FanHouse Sprint Cup

It took just 3 hours, 24 minutes and 20 seconds of racing action Sunday at Dover International Speedway to allow "Superman" to reassert his dominance over NASCAR Sprint Cup racing.

Jimmie Johnson pounded the field around the concrete one-mile oval for his fifth career win at Dover and fourth of the season to take home the AAA 400 trophy. Johnson led some 271 laps and never looked back despite late cautions that brought the competition back to his bumper three times in final 100 laps.

In doing so, Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus served notice that they don't expect a change from recent years at the celebration following the season's final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

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10 years ago Saturday -- Sept. 26, 1999 -- was the end of an era for Jeff Gordon.

For as long as Gordon had been a NASCAR Sprint Cup driver, Ray Evernham had been his crew chief. The run produced three championships and 47 wins but came to end when Evernham decided to start his own venture into Sprint Cup ownership. The questions came quickly.

Would Jeff Gordon have the same success? Or would the loss of Evernham spell the end of Gordon's reign in NASCAR?

10 years later, Gordon's success has proved that Gordon could go it alone just fine, but also leaves the question of what could have been.

If you believe a certain Sacramento sportscaster, Juan Pablo Montoya might be hearing some harsh words in a few weeks from California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger when the Sprint Cup Series visits California.

KTXL-TV's Jim Crandell -- the "Scoopmeister," if you ask the Sacramento Bee -- was scheduled to interview Montoya prior to last weekend's race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway via satellite. Montoya, however, ducked out on the interview just prior to recording the segment with Crandell.

Crandell, obviously peeved at Montoya, later took the footage of Montoya walking out to craft a segment slamming NASCAR for declining popularity and drivers that Crandell thinks are a little too full of themselves. Catch the video below.

A.J. Allmendinger's car sat quiet across the frontstretch of New Hampshire Motor Speedway with the white flag waving as he flipped the car's starter, trying to crank the engine.

Meanwhile, leaders Mark Martin, Denny Hamlin and Juan Pablo Montoya scrambled for position on the final lap through turns 3 and 4 as the flagman prepared to wave the checkered flag. In a flash, it looked like the finish of the first race of the Chase was going to end in a crushing fashion as Allmendinger sat helplessly in peril.

At the last possible second, NASCAR threw the caution to avoid the collision but also provoked a new topic of discussion for the coming week: when exactly is the best -- and safest -- time to put out the yellow flag on a race's final lap?

They've fought on-track and tossed fighting words at each other off-track, but now Brian Vickers and Kyle Busch are more focused on the fight ahead of them this weekend at Richmond International Raceway.

Busch, a winner of four races this season, and Vickers, a winner of one, stand the best chance to fight their way into the top-12 of NASCAR's point standings at the end of the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 Saturday night. By doing so, they'd secure themselves a spot in the coveted Chase for the Sprint Cup and a chance to race for the title.

But judging by performance of previous drivers on the edge of making it in during Richmond's final opportunity, their chances are 50/50 at best.

Where: Atlanta Motor Speedway
Time: Sunday 7:47pm/EDT
TV/Radio: ESPN, PRN Radio
Twitter: Updates @ FanHouseRacing
Forecast: High 60s, Mostly Cloudy
Distance: 325 laps (500.5 miles)
Pole Winner: Martin Truex Jr.
2008 Winner: Carl Edwards
Sunday night's race might be a last ditch effort to ensure Atlanta Motor Speedway has a spot on the NASCAR schedule, much less two.

And judging by the optimism of AMS track president Ed Clark, the expected attendance is working in his favor.

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.

Tweets, comments, and a few emails in the past couple of days have questioned the very soul of why Bristol Motor Speedway was sold out Saturday night.

They've supposed that the main reason over 160,000 souls packed the half-mile concrete bowl in as-far-as-it-gets-from-New-York-City east Tennessee may not actually be there anymore -- thanks to NASCAR's new car, the new Bristol surface or even the championship format.

Bristol, as they'd tell it, has become what no one thought it could: boring.

Where: Michigan Int'l Speedway
Time: Sunday 2PM ET
TV/Radio: ESPN, MRN Radio
Twitter: Updates @ FanHouseRacing
Forecast: Sunny, 91 degrees, 30% rain
Distance: 200 laps (400 miles)
Pole Winner: Brian Vickers
2008 Winner: Carl Edwards

Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Scott Pruett and plenty of others in the NASCAR world have got to be wondering: Is the driver of No. 42 really Juan Pablo Montoya?

It's a good question thanks to the new tune that crew chief Brian Pattie has managed to get Montoya to sing during his 2009 run to earn a spot in his first Chase for the Sprint Cup. That tune, of course, showed its face on Friday at Michigan International Speedway ahead of Sunday's 400-miler at the 2-mile venue.

"We know what average we have to run to be in the Chase. It doesn't matter who beats you that one day or another," said Montoya. "Play it smart, don't take any big risks and hopefully it pays off."