FanHouse NationwideSeries

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.

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?

Driver Kenny Wallace still works for four to five hours every day the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series takes the green flag for a race of a few hundred miles.

The big difference between the 43 cars battling for position and Wallace, however, is what truly nabs at the current Nationwide Series driver. Instead of being on track, Wallace sits in front of the cameras to tell the NASCAR nation about what will happen and what just happened on the track.

Such a role isn't all that bad, as Wallace told the NASCAR Scene, but its led to some terrifically disheartening experiences.

Did you get a chance to catch that Nationwide Series race from Las Vegas on Saturday afternoon?

When the checkers fell, Greg Biffle was left out front -- literally, as just 10 cars finished on the lead lap -- to snap his 76-race drought of winning in the series.

But in between, the 209 laps that made up the Sam's Town 300 turned out to be quite hairy for a number of drivers.

DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. -- After the dust settled in Daytona from Tony Stewart's verbal lashing of Goodyear and later his win in the Nationwide Series race, there were a few other things that are worth noting from the garage area:

Bowyer, Edwards get in some good-natured ribbing

Towards the end of the post-race press conference for second-place and Missouri-native Carl Edwards and third-place Clint Bowyer after Saturday's Nationwide Series race, the two drivers got on the topic of Daytona's plan to resurface the 2.5-mile superspeedway.

"I like the fact that his track gets rougher and slicker and there's different grip levels all over it. I was kind of sad to hear they were going to repave it," said Edwards. "I wish they'd just kind of patch it up or do whatever they do."

DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. -- Off the track Saturday morning at Daytona International Speedway, Tony Stewart was livid.

But following his first victory of 2009 during the Camping World 300 Nationwide Series race at the Florida track, Stewart's spirits seem to have changed.

"I was so frustrated this morning that I couldn't even see straight," said Stewart after the race, talking about how a blown tire on his teammate Ryan Newman's car caught both of his Stewart-Haas Chevrolets in a crash during final practice for tomorrow.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Here are a few rumblings from Friday, the calm before the storm at Daytona.

DIS: Tournament Fishing Venue - Friday morning, the Darrell Gwynn Foundation and the Spediatrics unit at Daytona Beach's Halifax Hospital got a nice boost thanks to a nice use of Lake Lloyd -- the six-acre infield lake dug out to produce DIS's high-banked corners.

Featuring drivers like Tony Stewart, Martin Truex Jr., Carl Edwards, Ryan Newman and others, the Hot Rods & Reels NASCAR Drivers Charity Fishing Tournament -- sponsored by Miccosukee Resort & Gaming -- saw NASCAR's wheelmen take to the water in an armada of bass fishing boats.

Jack Roush, co-owner of NASCAR's Roush Fenway Racing, can sleep a little better these days.

Toyota Racing Development -- long the rotten apple in the eye of Roush -- acknowledged this week in a conference call that it too expects budgetary cuts in the coming year thanks to an automobile market that's having a problem or two selling cars.