FanHouse WatkinsGlen

There's not a doubt in my mind that NASCAR's Watkins Glen International Raceway just picked up one of the most, uh, interesting race sponsorship titles.

As has been the norm for the past few years at the 11-turn road course in the upstate finger lakes region of New York, the title of the August event has taken many flavors -- from boating companies to computer products manufacturers.

This year, though, there's no Centurion, AMD or Sirius Satellite Radio involved, rather, folks there are looking to have a Heluva Good! time.

UPDATE: ESPN.com is reporting the Labonte has been released from the hospital and is making his way home with no injuries.

Sunday's Sprint Cup road course race at Watkins Glen was going along quite smoothly until a big crash took out nine cars running in the middle of the field.

In that crash, Bobby Labonte likely took the hardest direct hit as he plowed into the nose of a spinning David Gilliland. The No. 43 of Labonte then spun towards the inside the wall where it came to a rest while the wreck continued in front of him.

When the carnage stopped, Labonte emerged quite gingerly from his Petty Enterprises Dodge with a big grimace on his face prior to any safety crews arriving on scene. By the time they arrived, Labonte was already long gone from his race car and walking towards the pit area.

On television, it appeared Labonte was favoring his pelvis as he was stopped by NASCAR officials who soon found him a ride to the Watkins Glen International Raceway infield care center. From there, Labonte was quickly transferred to a local hospital for a further look at his condition.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. chose to race in Saturday's Nationwide Series race because he doesn't consider himself a great road course racer and wanted to get more experience to help his team get a better finish for Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen.

Next year, he might think about serving as crew chief in the Nationwide event so he can overcome blunders like the one Tony Eury Jr. got the No. 88 into Sunday afternoon while Earnhardt Jr. was leading.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver led 33 of the race's 90 laps, but he didn't lead anymore after a caution came out while he was leading on lap 64.

So much for that business about Kyle Busch cooling down.

Instead, Busch showed that he was just ready to take on his newest title as the Sprint Cup's next great road course ace after winning Sunday's Centurion Boats at the Glen.

Now that was fun.

The only Australian driver in NASCAR -- the one and only Marcos Ambrose -- has finally taken the checkered flag after being oh-so-close for many Nationwide Series road course events in his brief NASCAR career.

Boris Said has ended up with a ride for Sunday's Sprint Cup event at Watkins Glen thanks to Kyle Petty and his No. 45 Petty Enterprises Dodge.

By offering their equipment to the road racing ace, Petty's team hopes to learn something for the future.

But for Said, he's just happy to actually be in the race because of what looks like an unfair system for drivers not inside the Top-35 in owner points.

And for Brian Simo -- who also didn't qualify and doesn't have the luxury of another ride -- the method NASCAR used on Friday at Watkins Glen after rain came was even more unfair.

NASCAR canceled the Sprint Cup series' first practice and the qualifying session thanks to the rain, but still had time to get a full practice in for the Nationwide Series, in addition to a Grand Am series race.

I'll let Boris explain why that isn't exactly fair:

For the fourth time in five years, Sprint Cup qualifying on the road course at Watkins Glen has been canceled due to rain.

With results like that, is it time to look at moving the road race at Watkins Glen to a different point on the Sprint Cup schedule? Or does it just always rain when the calendar says August in upper New York?

Either way, Kyle Busch -- who won the other road course race in California this past June -- will start out front thanks to his owner point standing. Self-proclaimed road course racing novice Dale Earnhardt Jr. will start second.

NASCAR canceled qualifying and practice because there just wasn't enough time to get both in after rain had previously delayed the Friday schedule.

Rain tires were all the rage a week ago for the Nationwide Series in Montreal, but NASCAR isn't about to bolt them on to Sprint Cup cars at Watkins Glen despite the persistent precipitation.

As a result, Friday activities at the upstate New York road course have come to a grinding halt -- much to the joy of the entire ESPN crew who now have plenty of time to twiddle their thumbs on live TV.

Friday's schedule at Watkins Glen includes a Sprint Cup practice (11:45am/ET), a Nationwide Series practice (1:30pm/ET), Sprint Cup qualifying (3:10pm/ET), Nationwide Series final practice (5:30pm/ET) and a Grand Am race (6:30pm/ET).

That first Sprint Cup practice was completely washed out, and more than likely NASCAR will give teams track time before they make them qualify.

As for the Nationwide Series, NASCAR is fully ready to slap the same model rain tires used a week ago at the Montreal road course for that series in the race, but there may be a supply issue for the teams to run rain tires all weekend.

Since sweeping the weekend with a win in both the Nationwide Series and Sprint Cup Series races at Chicagoland Speedway in July, racing in NASCAR has been a little rough on the Sprint Cup points leader.

Yep, Kyle Busch has simply cooled off for the past two race weekends. Cooled off, that is, from a high point somewhere on the momentum scale just past red hot.

His two finishes in the last two Sprint Cup events at Indianapolis and Pocono? Try 15th at the Brickyard and a staggering 36th at Pocono. Combined, those finishes have dropped 86 points off his lead over Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the standings to a smaller 176-point advantage.

Both Indianapolis and Pocono are flat tracks -- a venue that the Joe Gibbs Racing driver admittedly hasn't found a great handle on yet in 2008. The 15th-place finish at Indy was about how good the No. 18 was that day, but the 36th-place finish at Pocono was a matter of the team running out of fuel at the end of the race.

He does have a win in the Nationwide Series Kroger 200 at O'Reilly Raceway Park, but on the previous night in the Craftsman Truck Series, he struggled heavily with what he called "the worst truck" he's ever driven.

So, is this the point in the 2008 season where we see Kyle Busch come back to the pack? It very well could be.

The calendar now says August, and unbelievably, former Sprint Cup champions Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart still haven't found victory lane in 2008.

It wouldn't be correct, though, to say that each driver has struggled in 2008. In fact, it's been quite the opposite.

Through 21 races, Gordon has secured two poles, eight Top-5s, and to Top-10s. His best finish was a second-place run at Martinsville in the spring, and the results have landed him solidly inside the Top 12 drivers who will qualify for the the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

He's currently 6th in points, 381 points out of the lead.

Three DNF's in 2008 have hurt Gordon's season stats so far and without that share of bad luck, he'd be in much better shape as the series heads to a track that Gordon undoubtedly has to call one his favorites -- the road course at Watkins Glen.