If I had said this six months ago, you would have insisted that I'd lost my last marble. But now the notion doesn't seem so crazy, does it? I pick Tony Stewart to win the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship.
That's right - my money's on "Smoke" and I'm feeling pretty confident given the way he's behaving lately. Taking the point lead at Dover, and winning for the first time as a car owner a week later at Pocono, sealed the deal for me, but let me point out that six months ago I was in the minority who believed in the notion that Stewart-Haas Racing would actually succeed.
Where:Lowe's Motor Speedway Time: Sunday 5:45 p.m./EDT TV/Radio: FOX Sports, PRN Radio Twitter: In-race updates at FanHouseRacing Forecast: 64 degrees, 80% chance of rain Distance: 400 laps (600 miles) Pole Winner:Ryan Newman 2008 Winner:Kasey Kahne
Sadly, Newman couldn't be more wrong because such a list wouldn't 'fix' a problem and the precedent set by both NASCAR and other major sports leagues has said that revealing an accused user's drug of choice is not an option.
There's a lot of folks in the NASCAR world that said Tony Stewart was straight crazy to leave his championship-winning team of Joe Gibbs Racing for the 2009 season.
Me? I didn't exactly make a prediction to stay on the safe side, mainly because I know how Stewart always produces when the odds are against him.
But for all of those that said Stewart and hired teammate Ryan Newman wouldn't find success, the still-young Stewart-Haas Racing is proving the doubters to be completely wrong.
That was pretty much the consensus of drivers following Wednesday's Goodyear tire test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway -- the sixth test since a tire debacle at the track during last year's NASCAR race resulted in no green flag runs more than 16 laps.
"The tires still are not ideal,'' said Ryan Newman, who represented the Chevrolet contingent in the four-car test. "I know Goodyear is still working on that. It is just a tough situation, man."
Let's face it: NASCAR's own rules nearly killed multiple spectators Sunday afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway.
The scary last-lap crash in the Aaron's 499 involving Carl Edwards, Ryan Newman and first-time winner Brad Keselowski is just the concoction NASCAR has cooked up with their set of rules governing the cans and cannots of racing at restrictor plate tracks.
At issue, primarily, is the much discussed yellow line rule that prohibits a driver from going below to advance a position.
TALLEDEGA, Ala. -- Brad Keselowski did what any driver would do.
It was the last lap, and he had a shot to win his first NASCAR Sprint Cup race. So he held his line and powered forward.
That the ensuing collision between his Chevy and Carl Edwards's Ford as they approached the finish line resulted in Edwards taking a frightening airborne ride into grandstands fencing and injuring seven fans had less to do with Keselowski than the innate dangers of restrictor plate racing.
In fact, NASCAR started putting restrictor plates on the cars at its two super speedways in Talladega and Daytona because of a similar airborne accident at Talladega in 1987. The idea was to control speeds. Roof flaps developed in the 1990s were supposed to keep the cars on the ground.
And so the 25-year-old Keselowski, whose win came in only his fifth Cup start, didn't make apologies for the racing.
TALLADEGA, Ala. -- After competing in nearly 200 races in NASCAR's three marquee series, David Ragan picked up his first victory in Saturday's Nationwide Series race at Talladega Superspeedway besting, among others, restrictor plate expert Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Ragan positioned his No. 6 Discount Tire Ford just behind the lead pack cars of Ryan Newman, Earnhardt and veteran Tony Raines in the final laps. And when the typical Talladega last lap scramble broke out, Ragan slipped by for the checkered flag about six feet in front of Newman. Joey Logano, Raines and Earnhardt rounded out the top 5.
As Ragan made his maiden trip to Victory Lane, most drivers -- including Earnhardt and Newman -- stepped out onto pit to congratulate the 23-year-old.
Mark Martin must have been tired of not winning poles in the Sprint Cup Series.
Just two weeks after Martin scored his first pole in 7 years -- remember that lap at Atlanta made the 50-year-old Martin feel like a rookie? -- the driver from Batesville, Ark., scored his second-straight pole Friday afternoon at Bristol Motor Speedway for Sunday's Food City 500.
Martin's lap of 125.773 mph gave him the top spot on the same weekend that news indicated he wants to stay in No. 5 full-time in 2010, rather than a partial schedule as was originally expected.
If I had said this six months ago, you would have insisted that I'd lost my last marble. But now the notion doesn't seem so crazy, does it? I pick Tony Stewart to win the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship.
Race: 
Ryan Newman
There's a lot of folks in the NASCAR world that said 
Less than impressed.
TALLEDEGA, Ala. -- 
TALLADEGA, Ala. -- After competing in nearly 200 races in NASCAR's three marquee series, 
Mark Martin
