Phoenix Observations

AVONDALE, Ariz. – Thoughts, observations and a few questions following the Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, the penultimate round of the 10-race 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup:

• It's time we give Jimmie Johnson a nickname. I say we start calling him "The Mailman." Why? Because no matter what was thrown at him on Sunday – an unlikely rainstorm (in the desert of all places), blowing dust storms and a tenacious assault by the competition – Johnson delivered.

• Even the competition was in awe. After watching Johnson maneuver his Chevy past him with apparent ease on a restart with 94 laps remaining, Kurt Busch was quite simply blown away.

"He's doing something special," said Busch. "It's just unbelievable to watch."

• Busch wound up second. His Penske Dodge, which was running the new Dodge R6 NASCAR Cup engine, was a real contender all afternoon. Busch led a total of 60 laps and easily claimed the prize for "best in class."

• I wonder how many times Carl Edwards thinks about how different things might be right now had he not made that "error in judgment" at Talladega last month that took him and several cars (including teammates Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth) out of the race?

• Only after Johnson came onto pit road on Lap 264 and got four new tires did his team discover that he had a right-rear tire going down. That's what is known as "champion's luck." It's also called "When you're hot, you're hot."

• AJ Allmendinger had another impressive run and would have likely finished in the top 10 had he not gotten impatient near the end of the race, when he went three wide and took out Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth. After the race ended, Stewart walked over to Allmendinger to offer his "advice."

"It was my fault," said The Dinger. "You just can't go wide in that position and I needed to be a little bit more patient in that situation."

• The change in the weather on race day threw nearly everyone off their game as cooler, overcast and windy conditions changed the handling of nearly everyone's race car. Want to know who made the right changes and adapted the best? Look at the teams that finished in the top 10.

• When NASCAR restarted the race on Lap 37, there were still three safety vehicles on the track, moving out of Turn 2, all the while the field was entering Turn 1. It was a rare display of a lapse in procedure by race director David Hoots. Hoots is the very best at what he does, and I can only imagine that he must have been told that the safety vehicles in question had already left the race track.

• While NASCAR's official paperwork following the race showed that there was a red flag thrown at the time for rain, the caution came out first – before the rain came.

The last time I saw anything similar happen was during a CART open wheel race in the mid-1990s when Bryan Herta ran into a safety vehicle that was on the track. It also brought back memories of both Mario and Michael Andretti running into the same safety vehicle during the Detroit Grand Prix in 1987. However, both of those examples took place while the race was under caution.

• As if Scott Speed hadn't already garnered plenty of media exposure already – from declaring that he'd painted his toenails blue prior to winning his first truck race at Dover in June to losing his cool and wrecking himself out of the ARCA championship last month – the Red Bull driver will likely appear on every sports show's highlight reel over the next few days after his Red Bull Toyota ended up underneath David Gilliland's Ford.

• Gilliland, "The next Dale Earnhardt" (according to team owner Doug Yates), has DNF'd eight times this season, was parked last weekend for reckless driving and been involved in countless more wrecks. And he's keeping his gig because …?

• Speaking of wrecks, they played a major role in Friday night's Craftsman Truck race. After Ron Hornaday wrecked his Kevin Harvick-owned Chevy truck on the first lap in a mindless attempt to gain five bonus points early, crewmembers from Jack Roush's truck teams came over to help. It was an effort to help Hornaday get back on track and to prevent Johnny Benson's Toyota from taking advantage of the situation. Hornaday and Benson are in a tight fight for this year's title with only five points separating leader Benson from Hornaday.

On Saturday morning, as Harvick (who held off Kyle Busch to win the truck race) was preparing to qualify for the Nationwide race, he spotted Roush standing on pit road and motioned "the Cat in the Hat" over to his race car and personally thanked him for his help.

• I know that Homestead is "Biffle's House" (he has a .500 average over six races at the Florida track) in the same manner that Lowe's is "Jimmie's House," but if I was to pick an early favorite to win the season finale at Homestead next weekend it would be Jeff Gordon. Yes, I know Gordon's never won there. But, he's also on the verge of going winless for the first time since his rookie season in 1994. So, I think the reasons are apparent, don't you?

• It was a real slap in the face to race fans and a measure of the lack of respect that the ABC/ESPN network has for NASCAR and auto racing in general when it made race fans living on the east coast switch from ABC to ESPN2 in order to watch the final laps of Sunday's race.

"I can't imagine 'America's Funniest Home Videos' would take priority over us," Jamie McMurray said after the race. "I mean, I like that show, but I'd rather watch the race, you know?"

This manner of doing business isn't new for the network, which has a long history of displaying its lack of respect for auto racing. I can recall numerous times when I was forced to watch other sports to their conclusion on ABC or ESPN only to join racing in progress.

And please don't hand me the "it was still on live" on another channel line. Even CBS delays the start of its No. 1 show – 60 Minutes – when a football game runs long.

Postscript:

I don't know how many times I can say this, but it has been a privilege to witness history in the making.

Watching Johnson race is to me what it must have like to watch Babe Ruth or Joe DiMaggio stand at home plate and knock a ball out of the park. Or to be able witness Richard Petty decimate the competition on one of the superspeedways in his heyday.

And to make it more contemporary, it's like watching Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods in action.

You have to appreciate watching the best of the best in their sport.

It doesn't matter whether you like Johnson or not, you have to respect what it is that he, Chad Knaus and the entire team have been able to accomplish. And to live during these times is exciting.

I'd be willing to wager that there will be several other NASCAR championships in Johnson's future. But first up, let's make it officially number three after the checkered flag falls next Sunday night in Homestead.

See you there!