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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

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.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

The pump has been primed.  Kyle Busch won the Kobalt Tools 500 and grabbed the first win for Toyota in Sprint Cup Series competition.  That should have been the biggest story ON PIT ROW in Atlanta, but it wasn’t.

Like an old Paul Simon song, those New Cars were slip-slidin’ away, all day long and a cadre of drivers led by Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon and  Dale Earnhardt Jr let loose on Goodyear for bringing an inadequate tire to the party.

Smoke didn’t complain - he attacked Goodyear and in the end did everything but blame the California weather on the Akron tire maker.  Tony was pretty hot for someone who actually finished second to his rowdy teammate, Kyle Busch.

On Monday, several drivers, current and former, stepped up to defend Goodyear.  Michael and Darrell Waltrip along with Ryan Newman praised Goodyear for erring on the side of safety with the Atlanta tire compound.  It seems kind of funny that Stewart and Gordon, the drivers most recently involved in hard crashes, would be the ones on the flip-side of that argument.

The first Bristol race of 2008 is on tap and it’s a near certainty that heads will be hot in the post-race pits on Sunday.  Goodyear could use the diversion of some hotly contested Fast Laps.  Let these four high-banked testers divert you for a few hundred words.

1.  Is Tony Stewart’s criticism of Goodyear justified?

2.  Now that Toyota has it’s first win, are Jack Roush’s worst fears set to come true?

3.  Was Kyle Busch the right guy to get Toyota’s first win?

4.  Was the #99 team of Carl Edwards, guilty of premeditated down-force addition?

Four Fast turns and you get 100 words or less to respond.  Of course, you can use as many words as you want to put your fellow commenters into the wall.  The Fast Lap blog is about NASCAR debate.  Bring your best and we may use it on our next show.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

 

After listening to the various announcers in the immediate after-race of the 50th Daytona 500  I’m not sure if they were more excited by Ryan Newman’s very popular victory or the stunningly competitive performance of the New Car.  The Great American Race lived up to it’s name in one of - if not THE - best of all time.  And the CoT has arrived.

Newman’s triumph was  Roger Penske’s first ever Daytona 500 win too and that was another feel good thing about the race.  The Penske one-two finish, with Kurt Busch an adventurous second place headed a surprising seven Dodges in the top ten.

The Hendrick Motorsports power house and Roush-Fenway’s Ford factory team struggled.  The Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas looked to be the strongmen most of the day but in the end, could not hold off Flyin’ Ryan and the Dodge Boys.

Those might well have been the best Fast Laps ever - we’ll talk about that.  Next up is  a trip to the Republic of California and these four un-restricted Fast Laps.

1. Were the Daytona 500 results a preview of the rest of 2008 or just the usual plate-track one offs?

2. Where do you rank this 500 in relation to past Daytona 500 ’s

3. Have we seen the end of the “Big One” with the arrival of the New Car?

4. Did anyone expect the over/under on Jacques Villeneuve’s NASCAR career to be the under at one race?  

The Fast Lap has no restrictor plates but you’re answers are limited to 100 words. Give us your best and don’t forget to come back and defend your position throughout the week.  We’ll use the best stuff for a future ON PIT ROW. 

Photo Credit: Matthew Stockman - Getty Images for NASCAR

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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