Holly Cain Posts

For two mornings this week, Ryan Newman struggled just to lift his head off the pillow to get out of bed, his neck muscles still sore from a frightening airborne smash-and-roll wreck at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway last Sunday.

Even as he suited up Friday to practice for Race 8 of NASCAR's 10-race Chase for the Championship at Texas Motor Speedway, he was still aching from the crash, and bristling that it even happened.

Newman had been outspoken about NASCAR's immediate need to keep the race cars from launching into the air during accidents -- only to take that scary ride himself Sunday afternoon.

INDIANAPOLIS -- The timing of the latest round of Danica Patrick-to-NASCAR reports isn't lost on those in the IndyCar world, where Thursday's major announcement that IZOD will be the IndyCar Series' first title sponsor in a decade has been forced to share headlines with its most famous driver's likely part-time foray into stock cars.

Recently crowned 2009 IndyCar Series champion Dario Franchitti -- a former Andretti Green Racing teammate of Patrick's -- said Thursday he's still confident she's staying in IndyCar next season.

"I believe she'll be back in IndyCar next year and that will help her with her goal of winning the Indianapolis 500,'' Franchitti told FanHouse. "If she does drive in NASCAR, I think it will be difficult to do both.''

INDIANAPOLIS -- The IndyCar Series formally welcomed IZOD as the title sponsor for the series Thursday in a flashy, ultra-hip unveiling at Indianapolis Motor Speedway -- a significant development in the future of the series which hasn't had a big money title sponsor in the last decade.

"It is our biggest day in the history of the company,'' said Terry Angstadt, President of the IRL's Commercial Division.

"When people ask about our priorities on a business side, this was number one through ten, believe me.''

To hear Jimmie Johnson describe it, the most challenging part of wrapping up a historic fourth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship is not getting wrapped up in winning it. No matter how hard everyone else tries to convince him the trophy's been engraved.

He holds a 184-point advantage -- nearly a full race lead -- on second place Mark Martin and only needs to finish 10th place or better in the remaining three Chase for the Championship races to secure the trophy. That's even if Martin wins all three races and leads the most laps in each.

But Johnson insists his approach in the No. 48 Lowe's Chevy will be the same as if he was trailing by 184 points and promised he wasn't about to start being conservative.

"We're showing up to win races,'' Johnson said. "Finishing 10th isn't as easy as it sounds. It is a tough field of cars out there and we need to be on our game. With three to go, we need to race these next two as if we're behind in the points and get every point we can.''

Before Ryan Newman's horrific Talladega flip-roll-smash-and-slide on Sunday, there was Carl Edwards' car somersaulting into the front stretch fencing.

The late Dale Earnhardt had one of his most frightening accidents at Talladega Superspeedway, barrel-rolling through the tri-oval. Before that it was Ricky Craven and Bill Elliott on E-ticket rides. In 1993, driver Jimmy Horton's car flipped over the Turn 1 wall and landed outside the track.

Rusty Wallace's Talladega crash footage -- pick a year -- used to be standard play before any NASCAR restrictor plate race.

The point is -- while there is a justifiable outcry at the scary accident involving Newman this weekend -- spectacular, highlight-reel wrecks here aren't news. They are old news.

Depending on your perspective, Ryan Newman either had the best seat in the house or the worst during NASCAR's last visit to the mighty and unpredictable Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.

Carl Edwards, Sprint Cup rookie Brad Keselowski and Newman were 100 yards in front of the checkered flag, set to decide the winner amongst themselves, when Keselowski and Edwards collided directly in front of Newman. Edwards' Ford went airborne, bounced off the hood and windshield of Newman's Chevy, then flew into the fencing along the front stretch grandstands in a horrific-looking accident that led the country's sports highlight reels.

If you haven't seen the video, you will. It'll be played over and over and over all weekend as the Sprint Cup Series makes its Chase for the Championship visit to Talladega this week.

Despite turning in a four-win 2009 season and leading Kyle Busch to a series best eight victories last year, Steve Addington (far right, with Busch) is being replaced by Dave Rogers as crew chief of Busch's No. 18 Toyota beginning with the Nov. 8 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Addington, 45, who has served as crew chief of the No. 18 car for five years, will be reassigned within the Joe Gibbs Racing organization, according to a news release from the team on Tuesday.

"We evaluate all of our teams on an ongoing basis and believe this is a change that will make the 18 team stronger as we prepare for next season,'' said JGR President J.D. Gibbs. "We think highly of Steve and the job he has done and we look forward to him remaining a part of the JGR family."

Is there another sport that turns on its winners so?

And cheering against the New York Yankees doesn't count.

Another superb run in NASCAR's Chase for the Championship has put Jimmie Johnson in position for a historic fourth consecutive Sprint Cup title. He's on the verge of accomplishing something Richard Petty, the late Dale Earnhardt, Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip and Jeff Gordon never did.

And for all his hard work and performance under pressure here's the thanks he gets: people are accusing him of stinking up the show.

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In his first national one-on-one television interview, suspended NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield continued to deny drug use and accused NASCAR of using him as a "a good pawn who wasn't going to cost them any money at all.''

Mayfield, who was suspended indefinitely by NASCAR for testing positive in a pair of drug tests this May, made the assertions on ESPN's Outside the Lines show, which will air Sunday at 9 a.m., hours before the green flag drops for the Sprint Cup Series race at Martinsville, Va.

It's been widely reported that the positive test revealed use of methamphetamine, something Mayfield has denied. He claims the tests were a "false positive," the result of his use of Adderall, a prescription drug for attention-hyperactivity disorder, combined with the common allergy medication, Claritin-D.