and USAC racing programs.

In NHRA, the company captured eight consecutive Funny Car championships, and Davis led development of the new Ford BOSS 500 nitro engine, the first new nitro engine in drag racing the past 40 years. He also was a major player in safety initiatives in both Champ Car racing and NHRA, where use of Ford Blue Box data recorders is now mandatory.

Wolfe, who has worked for Ford for 26 years, has held a series of management positions within the company's powertrain operations. In his most recent job, the 47-year-old Wolfe had global responsibility for all powertrain computer control software applications and powertrain calibration, including drivability and emissions.

------

NEW RESPONSIBILITIES: Toyota announced Friday that Lee White will become president and general manager of Toyota Racing Development, U.S.A on July 1. The company's motorsports activities will be consolidated under Ed Laukes, corporate manager of marketing for Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A.

White and Laukes will replace Jim Aust, who previously announced his plans to retire on June 30 as vice president of motorsports at TMS and president at TRD.

White, who has been senior vice president of TRD, will be responsible for all TRD activities in the U.S., including engine development, manufacturing, chassis design/development, team/manufacturer relationships, manufacturer/sanctioning body relations and engineering support for Toyota teams participating in NASCAR, USAC, NHRA, Grand-Am and Off-Road competition.

Laukes has served as corporate manager of motorsports marketing since last year and will be responsible for all TMS motorsports activities, including public relations and marketing operations, which encompass strategy, research, sponsorship, advertising and merchandising activation.


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Óscar Serrano Linked With Getafe Move

Mears' future at Hendrick Motorsports uncertain

SONOMA, Calif. (AP) -- Just two months ago, car owner Rick Hendrick sounded almost certain Casey Mears would be driving his No. 5 Chevrolet next season.

Now he doesn't sound so sure.
Asked before Sunday's race at Infineon Raceway if he was committed to Mears through for the full length of his contract, Hendrick avoided the question.

"I'm committed to him right now," Hendrick said. "I'm committed to him making that car run better right now."

Mears' contract runs through the end of the 2009 season, and although he scored his only career victory at Charlotte last year with Hendrick, his results haven't matched the team potential. He had 10 top-10s last season and finished 15th in the points last year. This season, he has just two top-10s and is 27th in the standings.

"(I'm concentrating) on getting that car running better and working hard on that anything else is speculation," Hendrick said. "We're looking at everything right now. I'm not ready to make any announcements. What's there to tell? We want to get it in the Chase and want to win races."

Mears finished a season-best fifth Sunday.

"We just have gotten off to a horrible start this year and it just feels really good to get a top-five," he said. "Everybody on the team needed this. These guys have been working really hard, everybody has been working really hard to find out exactly what it is to do to get better."

The speculation comes as rumors swirl about Mark Martin's future with Dale Earnhardt Inc. He's previously been mentioned as a candidate to split the Cup schedule with Scott Speed at Red Bull Racing, but there could also be a similar role for him in the No. 5 car for Hendrick.

One scenario could have Martin splitting the seat time with Brad Keselowski, who currently drives a Nationwide Series car for JR Motorsports. Hendrick is partners with Dale Earnhardt Jr. in that venture, and Martin occasionally drives a car for them in that series.

Martin is currently splitting a ride with Aric Almirola for DEI, but the team wants Almirola in a full-time ride in 2009.

"Aric is ready for a full-time ride," said DEI vice president John Story. "We have to get him in a car full time somehow, someway."

------

NO REPEAT: Juan Pablo Montoya had his game-face on before the start of Sunday's race, confident he had a chance to repeat as the winner.

His car was good enough early, as he moved through the field and into the lead. But his chances ended when, running second, he was spun by Marcos Ambrose and fell all the way back to 14th.

He rallied to finish sixth, but his team was disappointed with the outcome.

"It was one of those deals where we were hoping for a little bit more," Montoya said. "The team did a great job on the pit stops and we were competitive, we just got tangled up with (Ambrose) and it cost us a few spots."

Crew chief Brian Pattie was a bit more direct.

"It was just frustrating because we were running at the front and ended up finishing sixth, so that kind of sucks," Pattie said.

Ambrose, who was making his Cup Series debut, later had his own trouble when he was spun by Elliott Sadler. The contact came at the same moment he was shifting and caused his gearbox to break, leading to a 42nd-place finish.

"It's just very unfortunate," Ambrose said. "I couldn't believe it, you know? Here I am passing Jeff Gordon and racing with (Dale) Earnhardt (Jr.) -- it's just fantastic. It's what I dreamed about, dreamed what it would be like. It's just a shame we couldn't finish the race."

------

GORDON RALLIES: In the early stages of Sunday's race, Jeff Gordon was so frustrated with his race car he offered a profanity-laced assessment of his struggles over the team radio.

It sent crew chief Steve Letarte into a slew of changes to the car that helped Gordon rally to a third-place finish.

"I am excited ... I think it shows what kind of race team we have -- we never give up and we fight hard," Gordon said. "We like this place, we run good here. We weren't bad in the end, but we really just missed it in the beginning. I couldn't drive it. I thought I was going to wreck.

"Steve made some great adjustments and made a great (strategy) call ... then we got the car pretty good and drove up through there."

------

DON'T PASS THE PACE CAR: NASCAR warned the drivers before Sunday's race not to pass the pace car during the caution period, an offense Dale Earnhardt Jr. did several times in last week's victory at Michigan.

Earnhardt passed the pace car under caution in an attempt to conserve fuel. He'd pass the pace car, shut off the engine and coast. NASCAR eventually warned Earnhardt not to pass the pace car again and he obeyed.

During Sunday morning's driver meeting, NASCAR race director David Hoots reminded the drivers that passing the pace car is illegal.

"We know that under road-racing conditions, fuel management is very important, drivers," Hoots said. "Do all you can to conserve fuel, but hold your respective track positions when you do so."

------

TEMPORARY HELP: Robby Gordon had no sponsorship when he arrived at Infineon Raceway. By the time the race began, he had three different companies on his car.

Camping World and King Taco agreed to adorn the car and, after J.J. Yeley failed to make the race, sponsor DLP HDTV also moved onto Gordon's car.

"While it was disappointing to show up here with a black race car, I'm very happy that (the companies) helped us out this weekend," Gordon said. "We really appreciate them stepping up and sponsoring our team this weekend."

All the sponsorships are temporary, and DLP will move back to Hall of Fame Racing for next week's race in New Hampshire.

"We appreciate the effort of Hall of Fame Racing to ensure that DLP HDTV will have a presence in Sunday's race at Sonoma," said sponsorship marketing manager Dave Duncan. "We wish Robby the best of luck on Sunday and look forward to supporting J.J. Yeley ... next week at New Hampshire."


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Gilliland's road run pumps life into Yates team

SONOMA, Calif. (AP) -- Driving for an underfunded race team mired in the slow rebuilding process, David Gilliland has found that strong runs are hard to come by.

But on a road course he's raced before, Gilliland found himself running with the leaders and showcasing the potential Yates Racing has after three-plus years of struggles. The California native finished a career-best second Sunday at Infineon Raceway -- the team's best result since Dale Jarrett won at Talladega in 2006.
"From where we were last year to these 16 races (this year) ... I mean, it's 180 degrees from where it was, and I think it still has the potential to get better," Gilliland said. "I feel like our performance has improved 90 percent from what it was last year."

Quietly and methodically, Gilliland and teammate Travis Kvapil have pumped life back into a once-proud race team that seemed on the verge of collapse this time last year. Jarrett and Elliott Sadler had long fled the team, and the big-budget sponsors followed.

Team founder Robert Yates reached when he raced to sign Gilliland, who skyrocketed onto the map with an out-of-nowhere win in the 2006 Nationwide Series race at Kentucky. When Sadler jumped the sinking ship in the middle of that season, Gilliland officially had a Cup ride.

It wasn't exactly a competitive ride, though, and Gilliland slogged through seven finishes of 32nd or worse in his 14 starts with the team that year.

"You don't really learn anything driving a car that shouldn't even be on the race track," he said Sunday.

Last season wasn't much better. Yates lured Ricky Rudd out of retirement, but needed a charitable gesture from candy giant Mars to field both his cars. Although the year started with promise -- Gilliland and Rudd used Yates horsepower to sweep the front row in the season-opening Daytona 500 -- they combined for just three top 10s all year.

Gilliland finished 28th in the points, Rudd was 33rd and Yates was in desperate need of help. Ford brokered him a partnership in August with Paul Newman's then-Champ Car team, but the whole deal seemed suspect.

The suspicions were confirmed about a month later when Yates hastily announced his retirement from racing. He was handing the team over to son Doug, who formed an alliance with mighty Roush Fenway Racing. With Rudd headed back into retirement, Roush moved Kvapil into that seat and sent general manager Max Jones to run the team as a co-owner.

Yates relocated from Mooresville, N.C., into Roush's sprawling Concord complex in a move that many view not as an alliance but actually a merger. Roush, who must comply with NASCAR's four-cars-only limit by the end of 2009, has been accused by rival car owners of circumventing the car cap by creating what is essentially a seven-car team.

Regardless, the Yates branch needed a lot of work to undo the damage created when the growing sport so quickly passed them by.

By chipping away at it, Gilliland and Kvapil have combined for five top 10s this season. Kvapil is 18th in the points with a revolving door of temporary sponsorship and Gilliland is 21st with limited help from freecreditreport.com.

Both are higher in the standings then big-budgeted drivers Kurt Busch, Casey Mears and even Sadler, who has only notched six top 10s since leaving Yates with 14 races left in the 2006 season.

Gilliland showed Sunday that his team can indeed run up front, and maybe even challenge for wins.

Granted, his showing came at a familiar place. The California native won in the NASCAR West Series race at Infineon last year and the NASCAR Southwest Series in 2004. He made his Cup Series debut on the road course in 2006.

And he'd been to the track dozens of times as a child, watching his father Butch race in what is now known as the Camping World West series. Gilliland served as his father's crew chief when Butch won that series title in 1997.

"My dad has won here four times, and the first time I ever road raced I came here," said Gilliland. "I had never road raced or nothing, and I qualified fourth. We broke a transmission then, but I just always came here with the attitude that if my dad could do it, I guess I can do it. I've never really taken any lessons on road racing. I'm just kind of at home here. It's been good. It's been a great race track for us."

So good that Gilliland was praised by four-time series champion Jeff Gordon, who finished third and had a front-row seat to watch Gilliland's closing laps and his bid to catch eventual winner Kyle Busch.

"There at the end, he was definitely impressive," said Gordon, a five-time Infineon winner. "He was good on the restarts. He would get in there, and I thought he was going to have something for Kyle there at the end. I think actually if all the (track cleaner) hadn't been on the racetrack, he might have.

"But David really impressed me. I was happy for him."

Now Gilliland needs to build some momentum as he and Kvapil continue their efforts to make Yates a legitimate contender. Both cars still need sponsorship, and runs such as the one Sunday at Sonoma -- Kvapil started 41st and finished 22nd -- could help.

"We're in a sponsor search right now for a full-time deal, so hopefully this will help. We're just excited about it," Gilliland said. "This should help us build some momentum. We're going to use this; we're going to build this up.

"I'm just really proud, most of all, of Yates Racing and where we've come as a team -- Travis and I both -- in the six months from where we ended the year last year. Yates Racing is definitely coming back, and I'm proud to be a part of it."


Yates, Cull to return behind Crunch’s bench in 2008-09
Wheldon steps out of car, onto field
Kyle Busch wins in Sonoma for fifth Cup victory
Carter wins ARCA RE/MAX Series event

Kyle Busch wins in Sonoma for fifth Cup victory

SONOMA, Calif. (AP) -- The swagger had vanished, and the cocky confidence went with it. A two-week slump sent Kyle Busch spiraling into crankiness despite his hold atop the points standings.

With a win Sunday at Infineon Raceway, his mood instantly lifted.
Busch snapped his mini-slump by racing to his first Sprint Cup Series win on a road course with a Toyota that was so bad during practice he was certain he'd wreck. Instead, he made his series-high fifth visit to Victory Lane this season.

"I'm not happy unless I am winning, to be honest. I am a miserable person," he said. "But it means a lot to be able to run well and win. I'm a moody person, I guess. All of us drivers are when we're not having a good day. But when you have a good day and win races, it's kind of "Sun's up.' "

Busch, who had a poor qualifying run and started 30th, steadily moved through the field and grabbed the lead away from defending race winner Juan Pablo Montoya on an early restart. Nobody came close to taking the lead from him the rest of the way, but he did have to hold off a pair of challenges on two late restarts.

It was Busch's 11th overall victory this season spanning all three of NASCAR's top series. It also was his second road course victory of the year, following a Nationwide Series win in Mexico City in April.

Busch celebrated with his traditional smoky burnout, then climbed from his car for his customary bow to the crowd. For once, the fans were cheering the driver they so famously love to hate.

"I am really impressed with Kyle," said third-place finisher Jeff Gordon, his former teammate. "I've been around him, and I didn't think he's a really good road racer. So I think you've got to give that guy a lot of credit for his talent. To be able to get their car up front and maintain the position ... I would not have bet on that.

"Obviously, he's maturing and learning and that's what it's going to take for him to maintain that points lead."

Busch and his Joe Gibbs Racing crew had to wrestle with his Toyota to make it comfortable for Busch. The team made a slew of changes following Friday and Saturday's practice sessions, but Busch still wasn't pleased as the start of the race approached.

"I'm not a very happy person right now," he said as he walked into the pre-race driver meeting.

That obviously changed as he charged through the field, settling down enough to inquire while leading what kind of food there would be on the plane ride home.

"We unloaded here and we were absolutely junk," Busch said. "When we were here Friday, I just thought it was going to be a dismal weekend and I was wondering what tire barrier we were going to put it in. It was a bad feeling, but these guys worked so hard.

"It's just phenomenal that we're able to be here in Victory Lane -- never before on a road course, in the Cup Series, so this is definitely really, really special. We came a long ways with this thing."

It was the remedy Busch needed after a frustrating two weeks. He won earlier this month at Dover, then embarked on his historic "triple" of three races at three different tracks in three days.

Although he finished second in the Truck Series race, the first leg of his journey, he wrecked his Cup car in practice the next day before jetting off to the Nationwide Series race. He wrecked in that event and finished 32nd, then wrecked in the Cup race and finished 43rd.

He wrecked in last week's Nationwide race, as well, and decided after not to hop all over the country this weekend to compete in the lower series' events in Milwaukee.

Team president J.D. Gibbs said all that extra racing didn't contribute to the slump.

"He can go run long and hard, he's still young and strong," Gibbs said of the 23-year-old.

David Gilliland finished a career-best second and was followed by Gordon, Clint Bowyer and Casey Mears. Montoya was sixth, followed by Ryan Newman, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart.

The race was fairly clean until the closing laps.

David Reuitmann brought out a late caution when a flat tire caused him to run off course and into a wall of tires. That set up a restart with six laps to go, and Tony Stewart quickly passed Jamie McMurray for second. But a spin by Kevin Harvick as they entered Turn 4 started a chain-reaction crash that took Stewart out of contention for challenging his teammate for the win.

"I haven't seen it, so it's not fair to comment on that," Stewart said.

It set up a final restart with three laps to go and Gilliland and Gordon lined up behind Busch. He pulled out to another insurmountable lead, but a wreck between Scott Pruett and Denny Hamlin brought out a red-flag so NASCAR could clean the track. The stoppage lasted 12 minutes, forcing Busch to sit idle and think about the impending three-lap sprint to the finish.

Busch once again moved out to a large lead, and the only real races for position were back in the pack. Montoya jockeyed for position with Mears and Elliott Sadler, while Kenseth, Edwards and Dale Earnhardt Jr. mounted their own battle.

Montoya moved through the field early and took the lead until Busch grabbed it from him. But Montoya was spun by Marcos Ambrose while running second, and the contact dropped the Colombian to 14th.

Ambrose was later spun by Sadler, and the contact came as he was shifting -- causing him to break his gearbox. Ambrose, who was running fifth in his Sprint Cup Series debut, wound up 42nd.


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Benson wins third straight at Milwaukee

WEST ALLIS, Wis. (AP) -- After weathering a brief delay for lightning, Johnny Benson bolted away to win the NASCAR Craftsman Truck series race at the Milwaukee Mile on Friday night.

It was the third straight truck series victory at the track for Benson, who held onto his lead in the series points standings.
"Man, this is just way cool," Benson said. "I can not believe we've won three in a row here."

It was the 10th career victory for Benson, who is leading the series points standings for the first time in his career. Benson leaves Milwaukee with a 50-point lead over Todd Bodine.

"Man, everything's just going well," crew chief Trip Bruce said in a television interview after the race. "We have a lot of fun together."

Rick Crawford was leading the race when officials issued a caution flag for drizzling rain. All the leaders decided to pit, and Benson came out first. The race then was red-flagged and the grandstands were evacuated because of lightning in the area on lap 150.

Benson thanked the fans for staying to watch the end of the race.

"That lightning was unbelievable," Benson said.

After a delay of just over 25 minutes and a few laps under caution, the race resumed with 46 laps to go and Benson in the lead, followed by Matt Crafton and Landon Cassill. But neither could challenge Benson's Toyota the rest of the way.

Crafton finished second and Cassill finished third, both driving Chevrolets.

Benson came into the race as the favorite after winning the last two truck races at the track and taking the pole in qualifying earlier Friday.

Benson ran away with the lead early on. But he lost the lead to Erik Darnell -- the winner last week in Michigan by 0.005 seconds over Benson -- on a re-start 84 laps into the race, then nearly was collected in a multi-truck melee at the race's halfway point.

Darnell finished fourth and wasn't thrilled with his truck's handling.

"I just don't think we kept up with the track the way we needed to," Darnell said.

Benson was running third when Jack Sprague tried to duck inside of him in Turn 4. Benson refused to yield the spot, forcing Sprague to slow down slightly. Brendan Gaughan tapped Sprague's back bumper, causing Sprague to spin in the middle of the frontstretch and collecting a total of eight trucks in the accident.

Crawford then took the lead from Darnell on lap 117, only to lose it in the pits during the caution for rain. Crawford then was penalized for breaking the pit road speed limit and was sent to the back of the pack when the race re-started. Crawford finished eighth.

"(Crawford) was awesome," Benson said. "I hate that he had his deal on pit road there."


Trucks: Crafton survives wild finish for first win
IceHogs edge Aeros to take 3-1 series lead

Edwards shoves Bowyer aside for Milwaukee win

WEST ALLIS, Wis. (AP) -- Carl Edwards decided not to do his trademark backflip in victory lane Saturday night, choosing a more subdued celebration because of drag racer Scott Kalitta's death earlier in the day.

Edwards also said the fact that he wasn't proud of the way he shoved Clint Bowyer aside to win the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at the Milwaukee Mile contributed to his somber mood.
"Today, what happened to Mr. Kalitta, and the way I passed Clint, I just didn't feel like doing a backflip," Edwards said.

While the sentiment honoring Kalitta seemed sincere, Bowyer wasn't exactly buying Edwards' expression of remorse for the move that ended up winning the race.

Asked if it mattered that Edwards expressed remorse, Bowyer's brooding, silent stare said it all: Yeah, right.

"We got up to where we needed to be, and unfortunately it got taken from us," Bowyer said.

Bowyer made a vague promise of payback, and could get his chance almost immediately: The two drivers were scheduled to fly back to California immediately for Sunday's Sprint Cup series race.

"As long as Clint's not too mad and we don't have to race around him, we'll be all right," Edwards said.

Edwards knocked Bowyer sideways with 25 laps to go, then held off young lion Joey Logano for his first Nationwide victory of the season after dominating the series last year. Edwards is having an outstanding season in the Sprint Cup series, but hadn't won in Nationwide since a race at Nashville last June.

Edwards' victory also was an immediate payoff for a crew chief swap the Roush Fenway team made this week, moving Drew Blickensderfer to Edwards' team and Pierre Kuettel to its No. 17 car. Edwards won the series championship with Kuettel last year.

Blickensderfer said he and Edwards talked more on the radio during Saturday's race than they ever had before the swap.

"I've been calling him 'Drew' all week because I didn't want to mess up his name," Edwards said.

Edwards wasn't the only driver to draw scrutiny for less-than-tactful driving tactics Saturday, as Logano's earlier run-in with Brad Keselowski might have been a sign of things to come from the 18-year-old Joe Gibbs Racing ace.

Logano, who became the youngest winner in series history at Kentucky Speedway last weekend, went fender-to-fender with Keselowski to take the lead with 79 laps to go. Logano ended up in the lead, and Keselowski ended up with a bent fender and an eighth-place finish.

"I'd say it was my fault, for sure," Logano said. "Obviously."

Logano appeared to be in position to score remarkable back-to-back wins after the aggressive move, but he was shuffled back to fourth on the final round of pit stops to set up a showdown between Bowyer and Edwards.

Bowyer slipped past Edwards to take the lead with 39 laps to go. But Edwards got Bowyer back after another restart, getting underneath him in Turn 2 and knocking him sideways to take the lead with 25 to go.

Bowyer recovered but slipped to third as Logano drove past him. Logano went on to finish second and seemed disappointed about it.

"I'd like to be in victory lane again, but I guess we'll have to take it," Logano said.

Keselowski dominated the first half of the race and appeared to be on his way to his second victory in the space of three weeks.

But after a restart with 82 laps to go, Logano went side-by-side with Keselowski for several laps before diving underneath him in Turns 3 and 4, wiggling slightly, then sliding up into Keselowski's fender.

Logano went to the lead, and Keselowski went backward. He is second in the series points standings, trailing Bowyer by 188.

After winning the pole earlier Saturday, he hoped to continue a recent run of success for owner Dale Earnhardt Jr., whose JR Motorsports team has been thriving since partnering with team owner Rick Hendrick, Earnhardt's boss in the Sprint Cup series.


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Gordon looks to celebrate 1st win of '08 at Sonoma

SONOMA, Calif. (AP) -- NASCAR's annual trip to Sonoma has always been a celebration for Jeff Gordon. Surrounded by family and friends, he enjoys some fine wine, a game or two of croquet and his many personal milestones.

Two years ago he threw an engagement party here, and last year he celebrated the birth of his first child. The party this trip is daughter Ella's first birthday, planned for after the garage closes Saturday at Infineon Raceway.
But if Gordon has it his way, the celebration will stretch to Victory Lane on Sunday with his first win of the year. He had already scored four of his six 2007 victories by this point last season, but the four-time Cup Series champion has struggled to duplicate those efforts this year.

He said he's "not yet" frustrated by this winless streak. Instead, his aggravation is directed at the ups and downs his Hendrick Motorsports team is experiencing.

"I'm more frustrated that we're not more competitive," Gordon said. "To me, you can be the fastest car out there and not get wins. So that's not really bothering me. What's bothering me is that we're hit or miss. We've put some top-fives together -- some of them we earned, some of them we earned by strategy.

"We didn't go out there and really perform well enough to get those and that's where I feel like we really want to be -- really getting the performance of our car."

Gordon was a model of consistency last season, racking up a NASCAR record 30 top-10 finishes in the 36 points races. He built a lead of more than 300 points on the competition during the "regular season," then staged an epic battle with teammate Jimmie Johnson for the championship before finally settling for second in what will go down as one of the greatest seasons of his career.

So why has his performance fallen so far off? He does have six top-fives through the first 15 races, but those finishes are pocked by days like Pocono and Michigan, where he was an uncharacteristic 14th and 18th.

Gordon points to the full-time use of the Car of Tomorrow as one of the issues plaguing the No. 24 team. Hendrick Motorsports was better than every other team last season in managing the back-and-forth swapping of the new and old cars, and maybe this year other teams have simply caught up because there's only one car to focus on.

"We weren't on mile-and-a-half tracks with this car. We had the old car and we had the old car dialed in. We had this car dialed in for the tracks we were going to. And it was really that we had it more dialed in than our competitors," Gordon said. "Our competitors went to work and they've gotten better. And we've got to step up.

"It's very easy to get behind. Our teammates have done a little bit better job of catching up than we have, and that's where I want us to get better."

Indeed, teammates Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. have each been to Victory Lane once this season. And while Gordon is ninth in the standings and in Chase contention, Earnhardt is third in the points and Johnson is fifth.

But Sonoma is Gordon's chance to shine. He's an exceptional road racer with nine career victories on NASCAR's two road courses. Five of those wins were here at Infineon, including three-straight from 1998 to 2000. He last won here in 2006, and has 11 top-10s in his 15 career starts.

As much as he'd like to duplicate his past success on Sunday, he won't make it a make-or-break race for his season.

"I don't want to put that kind of pressure on us to feel like we have to win here, and then if we don't it's our last opportunity or a failed weekend," he said. "I really just want to come in here and do what we know we're capable of doing and try not to make mistakes -- put the best car out there and go about it like we would any other time, whether we came in here with four or five wins or with no wins."

And no matter the outcome, this weekend will go down as a memorable one.

"This is a really special weekend," he said. "We always have a great time coming out here. I've put different events together with friends and family here for years and this year obviously, with (Ella's) birthday, it's just getting bigger and turning into a birthday party.

"And so it's going to be quite a bash. It'll be something she'll probably never remember, but something we will never forget."


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Kahne wins 2nd pole in 3 weeks

SONOMA, Calif. (AP) -- Kasey Kahne continued his recent hot streak Friday by winning the pole at Infineon Raceway for his best career starting position on a road course.

Kahne was the third driver to make his qualifying attempt and his lap around the twisting track at 92.153 mph was good enough to hold the top spot for the entire session. It was his second pole of the season, and second in three weeks.
It's Kahne's best start at a road course, bettering the second-place qualifying effort he made at Watkins Glen in 2006. His highest start in Sonoma was sixth that same season.

"To get the pole is always very difficult, especially at these tracks," Kahne said. "There's certain guys that seem like they are right there. We've been close here in the past, we've been close at Watkins Glen. So I felt I could make that one lap and come close to the pole and today we had a great Dodge and we were able to get it.

"I came in today thinking I had a good shot, but winning a pole at Infineon is tougher than it sounds."

Jimmie Johnson qualified second with a lap at 92.040 and Kurt Busch was third with a lap at 92.005.

Kahne has been on an incredible run since winning the All-Star race last month, backing it up with victories in the Coca-Cola 600 and two weeks ago at Pocono. He was second last week in Michigan.

Bobby Labonte qualified fourth and was followed by five-time Infineon winner Jeff Gordon, Elliott Sadler and Marcos Ambrose. Robby Gordon, Ryan Newman and Greg Biffle rounded out the top 10.

Defending race winner Juan Pablo Montoya qualified 21st and two-time Sonoma winner Tony Stewart was a season-worst 39th.

"I guarantee this is the worst we'll ever have started on a road course," Stewart said. "Right now it's going to be a long way to go."

Series points leader Kyle Busch needed two qualifying runs after his team failed to remove a strip of tape that was blocking air intake to his car on his first attempt. His second run earned him a season-worst 30th place position.

Failing to make the race were J.J. Yeley, Scott Riggs, Dario Franchitti and Brandon Ash.

Of the many road-racing "ringers" in the field, Boris Said was the best qualifier at 14th. Ron Fellows was 22nd in a one-week fill-in ride for Regan Smith at Dale Earnhardt Inc.

Scott Pruett, a replacement for Reed Sorenson at Chip Ganassi Racing, was 27th and Max Papis, who is filling at Haas-CNC Racing this week, was 28th. Brian Simo also made the race with the 41st starting position.


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Earnhardt didn't leave his heart in San Fran

SONOMA, Calif. (AP) -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. is most definitely not on the list of drivers who love NASCAR's annual visit to wine country.

Earnhardt couldn't think of a worse track than Infineon Raceway to visit a week after winning his first race.
"Never liked coming here," he said. "Don't like the track. It's not a fun track to compete on. It's fun to go around it and goof off and raise a little bit of hell, but I don't like being in competition on it."

Earnhardt's dislike for Infineon is probably based on past results. He's never been successful on the road course, failing to notch a single top 10 in eight previous starts. His best finish was 11th, twice, and he's only led a lap in one race here.

He blames his past failures on the track.

"It's impossible to pass. Where do you pass? There's a couple braking zones, but that's about it," he said. "You just wait on people to screw up."

So it's not exactly the place Earnhardt wanted to celebrate after snapping his 76-race winless streak last Sunday in Michigan. In addition to his on-track struggles, Earnhardt was badly burned in a fire when he crashed here practicing for a sports car race in 2004.

It's left him with an overall disdain and a seemingly defeated attitude the moment he arrives. He'll start 15th on Sunday.

"I'm gonna screw up," he said. "Trust me, I'll screw it up. I'm not very good at road racing, so we just try to do the best we can. I'm just trying to get through the weekend."

------

THANKS FOR THE HELP: As a master road course racer, Boris Said is often called on to help NASCAR's full-time drivers prepare for the two road course events on the annual schedule.

The list of drivers he's helped in Sunday's race is at 18, including pole-sitter Kasey Kahne.

"I enjoyed working with him," Kahne said. "He taught me a lot of things and taught me how to go faster. We rode a two-seater together -- he rode with me and I rode with him. I watched him and then he picked my stuff apart, what I was doing good and what I was doing bad. You can learn a lot from a guy like that."

Said focuses on showing drivers how to brake and adapt to a different style of racing.

"You show them the difference between oval racing and road-course racing, it's a different braking technique, and, really, they're not used to going so slow into a corner," he said. "In my opinion, these guys are the best drivers in the world. They have a lot of car control, so if you show them a few things, it's like showing a duck water -- they know how to swim."

Now Said, who races for the No Fear Racing team, is working on running with them full-time. He's got an eight-race schedule planned for this year, including Sunday's race. He'll start 14th.

"Our goal is to be a full-time team," he said. "I won't be happy until we're doing that, whether I'm the driver or somebody else is the driver. But I feel like the team we've put together, how competitive we are, every time we show up at the track, we're better than a lot of full-time teams.

"We have four full-time employees, that's it. We've got a relationship with Roush Fenway and Ford and I think we have the makings to be a really good full-time team."

Next up for Said is next month's race at Daytona, where he won the pole and finished fourth two years ago in his part-time ride.

"I'm looking at going back to Daytona and try to relive the magic," he said. "That was my 10 minutes of fame, so to speak, because no one ever expected it on an oval."

------

POINTS RACING PRUETT: Road-racing ace Scott Pruett will be behind the wheel Sunday when he drives for Reed Sorenson at Infineon Raceway.

But for as much as Pruett would like to score his first Sprint Cup Series victory, his focus is on earning enough points to solidify the No. 41 Dodge's place inside the top 35.

Sorenson has the car 32nd in the standings, just 22 points ahead of 35th-place driver Michael McDowell. Because of that precarious position, team owner Chip Ganassi tabbed Pruett to drive earlier this week.

"I'm here for points," Pruett said. "I'm here to get every point I can. I'm not going to be a superstar and try and make big moves and take chances with the car. I'm going to go out, run hard, run smart and get every point that I can for the team."

Pruett is a two-time Grand Am Series champion, and will have to dial it down a bit Sunday to conserve the car. It's not exactly in his nature, and he knows Ganassi might have to coax him at times during the race.

"It goes against the creed of any race car driver (to not be aggressive)," he said. "Chip will be on the radio telling me, "It's all about points, it's all about points,' ... he'll be a good reminder of where to stay focused."

Pruett wasn't at the track Saturday -- he had to travel to Mid-Ohio for the Grand-Am race, so Sorenson drove the car in the final practice session.


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Sonoma-Milwaukee double jogs Edwards' memory

WEST ALLIS, Wis. (AP) -- Carl Edwards might be the most buff driver in NASCAR. But when it comes to running in front of television cameras, even he realizes there are limits.

"People don't understand, it's hard to run and look cool," Edwards joked during a recent test session at the Milwaukee Mile, the site of his sprint to the green flag last year. "Because you know all the cameras are on, and they're all watching you."
He hopes he won't have to do the same thing this weekend, as he again scrambles from Sprint Cup series practice in Sonoma, Calif., to make the start of the Nationwide series race Milwaukee Saturday night.

Edwards was a man in motion for the start of last year's race. After practice in Sonoma, he boarded a private plane bound for Wisconsin and immediately began prodding his pilot to go faster so he could make the start in Milwaukee. But they had to stop for gas, and that's when things got hectic.

"I was wearing the pilot out so bad to hurry that we stopped for fuel, and he told them to put the minimum amount of fuel on because I was wearing him out so much," Edwards said. "And we didn't put enough fuel on, so we had to stop again."

Edwards finally arrived in Milwaukee with minutes to spare, and ended up sprinting through the garage to make it to his car in time for the start.

Oh, he tried to make it look like he was having fun, smiling and waving as he chugged toward his car. But he now admits he was pulling a fast one.

"I hope I don't have to do that again this year," Edwards said. "I was about to die."

But Edwards' run was nothing compared to the saga of fellow Cup driver Denny Hamlin that day, making Milwaukee one of the more bizarre race of the season.

Hamlin also was a late arrival from Cup practice in California, and his helicopter couldn't land at the track because there were cars parked on the helipad. Hamlin was denied permission to land on the track itself, and the race started without him.

Aric Almirola started the race in Hamlin's place and appeared to have a chance at a victory when Hamlin finally arrived. The team ordered Almirola to pull over and let Hamlin take the wheel.

Almirola walked away sulking, and Hamlin went on to take the checkered flag -- even though NASCAR credited Almirola with the victory because he started the race.

Hamlin isn't trying to pull California-Wisconsin double duty again this year, but Edwards, Clint Bowyer, David Reutimann, David Ragan and Marcos Ambrose are expected to run both races.

"To be able to go from Sonoma and come to Milwaukee to race on Saturday night, it's been one of the most adventurous weekends of the year for the last three years, and we have fun with it," Edwards said. "And to me, to be able to win a race here would be spectacular."

But as much success as Edwards has had in the Cup series this year -- he's fourth in the points and has won three races -- he has yet to find victory lane in the series he dominated last season.

"Our season so far on the Sprint Cup side has been great," Edwards said. "We've never started a season this well. We've got three wins, I feel like we've got a car that can win every week. The Nationwide side has been terrible. We're not as competitive as we need to be. We're working really hard at it, though."

Roush Fenway Racing made an abrupt crew chief swap this week, moving Drew Blickensderfer to Edwards' team and Pierre Kuettel to its No. 17 car. Edwards won the series championship with Kuettel last year.

But Edwards said recently his team's disappointing performance in Nationwide this year was mostly related to engines.

"That's the biggest thing that's hurting us," he said. "And we've got to work on that. And I've talked to (engine builder) Doug Yates, and they're doing everything they can."


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Ganassi teams dominating 2 open-wheel series

Even Chip Ganassi is awed by the way his IndyCar and Grand-Am teams have started the season.

"It is nothing short of phenomenal," the team owner said last week in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
Between the two open-wheel circuits, his teams have won eight of 12 races in 2008, including the Daytona 24-hours sports car race -- for an unprecedented third straight time -- and the Indianapolis 500. Both the IndyCar team, with Indy winner Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon, and Grand-Am, with Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas, are leading their respective points standings.

"You can get lost in the numbers," Ganassi said. "It's interesting. Dixon's led 50 percent of all laps run this year, and the team has led 57 percent. The Grand-Am cars have led 33 percent of the laps. That's kind of cool."

It isn't the first time that a Ganassi team has shown this kind of dominance.

During his time in the now-defunct CART series, Ganassi's team steamrolled to an unprecedented four straight championships from 1996-99 with drivers Jimmy Vasser, Alex Zanardi, twice, and Juan Pablo Montoya, who also gave the owner an Indy 500 win in 2000.

That powerhouse team did more than win races and championships, though. It also taught the Ganassi operation how to win races and championships.

"(Before that) our strategy was unproven," Ganassi said. "We were aimlessly hunting in the woods for a direction.

"I think, now, eight or so years later, it is more or less a coming together of some people that we've been trying to preach that (strategy) to, and they've all sort of come together at the same time."

Both of Ganassi's open-wheel programs are run out of his Indianapolis race shop, overseen by managing director Mike Hull.

Hull said the catalyst for this year's fast start by both teams was one of the biggest disappointments in Ganassi's racing history: Dixon losing the IndyCar Series championship when he ran out of fuel on the last lap of the 2007 season-finale at Chicagoland Speedway.

"A few days after Chicago ... we got together as a group, and a group means all the guys that work on the cars," Hull said. "They all decided to dedicate themselves to working in every area to improve our product.

"And I think that has a lot to do with the momentum that has been created since the very first race of the year, if not from the open tests at the beginning of the year. Our guys have always done an extremely good job of supporting each other, but I think they've taken that to another level with intensity and focus, and I think that's the reason."

That support extended to the Grand-Am sports car program, with everyone at the Indy shop pitching in to prepare the cars for the Daytona race in January.

Ganassi pointed out that the Grand-Am program, which began in 2004, was born because he and other team officials determined that the IndyCar team had little to do for part of the year in the days when its schedule ran only from April to September.

"You had a big gap there," Ganassi said. "We had a huge group of very, very talented people and they were sort of idle for a long time of the year. It's not that way today but, at the time, they were idle for a while."

Everyone pitched in to get ready for the 24-hour race, one of the most prestigious endurance events in the world.

"We thought it would be a great tuneup for the IndyCar season, and we found that we have some talented racing people who maybe they could learn some new tricks in a new series," Ganassi added. "We knew we could get the season started well, and it was just a question of could we compete on an annual basis for the championship there."

They have already won two Grand-Am titles and appear well on the way to a third.

The only glaring weakness in Ganassi's racing empire has been his NASCAR Sprint Cup team, which began competition in 2001 and has racked up only six of his 97 overall victories -- just one since 2002. Sterling Marlin was third in the Cup points in 2002, but that's the only top-10 finish for the team, which has yet to place a driver in NASCAR's four-year-old Chase for the championship.

Things haven't been any better this year, with no wins and Montoya, who left Formula One late in 2006 to drive for Ganassi's stock car team, the best of his three drivers at 22nd in the season standings.

But Ganassi has been around racing long enough to know things can turn around quickly.

"We feel like we are a better team than the standings indicate," he said. "We're able to do whatever it takes to get us better, and we expect to be running better.

"I can't help that guys get caught up in crashes, but, again, we have a strategy there," Ganassi added. "The simple thing would be to change the strategy, but we're staying with our strategy down there. We want people who want to work that strategy."

And Ganassi insists he always looks ahead, not behind.

"The point is that we're in the business to win races and win championships," he said. "The way you win championships is through consistent performances week in and week out. It's our job to build a team to have consistent performance, and race wins will come along and championships will come along with those race wins.

"It's about working with the people. The fun I get out of it is putting the group of people together and making it happen. ... I have a love for the sport, but I'm not so shallow to think that if I win one race or one championship I'm going to be satisfied with my racing career. Winning is certainly more fun than losing, but losing is part of winning."


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Drivers have to cope with 140-degree heat

BROOKLYN, Mich. (AP) -- The Car of Tomorrow is making life hotter for NASCAR's drivers today.
Heat-stricken drivers had just enough strength to rant about the topic earlier this month at the Pocono 500 and the conversation was a hot topic again last week at Michigan International Speedway.

"I heard someone make a comment, "They're race-car drivers, making millions of dollars. They're hot. Who cares?"' Jeff Burton said. "I guess that's a good point, but at the same time it's to the point of being ridiculous.

NASCAR technical director Steve Peterson said the new cars can get about 10 degrees hotter -- up to 140 degrees -- than previous models because exhaust exits on the right side instead of both sides.

"You could certainly cook eggs on it to say the least," Jimmie Johnson said. "With all the radiant heat from the tubes and the steel around you over the course of the race, you just can't get away from the heat."

Peterson insisted there are measures some teams are taking to improve conditions for their drivers such as adding insulation and adjusting the routing of air ducts and vents.

"Some teams are having success by doing those things and some teams are reluctant to add weight or alter the aerodynamics," Peterson said. "The different way teams are attacking the heat leads to us seeing one guy driving with a floor pan at 140 degrees and another guy at 100 in the same race.

"It's a difficult area for NASCAR to regulate. Some drivers say it's not a problem and others say it's a serious one, so obviously we want to help those guys."

Brian Vickers is among those asking for assistance.

"We're killing ourselves," he said. "We're going to the infield-care center off the races and that's ridiculous. NASCAR needs to step in and say we have to do something to cool these cars down and help us."

The Car of Tomorrow, a NASCAR-developed vehicle that spent seven years in development, was designed to improve safety, reduce team costs and improve competition. It makes several advancements in safety, with a larger driver's compartment, center-located seat and energy absorbing materials through the gut of the vehicle.

It also does something else.

"They are hotter than the old car -- by far," Denny Hamlin said.

Kasey Kahne credits the guys in the shop for coming up with ways to make things a little cooler, redirecting exhaust heat away from him and running hoses to blow air on his chest.

"I felt pretty good all day," he said at Pocono, the hottest race of the year.

NASCAR officials and drivers agree that if you try to beat the heat on the weekend, it's too late.

"I live every day like it's going to be Pocono tomorrow," said Mark Martin, whose 49-year-old body is so fit it would make most teenagers jealous. "In the old days, people thought you could have a bowl of pasta and a good night's sleep and you'd be ready. I never subscribed to that.

"It takes so long for your body to change. It takes a long-term commitment to get in top physical condition."

Martin said the new cars are hotter, but not significantly more than from the Cup cars he raced in the early 1980s.

Simply put, driving in extreme heat has always been an occupational hazard in NASCAR.

At Nashville in 1982, Darrell Waltrip's feet were so hot that his wife held cloth-covered ice packs against his burnt heels while he did interviews from his back. At Martinsville in 1998, Ricky Rudd had to be lifted out of his car because he was so stricken by the heat.

Technology, though, has helped drivers over the years by developing microfiber fabric that wicks away sweat and helmets that make hot air colder.

But cool suits have yet to win over NASCAR drivers.

"Cold water pumping around your body in tubes within another set of underwear sounds great," Peterson said. "But if the unit fails, you're adding eight to 18 pounds of weight to your body and the suit becomes a steam cooker."

Burton said what's daunting about beating the heat is it's only going to get hotter as NASCAR goes from coast to coast, down to Daytona and up to Indianapolis.

"The worst is yet to come," Burton said.


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