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Up to now I have been able to ignore the fact that the weather around here has turned cold. A much longer, and warmer fall season and the fact that NASCAR was racing somewhere relatively semi-tropical helped. Now both are over for another year.

Unlike many of the regular NASCAR TV and radio shows that close it down for the winter months, ON PIT ROW and the blogs at OnPitRow.com are active all year long. Though this Fast Lap blog got a bit bogged down the last two weeks. My bad. If you missed the radio show last week, here are the Fast Lap questions that Steve and I chewed on during the week immediately following Jimmy Johnson’s historic three-peat. 

1: With all the pending layoffs forecast in NASCAR, should the drivers take a pay cut to help curb expenses?

2: With the close points races in the Truck and Nationwide Series’ should the Chase go the way of the spinner wrench?

3: Are you saddened by the end of Jeff Gordon’s 14 season win streak?

4: Should NASCAR be worried that only three drivers won 27 of the 36 races in 2008?

I think we may have laughed about these topics more than argue this time. That is not normal. Let us know what you think about ‘em.

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.

 

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! 

For a long time I thought the trips to Chicagoland for NASCAR races felt odd. You just don’t think of NASCAR when you think the Windy City. But I’ve changed my mind.  Stay with me now.

Chicago of the 1920’s was the home of one of the most notorious gangster-bootleggers of all time - Al Capone. I don’t know if any of Scarface’s drivers ever aspired to take their Duesenburgs and Packards to the race track or not. But not much more than a generation later, bootleggers of a different sort took to the tracks of the south just fine, thank you.  And Bill France built an empire from that.

I doubt that Capone’s guys could put the muscle on the Sprint Cup Series any stronger than Kyle Busch has so far in 2008. The season is officially half over, and the Race to the Chase is two races deep. Six wins in eighteen races is more than a trend. The Shrub is putting his stamp on this thing. Of course, Jeff Gordon did the same in 2007.  And Jimmy Johnson got hot in the Chase and took the Cup.  As Big Al may have said - it ain’t over ’til the shootin’ stops.

Here are this week’s Fast Lap questions, brought to you by the fine folks at ON PIT ROW and the all new BenchRacers home for wayward racing lovers. We hope you will check them both out, repeatedly.

1. Could NASCAR continue, as is, without involvement from the big three?

2. Was TNT’s “Wide Open Coverage” of the Coke Zero 400 distracting or a model for others to emulate?

3. What purpose does it serve NASCAR to impound all cars after qualifying, when only a few have to really qualify to get in the race?

4. What fate does NASCAR hold for the Martin Truex team after having their car confiscated for illegal roof height?

Limit your answers to 100 words or less. But remember also, to come back and comment on the opinions of others and be prepared to defend your own positions. This is the Fast Lap.  We are going to be using the best of the commentary here in a new feature ON PIT ROW.  We want your absolute best shot. Bring it on.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

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