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Let’s not kid each other, OK? Jimmy Johnson has this thing about as locked up as a chastity belt on prom night or the next Detroit Lions opponent. Johnson’s going to win the Sprint Cup - his third straight - unless aliens come down from the Planet Roush and take Jimmy and Chad Knaus away to some world that’s never heard of bump-stops, restrictor plates or the difference between loose and tight. 

But that doesn’t mean that there’s nothing to argue about. This here Fast Lap blog will never run out of topics that Steve can raise the idiot quotient on. Like the four fast, high-banked doozies that follow.

1: The truck series saw Ryan Newman pass teammate Ron Hornaday to win, but cost Hornaday 10 points in his championship battle. Should there have been team orders?

2: How can Carl Edwards be happy with the tire at Atlanta while most other drivers were complaining about no grip?

3: Does AJ Allmendinger being the best finishing Gillett-Evernham car again show that he’s better than the equipment he had been driving?

4: Because David Reuttiman could have won the Nationwide race if he had “moved” Carl Edwards out of the way on the final lap, but didn’t; is he a good sport or a fool?

Let fly with your opinions but be prepared to defend yourself.  Because there are no limits to Steve’s confidense in his positions. Or my disdain for the same. The Fast Lap is NASCAR debate. You can hear it live at OnPitRow.com every Tuesday at 5 PM ET or do the digital version right here any day of the week.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc

For me, there has always been something special about Atlanta Motor Speedway. I think it goes back to the days when Bill Elliott was stomping everyone in that old Melling T-Bird. The track was - and still is - wicked fast and the Elliotts had it figured out. Or something figured out, anyway.

Now it seems that Chad Knaus, Jimmy Johnson and that no. 48 Chevey team are the ones with most of the answers, while many of their competitors are still trying to figure out what questions to ask. Johnson will be tough to catch if he doesn’t slip up some how. At this point in 2007, Jimmy was one race into a string of four straight wins that closed out his second straight Chase to the Cup championship. The hopes of fans who want to see “anyone but Johnson” at the head table in New York, rest on the likelyhood of J J running headlong into somebody else’s “racin’ deal”. Good luck with that.

And good luck with these four, highly banked, non-restrictor plated Fast Lap questions.

1: Should NASCAR start the Chase drivers in the front of the field every week of the Chase?

2: Has the time come for car owners to start releasing their lame-duck drivers to make room for the 2009 line up?

3: Is there any place with better racing than at Martinsville?

4: What is the most probable merger scenario?

 Remember, 100 words or less for your answers. But this is a debate blog, you know? Come on back and tell me what you think of my comments. Or Steve’s, or whomever’s. Stir the pot you know and we may use your insight on the next ON PIT ROW.

I love Martinsville. Or maybe it’s just a short track hang-over from the ARCA Championship weekend at the equally short, and fun as hell, Toledo Speedway. At least it was fun for Steve and me. Don’t know about Scott Speed and Ricky Stenhouse Jr or any of the others who got their rides short-tracked to greater and lesser extents. I can tell you it was a blast to watch.

Congrats to Justin Allgaier for keeping his head on and winning the race and the ARCA RE/MAX Series championship.  It’s on to the Nationwide Series in Penske Racing’s no. 12 and by the looks of Allgaier’s Friday showing at Lowes, he’ll do just fine.

Scott Speed had major short-track issues and may find a distinct lack of allies as he tries to make his Sprint Cup debut at Martinsville this weekend. Speed might want to tackles these four, tricky Fast Lap questions to work out some of his frustration, hmm?

1:  NASCAR threw up a trial balloon at Lowes this week seeking reaction to shrinking the field size at all three series races, How will that help NASCAR?

2:  While everyone else has moved up and down in the Chase standings, Johnson has held firm at the top. Can Burton or Biffle knock him out of the lead?

3:  If one of the NASCAR axioms is that crew chiefs and drivers must have “chemistry”, what are teams hoping for with their “driver de jour” programs?

4:  How might a GM-Chrysler merger affect NASCAR?

Go ahead. Show Speed how it’s done. Be assertive, but know your limits - 100 words or less - and don’t take any schtuff from your fellow Fast Lappers. We’re looking for the best for the new Fast Lap Show, coming to a blog near you.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

Ah, controversy. Where would NASCAR bloggers be without it? Thanks Tony. Muchos gracias Regan. And thank you so much NASCAR. The finish of the latest Talladega race wasn’t a finish at all - only a beginning.

Tony Stewart got the trophy. But as Luke told me in an email this morning, he has to know he didn’t really win the race.  Regan Smith  crossed the finish line first and ended up 18th.  I would be more supportive of his claims that he believed he had made a legal pass, if his story about how he came to that conclusion hadn’t changed. 

Mike Helton clarified the rules “moving forward”. But that didn’t un-muddy the race time perception that one of his officials had created earlier at Daytona. Maybe we need a do-over.

Onward to Charlotte and the autumn night race.  Back home again in Carolina and some of the best looking televised Fast Laps on the schedule.  Take your four warm up laps right here.

1:  Did Carl Edward’s ill-timed bump draft of Greg Biffledeal a death blow to the Roush-Fenway trio’s title hopes?

2:  Did Goodyear blow it again, or is there something else to blame for the tire problems at Dega?

3:  Does the exciting racing and multiple lead changes outweigh the inevitable the big ones?

4:  Did the inexperience of DEI drivers, Smith, Menard and Almirola lined up at the restart lead to Tony Stewart’s win?

 Here’s your chance to get those tires nice and warm, so they don’t go BOOM when you turn left on Saturday night. Give us you best shot and we may use you ON PIT  ROW as an example of what is good and intelligent in the NASCAR internet community. Or we might expose you as the…..

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

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