From the Marbles

A few links to close out your week, starring Tony Stewart's new crew chief, Darian Grubb...

• The NASCAR Insiders go inside the world of pit stops. Well worth a read, and make sure to show this article to those Jiffy Lube clowns to let 'em know how far they're falling short. [NASCAR Insiders]

• Sports Illustrated lists some reasons for the open-wheelers' failure in NASCAR. (Make sure to read Bob Margolis' take on the same issue.) [Sports Illustrated]

• NASCAR rescinds its probation on Joey Logano and Tony Stewart, but lets everything else stand. Hmmm. And people wonder why NASCAR has the making-it-up-on-the-fly rep that it does. [AP]

• Toyotas in the Craftsman Truck Series are getting the same kinds of restrictions as their Nationwide brethren. No more lapping the field for you, 'yotas! [HardCoreRaceFans.com]

Got a link to a story or post we need to check out? Write to nascarmarbles@yahoo.com and give us the scoop.

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Robby Gordon's been an enigma to the NASCAR establishment for years. Capable of driving anything right up to those Flintstones cars where you have to brake with your feet, he's seen increasingly diminishing returns during his NASCAR tenure, to the point where he'd decided to merge his own one-car team with a larger outfit -- like, say, Gillett Evernham.

Gordon and GEM apparently had struck a deal earlier this year, but according to GEM in a lawsuit filed this week, Gordon had a hard time sticking to his end of the deal. The suit charges that Gordon didn't stop looking around for a better fit, and given what GEM was offering him, you could understand why there might be a bit of bad blood (from SceneDaily):

If the deal had gone through, Gordon would have had a four-year driving contract with GEM that would have paid him $3 million annually plus 45 percent of race winnings as well as insurance and other provisions customary for NASCAR driver agreements – a package likely worth at least $5 million annually. Gordon also could have had a spot on the team’s board of directors. GEM would have acquired Gordon’s shop and property in Charlotte.

GEM was supposed to provide Gordon with support "in substantially the same manner in which GEM supports its most supported car in the NASCAR Sprint Cup" in 2008. Gordon believes GEM wasn't holding up its end of the bargain on that score, providing him with inferior parts.

GEM is seeking unspecified damages, and both sides have said that they will argue the case in court, not the media. Dammit! Why does everybody always do it that way? Won't somebody please argue a case in the media?

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I like Kasey Kahne. Seems like a decent fellow, and he's got good commercials with those crazy cougars stalking him and President David Palmer all over creation.

But he's spent the last month looking more dazed than one of those cartoon cats after an exploding cigar's blown up in his face. (They don't show that stuff on TV anymore, do they? Pity.) A month ago, he was in seventh place in the Chase; I think I even called him a "lock" here in this space.

Whoops. After a string of bad finishes and bad luck, he's all of a sudden two spots out of the Chase, with 48 points (and David Ragan) between him and Clint Bowyer. David Caraviello has a solid breakdown of Kahne's breakdown over at NASCAR.com:

For Kahne, missing the Chase would sting. This isn't Ragan, who's surprised everyone with his late-season rally, or even Bowyer, in just his second full season on the circuit. Kahne is a nine-time race winner who is widely viewed as Dodge's best championship hope.

A few years back, Atlanta Falcons head coach Jim Mora Jr. was caught in the season's last game on a cell phone trying to figure out the various playoff permutations if the Falcons won, lost, or tied the game. Expect much of the same. The final few laps at Richmond are going to be one furious flurry of paper-pushing, calculators, and favors called in to help slow down various contenders.

Kasey, it's time to release the Cougar Armada. Just keep 'em away from your car.

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What better way to close out the week than with some Friday-night racing? Turn on the race, then fire up the computer to chat along with your fellow racing freaks as the race unfolds. Your defending champion is -- aw, come on, him again? Really?

That'll do it for this week. Sprint Cup Chase thread coming Saturday for the big evening race at Richmond. On Sunday, no posts -- go kiss your families goodbye, because by then it'll be Chase time. Seeya!

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We're on our second go-round of most NASCAR tracks this season, so as Saturday night's race approaches, we take a look back at what happened the last time we came through Richmond ...

It was all setting up so perfectly. Local boy Denny Hamlin was going to run the table; he was leading a track-record 381 laps when his tire blew, leading him to a 24th-place finish, three laps down. After that, Dale Earnhardt Jr. took the lead, and appeared primed to win when, from out of nowhere:

Oh, the humanity! Kyle Busch's spinout of Junior allowed Clint Bowyer to squeak in with a victory, but more importantly, it appeared to set the stage for a classic rivalry between Kyle and Dale fans -- or, more properly, pro- and anti-Dale fans. But it wasn't to be; Junior hasn't held up his end of the bargain since then.

How will this weekend's race shake out? Will this weekend's race shake out, given all the rain expected in the area? Nobody knows, but it's going to be tough to match the drama from the May race.

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Don LaFontaine passed away earlier this week. You know Don, even if you don't know him. He's the guy who did all the "In a world where ... " movie trailers, and he could make even the most craptacular film sound like a must-see. (Check out his work here.) So in honor of his passing, we want you to write the trailer to the next great NASCAR movie. You know, "In a world where Mr. Ed runs at the front of the pack ... " Just imagine seeing this image as you're finding your way to your seat, and roll 'em ...

After the jump, Jared and Tony Stewart go bananas.

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So, did anybody happen to catch those completely scripted events which tried to manufacture drama even though the outcome was never in doubt, which promised change but no change ever really comes? No, I'm not talking about NASCAR in California, I'm talking about the political conventions!

For those of you who happen to, you know, have a life, you might have missed the fact that Joe Gibbs, he who brought us Smoke, the D00D, the Hamster, and Sliced Bread, spoke at the Republican National Convention Thursday to bring us John McCain. The Virginian-Pilot had a transcript of the speech:

It's a little awkward for me to put on a partisan hat. But, with all the media hype, I feel compelled to tell you where I stand. Tonight, I'm supporting ... the Washington Redskins, who are taking on the New York Giants!

Convention humor, folks. Is there anything funnier? (Alas, after last night's debacle, Redskins fans are already almost as shellshocked as that Alaska hockey kid who found out he's going to be a VP grandbaby daddy and a groom. Like it or not.)

Anyway, the speech was a quick and routine affair, in which Gibbs referenced both his NASCAR championships and his deep and abiding faith. Strangely enough, Gibbs didn't mention hidden magnets or victory-lap temper tantrums. Hmm. Must've been a last-minute edit.

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So I was digging through my old photo files and came on this beauty -- Kyle Busch nearly running over my foot after the Atlanta race back in March. (We'll be back at Atlanta Motor Speedway in October. Just you wait, Kyle. You and I are gonna have words.)

Anyway, I post this not because of my stellar photographic skills, but to open the door to you Marbleheads to start sending in your own candid NASCAR photos. I've got a few stockpiled already, but I'd love to run more in these end-of-day spaces -- what's your coolest NASCAR collectible? Ever met a driver in person? Got trackside video of a superb wreck? Send it our way at nascarmarbles@yahoo.com , and we'll post it here.

Also, don't forget that the great Kevin Harvick / Shell Oil Marbles Art Contest ends tomorrow at noon Eastern. Get your entries in, folks! We'll cull through them and get you a winner pronto. Have a good one!

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There are plenty of wonderful tracks out there to drive, plenty of places where you can hit three-figure speeds, hear the smooth purr of your high-performance engine, and feel the rush of air blowing past you. (Plenty of highways out there where you can do the same thing, for that matter.)

The Monticello Motor Club is most definitely not one of those places.

A new private country club where the sport of choice is racing rather than golf, the Monticello Motor Club features a 4.1-mile course winding through the hills of New York State, a beautiful track that, unfortunately, you and I will probably never see. Entry fee into the club is $125,000, annual dues are $7,500, and you'd better bring a six-figure car to the track -- no carving turns in a 1991 Ford Escort, friend. "Monticello’s application form asks would-be members to check one of three boxes indicating their net worth," as an AP article notes. "There is no category below $5 million."

And well there shouldn't be! My word, if your net worth is less than $5 million, go get yourself some government cheese, chump!

So who will you be rubbing elbows with should you fake your way in scrape up the cash? Why, Jeff Gordon, of course, and Jerry Seinfeld. Plus a bunch of Manhattan Masters of the Universe who are richer than both of those guys put together and multiplied by Tiger Woods.

I dunno ... I see the potential for high-horsepower Caddyshack here. Anybody who comes up with that script, I get co-writing credit.

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