FanHouse BestBuy400

Jamie McMurray is gone from Roush Fenway Racing after 2008, ThatsRacin.com reported Sunday.

It's not a huge shock to me to see McMurray headed out the door -- the FanHouse talked about this in April -- thanks to a few factors. The most significant, though, is that McMurray has never been able to be a consistent front runner in the Sprint Cup Series in RFR's race cars.

That being said, what is the real likelihood that McMurray even finds a Sprint Cup ride for 2009?

I'd say there are quite a few factors running against him in that pursuit -- the least of which has been his driving statistics over the past few years. Those stats -- one win at Daytona, 6 Top-5s, and 18 Top-10s since signing with Roush -- don't help much, though.

The Sprint Cup Series is entering a pretty busy "silly season" period that will definitely see some moving and shaking for 2009. Among those candidates eligible for moving to different seats are Tony Stewart, Martin Truex Jr., Bobby Labonte, Reed Sorenson, and possibly more.

McMurray, if he is indeed out the door at Roush and seeking new employment, is vacating a seat that won't be filled. His sponsor Crown Royal is expected to move in with teammate Greg Biffle and Roush could use the chance to measure his team down to four cars as NASCAR has mandated for 2010.

All those factors aside, though, if you're a car owner are you hiring McMurray?

Because a wreck like this in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series must be revisited, we'll start with the video:



The whole mess started when, as you saw, Elliott Sadler dropped down coming off turn 2 across the nose of David Gilliland in the No. 38. Sadler spun into the wall and stopped sideways across the track in Sunday's Best Buy 400 at Dover.

Tony Stewart couldn't slow down quick enough and slammed into Sadler's front-end. Both cars then blocked the entire race track as Denny Hamlin slid into the mess with Scott Riggs, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kasey Kahne, Bobby Labonte and others getting a piece of the mess.

Kyle Busch should be sponsored by a lawn mowing company, because he is simply mowing down the NASCAR world.

Crappy one-liners aside, Busch took his fourth Sprint Cup series win of 2008 after flat dominating the field during the last half of the race in Sunday's Best Buy 400 at Dover International Speedway.

It also tallied as his 10th overall among NASCAR's top three divisions this season.

The Warmup makes a triumphant return after two weeks on the bench...


What: Best Buy 400 benefiting Student Clubs for Autism Speaks
Where: Dover International Raceway, Dover, Delaware.
When: Sunday, June 1 (Green Flag: 2:00pm/et TV Coverage: 1:30pm/et)
Distance: 400 laps, 400 miles
Weather: 20% Chance of Isolated showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a high near 83.
2007 Winner: Martin Truex Jr.
Predictions: Keep Reading





Autism Speaks - For the second-straight year, the spring Sprint Cup race at Dover has partnered with Autism Speaks as a way to promote the organization's cause. For more about the program, check out the Autism Speaks web site.

If you were able to make it through Saturday's rain-delayed coverage of the Nationwide Series Heluva Good! 200 at Dover International Raceway, I commend you.

More importantly, if you made it you were treated to another episode of "Reasons Why Fans Hate Kyle Busch".

Busch, as is usual these days in any of NASCAR's divisions, found himself out front for 68 laps of the event, and with 31 laps to go, was battling back through the pack to get back to the lead. With 30 laps to go, he was no longer battling.

Heading in to turns 1 & 2 on a restart, Busch got spun and slammed into the wall by fellow Braun Racing driver Jason Leffler, who got loose underneath Busch. Busch's day was done, but his quote-giving abilities were not.

"I just have a teammate that can't stand to be No. 2," Busch said. "I don't know what Leffler was thinking there."

ESPN's Dave Burns then asked if Leffler "shouldn't have been racing as close" to Busch.

"Duhhh," said Busch. "You get air pulled off the side of you and you wreck. It's just not responsible driving."

There seems to be an oxymoron in there somewhere for Kyle Busch to be talking about "responsible driving." For the full effect of Busch's "Duh", check the video over on Youtube.

Leffler did apologize for the accident later, but I find it tough to really place blame on a guy who was on the inside of a someone passing him on the outside. Leffler got loose and lost it, plain and simple.

Denny Hamlin won the event that had a grand total of 5 lead changes, marking the 9th-straight victory in the Nationwide Series by somebody employed by Joe Gibbs Racing. One lap wasn't led by Hamlin or Busch in the race.

Yawn.

Greg Biffle may have won the pole for Sunday's Best Buy 400 at Dover International Speedway, but the biggest story of the day was a guy named Speed.

But before we talk about NASCAR's newest winner, Biffle captured the top spot after running a lap of 155.219mph with Kurt Busch second and Kyle Busch third. Read more about that here...

Scott Speed -- the former Formula One driver -- won his first career NASCAR race Friday afternoon at Dover in the Craftsman Truck Series race. Speed, who raced in some inferior equipment while driving as the lone American in F1, has made his way across the pond to expand his career.

Friday, though, it seemed as if Speed had doing the NASCAR gig for a long time as his team used some strategy to secure his first win in six starts. That strategy? A two-tire stop to Ron Hornaday's four-tire stop that gave Speed track position and finally a win over Sprague and Hornaday.

Following the race, Speed was more than elated to be in victory lane and seemed to truly think about how lucky he was to be having so much fun. Speed is still under contract with Red Bull from his F1 days, and you've got to believe he'll be offered a Sprint Cup test sometime in the near future, given teammate A.J. Allmendingers's rough season in the No. 84.

Plus, how can you not hire a guy named "Speed" to drive a race car?

First, I'll let the picture do the talking.


Yes, Dover International Raceway has a new guest on its property for this weekend's NASCAR events at the speedway.

The monster, named "Miles", has come to shape over the past few months as the 1-mile speedway has renovated its main entry way. Unveiled for the first time on May 14, the 46-foot tall beast is officially called the "Monster Monument at Victory Plaza, presented by AAA."

The base of the monster lists all of the drivers that have won at Dover in the history of the track.

I think we can chalk this one up to the "If you've got the money..." scenario. It won't make me want to buy tickets to the track, but if I had a 5-year old kid, he might get a kick out of it.

So how does a "Top-5" car run in the middle of the pack for nearly an entire race?

Just ask Jeff Gordon.

Following last Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway, Gordon found himself with a fourth-place finish in NASCAR's longest event after stretching his fuel mileage late in the race. That finish, though, wasn't an accurate picture of Gordon's night at LMS.

According to NASCAR's loop data, Gordon had an average running position throughout the race of 19th. Winner Kasey Kahne however averaged a 5th-place effort.

In years past, statistics like that and Gordon pulling out a fourth-place finish would be indicative of a car that just wasn't performing throughout the event, but that simply wasn't true. Instead, what kept Gordon -- and plenty of other drivers -- from moving through the field was his track position.

"...When we got up front there and got our lap back, I thought hey, you know, we've got a pretty decent car. We just need track position," said Gordon after the race. "Once we got our lap back, we were back in the back again and there were cars all over the place."

"You just can't go anywhere and you can't pass anybody."

As a race fan, I'm not particularly fond of a driver saying "you can't pass anybody".