FanHouse Petty Enterprises

So ... remember Kyle Petty fell to the 35th spot last week? Well, should he happen to fall out of the top 35, he's gone and lined up a former champion to ensure the #45 Dodge qualifies.

Petty had to look no further than his own teammate, 2000 Winston Cup Champion Bobby Labonte.

"Look, as long as they don't change the rules and the rulebook is written that way, we're in the business to run racecars. We have two racecars -- the 43 and the 45. Those are our racecars. Right now Richard Petty owns both racecars, and we've got one driver with the championship provisional and another driver who is on the bubble. Whatever it takes to get those in, I don't see the issue with it.

OMG! Genius! Soooo genius I can't even believe this is allowed. Why is this allowed?

A trip to the Midwest has seemed to have changed Denny Hamlin after last week's brouhaha with Kyle Petty.

He's steeply backed off his fightin' words (an angel, remember?) and is now sporting some new facial hair. The new look, though, isn't the most important part.

His words are.

"No matter what you do, Kyle is going to be right and a lot of what he did was right," Hamlin said. "You never want to be involved in an incident, especially with Kyle because he's respected a lot ... so, really, I've just got to learn to grow up as far as that's concerned."

Does it make up for his actions/words from last weekend at Dover? I don't know, but if nothing else it's a step in the right direction for Hamlin in the maturing process.

Though it would of been more exciting to see the confrontation last awhile, nobody would win in that situation. Petty has a 2008 Daytona 500 start on the line and Hamlin kind of has that Chase for the Championship thing going on.

Hamlin currently sits 158 points out of first in the Chase with eight races left, including this weekend's event at Kansas. With that deficit, you'd have to believe that someone at Joe Gibbs Racing might have been behind Hamlin's sudden change in personality -- a refocusing of sorts.

But I've gotta know, who was in charge of the new facial feature?

Denny Hamlin does no wrong, according to Denny Hamlin.

So was the claim at least after an incident with Kyle Petty and his No. 45 Dodge Sunday at Dover International Speedway.

Here's the exact quote from the Hammy after the wreck that definitely slowed his progress in the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

"Let's look back at my career. I've never wrecked anyone my entire career has anybody spun off my front bumper. It's not like I'm a guy who runs into everybody," said Hamlin.

So you've never, ever wrecked anyone? Ever?

Now, here's the wreck and aftermath (aftermath first, wreck second).

Daaaaaaaaang, Denny!

Kyle Petty got a little mad Sunday afternoon at Watkins Glen. And as a result, he won't be racing Sunday at Michigan.

The heir-apparent to any new driving opportunity at Petty Enterprises, Chad McCumbee will instead take over.

Petty had surgery Tuesday on a broken right hand suffered after an incident on course at lap 69.

It sounds like self-contact was to blame for the injury:

Kyle Petty, driver of the No. 45 Petty Enterprises Dodge suffered a broken hand as a result of hitting the butt of his right hand on a door inside the hauler after a lap 69 incident in Sunday's Centurion Boats at the Glen at Watkins Glen International road course.

[...] He flew back to his home in North Carolina, where he was treated by a doctor who determined that the hand was broken.

Maybe it was just a ploy to get McCumbee in the car again? After all, the kid did a fantastic job at the first Pocono race and Petty has had nothing but praise for the driver on his rotational role with PRN's Fast Talk.

Or, most likely, Petty got mad and had a little bit of anger built up because his car didn't perform at all Sunday and because he had to fire a crew chief.

He's scheduled to be back for the breeze of a race that is Bristol. Right.

NASCAR driver, IndyCar driver, NHRA driver, and whatever-else driver John Andretti will be back behind the wheel again this weekend at Michigan International Raceway.

Andretti is taking over the reigns of the No. 45 Petty Enterprises Dodge from Chad McCumbee who took the wheel from Kyle Petty last week at Pocono.

Petty is stepping out of the car for a few weeks to work with TNT in the broadcast booth -- and he's doing a mighty fine job at that. Kyle will race again next weekend at Infineon Raceway before sitting out a couple of more races for TNT. Andretti will handle those races as well.

Andretti has had two separate stints with Petty Enterprises, with this weekend being the third.

"It's ironic that I'm coming back at Michigan. It's where my career started with Petty Enterprises. It was the second Michigan race, and we qualified outside the front row. I'm looking forward to going there," said Andretti.

Andretti's career-best finish at Michigan was a 4th in 1995. It'd be quite a feat for John to accomplish that this weekend.

Anyhow, it's good to have Andretti back, mainly because it's really good to have Kyle Petty in the TNT booth.

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Chad McCumbee might be better known to some NASCAR fans as the driver who portrayed Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the made-for-tv movie "3: The Dale Earnhardt Story" than he is for his own racing. This despite having amassed more than 100 victories in local, regional and national WKA Dirt Series events and 3 top 10s in his NCTS 2006 rookie effort.

The Green Light Racing driver, who currently sits 14th in the NCTS standings, hopes to raise his profile this weekend when he makes his Nextel Cup debut behind the wheel of the Petty Enterprises #45 Goody's Cool Orange Dodge at Pocono, filling in for Kyle Petty, who will be in the TNT booth calling the race.

McCumbee wants to leave a lasting impression:

"When you look back at the last two years, Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin both won this race without ever racing at Pocono before. I have a lot of seat time on the track and a great team behind me. While I am looking at this as a learning experience for me, I really think we can go out there and turn some heads."

Not sure it's what he had in mind, but with that face I know he'll at least be turning the heads of female fans.

McCumbee got his visibility campaign off to a good start by winning Saturday's ARCA race. Owner Richard Petty was there to meet him in victory lane:

"When he was there, it seems like a light centers around him. It's pretty awesome. To win my first race for him was exactly what I wanted to give him. Hopefully, it's the start of a long relationship."

Despite the confidence, rather than winning, his more realistic goal for Sunday's Pocono 500 is to finish on the lead lap.

Best of luck to him. And to Kyle.

After listening to Kyle Petty on Monday night's Fast Talk radio program on PRN, it's pretty clear why he's stepping away for 6 races this season to jump into the TNT broadcast booth.

He's that good.

Because he's leaving the seat of his #45 for the gig, Petty announced yesterday that drivers John Andretti and Chad McCumbee will share duties in the seat.

Andretti is a familiar face around the Level Cross, NC race shop. He raced for the team from 1998-2003, picking up a win along the way at Martinsville. Petty dropped him mid-2003, and obviously the relationship never really soured. He currently drives in the Busch series.

Chad McCumbee will only do one race in the program. And lucky for him, he gets a start at Pocono, which is largely held as one of the toughest tracks to master. That's the case unless your name is Denny Hamlin or Carl Edwards, anyways.

McCumbee currently campaigns a Green Light Racing Chevy in the Craftsman Truck Series. He finished second last year in the rookie of the year points and won the ARCA race at Nashville Superspeedway earlier this year.

Petty will serve as a color commentator in the TNT booth during the time out of the driver's seat. Maybe ESPN can pick him up for next to replace Rusty...?

Ok .... Ok ... I'll save the frustration with ESPN for another day.

They're not the cream of the crop, but they have solid footing in the Top 35 heading to Martinsville. They don't have to worry about qualifying, but they need to make adjustments if they want to secure their spot in the Chase. Here are your teams in the middle of the road:

Chip Ganassi / Felix Sabates: Two teams solidly in the Top 35--the #40 in 11th and the #42 in 19th. Their third team, the #41 isn't faring quite as well in 29th, but they're inside for at least one more week.

The CGRFS cars have gained an average of 3.3 positions from the end of last season.

While the teams cars are on the rise, so is one of the team's stars. Juan Pablo Montoya's entry into NASCAR is one of the most talked about stories in all of auto racing--there's the F1 angle, the international angle, the diversity angle and the he'll push anyone and anything out of his way to win angle ...

Ganassi is also off to a good start in the Indy Racing League, which kicked off Saturday and saw the third one-two finish for Ganassi drivers Dan Wheldon and Scott Dixon.