FanHouse Dickies500

Sunday's race at Texas Motor Speedway had a grand total of two cautions for actual on-track wrecks, and had David Gilliland not intentionally wrecked Juan Pablo Montoya, that number would have been cut in half.

First, the video:



I saw Montoya's crash live Sunday during our live blog here on the 'House, and immediately felt my stomach drop for how blatantly intentional Gilliiland's move was.

Who knew David Gilliland was that type of racer?

Carl Edwards' odds are long to catch Jimmie Johnson in the Chase for the Sprint Cup standings if they are based on the numbers alone. Factor in Johnson's status of being a two-time defending champion, and the odds banked on nearly impossible heading into Sunday's Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

All of that was riding on the mind of crew chief Bob Osbourne in final 100 miles of Sunday's race as he pondered two options: tell Carl to conserve fuel and hope for a miraculous win or bring Carl in for fuel and salvage a handful of points.

Osbourne bet on the former, and boy, did it pay off.

With just three races left in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, the NASCAR Sprint Cup season is winding down faster than you can say the word "three-peat" for Carl Edwards and the other drivers still chasing Jimmie Johnson for the season title.

Sunday afternoon at Texas Motor Speedway, that countdown moves closer to zero, but for the first time since Oct. 5 at Talladega, Johnson isn't starting on the pole. Edwards hopes that might bring a chink the armor for the No. 48, and Jeff Gordon hopes he can finally find victory lane after earning the first starting spot on Friday.

Can Johnson keep his sterling pace and move that much closer to a third championship? Can Edwards make up some ground? We'll only know 500 miles from now when one of the 43 starters stands in the TMS victory lane donning the traditional cowboy hat.

Follow all the action on ABC starting at 3pm/ET (green flag around 3:40pm/ET), and get in on the fun as we break down the race right here on the 'House, live blog style. Whether your a first time caller, a long time listener, or both, jump on in below as we break down the Dickies 500.

Earlier this week, we talked about the possibility of big job losses in the NASCAR industry after the season-finale weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November.

Sponsorship is obviously the lifeblood of the expensive sport, and without it, it's tough for teams to pay the bills. Naturally, NASCAR's most popular driver chimed in on the future of sport Friday at Texas Motor Speedway -- site of Sunday's Dickies 500.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who will be laying off some employees from his JR Motorsports operation thanks to a lack of sponsorship for 2008, feels that shoring up the season might be the best answer, cost-wise and entertainment-wise.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. knows there's too much money to be made in Sprint Cup racing for it to happen, but he believes a shorter schedule would actually help stock car racing.

"What's happened is we have saturated the market with race after race after race," Earnhardt Jr. said. "The NFL does such a great job. ...It gives you just enough to keep you wanting more. The season ends before you want it to. You just get just enough to get excited and then it's all over and there's such a long wait. The model works."

Earnhardt Jr. said NASCAR is more like other sports with longer seasons.

"There are lulls and inactivity between the fan and the sport itself at times," he said. "There's no way to fix that. We're driven by the ability to go make another dollar and make more money, and there's no way we would ever trim it down.

I'm certainly having a tough time faulting Earnhardt Jr.'s logic in this situation.

If you've followed NASCAR at all, you know that Texas Motor Speedway has been nothing short of a story in frustration for Jeff Gordon.

In the inaugural race at the track, Gordon was out front when Ernie Irvan bounced off a slower lapped car on the frontstretch and took him out. He's cut a tire and pounded the turn four wall hard enough to leave him briefly stunned inside the cockpit. And two years ago, he was leading late in the race until he brushed the wall off turn four and fell back.

Then, of course, no one can forget what happened to the No. 24 team just this past April, as he had what could easily be described as the worst race of his career. Simply, Gordon's car was uncontrollable and he evantually lost control and crashed early in the event.

Obviously, Texas has not been Jeff Gordon's friend, so seeing the four-time champion on the pole for Sunday's Dickies 500 (didja hear we're live bloggin' it?) at the Fort Worth track is certainly somewhat of a surprise given the season that Gordon has had.

The last time we did this here at the 'House during the regular season finale at Richmond, Kyle Busch was making business cards saying "2008 Sprint Cup Champion" and Jimmie Johnson was likely ready to question team owner Rick Hendrick about why in the world he let the Shrub leave the organization.

My, oh my, have the tables turned.

Johnson, of course, is the one writing the new business cards and Kyle Busch has been left to doing nothing except shake his head and wonder why.

Naturally, it's a great time for FanHouse to get back on the live blog bandwagon, and I'm certainly hoping you'll join us!

We'll crank up the live blog on Sunday at around 3 p.m./ET to help you get through yet another run to the title for Johnson. There will be race analysis, TV analysis, commercial analysis and whatever other type of analysis you want during the 500 miles that will be the Dickies 500 coming to you and yours live on ABC.

Come one, come all and make sure you visit the box below to have an email reminder sent your way so you can join in on the fun.

I'd imagine you've seen a thing or two about this story in the past couple of days, but in case you haven't, it's worth reading about.

Essentially, the gist of the of the story is that somebody, somewhere is very happy to rain on Kyle Busch's parade in 2008. You remember Busch, right? That guy who has won eight Sprint Cup races in 2008? Or, more timely, the guy who finds himself just puttering through the Chase for the Sprint Cup in 12th-place, wondering how tables can turn so fast.

Busch, who's scheduled to race in Friday night's Craftsman Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway, got to the Lone Star State track Thursday only to find that his No. 51 Billy Ballew ride had been charred in a fire along the interstate in Shreveport, La.

The fire left only one race truck -- reports are conflicting so we don't know whether or not it the primary or the backup that was salvaged from the fire -- and a pit box usable, and burned up the rest of the equipment. This bad luck for the team and continuation of bad luck for Kyle Busch simply is incredible to me.

Martin Truex Jr. scored his first career pole at Texas Motor Speedway and he's got a reservation for #1 in the 2008 NASCAR All-Star race oops Bud Shootout to show for it ... Not to mention a spankin' new rifle for his next hunting adventure.

All Bud Pole Awards are definitely not created equally. I do believe this one comes from Beretta's Gold and Diamond Pigeon Series of field guns, placing its value somewhere between $4,500 - $8,500. Not a bad score for the Bass Pro Shops sponsored outdoor enthusiast.

Mad props to A.J. Allmendinger, too, who also posted a career-best qualifying effort and will start in the 5th position in Sunday's Dickies 500.

Missed the Mark
John Andretti, Ward Burton, Burney Lamar and Kevin Lepage and Michael Waltrip will be sitting this one out.

Dickies 500 lineup