FanHouse ChadMcCumbee

There's been a lot of turmoil in the Petty Enterprises camp as of late thanks to a number of problems facing the once dominant (like, 20 years ago) but now struggling race team thanks primarily to the funding coffers starting to dry up.

The problem is simple -- PE wants to race two teams next season with Bobby Labonte and Chad McCumbee full time with current driver Kyle Petty on a part-time basis without having any sort of adequate funding. So naturally, when money gets tight, people turn sour, and problems arise.

As a result, Kyle Petty (Richard Petty's son who has been in the NASCAR game since 1979 with eight career wins) might be ride-less in 2009 in a move that would likely end what has been a slow trickle down of the number of races he's entered in the past two years.

"Right now, I got nothing," Petty said Saturday at Phoenix, where he'll start 35th in his last race of the year. "Straight up, I got nothing. So I'm still just looking."

Sunday's race at Phoenix International Raceway (FanHouse is live-bloggin' it again!) will be Petty's last race of the 2008 season because the up and coming McCumbee will try to make the season finale next week at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Petty has tested with and considered running in a road course racing series in 2009 -- a medium of racing he has some prior experience in.

Most of the time, the driver that wins the pole on Friday for a Sunday Sprint Cup Series race is the main story.

That wasn't the case Friday at Texas Motor Speedway as NASCAR's most popular driver couldn't even take the top story despite winning the Samsung 500 pole.

Of course, when a driver has the hardest and most violent crash of the next-generation car era, that'll happen.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s pole-winning run of 190.907mph put the Hendrick driver in good position to win his first event in the past 68 Sprint Cup races he's competed in. Additionally, if Earnhardt Jr. scores a win at Texas -- the site of his first-career Cup win -- it would put to bed all of the stories of Hendrick Motorsports struggling tremendously in 2008.

Earnhardt Jr. will lead Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, Ryan Newman and Hendrick teammate Jimmie Johnson to the green flag.

A couple of the go-or-go-homers had more than respectable qualifying runs with David Reutimann securing a spot by qualifying sixth in his No. 44 and Mike Skinner qualified 9th in the Red Bull No. 84.

Dario Franchitti missed his first race of 2008 as did Chad McCumbee who was driving for Kyle Petty in the No. 45. Burney Lamar also hit the trailer after qualifying.

Anybody catch the NASCAR Craftsman Series Truck race last night? What a wild finish.

I only caught the last 17 or so laps--when I tuned in championship battlers Mike Skinner and Ron Hornaday were running 7th and 8th with only three points separating them in the standings. I almost kept the remote moving ... nothing to see here. But I know better than that.

With four laps to go, Hornaday and Skinner were leading the field on a restart--rookie Chad McCumbee put the moves on both veteran drivers passing them three wide on the low side. Chaos ensued. McCumbee led the next restart and, with a two-lap green / white checker finish, appeared on track to collect his first series win.

McCumbee spun his tires on the restart, though, collecting Jack Sprague and making way for Ted Musgrave to score his first win since his 2005 championship season.

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Chad McCumbee might be better known to some NASCAR fans as the driver who portrayed Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the made-for-tv movie "3: The Dale Earnhardt Story" than he is for his own racing. This despite having amassed more than 100 victories in local, regional and national WKA Dirt Series events and 3 top 10s in his NCTS 2006 rookie effort.

The Green Light Racing driver, who currently sits 14th in the NCTS standings, hopes to raise his profile this weekend when he makes his Nextel Cup debut behind the wheel of the Petty Enterprises #45 Goody's Cool Orange Dodge at Pocono, filling in for Kyle Petty, who will be in the TNT booth calling the race.

McCumbee wants to leave a lasting impression:

"When you look back at the last two years, Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin both won this race without ever racing at Pocono before. I have a lot of seat time on the track and a great team behind me. While I am looking at this as a learning experience for me, I really think we can go out there and turn some heads."

Not sure it's what he had in mind, but with that face I know he'll at least be turning the heads of female fans.

McCumbee got his visibility campaign off to a good start by winning Saturday's ARCA race. Owner Richard Petty was there to meet him in victory lane:

"When he was there, it seems like a light centers around him. It's pretty awesome. To win my first race for him was exactly what I wanted to give him. Hopefully, it's the start of a long relationship."

Despite the confidence, rather than winning, his more realistic goal for Sunday's Pocono 500 is to finish on the lead lap.

Best of luck to him. And to Kyle.

After listening to Kyle Petty on Monday night's Fast Talk radio program on PRN, it's pretty clear why he's stepping away for 6 races this season to jump into the TNT broadcast booth.

He's that good.

Because he's leaving the seat of his #45 for the gig, Petty announced yesterday that drivers John Andretti and Chad McCumbee will share duties in the seat.

Andretti is a familiar face around the Level Cross, NC race shop. He raced for the team from 1998-2003, picking up a win along the way at Martinsville. Petty dropped him mid-2003, and obviously the relationship never really soured. He currently drives in the Busch series.

Chad McCumbee will only do one race in the program. And lucky for him, he gets a start at Pocono, which is largely held as one of the toughest tracks to master. That's the case unless your name is Denny Hamlin or Carl Edwards, anyways.

McCumbee currently campaigns a Green Light Racing Chevy in the Craftsman Truck Series. He finished second last year in the rookie of the year points and won the ARCA race at Nashville Superspeedway earlier this year.

Petty will serve as a color commentator in the TNT booth during the time out of the driver's seat. Maybe ESPN can pick him up for next to replace Rusty...?

Ok .... Ok ... I'll save the frustration with ESPN for another day.