FanHouse NASCAR

For two mornings this week, Ryan Newman struggled just to lift his head off the pillow to get out of bed, his neck muscles still sore from a frightening airborne smash-and-roll wreck at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway last Sunday.

Even as he suited up Friday to practice for Race 8 of NASCAR's 10-race Chase for the Championship at Texas Motor Speedway, he was still aching from the crash, and bristling that it even happened.

Newman had been outspoken about NASCAR's immediate need to keep the race cars from launching into the air during accidents -- only to take that scary ride himself Sunday afternoon.

INDIANAPOLIS -- The timing of the latest round of Danica Patrick-to-NASCAR reports isn't lost on those in the IndyCar world, where Thursday's major announcement that IZOD will be the IndyCar Series' first title sponsor in a decade has been forced to share headlines with its most famous driver's likely part-time foray into stock cars.

Recently crowned 2009 IndyCar Series champion Dario Franchitti -- a former Andretti Green Racing teammate of Patrick's -- said Thursday he's still confident she's staying in IndyCar next season.

"I believe she'll be back in IndyCar next year and that will help her with her goal of winning the Indianapolis 500,'' Franchitti told FanHouse. "If she does drive in NASCAR, I think it will be difficult to do both.''

To hear Jimmie Johnson describe it, the most challenging part of wrapping up a historic fourth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship is not getting wrapped up in winning it. No matter how hard everyone else tries to convince him the trophy's been engraved.

He holds a 184-point advantage -- nearly a full race lead -- on second place Mark Martin and only needs to finish 10th place or better in the remaining three Chase for the Championship races to secure the trophy. That's even if Martin wins all three races and leads the most laps in each.

But Johnson insists his approach in the No. 48 Lowe's Chevy will be the same as if he was trailing by 184 points and promised he wasn't about to start being conservative.

"We're showing up to win races,'' Johnson said. "Finishing 10th isn't as easy as it sounds. It is a tough field of cars out there and we need to be on our game. With three to go, we need to race these next two as if we're behind in the points and get every point we can.''

Is there another sport that turns on its winners so?

And cheering against the New York Yankees doesn't count.

Another superb run in NASCAR's Chase for the Championship has put Jimmie Johnson in position for a historic fourth consecutive Sprint Cup title. He's on the verge of accomplishing something Richard Petty, the late Dale Earnhardt, Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip and Jeff Gordon never did.

And for all his hard work and performance under pressure here's the thanks he gets: people are accusing him of stinking up the show.

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In his first national one-on-one television interview, suspended NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield continued to deny drug use and accused NASCAR of using him as a "a good pawn who wasn't going to cost them any money at all.''

Mayfield, who was suspended indefinitely by NASCAR for testing positive in a pair of drug tests this May, made the assertions on ESPN's Outside the Lines show, which will air Sunday at 9 a.m., hours before the green flag drops for the Sprint Cup Series race at Martinsville, Va.

It's been widely reported that the positive test revealed use of methamphetamine, something Mayfield has denied. He claims the tests were a "false positive," the result of his use of Adderall, a prescription drug for attention-hyperactivity disorder, combined with the common allergy medication, Claritin-D.

In this week's edition of Inside the Chase, FanHouse's Holly Cain visits with Ryan Newman, the driver of the U.S. Army-sponsored No. 39 Chevrolet, to talk Talladega safety improvements, a rough qualifying lap at California Speedway, reading to school kids, a vacation to Jackson Hole and the benefits of earning his college degree.

Ryan Newman is currently ranked ninth among the 12 drivers vying for the Sprint Cup title as the series stops at Auto Club Speedway of Southern California for the fourth of the 10-race Chase for the Championship.

Newman was a vocal proponent of having NASCAR make safety modifications in light of a horrific airborne crash at the spring Talladega 500-miler. In the midst of a multi-car accident at the front of the field, Newman's car launched Carl Edwards' car into the front stretch catchfence. Debris injured seven people in the grandstands.

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Danica Patrick climbed out of her race car Friday afternoon, all smiles about a solid seventh-place qualifying effort for Saturday's IndyCar season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and liking her chances about a career-best ranking (fifth) in the standings.

She joked with reporters about missing her public relations spokeswoman and spoke earnestly of her Andretti Green Racing team's pressing need to find more speed.

Just don't ask her about the big elephant on pit road -- her contract status and whether she plans to give NASCAR a go.

When asked simply if she had hoped to be able to announce something by now, Patrick pointed her finger and said, "Why do you gotta end it like that?'' abruptly turned her back on the group of a half-dozen reporters and stormed away.

The interviews were over. The speculation will continue.

As NASCAR's Chase for the Championship enters week 3 of its 10-week playoff run, FanHouse delivers its third installment of Inside the Chase with Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet.

Newman sits seventh in the championship -- 110 points behind leader Mark Martin -- as the Sprint Cup Series visits the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway for Sunday's Kansas 400. Newman won this race in 2003 and has three top-5 finishes in eight starts.

Sponsorship obligations, press tours, cross-country travel, high speeds and risky maneuvers -- those are just the requirements of Ryan Newman's day job.

It was not the scars and burns, nor all the prosthetic limbs, or even the constant hum of machines dripping life into some patients that most struck Ryan Newman during a visit Thursday with injured soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

It was a far more simple concept that impacted the 2008 Daytona 500 winner most.

"The age of the people we visited is mind-boggling,'' Newman said. "The average age of the soldier is way younger than you'd imagine.''

Eighteen, 19, 20 years old. ... ages when Newman, 31, in a pre-Sept. 11 era was frantically working toward an engineering degree at Purdue University during the week, then barnstorming across the Midwest during the weekend racing sprint cars in preparation for what's been a distinguished career in NASCAR.

Danica Patrick has signed a multi-year deal to stay in the IndyCar Series, according to a pair of published reports on Friday.

According to the Indianapolis Star and SI.com, Patrick signed a three-year contract extension with Andretti Green Racing (AGR). Patrick, nor the team, have confirmed the deal. There is nothing on her personal website addressing the situation.

"I think we'd all welcome her (to NASCAR), but I'm really happy for Michael (cousin Michael Andretti) and for his team,'' said NASCAR driver John Andretti. "That is great for them and maybe Danica can still try some of this stuff too and see what she thinks."