FORT WORTH, Texas – Eleven years ago, Bruton Smith and Bob Bahre paid $14 million for North Wilkesboro Speedway. They weren't paying for the track, though. They were buying the two Cup races that came with it.

After closing the worn-out track, Smith took one race and moved it to Texas, while Bahre took the other for his track in New Hampshire.

Fast forward to Friday when Smith, CEO of Speedway Motorsports Inc., announced he's purchased New Hampshire International Speedway from Bahre. No surprise there: The news was expected.

But the price? Well, the price has gone up a bit, to $340 million.

"I want to thank Bob and Gary Bahre," Smith said in a new conference at Texas Motor Speedway. "I think that's the one time I've thanked anybody for taking $340 million of my hard-earned money."

Smith paid cash, by the way, though apparently he wasn't the highest bidder. That distinction went to Jerry Carroll, who reportedly offered $360 million. George Gillett, Roger Penske and the Roush-Fenway

Before Mark Martin retired (for the first time) from full-time Nextel Cup racing, he was asked who he would like to see take over driving duties in his No. 6 Ford.

"I'll tell you exactly who I would put in the 6 car in a heartbeat," Martin said. "Joey Logano."

At the time, not many had heard of Joey Logano. And for good reason. He was only 15.

"I am high on Joey Logano because I am absolutely, 100-percent positive, without a doubt that he can be one of the greatest that ever raced in NASCAR," Martin said that day. "I'm positive. There's no doubt in mind."

Was Martin crazy or just trying to make some noise?

Well, since then all Logano has done is prove Martin correct. He won in just his second USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series start, signed a development deal with Joe Gibbs Racing, beat Kevin Harvick in a stock-car race less than 24 hours after Harvick won NASCAR's All-Star Challenge, become the youngest champion in the history of any of NASCAR's touring divisions, and recently won the Toyota

TALLADEGA, Ala. – Thirteen miles from Talladega Superspeedway is Talladega, Alabama.

To get there, just head straight down Route 77, past the Martin Theater 3-plex, the Talladega Funeral Home, Finchers, a greasy spoon with pictures of famous old movie actors on the wall, two churches, a Buick dealership, a Piggly Wiggly and a pawn shop. Cross over the railroad tracks, and there you'll find downtown Talladega, where I spent Friday evening.

Pulling into this town of 15,143, I felt like Marty McFly going back in time to 1955 America. There is no clock tower, but there is an old town square, with the county courthouse in the middle surrounded by local storefronts.

There's A.J.'s, a men's fashion store, where if you buy one suit you get the next one free; the Ritz Theater, where, according to the billboard, a stage version of Fannie Flagg's "All the way from Magnolia Springs" will debut next weekend; and Parigis, a sort of saloon-style restaurant and bar which, by the neon beer signs in the

TALLADEGA, Ala. – Jacques Villeneuve has caused quite a stir.

Oh, the Nextel Cup boys are happy to have him around, being an F1 champion and Indy 500 winner and all. It's just they don't want him around this weekend, here at Talladega Superspeedway, trying to qualify for Sunday's UAW-Ford 500.

"I think he's a tremendous talent and he belongs in this series, and I'm excited to have him in this series," Jeff Gordon said Friday. "But I don't care if you're Michael Schumacher, Jacques Villeneuve or Dario Franchitti. The greatest driver on the planet should not be running their first race this weekend."

It's easy to see where Gordon is coming from, what with a little thing called the Nextel Cup championship on the line this weekend. Sure, all 10 races in the Chase pay the same in points, but this isn't just any race. This is Talladega, where bad things happen to even the most experienced drivers, and Villeneuve's Cup experience amounts to a single test session.

One wrong move Sunday could

Dover, Del. – Let's talk stats for a moment.

(I know, numbers are boring, but flatter me.)

So far this season, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart have won 48 percent of Nextel Cup races. Between them they have 58 top-10 finishes, which equates to a .716 batting average. Combined, they've led 2,929 of the 7,699 laps raced, or 38 percent.

So what does all this mean?

Well, while it's interesting to look at the title chances of, say, Clint Bowyer, Martin Truex Jr. or Denny Hamlin, the numbers warn that doing so is a mostly fruitless endeavor. Because while any of the nine other Chase for the Nextel Cup contenders can dominate on any given race day, as Bowyer did last Sunday at New Hampshire, none have proven they can do it on a week-in, week-out basis better than Johnson, Gordon or Stewart.

Simply put, it's conceivable that one of these three, maybe two, would suffer some sort of swoon – be it through accidents, blown engines or both – and fade away over the nine remaining Chase

DOVER, Del. – The Chase for the Nextel Cup has moved on to Dover International Speedway. Here's a look at how the 12 drivers stand as they head into Sunday's Dodge Dealers 400.

1. Jimmie Johnson (points leader)
Starting: First
Average Dover finish: 11.7 (three wins)
Skinny: JJ blew the field away by nearly a full mile an hour to claim the pole. Looks like he's dialed in. Again.

2. Jeff Gordon (points leader; loses total victories tiebreaker to Johnson)
Starting: 27th
Average Dover finish: 12.4 (four wins)
Skinny: Surprisingly, Gordon hasn't won at The Monster Mile since 2001.

3. Tony Stewart (-10 points)
Starting: 28th
Average Dover finish: 10.7 (two wins)
Skinny: How ironic – Stewart and Gordon will start side by side … in Row 14.

4. Clint Bowyer (-15)
Starting: 42nd
Average Dover finish: 11.0
Skinny: Has two top-10s in three starts at Dover, and is driving the same car he dominated with last weekend at New Hampshire.

5. Kyle Busch (-35)
Starting: 22nd
Average Dover finish: 13.2
Skinny: Always seems

LOUDON, N.H. – It's widely expected that Sam Hornish Jr. will try to run the entire 36-race Nextel Cup schedule in 2008. However, Friday could be an ominous preview of how difficult that task might be.

Hornish came up short in his first attempt to qualify for a Nextel Cup race. Of the 49 cars attempting to make Sunday's Sylvania 300 at here New Hampshire International Speedway, Hornish was 45th fastest, which wasn't good enough to get him into the 43-car field.

"It doesn't give you a real warm and fuzzy feeling," he said, looking forward to next season when he'll possibly have to race his way in every week, "but obviously it's something that you're going to go through."

Adding insult to injury, Hornish felt he should have made the field easily considering he was 20th-fastest in practice. But, he said, he was too cautious during qualifying, evident by the fact that his qualifying lap of 126.631 mph – nearly four mph off Clint Bowyer's pole-winning speed – was more than one mph slower