FanHouse Dover International Speedway

As mentioned in a previous post, Nextel Cup Chaser Kyle Busch thanked his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Casey Mears for yielding the 5th position to him in Sunday's Dodge Dealers 400.

On the last restart, Mears' Crew Chief Darian Grubb came over the radio to let his driver know that if the #5 caught up to them and the #25 didn't have anything for him, he was to let him by.

Mears gave the 10-4 and ultimately gave way to the Shrub. For the non-Chaser, it meant giving up his fifth top 5 on the season for the "good of the team." For Busch, it meant an additional five points for his championship run.

Mears understands that he took one for the team and he did so willingly. But he felt differently about his decision after the fact.

Take a listen. **NSFW**

So, Mears got the boss' order ... he followed it ... he hates it ... but he gets it. Good boy. Is it messed up? Hell yeah. But, let's not forget, this is a team sport--Mears played the position his coach needed him to. Five points are five points and right, wrong or otherwise, at this point in the season, those five points are worth more to Hendrick in Busch's total rather than Mears'.

Depending on which report you read, 11 or 12 drivers were caught up in Sunday's late-race melee caused by Kurt Busch:

"I'm not sure if we broke something in the suspension or if a tire went bad."

I'm not sure it matters. At least not to anyone besides him. Whatever it was cost him and three of his fellow championship contenders better finishes: Busch (28th), Jimmie Johnson (14th), Martin Truex Jr. (13th). Kyle Busch still managed to pull off a top 5 finish despite the damage to his race car.

Greg Biffle's 2nd place finish in the Dodge Dealers 400 was his best performance of the season, but it wasn't quite enough to catch Carl Edwards.

"If I could've got to his bumper, it might have been a challenge for him. I know he's in the Chase and he had a little cushion today, and I needed a win pretty bad, but we were going to race him clean. But I wish I had a chance at him."

The cautions didn't help:

"They hurt us. I don't know ... I don't know if I was going to catch Carl or not."

Biffle's fellow non-Chaser Dale Earnhardt Jr., on the other hand, benefited greatly from the late-race cautions. He was able to get back on the lead lap, avoid the "big one" and pull off a 3rd place finish, his seventh of the season.

"I think we deserved to get a top-three, even though we probably should have finished eighth or so."

Agreed. The #8 team has had some misfortune they didn't deserve this season--they are certainly deserving of a little good fortune.

Hey ... why did they take away the million dollar award for the first driver to finish outside the Chase? I'm sure NASCAR wouldn't have that hard a time finding a sponsor to turn that unlucky spot into Lucky 13^th.

Ok ... I am officially starting to feel for the #22 Caterpillar Toyota Team. If The Blaniac Challenge has served any purpose--besides getting Dave Blaney a lot more coverage in the Fanhouse than he would have had--it's been to make me pay more attention to the teams outside the top 35.

So, Blaney failed to qualify for the Dodge Dealers 400--his third DNQ of this season. It's going to be much harder to come back now after taking home zero points when those above and below him in the standings will be racing Sunday.

The timing couldn't be worse with the season winding down and teams looking for guaranteed starting spots in the first five races of 2008, including the always-overflowing field at Daytona.

Ricky Rudd will miss his third consecutive race this weekend at Dover International Speedway. Rudd suffered a serious shoulder separation during a crash at California Speedway.

Kenny Wallace has filled in Rudd's No. 88 since that time and will continue this weekend with Dover's Dodge Dealers 400.

Wallace says that he is looking forward to running in the Dodge Dealers 400.

"I really have a love/hate relationship with Dover," he said. "I've had some good runs there, and those are the runs I always try to remember when we head there for a race. I really enjoy the track a lot, and I'm just waiting to love the track, but I really feel that I can do well up there in the car of tomorrow this weekend. For as much as I enjoy Dover, I haven't had the finishes that I should have so far, but I'm just going to keep on trying."

During his time in the RYR Ford, Wallace has posted unremarkable finishes of 28th and 34th respectively at Richmond and Loudon.

David Gililland, the other Yates driver, has only posted finishes of 22nd and 39th at the same events -- showing that the Yates machines aren't exactly up-to-par at the moment, however.

For Wallace's future, you've got to hope that Yates brings a better package to the Monster Mile this weekend.

It's not known when Ricky Rudd, who is retiring at the end of this season, will come back -- if at all -- from his injury.

Just as the talk of billionaire John Menard Jr. pulling the rug out from under his son's racing career starts to heat up, the matter of NASCAR driver Matt Kenseth funding his son's racing finally gets ironed out.

The 2003 Winston Cup champion and Ross's mom have been going at it-- through their attorneys, of course--to reach a financial agreement to keep 14 year-old Ross, who has been racing--and winning--since the age of 3, in a set of wheels.

After a yearlong battle, the former couple have finally inked a deal to cover Ross's racing expenses separate from their previous paternity/child support arrangement, which remains intact and unchanged. (h/t MilwaukeeWorld)

Voilà! Ross, who just graduated from the 8th grade with honors, is now the driver of a new late model team! He's already had his first practice and will be announcing his schedule soon.

First things first on Ross's agenda, hang out with dad this weekend and watch him score his second consecutive win at Dover International Raceway--assuming Mother Nature doesn't rain on his parade.

So ... can I get a big "Shame on You!" to everyone who knew nothing of the details of this situation who saw fit to call Ross's mom a gold digger out for millions? Evidence please? What I see--and what the evidence suggests--is a mom trying to do the best for her kid and a dad who wasn't doing his part.

I, for one, am glad Kenseth has stepped up to the plate--even if it did take mom to pitch the ball and a judge to put a bat in his hand. In the longterm, the deal is a home run.

The Date: June 4, 1995
The Track: Dover International Raceway
The Race: Miller Genuine Draft 500
The Conditions: First race on concrete

Usually, "the big one" is reserved for superspeedways. But in 1995, John Andretti--who, let's face it, doesn't share the same set of skill genes as some of his relatives--turned the speedway at Dover Downs into a parking lot. On the second lap of the race:
My favorite part comes next, when a heated Mark Martin calls "somebody"--Rusty Wallace--a dummy.

"There's no safe place on the racetrack because somebody from behind 'll run over ya runnin' wide open."

His spotter knew it was Wallace. Did Martin really not know, or was he trying to be a gentleman and not name names?

Oh ... and who won the race? That would Mr. Kyle Petty--his last trip to victory lane.