FanHouse Nationwide Series

It's got to be tough to be in Brad Keselowski's shoes.

The full-time Nationwide Series driver has shown to be one of the brightest up and coming stars in NASCAR, and his surprise Sprint Cup victory at Talladega only added to the hype. Consider that he's got the best shot as a non-Cup regular to overtake Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards for the Nationwide points title and his 3 wins in 2009, and you're looking at a guy who's turned plenty of heads in Cup ownership.

Reports say that Penske Racing has agreed to put him in the No. 12 Cup car for 2010, but how well he'd do there as a full-time driver is very much up in the air.

Typically, back-seat drivers are annoying and intrusive.

But when it's five NASCAR champions -- three crew chiefs and a pair of drivers -- doing the talking, well, that's a little different. At least that's what ESPN is betting on when it debuts an innovative race broadcast for Saturday's Nationwide Series race at Michigan International Speedway.

Instead of using a traditional play-by-play announcer, ESPN will have Ray Evernham, Andy Petree, Rusty Wallace (right) and Dale Jarrett calling the race in high speed stream-of-consciousness. Tim Brewer will weigh in from his usual perch in the "tech garage."

"It's going to be a different process for sure," said Wallace, the 1989 Cup Series champ. "I feel comfortable with it, I'm excited about it and when it's all said and done, it's either going to work or won't work and we'll see what happens."

Where: Daytona Int'l Speedway
Time: Saturday 8:00pm/EDT
TV/Radio: TNT, MRN Radio
Twitter: Updates at FanHouseRacing
Forecast: 74 degrees, Partly Cloudy
Distance: 160 laps (400 miles)
Pole Winner: Tony Stewart
2008 Winner: Kyle Busch

Get in the groove for today's race with FanHouse Warmup.

Veteran Brian Vickers couldn't have been less of a Red Bull Racing team player during Saturday afternoon's Nationwide Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, while his teammate Scott Speed handled a dicey situation beautifully.

The two Sprint Cup Series teammates tangled while battling Mike Bliss for fourth on the last lap, sending Vickers into the wall. On the cool-down lap, Vickers bumped Speed numerous times in retaliation.

What Vickers said, though, likely will have some lasting repercussions on the team.

Everyone had a feeling something had to give. And it has.

A week removed from Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, General Motors has pulled its factory support for teams in NASCAR's Nationwide and Camping World Truck series. And as the company evaluates its financial commitment to motorsports, there is concern that further cost-cutting may involve the Sprint Cup Series too. Several teams fielding Chevrolets in the Nationwide Series confirmed the news on Friday in statements.

"Obviously the automotive industry is dealing with unprecedented business challenges and we understand the need for restructuring to accommodate the need to reduce costs and maximize returns,'' said Kelley Earnhardt, general manager of JR Motorsports, a Nationwide team owned by her brother Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Saturday night at Nashville Superspeedway, Kyle Busch handled the coveted guitar trophy in a manner that about 99.931 percent of the world would never think to do.

Yet, when we're thinking about the most dominant driver in the sport in terms of race wins over the past year and a half, a little more thought could have almost anticipated seeing Busch doing exactly what he did in smashing that custom-painted Gibson Les Paul into the victory lane concrete.

Whether or not you found the "celebration" to be a complete slap in the face to numerous people or just another much-heralded "Kyle being Kyle" moment, there remains a stirring question: Is this 24-year-old polarizer making NASCAR into a sport that is better or worse?

Several of NASCAR's biggest names and personalities will descend on a tiny Rossburg, Ohio, half-mile clay oval next Wednesday for what has now become the hottest sideshow of the NASCAR season.

Hosted at the Tony Stewart-owned Eldora Speedway, the drivers will be joined by over 20,000 fans and hopefully many more for the HBO pay-per-view broadcast of the fifth annual Prelude to the Dream. Nationwide Series driver and SPEED TV personality Kenny Wallace, though, can't help to think how cool it would be to have NASCAR return to its dirt track roots.

"It would be nothing new, right?" said Wallace on Wednesday. "NASCAR used to run on dirt all of the time."

CONCORD, N.C. - Mike Bliss has again found some tremendous success at the only track in NASCAR's Nationwide Series he's ever won at.

Five years after scoring his first career Nationwide win at Lowe's Motor Speedway, Bliss used a bit of pit road luck, a timely caution and an even more timely rain shower to win the delayed and shortened Carquest 300 that say yours truly and thousands of others walk out thoroughly soaked.

The win, and the right-time-and-right-place racing luck, also gave his Phoenix Racing team their second surprise win in a month in NASCAR competition.

One of the bigger stories of the weekend's Nationwide Series activities at Nashville Superspeedway, thanks to the fine folks over at Scene Daily, involved a potential move of Rusty Wallace Inc.'s two teams to Sprint Cup in 2010.

According to the story, team owner Rusty Wallace said that he'd like to make the move in 2010, but that a lot of things would have to line up for it to happen -- like equipment, sponsorship and other necessities.

But doesn't it seem a little perplexing that the former Sprint Cup champ would want to move an organization that has one total win in Nationwide Series competition to NASCAR's top level?

As NASCAR heads into a rare stand-alone Nationwide Series race weekend, the debate inevitably heats up as to whether it's fair for the Sprint Cup drivers to crash the Nationwide parties.

The majority of Nationwide drivers say they welcome the competition and see it as a way to raise their game. But what are they going to say?

Stand-alone shows, like this Saturday's in Nashville, Tenn., give the Nationwide drivers slightly better odds at winning because fewer Cup drivers bother to make the commitment on an off-weekend or don't want the extra travel when the Nationwide race and Cup venues are different.

Instead of debating this recent phenomenon, why not change things up? NASCAR went decades with old-school thinking and rigid rules, but this is the era of free will and the will to change. NASCAR's had no problems altering the Cup championship formula and introducing a radically different car. So why not fix the Nationwide Series?