NASCAR and Richard Petty Motorsports look a little more spineless today.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver A.J. Allmendinger was arrested for DWI early Thursday morning in Mooresville, N.C., after being pulled over and blowing a .08 on a Breathalyzer test -- the legal limit for intoxication in the state. Cited for a misdemeanor, Allmendinger will appear in court on the charge in December.
Allmendinger, though, won't be facing any music from his RPM team or NASCAR -- the same organization that will suspend crew members for racing with an illegal part.
Jamie McMurray starts on the pole today. That's only happened twice before in his five-year Nextel Cup career, the last time at the 2005 Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway on July 24, 2005. He finished 11th. His first Bud Pole Award came at Homestead in 2004 where he finished 9th.
Robby Gordon will start 2nd in the Toyota/SaveMart 350. Last time he started that high in the field was here in 2003. He won. He owes TGOM a thank you. Because he was excluded from the power rankings, he has a shot at repeating.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. starts 3rd. Previously, his best start at Infineon Raceway came in 2005, which didn't work out too well for him. He started 10th, finished 42nd.
Leader of the Outside the Top 35 Pack For the second week in a row, Red Bull driver Brian Vickers claimed the top starting spot among those teams outside the Top 35. Vickers' team currently sits in 39th position in owner points. While he sits only less than 200 points back from the 35th spot, he has not yet been able to close the gap because those drivers in between keep making races, too.
Following the Leader Fellow Toyota driver Dave Blaney scores the second sweet spot for the second consecutive week. He'll start in 17th.
The Wood Brothers/JTG Racing #21 Motorcraft Genuine Auto Parts Ford will start 21st. Bill Elliott qualified on time for the third time in four entries and still has five championship provisionals left. Having Elliott in the car hasn't produced the results they were looking for yet. The team has gone from 39th to 40th since Elliott stepped in at Lowe's.
Scott Riggs, who has only had one DNQ despite having to race in every weekend, will start 22nd.
Paul Menard, David Reutimann and A.J. Allmendinger will bring up the rear starting in 38th, 40th and 43rd respectively.
Losers of the Week (DNQs) Mike Bliss (11), Ward Burton (8), Dale Jarrett (4), Kevin Lepage (12), Jeremy Mayfield (10), Kenny Wallace (7)
Leader of the Outside the Top 35 Pack Brian Vickers was the top qualifier of all drivers outside the top 35 in owner points.
As predicted, the red bull had no trouble qualifying on the Pocono tri-oval. He'll start in the 9th position, a season best.
For now, Vickers is pleased with his team's progress and the direction in which it is headed:
"We seem to be really good in the races and I'm really proud of Toyota and TRD (Toyota Racing Development). They've been working real hard and it has shown in the last couple races with how well the Toyotas have been running. I'm real proud of our entire Red Bull team that's building these race cars -- our intermediate program has really been improving week after week. We've been doing a good job in the race and Doug (Richert) has been calling great races. I'm just excited to race Sunday and hopefully we can be just as good when we get to Michigan."
Following the Leader Dave Blaney returns after sitting Dover out. He starts 14th. Ward Burton 20th. Paul Menard starts his first race with a new crew chief in the 21st spot.
David Reutimann will be the sole representative for Michael Waltrip Racing, starting in 23rd. Vickers Red Bull teammate A.J. Allmendinger will pull off 28th. Scott Riggs 31st.
Bill Elliott was forced to used a championship provisional this week and will start 43rd.
Losers of the Week (DNQs) Mike Bliss (10), Dale Jarrett (3), Kevin Lepage (11), Jeremy Mayfield (9), Kenny Wallace (6), Michael Waltrip (12)
Despite having only started six races this season, Brian Vickers has given the manufacturer the most stats to write home to Japan about.
His old ride, the #25 HMS Chevrolet driven by Casey Mears, kept him out of victory lane, but Vickers had the "car to beat" Sunday.
His 5th place finish--with a new engine and a car that lost its power-steering at some point during the race--was a season best for the driver and Toyota. Their second best? Vickers' 10th place finish at California Speedway in February.
Vickers has also led more laps than all of the Toyota drivers put together. Prior to the Coca-Cola 600, Toyota had led a cumulative 14 laps, 8 of them Vickers'. He added a healthy buffer to that lead after tacking on another 76 laps at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
The red-headed Red Bull gained two spots in the owner points standings this weekend but still sits four positions and 200+ points out of the top 35.
In his fifth effort, Vickers' Red Rull teammate, A.J. Allmendinger, scored his best finish of 31st and is holding down the 47th position for his owner.
Toyota Teammates Jeremy Mayfield ran in the top 15 for much of the day, even leading 3 laps. He said the new engine "made all the difference in the world." And so it did. Until it crapped out. Mayfield was relegated to a 25th place finish--he gained one spot for owner Bill Davis Racing and now sits in 45th.
Dave Blaney, who has failed to maintain a position in the top 35 despite being the only Toyota driver fortunate enough to start the season there based on last year's owner points, turned in another lackluster performance for BDR, leading no laps and finishing 18th. He remains 36th in the points.
Leader of the Outside the Top 35 Pack Kenny Wallace raced his Furniture Row #78 Chevrolet into the show for the seventh time this season. He will start 6th tonight at Darlington Raceway, matching his best qualifying effort of the season last week in Richmond.
Good thing, too, because Kenny really wants to race in Charlotte and now he gets another chance to remind fans to vote for him:
"The 'Vote for Kenny' campaign has grown its own legs and developed into a huge deal. I am very appreciative to Furniture Row for being such a supportive sponsor by getting behind the 'Vote For Kenny' campaign. I don't think that many other sponsors, if any at all, would give up the hood of their racecar for a weekend to promote voting their driver into the NEXTEL All-Star Challenge. Being voted into this race would be a huge deal, not just for me, but for my Furniture Row Racing team too!"
Following The Leader Ken Schrader also starts in the top 10 in the 8th position. David Reuitmann starts 14th.
Both Red Bull racers are on track this weekend for just the second time this season, the first being Bristol. Brian Vickers starts in the 15th spot and A.J. Allmendinger starts 20th.p>Paul Menard starts 23rd in his eighth race of the season, Dave Blaney starts 27th and Ricky Rudd 40th.
Kevin LePage will start his first race of the season after attempting to qualify for 9 of the previous 10 races.
Losers of The Week (DNQs) Scott Riggs, who has been outside the top 35 since the beginning of the season, failed to qualify for his first race in 2007 in Darlington.
Scott Riggs will start 3rd Saturday in Richmond, his best start of the season and the best of those drivers sitting outside the top 35 who had to race their way in.
Riggs' qualifying effort for the Crown Royal Presents The Jim Stewart 400 marks the fifth consecutive race the 36th points position holder has qualified for on time. With only seven points to gain on Casey Mears, he's likely to move into the top 35 this week.
Dave Blaney, who added his name to the 2007 DNQ list last weekend in Talladega, will start 10th Saturday.
A.J. Allmendinger, the top qualifying rookie, starts 13th in his third race of the season, his first at Richmond International Raceway.
David Reutimann, the only Michael Waltrip Racing driver in the show this weekend, starts 14th for the second consecutive week--his highest for the season.
Ward Burton makes his 5th start and Kenny Wallace his 6th in 25th and 26th positions respectively.
NCTS driver Johnny Benson qualified 31st in his first Cup effort since 2005.
Losers of the Week (DNQs) Brian Vickers (6), Ken Schrader (3), Michael Waltrip (9), Jeremy Mayfield (7), Dale Jarrett (1), Kevin LePage (9) and Mike Bliss (6).
Team Red Bull had a little fun with A.J. Allmendinger in their team meeting today, their first since Allmendinger's first Nextel Cup race. In celebration of him getting the qualifying monkey off his back, the team presented Allmendinger with a 'Got the Gorilla Off My Back' piñata:
It took three blindfolded swings for AJ to crack open the piñata. Out fell an assortment of Little Debbie snacks, in tribute to the Kenny Schraders' Little Debbies #21 car that punted AJ into the outside wall at Bristol on Sunday. Welcome to NASCAR, Rookie! Even though it was a rookie mistake to come down on Kenny when he wasn't clear, AJ still got his revenge today and the team got a good laugh.
They discussed the Schrader/Allmendinger incident on "Inside Nextel Cup" last night and noted the team held itself accountable for the contact. They also mentioned that after he got thrown into the wall, hearing "inside" had a whole new effect on Allmendinger--probably not a mistake he'll be repeating in the near future, assuming, of course, he has another opportunity.
I wonder what kind of Little Debbie snacks he got! I'm partial to the Star Crunch Cosmic Wafers myself.
Brian Vickers was Toyota's top finisher today in 15th place. He and Mayfield's Bill Davis Racing teammate Dave Blaney, who finished 23rd, are the only two Toyota drivers that completed all of todays 504 laps.
Vickers led laps for Red Bull Racing today for the second time this season and Jeremy Mayfield, in his first season outing, also led a lap.
Mayfield cut a tire on lap 227 causing damage to the right side - he finished 18 laps down in 34th.
Red Bull's A.J. Allmendinger and Michael Waltrip Racing's Dale Jarrett were both involved wrecks and finished 40th and 42nd respectively.
"I was trying to pass Kyle Petty and get in under him and then Matt Kenseth just turned me going into the corner. The car was good; I was having a good time. It's fun racing, but it's not fun when somebody does something like that. It's not the first time, but it will be the last .. You have to show some patience and here we are only 60 laps into the race and somebody does something like that ... This is not the first time that he's done something like this. Everybody has this great vision that Matt Kenseth is this nice guy on the race track, he is a nice guy away from the track, but he's a rough driver on the race track when he doesn't have to be. We'll have a discussion."
Michael Waltip and David Reuitmann failed to qualify.
The Harsh Reality Toyota left Bristol today without a single car in the Top 35.
Despite several attempts by others to take him out of the race today, my Raybestos Rookie of the Year pick, David Ragan, managed to scrape together a 26th place finish, the best of his class today in Bristol.
Juan Pablo Montoya, who is slowly but surely becoming my least favorite rookie, was one of the drivers who successfully moved Ragan out of his way once on the track, but he later fell behind and finished 32nd.
A.J. Allmendinger finshed 91 laps down in 40th position.
Rookies Paul Menard and David Reutimann failed to qualify.
Montoya maintains a lead in the points standings but fell four positions to 19th. Ragan gained one and is now 22nd. Both are in the Top 35 heading to Martinsville. Outside the Top 35: Menard (41st), Reutimann (45th) and Allmendinger (52nd).
Overheard on the In-Car Audio With three laps to go Ragan got spun by Kasey Kahne and brought out the 15th caution of the day.
NASCAR and Richard Petty Motorsports look a little more spineless today.
Jamie McMurray starts on the pole today. That's only happened twice before in his five-year Nextel Cup career, the last time at the 2005 Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway on July 24, 2005. He finished 11th. His first Bud Pole Award came at Homestead in 2004 where he finished 9th.
Leader of the Outside the Top 35 Pack
Leader of the Outside the Top 35 Pack
Despite having only started six races this season, 
Leader of the Outside the Top 35 Pack
Scott Riggs will start 3rd Saturday in Richmond, his best start of the season and the best of those drivers sitting outside the top 35 who had to race their way in.
Brian Vickers was Toyota's top finisher today in 15th place. He and Mayfield's Bill Davis Racing teammate Dave Blaney, who finished 23rd, are the only two Toyota drivers that completed all of todays 504 laps.
Despite several attempts by others to take him out of the race today, my 
