FanHouse Pep Boys Auto 500

The one-trick pony is back to kick ESPN on ABC while they're down.

Way down:

ABC's broadcast of last Sunday's Pep Boys Auto 500 NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway earned a final Nielsen Media Research rating of 4.0 ...

20 percent lower than the 4.8 NBC earned for the same race in 2006.

20%?! Can't blame that one on arson the California wildfires.

So ... what do you want to blame it on?

In the internal combustion process, water doesn't burn too well. Actually, it doesn't burn at all.

Denny Hamlin's Chevrolet engine tried to burn water Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and the result wasn't pretty. Martin Truex Jr. slammed into the No. 11 as it stalled leading the field to a restart, Kyle Busch spun through the grass, and Carl Edwards unbelievably jumped five spots on the start.

Hamlin's car didn't stumble because of a lack of Sunoco racing fuel in the tank, but rather a fuel pump filled with water that had somehow made it into the team's fuel canisters. When Hamlin hit the gas, the pump fired more water than gas, causing Hamlin's engine to sputter.

Dave Blaney and race-winner Jimmie Johnson also found trace amounts of water in their systems during post-race teardowns.

Only Hamlin and Blaney had significant performance problems as a result, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s team suspects water caused Junior to fall back at the start of Sunday's race.

NASCAR apparently can't quite figure out where the water came from, mainly because it affected different manufacturers on different teams.

Don't expect the the No. 20 Home Depot driver to be opening up and talking candidly with the media a whole lot any time soon.

That is, though, unless he wants to start talking about the 2008 Sprint Cup campaign.

Tony Stewart finished 30th Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway after some motor troubles during the middle section of the race. He lost oil pressure and brought the car to pit road and lost five laps in the process.

After his dismal day at Atlanta, Stewart will have three races to make up the 322 point deficit at Texas, Phoenix and Atlanta.

Stewart joined a growing list of drivers who can count themselves out of the 2007 championship. Drivers that seem to still have a legitimate shot (some more than others) include Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Clint Bowyer and potentially Kyle Busch.

Carl Edwards in 5th and down 261 points teeters on the very edge of a possible championship run -- but it would have to come with improbable luck.

That didn't take long.

NASCAR confirmed Sunday morning at Atlanta Motor Speedway that they will switch to the new generation race car in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. The new car (I'm tired of calling it the Car of Tomorrow when its here today) will be raced full-time in the top NASCAR series next season.

"We're working on an '09 [Nationwide] car," Bodine said. "[Having it ready for] '09 is tentative. It's not set in stone but we're working on it. We've informed some of the Busch owners and we've got a prototype at the R&D center."

"There will be a different body style and different aerodynamic package," Bodine said. "We're working on all that stuff. We're just not there yet, still working through all that process.

Sporting several new safety features, a rear wing, and a front splitter, the next generation chassis and body style brought hope that NASCAR would finally apply some clarity and definition between the Sprint Cup Series and the Nationwide Series.

Instead, NASCAR will revert back to the old thinking of running two series that are hardly different, which will continue to lead to insane amounts of Cup regulars parading the Nationwide Series (formerly Busch).

The safety additions are without a doubt a good idea, but let's hope Bodine is right in that they will use a different body style and aerodynamics.

What happened to this fun idea?

What do you suppose DEI pulled out of the Garage Mahal and put under Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s hood this weekend?

Will he get an engine that lays all it's cylinders on the track up front and craps out before the halfway mark like in Fontana? Or will he get a teaser that takes him all the way to the end providing hope of a top 5 finish only to give up on the last lap like last weekend in Martinsville?

It's quite laughable that the #8 car was labeled still running in the Subway 500 results, but I guess that's accurate--it did, after all, sprint backwards from the fourth position to a 23rd place finish. But if the race had been even one lap longer, this would have been his eighth DNF of the season--seven due to engine failures.

Is it enough for conspiracy theories? Depends on who you ask. It's sure enough for Dale Jr. fans--and any other NASCAR fan whose got brain enough to recognize his talent and ability to put the car at the front of the pack.

Whatever it is they got him running in Atlanta was good enough for a top 5 start. But will it be good enough for a top 5 finish?