FanHouse Toyota Savemart 350

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.

Is Jimmie Johnson's crew chief a cheater? Or an innovator that got busted bending the rules too far?

I consider him the latter ... and I'm not alone. In fact, I'm in good company. Last season after Chad Knaus got caught with his rear window up, he was lauded for his innovation by his peers.

This weekend, the defending Nextel Cup champion's chief says they were just doing what everyone else is trying to do:

"What you try to do with any racecar is to make the car as efficient as possible. There was an area there that we thought we might be able to find some more front downforce, like what everybody wants to do, and we went into that area. It's what NASCAR seems ... is not the area they want us to go. We thought we could. Obviously we can't."

Some see a cheater ... I see a crew chief taking advantage of every gray area available to him to put his driver out front on a consistent basis ... What say you?