FanHouse ScottRiggs

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- For Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon, Thursday afternoon's Gatorade Duels at Daytona was a nervous affair because they didn't want to hurt their race cars for Sunday's Daytona 500.

But for four other drivers, just finishing the race high enough in the running order was downright breathtaking.

And for one driver, the feat of qualifying for the Daytona 500 was enough to bring tears to his eyes.

With 43 cars on track, it's not too often that TV cameras catch a wreck live for the audience at home, but June's Sprint Cup race at Dover International Speedway was a little different.

FOX Sports was riding along with Elliott Sadler in his No. 19 Dodge on the in-car camera when the car suddenly broke loose and slapped the outside Turn 2 wall. What we saw next was also atypical of crashes at Dover.

Instead of following the general rule that Dover is a "self-cleaning" race track that forces crashed cars to the bottom of the race track because of the banked corners and straightaways, Sadler's car opted to slide precariously into the middle of the track and into what is best described as a blind spot for race cars traveling at speed.

And so, as the video below shows, Tony Stewart slammed into Sadler, followed by Denny Hamlin, Scott Riggs, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Bobby Labonte to leave the track virtually blocked and multiple pre-race favorites done for the day after just 19 laps of the 400-lap race.

They probably knew it was coming, but probably not to this extent.

Haas-CNC Racing, which fields NASCAR Sprint Cup cars No. 66 and No. 77, had more than just a book thrown at them Wednesday as NASCAR levied the penalties for rear-wing mount infractions stemming from last weekend's race at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

The penalties, for both teams, included:

• 150 Driver points from Johnny Sauter and Scott Riggs
• 150 Owner points from the No. 66 and No. 70
• Six week suspensions from Sprint Cup Series racing for both crew chiefs and car chiefs
• $100,000 fine for crew chiefs "Bootie" Barker and Dave Skog, each
  
• Both race cars will not be returned after NASCAR confiscated them Friday at LMS

I think you can call that getting the entire library thrown at you.

In all, having rear-wing brackets that weren't correct -- Barker maintains he's used them all season -- just cost the team roughly a three-quarters of a million dollars.

I understand NASCAR's desire to clean up the sport and prevent teams from skirting the rules, but costing a team $750,000 seems a little overwhelming, considering the stats the Haas-CNC teams have put together in 2008.

Jeremy Mayfield is once again a free agent in the NASCAR world.

The 5-time winner in the Sprint Cup Series left his ride with Haas Racing as driver of the No. 70 car just seven races into the season in what has been described as a "mutual" situation. (Is it ever really mutual though?)

Haas plans to put Johnny Sauter in the car starting Saturday night at Phoenix International Raceway.

Mayfield, who has bounced around the Sprint Cup world for the past few years making just 22 starts in 2006 and 17 in 2007, scored his best finish of the season at Las Vegas when he came home 16th. Five other races, though, saw Mayfield finish 30th or worst.

Sauter drove for the Haas team in 2006 and had some respectable runs, including a 9th-place finish a year ago at Phoenix and a 5th-place at Richmond in the fall. At the end of the season, though, Sauter was canned by the team along with teammate Jeff Green in favor of Mayfield and Scott Riggs.

I've always liked Johnny Sauter as a driver though his style can be ragged at times. If given the right equipment, Sauter can be a consistent driver inside the Top-35.

But then again, I thought Mayfield could do the same.

For the guys who apply the name decals to the Haas CNC No. 66 Chevrolets and the No. 36 Bill Davis Racing Toyota, Monday brought plenty of new work.

Jeremy Mayfield will replace Jeff Green in the No. 66 immediately after departing Bill Davis' ride. He'll be there in 2008 as well.

For the guys who apply the name decals to the Haas CNC No. 66 Chevrolets and the No. 36 Bill Davis Racing Toyota, Monday brought plenty of new work.

Jeremy Mayfield will replace Jeff Green in the No. 66 immediately after departing Bill Davis' ride. With the No. 36 BDR ride available (and lacking a sponsor in '08), Davis hired a pair of Craftsman Truck Series drivers with past Cup experience to finish out the year.

Johnny Benson and Mike Skinner will split those duties. Skinner gets the gig at Atlanta this weekend and then at Texas Motor Speedway while Benson will wrap up the year at Phoenix and Homestead.

With Scott Riggs already announced as a Haas CNC driver for 2007, the driver lineup will completely change at Haas with both Jeff Green and Johnny Sauter on the way out it seems.

The last time Dale Jarrett wasn't in a race Geoffrey Bodine took home the trophy. Terry Labonte, Rick Mast, Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin rounded out the top 5 in that race -- the 1994 Tyson Holly Farms 400 at North Wilkesboro.

Saturday night, those drivers will no longer get to hold that distinction. Jarrett ran a lap of 123.226, nearly 3 miles per hour slower than pole-winner Jeff Gordon, that failed to qualify him for the Nextel Cup Series event.

It's not much of a surprise to see Jarrett miss a race now, as he has used up his entire allotment of past champion provisionals early in the 2007 campaign. It is a surprise to think that it's been 424 races since DJ hasn't been around on Sunday (or Saturday night).

David Reutimann is the only Michael Waltrip Racing entry to make Saturday night's Jim Stewart/Crown Royal 400.

DJ parted ways with crew chief Matt Borland this week, and today at Richmond got a little heated after a question from a reporter about Jarrett having nearly 12 different crew chiefs over the past 5 years.

"That's because y'all count everybody that was put in for one race or another. I didn't have a thing to do with it sometimes and to be quiet honest it's not something I'm concerned with. If it takes 42 [crew chiefs] from now until whenever I don't really care what the number is," said Jarrett.

The last time Jarrett missed a race, however, he came back and won the next weekk. Hmm...

Jeff Gordon Makes 3-in-a-Row

Gordon went out 14th on the grid Friday night and held on to win the Budweiser Pole Award. It is Gordon's 61st career pole and he has now started first in 5 of his past 6 races, earning four poles. Carl Edwards will start 2nd. Scott Riggs, outside the top 35 in owner points, starts fourth and A.J. Allmendinger made his 3rd race of the year. Johnny Benson will start Saturday night's race in what will be his first Nextel Cup start since fall 2005 at Atlanta.

As both the Busch Series and the Nextel Cup Series head to central Alabama for this weekend's races at Talladega, it's quite often a necessity to reminisce on some incredible crashes from the track.

This gem comes from the 2002 Aaron's 312 Busch Series race. 13 cars were left on track after this wreck to duel it out for another 100 laps. The wreck was started by Shane Hmiel (who interestingly enough was banned from NASCAR forever a while back for substance abuse) after he got a run on Scott Riggs in the yellow Nesquick car. The impact spun around Riggs in front of the entire pack, and carnage ensued.

You've gotta love some of the commentary from the FOX booth on this one. First, just as the wreck is happening, Darrell Waltrip is saying "Rut-roh!" and then later (with credit to a poster on Youtube) Larry McReynolds says "people cars driving under cars" at about the :32 mark in one of the better crash analysis quotes of all time.

Enjoy.

Scott Riggs knows what it feels like to miss a race. After all, he missed the biggest one two years ago at Daytona to lead off the 2005 campaign. Thursday afternoon, however, Riggs drove like a man that didn't want to feel that way again.

Coming into Saturday night's race, Riggs sits 36th in owner points meaning he had to qualify on speed. And boy, did he.

Riggs was 20th quick in pre-qualifying practice, but the cooler track temperatures really provided some extra grip for the Evernham Dodge in the qualifying session. The Valvoline car posted a time that was nearly six-tenths of a second faster than his best practice time and in doing so, grabbed the 4th spot on the grid. That translated to a speed average gain of nearly three miles an hour. Riggs was gettin' it done.

"It was a good lap for us. We really didn't know what we had to be honest with you. We knew we had a pretty good car and knew when the sun went down there was pretty good grip out there, but I think I still left about a tenth on the track. I was just trying to be careful and hit my marks," said Riggs.

Failing to make the show is something that definitely shouldn't happen for the Evernham team, but they've struggled mightily this season. Kasey Kahne flirted with falling out the top-35 but has kept his position. Elliott Sadler leads the team in 16th spot in part because he has completed all but 9 laps this season.

The strong qualifying effort has a doubly good effect on Riggs. Not only does he make the show, but he's got good track position to start the race.

"We've got track position, and that's something I've never had here because I haven't qualified well. Now that we've got good track position, hopefully we can have a good race," said Riggs.

That track position is something Riggs needs to turn into results this weekend at Phoenix to get back into the top 35.

The Nextel Cup boys return to the track this weekend in the Lone Star State at Texas Motor Speedway. Kasey Kahne won last year's event, and another this weekend would get his terrible start for the 2007 campaign somewhat turned around. Coverage of Sunday's Samsung 500 starts live on FOX at 1:30pm/ET.

1. Tony Stewart. - He was on fire here a few years ago -- literally. This weekend Smoke returns to victory lane in a performance that will put the troubles of Bristol very, very distant in the rearview mirror.

2. Jeff Gordon. - The 24 car has never seen victory lane at Texas, and this weekend will be no different. A solid run will keep the points lead in hand, however.

3. Elliott Sadler. - Remember that Sadler was in victory lane at TMS in 2004 while driving for another team. Look for the 19 to be up front again this weekend as Sadler continues his pursuit to make the Chase.