FanHouse ChicagolandSpeedway

Got reservations for 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup races in Bristol, Atlanta, California, or Talladega? Better get on the phone with your travel agent.

NASCAR unveiled the 2009 schedules for all three series' -- Sprint Cup, Nationwide, and Craftsman Truck Series -- Tuesday afternoon with a few a changes here and there that mostly seem to be very good.

There weren't any new tracks added to the schedule Sprint Cup for 2009 and Auto Club Speedway isn't scheduled for demolition (there's always next year!) but date changes and schedule location swaps were the name of the game. Chronologically the changes were:

• - Bristol: The spring race at Bristol Motor Speedway has long tried to dodge rain and even snow in its March location on the schedule, and it got a little bit of relief by being pushed back one week from 2008 to March 22 in 2009.


• - Atlanta: The next change on the schedule will see Atlanta Motor Speedway move to Labor Day weekend for a Sunday night race at the 1.5-mile track. If nothing else, it means NASCAR will race on Labor Day some 2,100 miles closer to where it should be that weekend. Ahem, Darlington.

I guess you could say Saturday night's LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway for J.J. Yeley (yay yay yay-lee!) was pretty normal.

The No. 96 Hall of Fame Racing team started officially in 40th and finished 24th, but the setbacks along the way incurred from NASCAR make that finish seem a little more impressive.

You see, J.J. Yeley is a fan of cold water. He likes to drink it, especially when sitting inside a hot race car for 400 miles. He's not so much a fan of warm water, though, like the water inside his race car after sitting through inspection in the July sun in the midwest. And so, his team replaced his warm water bag with a cold water bag -- like they've done for nearly every race this season -- just prior to the race.

NASCAR wasn't a fan of the move, though. Because Yeley's car had already gone through inspection and because there wasn't an official present to see the H2O transaction, they got suspicious. Really suspicious.

They took the No. 96 off of pit road, put it back through inspection, and in doing so, didn't really find anything different. It made him late joining the field, and as soon as the green flag dropped, NASCAR called the No. 96 in for a pass through penalty for "Disobeying a NASCAR Request". The move dropped him behind the field and one lap down.

That's a steep penalty for a dude that just simply wants some high quality H2O in his ride -- or at least some water that isn't going to boil his insides.

After spending three days in the Chicagoland Speedway, here's some of the best moments (and isn't that picture gorgeous?):

• - Elliott Sadler Must Be a Journey Fan: After a visit to the media center Saturday afternoon at Chicagoland Speedway, Elliott Sadler was walking back to his vehicle when I walked past him. And as we passed each other, Elliott was singing out loud, along with the track public address system to Journey's "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)". Needless to say, it's a memory I won't soon forget.
• - Biffle and Stewart Make Nice: The two drivers weren't exactly mad at each other when they got out of their respective race cars on pit road following the event, but to make sure there wasn't hostile feelings, Greg Biffle walked over to Tony Stewart to apologize for "crowding him" during a late restart. Stewart wasn't mad at all and smiled it off, reassuring Greg he completely understood what had happened.

Are you tired of him winning yet? I sure hope not.

Kyle Busch thought the race was over with 16 laps to go after Jimmie Johnson passed the Joe Gibbs Racing driver for the lead.

Busch, who led 165 of the 267 laps that made up the LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway Saturday night, even called in on his team radio and simply said "race over."

All systems, and Brendan Fraser, seem to be a go for tonight's LifeLock 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.

Fraser, in town to promote his new movie "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor", appeared at a press conference this afternoon in the media center with Ryan Newman. Newman is driving a No. 12 Dodge with a Kodak/Mummy paint scheme on it in tonight's race.

Fraser -- who in real life is about as eccentric as his character George in the movie "George of the Jungle" -- will deliver the command to start engines before the face.

The race, slated for green flag just past 8:00pm/ET on TNT, will be the first one under the lights at Chicagoland, but will start with the sun still setting in the west. Tonight though, cloudy skies appear to be prevailing, meaning teams won't have as big of a change once the race fully goes to night mode.

Rain has been in the forecast for much of the week, but a system of showers seems to be dropping just south of the speedway and breaking up at the same time. Aside from an errant shower, the precipitation shouldn't play a big factor.

Following the race, the FanHouse will have plenty of driver reaction and commentary on the LifeLock 400. Be sure to stop by, but in the mean time, feel free to use the comment section below to discuss race happenings or your favorite Brendan Fraser movie. Whatever floats the boat.

Enjoy the race.

Here on my first visit to Chicagoland Speedway, I've noticed that the facility truly is a modern racing venue.

The infield is laid out well, the infield access tunnel is more than large enough for the biggest vehicles, the grandstands have excellent sight lines and the fan area with the souvenir trailers is plenty wide enough -- all of these are a direct result of the intelligent planning of the speedway when it was first started in 1999.

Those factors, combined with the addition of lights in 2008, have allowed Saturday night's LifeLock 400 to reach sellout status again after falling off in 2007. Or, as the track claims, all 75,000 grandstand "Track Packs" have sold out, allowing the speedway's "2008 Racing Season" to be sold out.

In what was, by far, the most entertaining moment of any press conference this weekend at Chicagoland Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was asked by the media to tell how he spends his time during a rain delay.

The conference happened Thursday night as the rain came down in buckets outside the media center, and Dale Jr. happily obliged.

"Really?" said Earnhardt Jr., a little surprised by the question. "I go on iTunes a lot."

"Does everybody remember the mini-series 'Lonesome Dove'? That just came out on DVD, they just released it, and iTunes has released it, so I downloaded that. I've got it on VHS, but the picture is horrible because it's so old. But I watch that, because I like Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call – those are my two heroes," said Earnhardt.

Yep, for Dale Earnhardt Jr., who could do anything he wanted in the world, true happiness lies a 1989 four-part TV mini-series featuring Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duvall.

The Hendrick Motorsports has even turned to YouTube to fulfill his "Lonesome Dove" kick.

"You can see a couple good quotes from 'Lonesome Dove' on YouTube," said Earnhardt Jr.

While I don't know which YouTube Lonesome Dove quote is Earnhardt Jr.'s favorite, he did tell the media of his favorite YouTube video, which is featured here:

If all you want to do is know the simple answer to this question, I'll give it to you. In the from of a picture. At the right.

And no, I'm not talking about standing in victory lane.

I just don't get it, I guess. What is it about racing a car that seems to draw very, very good looking women into the arms of seemingly normal guys? It's not the firesuit (ever seen one of those on a runway?), there's no attractive aromas inside a race car, and if certain lady isn't a racing expert like Kevin Harvick's wife Delana, then sitting in the pits probably gets boring.

And better yet, how does Kyle Busch -- he's no candidate for Sexiest Man Alive -- manage to land a lady like the one that was on his arm in victory lane on Friday night at Chicagoland Speedway?

Now this isn't trying to rip on that lovely gal. Her name? Samantha Sarcinella. Thanks to TGOM (remember her?) and Answer This... we know she's been dating Kyle since Indy a year ago, graduated from Purdue University with a degree in psychology and hails from St. John, Ind. -- just 40 minutes from Chicagoland Speedway.

No, Kyle Busch wasn't running an ethanol-blend in his fuel or a Toyota Prius instead of his normal Camry, but he did help Chicagoland Speedway take a decidedly greener look Friday night.

Busch won the speedway's first-ever night race as he took the checkered flag of the Dollar General 300 that saw just three caution flags for 15 of the race's 200 laps -- the lowest in the eight race history of the track. The lack of caution flag also allowed the field to run the quickest Nationwide race on record with an average speed of 144.443mph.

Wednesday night, prior to on-track activity at Chicagoland Speedway on Thursday, Juan Pablo Montoya found himself at Wrigley Field for the game eventually won by Carlos Zambrano and the Cubs over the Cincinnati Reds.

Why was JPM in Wrigleyville, you ask? Well, he was the token NASCAR publicity head chosen throw out the first pitch and sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame", in advance of the nearby race. A little cross-promotion, if you will.

Thankfully, Montoya's version wasn't as bad as Jeff Gordon's was a few years ago (horrible!), but it wasn't great either. Watch for yourself:



Obviously, the best part of that entire clip was the old guy in the stands at 0:44 that covered his ears as JPM led the crowd in singing the baseball anthem, because, well, Montoya isn't exactly Harry Carey.

I'm glad Montoya played along with the promo opportunity -- even though he finished the song like an entire verse ahead of the entire crowd.

Quality effort, Mr. Montoya, that's a Youtube keeper.