FanHouse DodgeDealers400

As mentioned in a previous post, Nextel Cup Chaser Kyle Busch thanked his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Casey Mears for yielding the 5th position to him in Sunday's Dodge Dealers 400.

On the last restart, Mears' Crew Chief Darian Grubb came over the radio to let his driver know that if the #5 caught up to them and the #25 didn't have anything for him, he was to let him by.

Mears gave the 10-4 and ultimately gave way to the Shrub. For the non-Chaser, it meant giving up his fifth top 5 on the season for the "good of the team." For Busch, it meant an additional five points for his championship run.

Mears understands that he took one for the team and he did so willingly. But he felt differently about his decision after the fact.

Take a listen. **NSFW**

So, Mears got the boss' order ... he followed it ... he hates it ... but he gets it. Good boy. Is it messed up? Hell yeah. But, let's not forget, this is a team sport--Mears played the position his coach needed him to. Five points are five points and right, wrong or otherwise, at this point in the season, those five points are worth more to Hendrick in Busch's total rather than Mears'.

Depending on which report you read, 11 or 12 drivers were caught up in Sunday's late-race melee caused by Kurt Busch:

"I'm not sure if we broke something in the suspension or if a tire went bad."

I'm not sure it matters. At least not to anyone besides him. Whatever it was cost him and three of his fellow championship contenders better finishes: Busch (28th), Jimmie Johnson (14th), Martin Truex Jr. (13th). Kyle Busch still managed to pull off a top 5 finish despite the damage to his race car.

Greg Biffle's 2nd place finish in the Dodge Dealers 400 was his best performance of the season, but it wasn't quite enough to catch Carl Edwards.

"If I could've got to his bumper, it might have been a challenge for him. I know he's in the Chase and he had a little cushion today, and I needed a win pretty bad, but we were going to race him clean. But I wish I had a chance at him."

The cautions didn't help:

"They hurt us. I don't know ... I don't know if I was going to catch Carl or not."

Biffle's fellow non-Chaser Dale Earnhardt Jr., on the other hand, benefited greatly from the late-race cautions. He was able to get back on the lead lap, avoid the "big one" and pull off a 3rd place finish, his seventh of the season.

"I think we deserved to get a top-three, even though we probably should have finished eighth or so."

Agreed. The #8 team has had some misfortune they didn't deserve this season--they are certainly deserving of a little good fortune.

Hey ... why did they take away the million dollar award for the first driver to finish outside the Chase? I'm sure NASCAR wouldn't have that hard a time finding a sponsor to turn that unlucky spot into Lucky 13^th.

Carl Edwards won the Dodge Dealers 400 today to claim his first victory at Dover International Speedway, his third win of the season. The win bolstered his Chase run, bumping him up to the 3rd position, but it may not hold through penalty day.

After several late-race restarts, Edwards drove away from runnerup Greg Biffle following the final caution period with five laps to go.

So, he's one of the top five drivers within 10 points of the lead. That's the good news.

The bad news is, Edwards' winning Office Depot #99 Ford failed post-race inspection because the right rear was too low. Doesn't sound like he's going to have the same luck as Tony Stewart did last week when Smoke's low tolerance was deemed the result of race damage.

If the average penalty for a non-COT penalty is assessed, he will be docked 25 points and will fall to the 6th position, giving way to Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch and Clint Bowyer.

Most unfortunate. Whether it was a spring or something else, it was costly. With as tight a race as these guys are running for the championship, they cannot affords "infractions" such as this.

Ok ... I am officially starting to feel for the #22 Caterpillar Toyota Team. If The Blaniac Challenge has served any purpose--besides getting Dave Blaney a lot more coverage in the Fanhouse than he would have had--it's been to make me pay more attention to the teams outside the top 35.

So, Blaney failed to qualify for the Dodge Dealers 400--his third DNQ of this season. It's going to be much harder to come back now after taking home zero points when those above and below him in the standings will be racing Sunday.

The timing couldn't be worse with the season winding down and teams looking for guaranteed starting spots in the first five races of 2008, including the always-overflowing field at Daytona.