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Musings From a Chicagoland Weekend



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.

Busch Overtakes Johnson for Chicago Double



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."

Chicagoland Ready to Light 'Em Up

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.

Stormy Skies Prevent Sprint Cup Qualifying

FanHouse's Geoffrey Miller is in Chicago for Saturday night's LifeLock 400.

The only thing driving Thursday night at Chicagoland Speedway was the rain.

Rain canceled the last 12 minutes of the Sprint Cup Series' first practice Thursday afternoon at Chicagoland Speedway, but storms of a stronger magnitude wiped out the first night-time qualifying session to be ever held at the speedway.

The earlier rain had pushed qualifying back over an hour and a half as crews worked to dry the track, but drivers and teams were still gearing up for the session as bigger clouds began building northwest of the speedway.

Eventually, those clouds got darker and quite a bit scarier, forcing fans from the grandstands and causing a manic rush in the garage area to get the cars off of pit road and back under cover. The pictures on the right show a time period of about 20 minutes as the clouds got progressively closer and ominously darker.

The Dangers of the Sprint Cup Garage



There's a reason why only a few people are allowed into the Sprint Cup garage, or any garage area for that matter, during a practice session -- it's a dangerous place.

There's race cars not obeying speed limits, blind corners, and speedy golf carts. And oh yeah, lots and lots of metal. From the transporters to the fences to the light poles to that giant piece of metal everyone sits on for the race, metal is everywhere.

Why is metal so dangerous, you ask?

Well in the case here at Chicagoland Speedway Thursday afternoon, metal is a nice conductor of electricity. And when lightning is dancing across the sky thanks to a looming thunderstorm well, you start realizing that the metal is not your best friend.

Sell Your No. 20 Gear: Stewart-Haas Begins



I call myself an average eBay shopper, and because of that, I'm putting out a warning.

If you see some great deals on Tony Stewart gear, there's a reason for that: it's not relevant after 2008.

Stewart announced here at Chicagoland Speedway Thursday that he and Haas-CNC Racing will pair up to form Stewart-Haas Racing, an entity that Stewart will drive for in 2009, that will sport two teams, and will continue running Chevrolets.

The partnership, amazingly enough, doesn't appear to have involved any financial commitment on Stewart's part, with Stewart continually referring to the move in numerous tenses of the word "give". When asked directly, he skirted the question.

FanHouse Welcomes You to Chicagoland

Ah, Chicagoland Speedway ... the NASCAR track that is really nowhere near Chicago.

Yep, based in here Joliet, Ill. -- some 45 minutes southwest of Michigan Avenue in the midst of cornfields and suburban houses is the 1.5-mile oval with newly installed lights.

If you haven't noticed, FanHouse as a whole got a huge upgrade Wednesday night (bigger than we first imagined) and caused us to be down for a few hours. We're working out the kinks, but in the mean time, things are looking to be much more friendly on the user end (that's for you!) so that's a great thing.

Additionally, yours truly is now stationed at Chicagoland for the LifeLock 400 race weekend (for the first time in FanHouse history!), and I'm hoping to bring plenty of quality coverage as only the FanHouse can -- with interesting stories and takes on the biggest issues hitting the sport.

Right behind me at the moment (2:41pm/ET) Greg Zippidelli is discussing his driver's, Tony Stewart, announcement that 2009 will see the beginnings of Stewart-Haas Racing, as well as talking about his own personal future with Joe Gibbs Racing. Look for some more coverage on that coming up here on the 'House, hopefully before Sprint Cup practice starts.

In the mean time, I'll invite you to check out the brand-spanking-new comment system located at the bottom of each post. Fellow 'Houser Will Brinson offers you an explanation here.

It's a good day in Chicagoland -- the FanHouse has been updated, we've got a new URL (motorsports.fanhouse.com) and there's plenty of news in the air. Stay tuned for plenty more.

Video: Wild Finish of the Coke Zero 400

Miss the race? Wanna re-live the green-white-checkered finish? Here's your chance, thanks to Youtube.

Watch below for the Jeff Gordon-spinning, David Ragan-near-wrecking, Michael Waltrip-wall-banging, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch side-by-side finishing awesomeness that was the end of the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona in all of its glory from the live TNT broadcast.

The fun starts below as the field takes the final green flag of the race:



Gordon gets the on-track fireworks show started by getting turned around by Carl Edwards while riding in second place after the leaders exited the tri-oval under the green flag. Gordon took blame for the incident, though it left him with a disappointing 30th-place finish.

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