For one driver, getting older in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series just means getting better.
50-year-old Mark Martin will drive the full 2010 schedule in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 car, according to the Associated Press. Martin returned to full time competition in 2009 with a two year deal at Hendrick after running partial schedules since 2007, and it was originally expected that 2010 would be another partial schedule for the driver.
While the news may be good for Martin fans, surprise Talladega winner Brad Keselowski is now somewhat on the outside looking in for 2010 if he wants to pursue racing in NASCAR's top division.
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. 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.
After reading about yet another one of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s personal quirks, my head is still spinning.
And it's spinning because frankly I just don't get it, despite the article talking about his way of collecting old race cars like its an entirely normal thing. From the NASCAR Scene:
So whatever happened to the car that slid along the Auto Club (Calif.) Speedway wall last year, leaving a trail of flames as driver Brad Keselowski held on?
It's not at JR Motorsports.
It's at Junior's home.
OK, it's not inside the home, but it's on team co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s property. [...]
"It's a good conversation piece," Keselowski said. "It's actually out back in the woods. It's on a hill and there's vines and stuff growing through it. It's cool because Dale left it completely intact. Every single piece other than the radio is in it. It's really cool to see."
So, in short form, Dale Earnhardt Jr. collects old race cars only to leave them to rust, rot, and generally just turn to nothing on the deepest parts of his property.
The 24-year-old driver (who's braces make him look a lot more like 16) picked up second career win and his second win of 2008 during the Nationwide SeriesFood City 250 after his team owner -- Earnhardt Jr. -- qualified third-from-last earlier in the day at the same track for Saturday night's Sprint Cup event.
After blowing up colorful projectiles in the name of freedom on the 4th, hang out with FanHouse for the Coke Zero 400 Live Blog Saturday night at 7:45pm/ET.
With Casey Mears gone from Hendrick Motorsports after 2008, team owner Rick Hendrick doesn't appear to be wasting any time in announcing who will pilot the now vacant No. 5 Chevrolet.
HMS released a statement Tuesday saying that it will announce during a 12:30pm/ET news conference Friday at Daytona International Speedway who will indeed be behind the wheel of the No. 5.
Sources across the 'net are saying that 49-year-old Mark Martin will most likely be introduced as that driver -- in a full-time role for a one-off effort at a Sprint Cup title.
Coincidentally, Aric Almirola was confirmed as the full-time driver of the No. 8 U.S. Army DEI Chevrolet for 2009 and beyond, removing Martin from his part-time role with the team. Martin hasn't driven full-time in Sprint Cup since 2006.
After Saturday night, he's going to be pretty happy with his young driver after Keselowski won the Federated Auto Parts 300 at Nashville Superspeedway. It was Keselowski's first career win in the Nationwide Series.
Towards the end, the race was a lesson in fuel mileage as the leaders stretched their fuel tanks to the limit. Clint Bowyer, David Reutimann, and David Stremme all raced towards the front at the end as some late cautions allowed them to conserve fuel.
On the last restart, David Reutimann led until Clint Bowyer tapped his rear bumper to take the lead. Keselowski also got under Reutimann and stayed glued to Bowyer's rear bumper. He finally got under Bowyer with just a few laps to go and set sail for the finish line.
Bowyer and Stremme got together coming off turn four coming to the finish line, shooting Bowyer up the track. He wasn't real happy with Stremme after the event.
But for Keselowski, I'd say winning the traditional guitar trophy was much less important than the pressure he may have relieved from his owner Dale Jr.
What a night it was here Saturday in Concord, N.C.
Kyle Busch scored the victory in one of the most entertaining Nationwide Series races at Lowe's Motor Speedway I've seen. Busch's ninth total NASCAR win in 2008, though, wasn't exactly the top memory.
Instead, it was Denny Hamlin taking on two-thirds of the JR Motorsports contingent present for the event.
You can read more into at the Associated Press piece, but the gist of the happenings was that Brad Keselowski gave Hamlin a little tap under the yellow from behind to let Hamlin know he was there, Hamlin slowed and swerved into Keselowski's left front fender bending it in, and then Dale Earnhardt Jr. then stood up for the car he owns (Keselowski) and bumped Hamlin in the door.
Busch ran first with those three behind him and appeared to be in danger of getting beat in the final two-lap green flag finish until a caution came out on the final lap before the teams could enter turn three. Instead, he held on.
When the cars came to a stop after the race on pit road, there was plenty of pushing and shoving and NASCAR officials trying to maintain order. It was as close to an all-out brawl as you can get, but tempers evantually settled, allowing for some tremendous quotes.
It wouldn't really be a NASCAR season without Dale Earnhardt Jr. at least grabbing a part of the headline spotlight, would it?
The folks over at the Charlotte Observer (arguably the sport's best coverage in my book) seem to be getting wind of Junior starting to work with Tony Stewart about a ride with JR Motorsports at the Sprint Cup level. From the story:
Under this scenario, JR Motorsports would field at least two Cup teams and likely abandon its Nationwide program or scale it down significantly, sources said. JR Motorsports already receives chassis and engines from Hendrick Motorsports and could continue that relationship on the Cup side.
In a race marred by cautions -- it was a new race record of 13 -- even one of NASCAR's most-respected drivers caused a race-changing incident in Saturday's Nationwide Series Sam's Town 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Mark Martin, driving for JR Motorsports in the No. 5 Delphi Chevrolet, was closing on 2007 Nationwide champ Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski (Martin's teammate) coming to the line on lap 196 of the 200 lap race. Edwards and Keselowski were side-by-side for the lead and Martin got a great run off of turn 4 and tapped Edwards gently, spinning the No. 60 into Keselowski's No. 88, ending both drivers' chance at victory.
Martin then won easily in a green-white-checkered finish.
Martin, who won his 48th-career Nationwide Series race and led 81 laps, was very apologetic for the incident in victory lane. From the ESPN2 telecast:
Dale Earnhardt Jr. said in a recent interview that he felt bad for fans that had #8 tattoos. He fought hard to keep the number--more for his fans than for himself, but to no avail.
Nevertheless, Junior will never forget the devotion of the fans to his DEI #8 Budweiser Chevy team. Team JRM is going to make sure of it.
Ed Sullivan, President of InfieldParking.com, (join) along with JRM's Kelley Earnhardt and Thayer Lavielle, is making a collage of the tattooed fans' photos for Junior. No doubt the collection will ultimately hang in the Fan Zone or some other well-trafficked area of the JR Motorsports 66,000 square foot facility in Mooresville, N.C.
Got a #8 tattoo? Want it immortalized with other fans' #8 commemorative ink? Post a photo of your body art in the IP forum to have it included in the collage. Oh, and keep it PG ... IP and JRM are family-friendly forums. Shocker.
For one driver, getting older in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series just means getting better.
Earlier this week, we talked about 
After reading about yet another one of 
With 
What a night it was here Saturday in Concord, N.C. 
It wouldn't really be a NASCAR season without 
Dale Earnhardt Jr. said in a 
