FanHouse California Speedway

What do you suppose DEI pulled out of the Garage Mahal and put under Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s hood this weekend?

Will he get an engine that lays all it's cylinders on the track up front and craps out before the halfway mark like in Fontana? Or will he get a teaser that takes him all the way to the end providing hope of a top 5 finish only to give up on the last lap like last weekend in Martinsville?

It's quite laughable that the #8 car was labeled still running in the Subway 500 results, but I guess that's accurate--it did, after all, sprint backwards from the fourth position to a 23rd place finish. But if the race had been even one lap longer, this would have been his eighth DNF of the season--seven due to engine failures.

Is it enough for conspiracy theories? Depends on who you ask. It's sure enough for Dale Jr. fans--and any other NASCAR fan whose got brain enough to recognize his talent and ability to put the car at the front of the pack.

Whatever it is they got him running in Atlanta was good enough for a top 5 start. But will it be good enough for a top 5 finish?

The Hendrick Motorsports public relations staff wasted no time Tuesday morning. Could it be because they had Monday off for Labor Day?

Regardless of the reason, Hendrick announced two important pieces to the Dale Earnhardt Jr. puzzle.

First, crew chief Tony Eury Jr. will follow his driver and cousin Dale Earnhardt Jr. from Dale Earnhardt Inc. to Hendrick in 2008 after signing a multi-year deal. And then, Hendrick ended a minor part of the rumors for Dale Jr.'s number next year by naming Casey Mears to the No. 5 Kelloggs Chevrolet, replacing a departing Kyle Busch.

Mears has campaigned the No. 25 for Hendrick in 2007 with moderate success, including a win and a pole.

While Dale Jr. sponsor rumors continue to swirl (and irritate The Charlotte Observer's David Poole), the puzzle seems to be slowing taking shape. According to Junior, all of the major details of his Hendrick Chevy for 2008 have been essentially stamped out, but the team is waiting to announce them for about another month.

It was also interesting to note that Alan Gustafson, Kyle Busch's current crew chief, will assume that role for Mears in 2008, landing Darian Grubb (current No. 25 crew chief) away from the top of a pit box at Hendrick. He will be an "at-track engineer" that will help coordinate the Mears and Earnhardt Jr. programs.

That's kind of like a promotion, right?

NASCAR fans now a few more good examples of why NASCAR racing will never get boring after the steaming weekend at California Speedway -- for they know that at any time anything can happen in NASCAR.


Brad Keselowski, Ricky Rudd (as the video shows at 0:16) and Michael Waltrip are feeling why today.

Waltrip was the only driver of the three that had a faint idea that his race was about to end early when the left-front tire finally cut down entering turn three during Sunday night's Sharp Aquos 500, sheering an oil line and igniting the No. 55 Napa Toyota. Luckily, Waltrip was able to get out in time -- but not very quickly.

Rudd's fortunes weren't as obvious.

Three more drivers locked themselves into the Chase for the Nextel Cup this weekend at California Speedway, with one race remaining:

6. Jimmie Johnson
7. Jeff Burton
8. Kyle Busch

Two drivers need only start the Chevy Rock 'n Roll 400 to earn their place in the Chase:

9. Clint Bowyer
10. Martin Truex Jr.

Three drivers remain eligible for the remaining two spots:

11. Kurt Busch
12. Kevin Harvick
13. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Biggest Winner in Cali
Kyle Busch. A 3rd place finish in the California heat clinched his spot in the Chase. That makes six top 5s and 14 top 10s to go along with his win at Bristol in the spring. There have been plenty of heated moments along the way, but he earned his spot fair and square.

Defending Cup champion Johnson's a winner, too, for winning the race and locking up the top spot (assuming Gordon doesn't win in Richmond.)

Virgin Chasers
MTJ's 6th place finish ensures him a spot as long as he starts in Richmond. Ditto for Bowyer's 20th place finish Sunday. If Junior doesn't make it, Bowyer will be the only driver in the Chase to have not won a race, ala Mark Martin in 2006. Truex and Bowyer will be the only two 2007 first-timer Chasers. Well done.

Biggest Loser in Cali
Once again, Dale Earnhardt Jr. A strong 5th-place finish is just enough to keep his championship dreams alive, but probably not enough to make them come true. This has just prolonged the agony. He's won at Richmond before, but he'd have to do that and then some plus see Harvick finish worse than 32nd and Busch ... I don't even know if that's possible.

Junior be the biggest loser again next week if he doesn't make the Chase. But if he comes within 100 points, he'll be the biggest loser with a COT penalty that kept cost him the Chase and a lingering "What if ... " my crew chief hadn't used illegal brackets in Darlington?

NASCAR Nextel Cup point leader is now in a must-win situation Saturday night at Richmond if he wishes to be part of the point lead heading into the Chase for the Championship.

Jimmie Johnson cruised to victory lane Sunday night at California Speedway, scoring his fifth victory of the season and ten more bonus points for the Chase, which starts in two weeks at New Hampshire.

Gordon wasn't a factor after an incident late in the race and now faces the possibility that his 317-point lead could wind up being a 10 or 20 point deficit after 400 laps at Richmond International Raceway with Johnson's win.

On the other end of the Chase spectrum, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was all but locked out of the 2007 edition of the Chase despite finishing 5th. He sits 13th in the standings, 128 points behind 12th-place Kevin Harvick with the lone regular season race remaining.

All Harvick has to do is finish 32nd Saturday and he is locked in, even if Junior leads the most laps and wins.

The race had a higher number of wrecks than normal, including two mildly series incidents.

I was in the pits with a bad vantage point yesterday when Brad Keselowski went for a horrifically wild ride at California Speedway, so I didn't know anything had happened until I saw a NASCAR pit road official give the signal that the caution was out. That was my cue to jump over behind the pit box and check out the replay, which you can see here: It looked like a bad crash for sure--slamming the wall ... riding the rails in a ball of fire ... landing on top of another driver's car ... but I wasn't panicked until I saw the paramedics rush down pit road. Then the broadcast showed all the emergency workers gathered around a car, but by that time there were so many people hovering, I couldn't get close enough to see which driver couldn't get out of their car on their own. Mom was watching at home and filled me in--and was sure to let me know it was all my favorite J.J. Yeley's fault.

Seconds and minutes seemed like hours waiting for word that he was ok. When the California crowd roared, we knew he'd gotten out of the car, and even though he couldn't walk on his own, there were huge sighs of relief all around.

Word then spread quickly through the garage and down pit road when Keselowski self-diagnosed his broken foot and he was airlifted to a nearby hospital. But X-rays proved negative--he will follow up with a neurosurgeon this week.

Yea for safer barriers.

Brad Keselowski, the driver of the JR Motorsports No. 88, was removed gingerly from his battered race car Saturday night at California Speedway after one of the hardest NASCAR wrecks in recent memory.

Keselowski was placed on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance with noticeable pain in his legs. He was later flown to a nearby hospital for X-rays on his legs.

Keselowski, 23, of Rochester Hills, Mich. was battling with A.J. Allmendinger for 18th spot on lap 67 when Allmendinger appeared to move into the path of J.J. Yeley entering turn one. Allmendinger spun down the track and clipped the rear end of Keselowski, shooting the No. 88 Chevrolet head-on into the outside wall. Yeley then clipped Eric McClure, resulting in a four car crash.

ESPN2 telemetry the No. 88 impacting the wall at over 140mph. The impact lifted Keselowski's car into the air enough to allow Allmendinger to briefly get under the spinning, flaming race car. Allmendinger's No. 42 suffered a broken A-post on the right side of the roll cage.

NASCAR red-flagged the race for repairs to the SAFER barrier.

A.J. Allmendinger talked to ESPN2 after getting released from the infield hospital.

"I thought i was clear, but then I got clipped in the right-rear," said Allmendinger.

"I felt so bad for Brad because that was a big hit. I think he's going to be OK. I talked to him in the infield hospital, and he didn't cuss at me, so I think we'll be OK."

Fanhouse Followup
Keselowski's X-Rays Negative After Crash

Jeff Gordon has had a decent season.

In 25 races, he's scored 20 Top-10s, 14 Top-5s, and with four wins. Those results have led to a 349-point lead over second-place Tony Stewart in the season standings.

That kind of lead could allow the four-time champ to take off of the last two races before the Chase for the Nextel Cup at California and Richmond and only end up 41 points down if Stewart won and led the most laps in each event.

Gordon won't do that, naturally, and following Richmond he's still going to have nearly the same result.

For 2007, NASCAR instituted a new quirk for the Chase that was based off of seeding the drivers for the final 'playoff'. Apparently, though, in their haste to change a playoff system that was still in its infancy, NASCAR overlooked the fact that leading the points after 26 races needs some credibility, too.

"I think that you put a lot into the 26 races and basically you can end up 12th in the points and all of what you've done up to this point is pretty much gone," Gordon said this weekend at California.

"So yes, I would like to see them have some sort of a bonus whether it's money or points or something to reward what you've done for anybody that's been in this position."

Of course, theres not a whole lot of people in the stands or the garage that mind having Gordon reigned back in to the rest of the field for the first ten races.

I had a great day at California Speedway yesterday, even though it was a billion degrees.

While that was my biggest complaint of the day, several crew members I spoke to agreed that this weekend was a dream compared with Bristol last weekend. Add humidity to the mix and it's a whole new ballgame. Not too much of that around here, I guess I'm thankful for that.

Even so, it is way too hot to have a race here Labor Day Weekend. I didn't see any fans near death or puking from heat exhaustion like I did last year, but I do believe it was hotter. I did see one woman almost pass out while her husband was chasing a track worker for some help. Not sure what he expected him to do, there was no relief in site - not a water-mister, not a chair, not a drink of water or a golf cart to carry her away. I was on the move so I don't know her fate, but I doubt she made it through the rest of the day.

I hesitate to talk about moving this race out loud, because selfishly I don't want to lose a second race here and if we start talking about moving it, dominoes might not fall in our favor. Personally, I'd like to see them move it to the fall and have the last three races be Phoenix, California and Las Vegas. But that's only a pipe dream that would likely send southern and east coast fans into a complete tizzy.

So for now, we suffer through. I was going to give myself a break and skip today, but hey I gotta take what I can get. Hydrating right now to do it all over again today ...

At the moment, I'm not planning to Twitter quite as much as yesterday, but that might just be the thumb talking. (Note to self: Need cell phone with full keyboard.) So follow me anyway, you never know when something interesting is going to happen.

TGOM is off to the races--or qualifying at least--today. Nextel Cup and Busch Series quals are today and I'll be Twittering all the way, sending updates via the mobile phone from pit road. Wanna follow me? It's gonna be a hot one - expected high of 104°. And no tank tops or open toed shoes allowed on pit road. Sigh. They're trying to kill the fans.

TGOM Tweets from California Speedway

Follow TGOM on Twitter: www.twitter.com/tallglassofmilk