FanHouse Tony Raines

Jamie McMurray starts on the pole today. That's only happened twice before in his five-year Nextel Cup career, the last time at the 2005 Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway on July 24, 2005. He finished 11th. His first Bud Pole Award came at Homestead in 2004 where he finished 9th.

Robby Gordon will start 2nd in the Toyota/SaveMart 350. Last time he started that high in the field was here in 2003. He won. He owes TGOM a thank you. Because he was excluded from the power rankings, he has a shot at repeating.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. starts 3rd. Previously, his best start at Infineon Raceway came in 2005, which didn't work out too well for him. He started 10th, finished 42nd.

Two-time NASCAR Winston Cup champion Terry Labonte has been tapped by Michael Waltrip Racing to compete in this season's road course races--in the #55:

"It's not an easy decision for me to remove myself from the car, but I know it is for the betterment of our whole program," Waltrip said. "I know Terry's experience and road race savvy will breathe a breath of fresh air into my young NAPA team."

Was this news a contributing factor in the Dale Jarrett rumors? Who knows.

"To put Terry in the car is a reflection of the big picture we are trying to establish with this NAPA Racing team and I know this will be a spark this team needs," Waltrip said.

It is assumed that Labonte will be the most recent champion (1996), which entitles him to the provisional entry if necessary, and since Jarrett has already used his, it doesn't put him out at all.

Labonte takes the wheel for the first time on June 24 in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon, where he has six top 5s and eight top 10 finishes.

He did a great job for Hall of Fame Racing last year keeping their team in the top 35 so Tony Raines didn't have to sweat qualifying. It's a little late for that for MWR, but it sure can't hurt!

The black helicopters are sweeping in, folks. Somewhere in the heart of central Alabama, the conspiracy is alive and well. NASCAR hates Denny Hamlin. And Tony Raines. And Reed Sorenson. And fill-in-driver-here who had to pit under the last caution because of the extended yellow.

What happened, NASCAR? Did the red flag that your flagman uses fly out of the flagstand? Was it lost in transit from Phoenix? Did the helmet capers get a hold it?

The reason for the second-to-last caution was David Reutimann, who had been having a stellar day, either lost a motor or a rear end gear. Reutimann had to make the show on time, so he was likely running a qualifying package due to the impound race -- causing the failure.

Anyways, Reutimann's problem happened while the field was going into turn 1 of lap 185, meaning the field would take the yellow at the line for lap 186. Reutimann put down quite a bit of oil across the tri-oval, leaving a nice mess to clean up. A red flag would have stopped the cars on the backstretch during lap 186. With the red flag removed, pit road would have been open that time by and the one lap to green could have been given on lap 187. With a green-white-checkered finish starting on lap 188, the race would have finished at lap 190 or sooner.