McMurray says he's staying with Roush Fenway

LONG POND, Pa. (AP) -- Jamie McMurray insists he's staying put with Roush Fenway Racing, even though people keep asking if he's on his way out.

Questions have popped up about his ride in 2009 in what has so far been a ho-hum 2008 for the driver of the No. 26 Ford. As he prepped Friday for this weekend's Pocono 500, McMurray denied a report earlier this week that he's looking for a new boss.
"Well, when all of it came up, we just all talked and I never asked to get out of my contract, and they never said that they were going to release me from my contract," McMurray said when asked if he's spoken with team owner Jack Roush or president Geoff Smith. "There was never any discussion of that."

So what are his plans for 2009?

"The same thing that I'm doing this year: the Crown Royal, No. 26, with Roush Fenway."

The hubbub got started after the Charlotte Observer reported that McMurray would not return to Roush next season, and that he's actively seeking other employment. He has been with Roush since 2006, when he moved over from Chip Ganassi.

McMurray said Friday that he hasn't put feelers out to other teams, and that he wasn't aware of other teams inquiring about him. He said that he's happy and not worried about 2009.

McMurray has more immediate concerns. He's 22nd entering Pocono, 10 spots behind the postseason cutoff. In 13 races, his best finish so far is eighth at Martinsville.

He said "bad luck and freaky things" hampered the No. 26 car the first month of the season, when McMurray didn't finish higher than 22nd. Things have gotten better of late, including a 10th-place finish last week at Dover.

"The thing about racing is that you run well for four weeks and everything's great," he said. "If you run bad for two, it seems like you need to go find somehwere else to drive."

Sponsor Crown Royal, the whisky company, gave McMurray a vote of confidence Friday afternoon.

"Jamie McMurray has been, and continues to be, a great ambassador for Crown Royal and our important efforts on responsible drinking. We look forward to continuing this work both on and off the track."

McMurray isn't the only Roush Fenway driver of late answering questions about the future.

Greg Biffle said there was no recent movement on his dragged-out contract talks, a week after the driver of the No. 16 Ford said a new deal with his current ride could be coming soon.

"I guess no news is good new right now," Biffle said. He added, though, that he was "pretty confident" that a new deal could be reached next week, when NASCAR heads to Michigan.

McMurray will start 22nd on Sunday, while Biffle will begin from the 33rd position.

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BOWYER'S FUTURE: The future also was a hot topic Friday with Clint Bowyer, though the driver of the No. 7 Chevy has received word that he'll be back with Richard Childress Racing through at least next year.

He said Friday that Childress has exercised the option he held on Bowyer's contract, and Bowyer is now working toward a long-term extension.

Asked later if he was happy about Childress picking up the option, Bowyer said, "Yeah, yeah." His No. 7 Chevy will start 35th on Sunday.

Bowyer, who has two Sprint Cup Series wins, isn't surprised that so many drivers' names are on the rumor mill this early in the season.

"Everybody wants to know where you're going to be. Sponsors are paying a lot of money to be able to know where they are going to be and they want to be there for a long time," Bowyer said. "It takes so long to get a team put in place -- get the right driver, the right crew chief -- all that stuff put in place. You need to get started early."

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TUNED-UP SPEED: Scott Speed likes to get into a groove before a race.

The former Formula One driver puts on his headphones and tunes his iPod to a techno track, specifically a style called of techno known as trance. "Before the race, I listen to a really cool trance beat and put myself somewhere else," Speed said. "I guess it's really kind of relaxing."

Whatever his routine, it's working. The ARCA rookie will start from the pole at Saturday's Pocono 200 after he turned a lap of 167.442 in qualifying Friday.

This comes a week after Speed won his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race, at Dover last weekend.

Given his recent fortunes, the phrase emblazoned on his blue T-shirt Friday seemed especially fitting: "God Speed."

"It would be a huge challenge if I could be successful doing this," Speed said, headphones dangling off his ears. "I'm basically starting a new racing career, like I'm starting from scratch."

There's a huge difference between Formula One and NASCAR in just ambiance alone. On his old circuit, he used to hang out at the casino in Monte Carlo or rub elbows with royalty at parties in Dubai.

NASCAR, though, attracts more of the ham-and-eggs set.

"You have no idea how many times in my life I said I would never race NASCAR," Speed said. "Never."

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FAMILY TIES: The ARCA rookie who will start 21st in the Pocono 200 has a last name familiar to Long Pond residents.

Chase Mattioli, 18, had a qualifying run of 158.242 on Friday, likely pleasing his grandparents, Drs. Joe and Rose Mattioli, who own Pocono Raceway.

Racing probably won't be a full-time job though for the younger Mattioli, at least initially. The honors student plans to attend Fordham University in the fall.

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CLOSE CALL: Greg Zipadelli and his wife planned the birth of their third child so he wouldn't be in danger of missing Sunday's race at Pocono Raceway. Even so, the couple pushed it pretty close when Gianni Gregory didn't arrive until late Wednesday evening.

Zipadelli was on a plane roughly 15 hours after the birth so he could attend to his job as Tony Stewart's crew chief.

"It was close," Zipadelli said. "We were supposed to go in Monday morning, and they called and said they would rather wait until Tuesday. Between Monday and Wednesday, they had 21 babies and they didn't have any beds. So we were packing our bags and they asked us if we could hold off another day and come in Wednesday morning.

"I was like 'This is not going to work out very well for us.' But, everything worked out and everybody is good. The baby is real healthy. It's just a shame I had to leave to come here."

Zipadelli said there was never any discussion of him missing Sunday's race to attend to wife, Nan, and the infant he's nicknamed "Meatball" during their brief meet-and-greet. And he said he received zero grief about it from his wife.

"That's part of life," he shrugged. "She's doing good. If there was any complications or any issues, it would be different. But everything went as smooth as it possibly could and Gianni is as healthy as can possibly be."

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AP Auto Racing Writer Jenna Fryer contributed to this report.


Biffle ready to hit Victory Lane
Trez: I’m staying put
Busch begins manic 3-race historic swing

Busch begins manic 3-race historic swing

LONG POND, Pa. (AP) -- Hiding behind his sunglasses on a cloudy day, Kyle Busch appeared totally relaxed as he prepared to make NASCAR history.

Busch set out Friday to become the first driver to race in all three of NASCAR's national series at three different tracks, a cross-country trifecta that started with practice and qualifying at Pocono Raceway before hustling off to Texas Motor Speedway for the Truck Series race.
Then he's scheduled to head back Pocono for another round of practice in his Sprint Cup car, a trip to Nashville on Saturday for the Nationwide Series race and finally back to Pocono for the Cup race on Sunday.

Asked if he was excited about the triple, or enticed by the opportunity to become the first driver to pull it off, Busch answered both "not really."

For Busch, it's all about the action and the chance to collect three different trophies.

"I just like to race, that's what it's all about," Busch said. "I don't need to test myself. I don't have anything to prove. I'm just out there trying to race races and win races."

So after qualifying his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 10th for Sunday's race, Busch raced off to a waiting helicopter to begin his trek to Texas. He anticipated arriving with 45 minutes to spare before climbing into Billy Ballew's truck for the start of that race.

While he downplayed his impending journey, the rest of the garage marveled at his efforts.

"I got to hand it to Kyle -- he loves driving the race cars and he's having a great season and winning a lot races," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. "If I was him, that would be a great motivator to keep doing it. But the logistics of a deal like this has got to be tough.

"I think it's says a lot about what kind of racer he is. He's pretty damn dedicated."

Plenty of drivers have raced at two different tracks on the same weekend, and a handful will do it Saturday when Clint Bowyer, Carl Edwards, Jason Leffler, David Ragan and David Reutimann travel to Nashville after Cup practice to run the Nationwide Series race. Even with their heavy load, some were envious of Busch's schedule -- which also included Wednesday night's run in Tony Stewart's charity race at Eldora Speedway.

"I'm jealous of Kyle this weekend," Edwards said. "He got to race Wednesday night. He's going to race Friday, Saturday and Sunday, pretty cool. That would be fun to do. Maybe I'll get with him and see how it went after this weekend. Maybe it's something to do for next year."

Busch's schedule didn't always include the Truck Series race, but was added once Ballew moved into contention for the owner's championship. He is currently fourth in the owner standings, just 33 points behind leader Tom Mitchell, who fields a truck for Rick Crawford.

Busch has put Ballew in contention, with four top-10s and 304 laps led in his six races. When he missed Kansas and Mansfield for scheduling conflicts, fill-in driver Shane Sieg finished 18th and 21st and didn't lead a lap.

So to keep Ballew, an original owner in the series, in the running for his first title, Busch agreed to race in Texas. Busch accepts no money for driving from Ballew and all his winnings are returned to the race team.

But in helping a friend again, Busch also opened himself to scrutiny if he doesn't run well Sunday in Pocono. He enters the race with a 142-point lead in the Cup standings.

"Not taking anything away from Kyle and what he's doing," said two-time series champion Jimmie Johnson. "He's doing something cool and neat. If he runs well he's going to look like a hero, if he runs bad, everyone is going to be on his butt."

The 23-year-old Busch has been on top of his game this season, racking up 10 wins across the three series. But fatigue could be a factor this weekend -- not from the actual racing, but the tedious travel between the tracks. He tried to catch up on sleep Thursday night, when he went to bed at 8 p.m. But he's on the move from here.

"The challenge of it all is probably just staying awake," Busch said. "Just not burning out and getting too tired. That's going to be a challenge. But if everything runs smoothly and everything goes perfect, then it should be pretty easy."


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Longtime team owner Penske still winning

Getting sprayed with victory champagne is an occupational hazard for Roger Penske.
Over the nearly 40 years that "The Captain" has fielded cars in just about every major professional racing series, the wins have sometimes come in bunches and sometimes been far apart. The result, however, is that Penske's teams have accumulated 300 victories.

The latest came Sunday at the Milwaukee Mile, where Ryan Briscoe earned his first IndyCar victory and proved once again that Penske knows driving talent when he sees it.

This is the same Ryan Briscoe who washed out after a season with Chip Ganassi Racing in 2005, a year that ended with a huge crash at Chicagoland Speedway that broke both his shoulder blades and put the Australian youngster into rehabilitation for several months.

A year ago, Penske hired Briscoe to race in the Indianapolis 500 for his son Jay's satellite team, and the driver finished fifth. Briscoe also did well enough driving for Penske's Porsche sports car team in the American Le Mans Series last season that he was the choice to fill the IndyCar seat when three-time IRL champion Sam Hornish Jr. moved to NASCAR.

"We saw him as a good driver," Penske said. "Chip had him earlier and he got himself into trouble, maybe without the experience and (because of) the bad accident. We had him come back, had a good physical with him and he passed everything we needed."

The Milwaukee win was the first for Penske IndyCar team since Hornish won last June in Texas. But that doesn't mean the silver-haired entrepreneur has forgotten how to get to Victory Lane.

Briscoe and co-driver Sascha Maassen won three times in ALMS in 2007; Ryan Newman gave Penske his first Daytona 500 in February; and Romain Dumas, Timo Bernhard and Emmanuel Collard combined to win the ALMS Sebring 12-Hour sports car race in March.

"You know, I think really it shows the amount of work that has been done by so many people on the team, so many good drivers, so many good pit crews, all the way back," Penske said. "I think about winning the first Trans-Am (race) and the first (of 14) at Indianapolis. It's pretty exciting."

Times haven't always been good in racing for the billionaire head of the 40,000-employee Penske Corporation.

After winning the Indy 500 in 1994 with Al Unser Jr., Penske's three-car team failed to qualify for the big race in 1995 -- perhaps the biggest failure in his racing career.

"That one still hurts," Penske admitted during a recent conversation. "That's the biggest race for us, and not to make it was very hard on everybody on our team."

That was just the beginning of several years of struggle for his open-wheel team, which was then racing in the CART series. The low point was 1999, when rookie Gonzalo Rodriguez was killed during practice at Laguna Seca raceway and budding star Greg Moore, who had signed to race for Penske in 2000, died in a crash at the season-finale in Fontana, Calif.

There have been more disappointments in NASCAR, where his team has accumulated 58 wins but has yet to win a championship.

Still, Penske has seen far more success than most team owners would ever dream about.

"Driving for Roger, or just working for him, is a privilege," said longtime driver and now team consultant Rick Mears. "He treats everybody the same and anybody who works for him knows he will give you the tools to win. And, as a driver, you know that you have a shot at winning just about every time you get on the track in a Team Penske car."

It's true that Penske's employees are loyal, both on his race team and in his vast corporation. Many have stayed with the company for decades.

"We have tried to pick the right people and we have a homogenous group of guys working together," Penske said. "To me, if Penske Racing wins a race, everybody wins in our company.

"One fact is that we attract sponsors that commit to us more than one year at a time, so we can make commitments to our team members and go out and really attract young people who maybe have a career ... in racing. We can help them build up through he team."

Penske pointed out some of the people holding to jobs on his race teams began their careers polishing wheels or driving the team trucks.

"The people within the company, they are loyal and we take care of them and we will do anything for them to support them in time of adversity," he noted.

And Penske and his employees are all likely to be celebrating more wins in the future.


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Kyle Busch set for historic cross-country triple

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Kyle Busch and his buddies had big plans last year at Darlington Raceway, where they took a rare race off to grill out and enjoy some downtime.
The cookout was ruined two laps into the Nationwide Series race when Busch and Jeff Dickerson, his agent, spotter and most trusted confidant, realized they'd rather be racing.

"It drove us crazy not being in the race," Busch said. "We were sitting there on a Friday night with cars on the track and we couldn't figure out why the heck we were just sitting there."

And so began Dickerson's relentless quest to fill Busch's schedule with as many races as possible. The journey hits historic levels this weekend, when Busch becomes the first driver in NASCAR history to attempt all three national series on one weekend at three different tracks.

The itinerary calls for Busch to practice and qualify his Sprint Cup Series car in Pocono Raceway on Friday, then jet off to Texas Motor Speedway for Friday night's Truck Series race. It's back to Pocono after the race so Busch can practice in his car on Saturday morning before hustling to the Nationwide Series event in Nashville.

Then it's back to Pocono, where Busch will attempt on Sunday to widen his lead in the Sprint Cup standings.

Dickerson, who will make the manic journey with Busch and spot all three events, insists this is not a publicity stunt for NASCAR's newest superstar.

"It's just in your blood. You're either a racer or you're not," Dickerson said. "If they line up some cars, put people in the grandstands and give out a trophy, then someone is going to get their picture taken with a pretty girl. It doesn't matter if it's Friday, Saturday or Sunday -- we want to get a trophy, and we want a picture taken with a pretty girl."

With 10 wins spanning NASCAR's top three series this year, the duo is well on the way to filling a 2008 photo album. Busch has scored a series-best four Cup victories, four Nationwide wins and two in the Truck Series.

He's got a cozy 142-point lead in the Cup Series, is second in the Nationwide standings and, after initially leading the Truck standings, he's missed two of eight races and dropped to 16th.

Although there's been talk of racing for all three championships, conflicts with the Truck and Nationwide schedules make it impossible for Busch to race all three series the rest of the season and he is prepared to concede the driver title in the Truck Series.

So why even attempt this exhausting cross-country trifecta?

For Busch, it's about both his love of racing and a loyalty to truck team owner Billy Ballew.

"It's not about merchandise sales, or fan club members or Q-ratings -- he's not jaded enough to think of things like that yet," Dickerson said of the 23-year-old phenom. "It's just about winning races. Every driver says it, but I don't think every fan believes them. With Kyle there is no doubt.

"Love him or hate him, every person in that grandstand knows that Kyle is there for one reason, and it's to win that race."

And that's why Busch is going to Texas, where he feels he's the best option to keep Ballew in contention for the Truck Series owners' championship. Ballew is currently fourth in the owner standings, just 33 points behind the truck that owner Tom Mitchell fields for Rick Crawford.

Busch has put Ballew in contention, with four top-10s and 304 laps led in his six races. When he missed Kansas and Mansfield for scheduling conflicts, fill-in driver Shane Sieg finished 18th and 21st and didn't lead a lap.

"I want to keep Billy up front, and no one else can do it," Busch said. "I think it's cool that as long as he's been in the sport, he's finally got a chance to win a championship and I want to help him keep that alive."

Busch accepts no money for driving from Ballew, an original owner from the inaugural 1995 truck season, and all his winnings are returned to the race team. He and Dickerson also brought NOS Energy Drink to Ballew this season as a sponsorship partner.

"He's been around so long, and he's never had a full-time driver capable of winning him a championship," Busch said. "I'd like to be the one to do it for him."

Loyalty aside, the Cup Series remains Busch's priority. Should there be delays in Pocono, Busch will remain with his Joe Gibbs Racing team until its work is finished. So long as the No. 18 Toyota remains his top focus and that effort doesn't suffer, the team has no issues with Busch's hectic schedule.

"I think it's a concern for us if you watch him and he gets tired, or physically run down," said team president J.D. Gibbs. "I think where Kyle is right now, being 23, he can run pretty hard."

So JGR officials don't stand in Busch's way of filling his schedule, and this triple effort isn't the only stunt he's got planned for this season. Eddie D'Hondt recently approached Dickerson about his fledgling race team, wondering if Busch might be interested in running the Nationwide Series race at Watkins Glen in August.

In what Dickerson calls "the dumbest idea in racing," Busch agreed to pilot the car if Dickerson is the crew chief and fellow driver David Stremme is the race engineer.

"We're going to have some fun with it, make Stremme dress up like an engineer and I'll act like I know everything -- which every crew chief I've worked with will attest to -- and we'll go try and win a race," Dickerson said. "As good a road racer as Kyle is, I expect to be in Victory Lane by the end of the day."

And in the end, that's the only place Busch really wants to be.

"I don't have a family of my own that I have to focus on or be with all the time, and racing is what's in my blood," Busch said. "I want to race every day, all day, every minute. I want to be in a car, by myself, because that's where I am happiest."


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Indy 500 winner Dixon gets special workout

Indianapolis 500 champion Scott Dixon spent time earlier this week testing his athletic skills against the results of some of the best in other professional sports during a visit to the Michael Johnson Performance Center in McKinney, Texas.

Dixon, a fitness enthusiast and triathlete, visited the center's Nike SST Lab -- one of two in the world -- and took part in an abbreviated, 90-minute session of SPARQ training, which stands for Speed, Power, Agility, Reaction and Quickness. It was the first visit to the sports lab for a race car driver.
"It was very interesting in there," said Dixon, who will compete Saturday night in the IndyCar Series race at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. "It's definitely a big difference from what I normally do, and to get the side of analyzing things has been big.

"I think, most of the time, as has been said today, you're always working on endurance and not so much your technique, I think that it's good to see it from a different point of view."

After completing the tests in the lab, Dixon moved to exercises that tested his strength and mobility. After several warm-ups with Lance Walker, director of sports performance and training at the center, Dixon tried his hand at sprints and movements designed to enhance his upper body mobility.

"He is definitely an elite athlete," Walker said. "We found some holes where there are opportunities for him to become more efficient. But he picks up and learns things really quickly, and that's always a sign of a true athlete. I wish I could work with him on a regular basis."

Dixon said the experience was very worthwhile.

"I think this will definitely help my training away from racing and maybe for my triathlon and things like that," the 27-year-old New Zealander said. "I think, overall, if you can improve yourself in any area it's going to help you, with my racing, with anything."

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GREAT START: So far, Joey Logano has lived up to the hype.

The 18-year-old driver made his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut last Saturday at Dover and finished sixth, overcoming an accident on pit road that put him into a deep hole early in the race.

Now the much-heralded Joe Gibbs Racing driver is hoping to back up that performance with a strong showing this weekend at Nashville, again driving the No. 20 JGR Toyota.

"I'm really excited to get Dover behind me and I'm really looking forward to the rest of these races. ... I'm hoping this weekend I can start working on the chemistry between myself, (crew chief) Dave (Rogers) and the rest of the team guys," Logano said. "This weekend will be much quieter and I'm looking forward to being able to just go out and race."

Dover was a new track for the youngster from Connecticut, but he has tested numerous times for JGR at Nashville.

"I think it will be a strong race for us since (teammate) Kyle (Busch) ran well there in March in the 20 car and it's a place that I've had a lot of laps at, even though it's been in a Cup car and not a Nationwide Series car."

Logano, who had to wait until he turned 18 late last month before driving in any of NASCAR's top three professional series, said he isn't setting any goals for this year.

"We go out to win every race and I'm not the person who sits down and says, 'I want so many wins, so many top-fives, so many top-10s,"' he explained. "I don't think you can look at my season and say that you want specific finishes, especially coming into something cold turkey like I am -- not knowing where I'm going to stack up. It's kind of tough to set goals on that."

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WOMAN'S WORLD: It seems that every week another woman finds her way to the winner's circle in the NHRA Powerade Series.

Last weekend in Topeka, Kan., it was Hillary Will joining previous 2008 event winners Ashley Force and Melanie Troxel. Will won in Top Fuel, beating No. 1 qualifier Larry Dixon for her first career win by making a run of 4.744 seconds with a top speed of 304.53 mph. She became the 11th woman in NHRA history to win a national event.

The feeling was all new to Will.

"I never imagined I would make it this far," she said. "The first car I raced was 99 miles an hour. It ran the quarter mile in 15 seconds. I didn't think much of, 'Oh, I'm a girl, the only girl racer out here.' I didn't even realize that I was different.

"I'm thankful that there's been women racers before me who kind of paved the way. Maybe that's a big reason why my dad even brought me to the race track in the first place, is because he saw there were women succeeding in motorsports."

Being a woman in a man's game is nothing new to Will. It was the same way when she was making her living as a financial analyst.

"There were times when I was the only woman sitting at a table full of suits," she said. "That was tough. I know I feel a lot more comfortable in the drag racing world than I did in the business world. I know there are still women out there in business, women in politics, still struggling in those male-dominated fields.

"We just have to stay at it and be determined. If it's what we love to do, then women can succeed in male-dominated fields, too."


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Mears seeks shot at consistency at Hendrick

DOVER, Del. (AP) -- Junior, Jimmie and Jeff.

The three J's of Hendrick Motorsports boast the titles, fan support, endorsements and marquee wins most other drivers would envy. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon are respected in the garage, largely beloved off the track, and arguably turned Hendrick into NASCAR's most decorated and dominant team.
Then there's Casey Mears.

Winner of one career Sprint Cup race.

Not even close to the top-12 in points or making a run at the Chase.

Often viewed as the weakest link in the Hendrick powerhouse.

While Johnson (twice) and Gordon (four times) are both Cup champions, and Earnhardt is the most popular driver in NASCAR, Mears has failed to come close to matching the talented trio in popularity or performance. He's jumped teams, been shuffled around cars and assigned new crew chiefs, but the changes haven't helped Mears find any kind of regular success in a six-year Cup career.

"All those guys have had a lot of success over the years and deserve all the recognition," Mears said. "For myself and the team to get on that same recognition level, you have to go out and win races. That's the way the sport works. We've got to step up, start making things happen and we'll get the same recognition."

A little more than a year ago, Mears appeared on the brink of turning his career around. He raced to victory at the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend, on the same day once synonymous with Mears greatness. His uncle Rick Mears is the four-time Indianapolis 500 champion, and the relatives shared an emotional conversation after Casey Mears finally burst through into Victory Lane.

The milestone victory, though, did little to spark Mears' season. He finished 15th in the points and was the only Hendrick driver who failed to make the Chase for the championship.

Mears also had to deal with the rumors that he might be on his way out at Hendrick to make room for Junior. Instead, it was Kyle Busch who got the boot. Busch has been sensational and the top Cup driver in his first season at Joe Gibbs Racing, showing that it is possible to make a smooth transition to a new team.

Mears has had to deal with at least a new crew chief, team (he previously ran for Chip Ganassi Racing) or car almost every season. He's in the No. 5 this year -- after driving the No. 25 last season -- and paired with crew chief Alan Gustafson.

"He's got a ton of talent. So does this whole team and when we get it right we're fast," Mears said. "For some reason, it's been taking a little bit longer to mesh like we thought."

Gustafson is the fourth crew chief Mears has had in four seasons. He had two different crew chiefs at Ganassi, then was moved away from the No. 25 team and Darian Grubb when Hendrick shuffled things for Earnhardt.

"It's not easy getting to know a new person every single year and trying to adapt to that," Mears said. "Don't get me wrong, I think we should be doing better than where we are right now, that's not our excuse. But it's not an easy transition to make every single time."

Mears started last week 39th at Dover International Speedway and finished 17th, moving him up to 25th in the standings. But he is still a whopping 331 points behind Kasey Kahne for the 12th and final spot in the Chase.

"I don't feel like we're that far off," Mears said. "I think it looks worse than it is. There's no reason why we can't get a good car."

Again, Mears has fallen way behind the other three drivers at Hendrick. Earnhardt is third, Gordon sixth and Johnson seventh in the points. Oh, and the Hendrick driver who got away after last season -- Busch -- leads the points race and has a Cup-best four victories this season.

"It's been tough on him and the whole team," said Johnson, the two-time defending champ and Mears' closest friend in the series. "I really hope for them they've hit bottom and are working their way up. I hope a good time's right around the corner."

There is a bright side to this season. Mears is set to become a first-time father, though he declined to discuss a due date.

Mears can only hope he'll deliver another victory first.

"If we can get on a serious roll and get us in the Chase that would be great," Mears said. "Right now, I'm just worried about getting more consistent, making us where when we go to each race we're considered to be in the top 10. Once you get in the top 10 consistently, anything can happen."


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Stewart can't seem to shake his hard luck

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Boy, could Tony Stewart use a little fun right now.

The two-time NASCAR champion was caught in an accident at Dover International Raceway on Sunday, ruining his race after 17 laps. He finished 41st for his fourth poor finish in five races.
Now he's perilously close to the Chase cutoff point.

Some relief comes Wednesday night when Stewart swings open the gates at Eldora Speedway for his annual charity event at his Ohio dirt track.

"You get to do something different that's no stress and it's all about having fun," he said, referring to the Prelude to the Dream race.

Stewart is 11th in the standings, just 35 points from slipping out of championship contention. He's been there once before, in 2006 when he failed to qualify for the Chase and was ineligible to defend his Cup title.

It's far too early to predict the same thing will happen to Stewart this year. But if his luck doesn't change soon, Stewart and his No. 20 team will be in for a long summer.

Of course, the summer is usually when Stewart heats up. In his nine previous seasons, he's scored his first victory before the 14th race of the year only four times. In 2003, his first win of the year came in the 14th event, at Pocono Raceway, where Stewart heads this weekend.

He'll go there trying to shake the hex he's seemingly been under since Talladega, where he revealed he's exploring opportunities away from Joe Gibbs Racing. Since then, a fourth-place finish at Richmond in early May is about the only thing that's gone right for Stewart.

He led 61 laps at Talladega, only to be caught in a wreck 14 laps from the finish and wound up 38th. Two races later, he was wrecked by Elliott Sadler two laps into the Darlington event and finished 21st.

A flat tire with three laps to go -- and the lead -- snatched the Coca-Cola 600 win away from him at Charlotte, and he again was involved in an accident with Sadler just 17 laps into Sunday's race at Dover.

"I take 100 percent responsibility. It's my fault for being even anywhere close to Elliott," a sarcastic Stewart offered. "If I'm within a half a lap of him, I expect that to happen."

But staying away from Sadler might not be the solution Stewart needs to save his season.

Rather, Stewart needs to shore up his future plans so everyone around him can focus on finally getting into Victory Lane this season.

Crew chief Greg Zipadelli has acknowledged that Stewart's situation is a distraction based on the daily questions he receives about the team's future. The core group that started that team in 1999 is still intact, and when the driver is considering leaving, everyone gets a little unsettled.

"Every guy on my team, everybody at the shop wants to know who is what and where, and what's going on," Zipadelli said. "Everybody in the media wants to know what's going on. It doesn't matter where you go or what you do, somebody wants to ask you something about it.

"As tough as you think you are, as cool as you think you can be, when it gets brought up every day, it's a distraction."

Zipadelli knows how tough it is to beat the best in the business, and right now the top competition is under the same JGR roof. Kyle Busch on Sunday won for the fourth time this season -- a series best -- and Denny Hamlin has been to Victory Lane once already.

To win their third title together, Stewart must settle his team and help put the focus back on winning.

"I can't control this," Zipadelli said. "I didn't start it, but it's certainly a little bit of a distraction and that's just the way it is. The teams that don't have distractions and are focused 110 percent, those are the teams that are tough to beat."

In fairness to Stewart, there's little he can do to control this rash of bad luck. It won't matter if he signs a contract extension with Gibbs tomorrow or announces his intention to leave the team. If he's in the wrong place at the wrong time, he's going to crash.

But it's also not a reach to wonder if this sudden slide is at all related to his off-track negotiating. Team president J.D. Gibbs doesn't think so, noting that Stewart and the No. 20 team usually perform at their highest when the chaos around them is greatest.

Yet Gibbs admits the waiting game can be agonizing.

"There's something sitting there. How long is it going to sit there? That's frustrating and those guys want direction for the future," Gibbs said.

So Stewart needs to get through his event at Eldora, where he hopes to raise $1 million to give to Kyle Petty toward construction on a new camp in Kansas City for chronically ill children. Then he needs to sort out his plans because dragging this out much longer might certainly sink his season.


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