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Is it coincidence that the Sprint Cup Chase heads to the hottest place in NASCAR just when the suits in Daytona  would like you to think that the playoff pressure is heating up for Jimmy Johnson and Carl Edwards?  I think not.

You gotta give Edwards and crew chief Bob Osborne credit. They aren’t holding anything back in their attempt to make a game out of this Chase thing. Between banzai passes and high-stakes fuel strategies, the Office Depot Racing team is hangin’ it out.

The 2008 Chase has become - perhaps always was - a classic Chevy  vs Ford battle. Dodge never showed and Toyota, strangely, never contended.

Last night’s live radio version of the Fast Lap  was a classic battle too. Steve put up a good fight, only to be over-matched by his more experienced, and intelligent, opposition - me. At least that’s what I think. We’ll put our opinions up here later but in the meantime, we’d like to see yours. Here you go. Batter up! 

1: NASCAR is backing off its 24 practice dates in 2009 strategy. What is the right number?

2: What was Greg Biffle REALLY asking after the race by wondering how the #99 team got 8 more laps to a tank of fuel than his #16 team?

3: Dale Earnhardt Jr. said the season is too long. If it is, what is the right number?

4: Should there be any concern in the Joe Gibbs Racing organization over Joey Logano’s lack of performance in their cars?

Four Fast Laps but you only get a hundred words or less to respond to the questions. After that, the gloves are off and you can defend your position just like David Gilliland or Scott Speed. And nobody will sanction you even a little bit. Come on, we want to argue with you.

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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.

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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…..

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That three car battle for the Chase to the Cup that many - including me - were predicting seems to be shaping up.  Jimmy Johnson got his first 2008 Chase win.  Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle each grabbed another top three finish.  Throw a blanket on those three with the pack over ninety points back already.  

And the pack doesn’t include any Toyotas at all.  The Joe Gibbs Racing gang is falling farther behind with each poor showing.  Wait until next year coach. Oh, and Kyle, the pressure’s off now. Go ahead and win some races.

Kansas was a pretty predictably dull race other that Carl Edwards’ banzai pass attempt at the end and Juan Pablo Montoya’s cheating penalty in qualifying.  My guess is, that Talladega will be a different story.

Want to spice up the race interest at the office?  Start a big-one pool and try to pick what lap the semi-annual wreck will occur.  I say 155.  But there will be plenty of Fast Laps before that.  Try the next four, restrictor-plated, four-wide, warm-ups for the weekend.

1: Was the penalty to Juan Pablo Montoya for over-filled shocks during qualifying appropriate?

2: Should Kansas get a second Cup date, in part because a casino is being built next to the track?

3: Can Joe Gibbs Racing return to respectability during the Chase?

4: Paul Newman?

That’s it.  That’s the Talladega 2 edition of ON PIT ROW’s Fast Lap.  Steve and I will kick these things around on Tuesday’s show.  Listen live right here and call us between 5 and 7 PM EDT at 877-502-8255 and give us your take on any or all of the above.  And, of course, leave your thoughts here in the comment section.  Just be nice to your friends.

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Wake up!  It isn’t Auto Club Speedway’s fault that Jimmy Johnson had everybody covered for the last Labor Day race at Fontana.  It was Johnson’s turn to be the Superman of the super speedways as he totally dominated the 500 mile  in the fruitlands.

Carl Edwards had nothing for J J.  Neither did Busch the Younger.  And Kyle and Carl kept their tempers this time, perhaps waiting for a track with more of a door banging nature to wreak more havoc upon each other.  Maybe they’re hoping for plausible deniability.  Or perhaps the vaunted vengence that  everyone expects was really squelched by NASCAR’s probation.  I doubt it though.

Richmond is next.  And Richmond is the last chance for a select few drivers to lock in their opportunity to win the 2008 Sprint Cup.  This weeks Fast Lap questions have a Chase flavor of their own.  Can you qualify?

1:  Is Dodge in trouble if Kasey Kahne fails to make the Chase, which would mean no Dodges qualify for NASCAR’s playoff’s?

2:  Will next years Chase be better for the replacement on the schedule of Atlanta Motor Speedway with Auto Club Speedway at Fontana?

3:  Is Felix Sabates right?  Have we seen the best of Reed Sorenson?

4:  Who’s in and who’s out?  Give me your twelve qualifiers for the Chase?

Remember, your Fast Lap answers are limited to 100 words or less.  But come on back and bang fenders with your fellow Fast Lappers.  Throw some debris on the track.  Bench Race a bit.  We want to have a reason to put someone on probation too dammit! 

Bristol was interesting wasn’t it?  Nothing like a little short track carnage and door banging to spice up the final two weeks of NASCAR’s Race to the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship.

There is still a race for the last few spots in the Chase top twelve.  Clint Bowyer, in 12th is only 12 points up on steady David Ragan.  Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin are in right now and Kasey Kahne is not.  The two race showdown is all that is left.

First up is the two miler at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California.  The track is a near twin to Michigan and two weeks ago, MIS hosted the Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards show.  Of course, last weekend’s Bristol night race was a Carl and Kyle show - with a side of short track fireworks.

These two really only have the twenty remaining bonus points - that are up for grabs to the winners of Fontana and Richmond - to race for.   Carl grabbed the ten extra points for  Bristol with his bump-to-pass move.  Can’t wait to see what happens next.

Until then, we have four fast variably banked and slickly paved Fast Lap questions for your debating pleasure.

1: Given his history with Hendrick and Ganassi; can Casey Mears’ move to the #07 car be successful?

2: Is the racing better to watch at the new Bristol?

3: Will “Magnetgate” change the way you view Joe Gibbs, JD Gibbs and/or Joe Gibbs Racing?

4: Will having the Labor Day weekend race move to Atlanta at night be enough to stop the nostalgia mongers from calling for a return to Darlington?

You can bang doors, bump pass, even wreck your competitors in this race.  The Fast Lap doesn’t cater to whiners.  Kyle.

Check out this Bench Racing post for a shot at a free Kevin Harvick bobblehead, courtesy of Shell Gasonlines.

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The Race to the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship is down to two short tracks and a big, two mile intermediate.  That’s thirty, potentially huge, Chase bonus points up for grabs.

Carl Edwards snagged the extra ten points for winning the Michigan race.  And MIS is the clone of one of the three tracks remaining - Auto Club Speedwayin Fontana, Fruitland. 

Edwards is also the defending race winner of the Bristol night race, which just happens to be the next stop on the NASCAR Sprint Cup tour.

Racing under the lights in Thunder Valleyis one of the true spectacles of motorsports.  Maybe of any sport.  It has become more than just a race.  Anything can happen at Bristol.  I can’t wait.

But there’s a whole week to kill before Saturday night.  Try our own, four Fast Lap heat race to help make the time go by.

1: Ryan Newman to Stewart-Haas in 2009 wasn’t a very well kept secret; but what could be causing a delay in sponsorship talks?

2: Morgan-McClure Motorsports said NASCAR hijacked their number 4 to give it to SHR. Should NASCAR have been more sensitive to one of its historic teams?

3: What should the penalty be to Joe Gibbs racing for trying to alter the dyno test results after the Nationwide race at Michigan?

4: Four Roush-Fenway cars finished in the top 5 at Michigan. Is that finish a good indication of who should be jettisoned when the team needs to get down to four teams?

Keep your responses down to 100 words or less.  We are working through the bugs of a weekly video feature that will take the best of the Fast Lap to, we hope, another level.  The first Fast Lap Show would have been making its debut this week, in fact.  If only I had remebered to turn the mike on.

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I know that in the land of NASCAR , praying for rain on a race weekend is blasphemous. Condemn me all you want. I loved that race in the wet stuff up at Montreal on Saturday.

I’ve been waiting ever since NASCAR announced, years ago its intention to rain race in the Nationwide Series, for the clouds to open. They did in Canada. The results were a blast to watch. It sound like it was fun to drive in too. I hope NASCAR takes what they learned about wiperss and, maybe tail lights, and lets the guys try again someday.

Carl Edwards is on the march in the Sprint Cup Series. Kyle Busch and Team Gibbs are showing that they may be human afterall. And the Race to the Chase is heating up, bigtime.

The Fast Lap will be right in the middle of that heat too. Take a shot at turning left and right this week.

1: Which of The Chase Bubble Boys; Harvick, Kenseth, Bowyer or Ragan, will make the playoffs?

2: Even though it didn’t work out for them, was the no-pit strategy of the #9, before the rain the right call?

3: Carl Edwards’ post race interview included wondering if the car would pass post race inspection. What motivation could he have had for that statement?

4: Of all the road course ringers available for Watkins Glen, why is Kyle Petty back in the #45 car for this one race?

We have big plans to take this Fast Lap discussion to another level. Now that the site has been upgraded, we are getting close to producing our first ever Fast Lap Show, featuring your comments and opinions on selected weekly Fast Lap questions. So sharpen up your arguments and tear your fellow Fast Lappers new ones. It’s all part of the deal here at OnPitRow.com.

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Nineteen heat races and a ten lap feature. That Allstate 400 at the Brickyard was more like what we’re used to at the Friday and Saturday night short track races around here than one of NASCAR’s biggest extravaganzas.

I’ll bet Jimmy Johnson doesn’t care about that though. Johnson had the best car all day, even if he only got to show it off in ten lap sprints. But with his win, you have to look at Jimmy as one of the guys who may be able to challenge Kyle Busch, once we get to the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Throw Carl Edwards into that mix too.

Goodyear’s tire woes made for a less than satisfying Brickyard race. But this stuff has happened before, and with the continuing development of the New Car, it’s likely to happen again.

There was plenty to talk about after the race. Toss your opinions in on these four Fast Lap questions and place your bets on whether the Pocono tire will be better.

1: Will Tony Stewart be able to successfully juggle his responsibilities as driver of the #20 and as owner of the #14 through the rest of 2008?

2: Would an open test at Indy have been able to head off the tire problems before the race weekend?

3: NASCAR’s attempt to cut Toyota horsepower in the Nationwide Series didn’t slow down Kyle Bush on Saturday. Is engine restriction the best way to regain parity?

4: Did Rusty Wallace lose some of his credibility by saying Ryan Newman was fired by Penske; then have Roger turn around and say he wasn’t?

Limit your answers to 100 words or less, but come back throughout the week to defend your ground and throw some tire debris those not as smart as you. This is the Fast Lap comment blog and we will be taking selected questions and responses to use in an upcoming video feature for OnPitRow.com and Bench Racing TV.

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Carl Edwards loves NASCAR’s new car. Can’t say that I blame him. He has three wins out of seven 2008 Sprint Cup races and he could have had at least one more. The best part - for Carl - is that yesterday’s Car of Tomorrow is so in the heads of every other team on the track that Edwards is starting every race with a half lap lead.

Jeff Gordon finished dead last. That statement ought to be followed by exclamations of “liar” or at least “no way”, but the statement is true. The Rainbow Warriors had their asses handed to them and they still don’t have enough answers, apparently, to restore their confidence. Going to Phoenix isn’t likely a remedy as that is not one of Jeffey’s best tracks.

NASCAR moves on and so does the Fast Lap. Check out the four tricky, flat and fast lefties below. Tight in or loose out doesn’t matter - but your opinions do. Be prepared to stick up for yourself though - cause nobody else wiil.

1. More names have been thrown into the Richard Childress Racing fourth car sweepstakes. Who will it be?

2. If you owned a race team, would you hire Kyle Petty as your driver?

3. Who will be the focus of Chip Ganassi’s promised “sweeping changes” if his teams don’t start performing better?

4. Should NASCAR consider making mid-season changes to the new car?

The Fast Lap feature has been a regular part of ON PIT ROW for over seven years now.  The debates and arguments that Steve and I get into during Fast Lap segments are pretty heated more often than not.  Your input would just make it better.  Don’t expect a bunch of Kumbaya agreement though.  That’s not what this blog is all about.  Bring your best and bring it on!

NASCAR Fantasy Racing

On Pit Row is glad to be a part of such a great NASCAR fantasy racing game like Champs, Chumps & Sleepers. Grand prize is a Dale Jarrett Racing Adventure. How cool is that?

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