Nascar and Racing Bill Davis Racing

Does NASCAR need a 10-race playoff to make a championship race close and exciting?

If you ask the newly-crowned Craftsman Truck Series champion Johnny Benson, he'd probably tell you no.

After all, Benson won the title -- his second career NASCAR championship to follow up his Nationwide Series title in 1995 -- by just a mere seven points over Ron Hornaday Jr.

By comparison, Carl Edwards trails Jimmie Johnson by 141 points in the Sprint Cup Series standings with the season-finale scheduled for Sunday afternoon at the same Homestead-Miami Speedway Benson scored his huge season win at Friday night. What's also notable is that the Sprint Cup Series had a near-total points reset just ten races ago among the Top 12 drivers.

While I won't profess to have followed the 2008 Craftsman Truck Series as close as I could have -- hey, I went to see the character-rich series when they visited O'Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis back in July -- I've got to say that Benson's win is one of those "feel good" stories of the year.

Not to slight Hornaday by any margin, but Benson is truly one of the good guys in racing and has always been quite approachable for both fans and media.

Kasey Kahne finished as the fastest driver through the past two weeks of testing at Daytona International Speedway, but the Toyota camp left with the biggest smile.

On a day that saw the entire day's testing session squeezed into a seven-hour multi-car parade at 180mph, Kahne dropped a lap of 189.111 mph to put his No. 9 Dodge Charger at the top speed chart. Forecasted rain -- it never materialized -- forced NASCAR to skip a lunch break and run one entire session until 4pm.

The Toyotas, though, left on a much higher note than they left the Daytona 500 last year -- with slow cars and a dense cloud hanging over the operation from Michael Waltrip's fuel additive scandal. Instead, Camrys ran consistently at the top of the charts in single-lap speed sessions and had good-handling cars in the draft.

The love was spread among many of the teams, as well, with Bill Davis Racing (Blaney), Red Bull Racing (Allmendinger & Vickers), Michael Waltrip Racing (Waltrip, Dale Jarrett & David Reutimann) and Joe Gibbs Racing (Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart & Denny Hamlin) all getting near the top of the chart.

The Toyotas didn't completely dominant the drafting side of things, though, with Kahne's Dodge pacing the way, the Toyotas of Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin second and third, Dario Franchitti's Dodge fourth, and Regan Smith's Chevy in fifth. The fastest Ford was Matt Kenseth in seventh.

The next round of preseason NASCAR testing heads out west to California and Las Vegas. Vegas will see the Sprint Cup stars January 28-29 and California will get the drivers Jan. 31-Feb. 1.

Hell to the yeah! My home state of Iowa race car driver Michael Annett got a NASCAR development deal. "Hey we're movin' on up!" Go Iowa!

Sigh. He signed with Bill Davis Racing. I would have much preferred, oh, I don't know ... Joe Gibbs Racing or Roush Fenway. Actually, maybe JR Motorsports.

Don't get me wrong, despite all the picking I do on Dave Blaney, I still think BDR is one of the better racing organizations, run by some fine people. I just don't think they're at the top of their game right now, except in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in which Mike Skinner is battling Kevin Harvick Inc.'s Ron Hornaday for the 2007 championship title.

Speaking of trucks, the BDR truck team is faring much better than Davis' other trucking venture, Bill Davis Trucking, which has been forced to file for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection due to an injury lawsuit. But that's neither here nor there ... Davis says BDR will not be affected, which seems evident with the recent additions to the driver roster.

Annett made his ARCA / Remax debut at Iowa Speedway in June claiming the pole and a third place finish. Most recently, he added winner of the ARCA / Remax 250 at Talladega Superspeedway to his growing list of racing credits.

Booyah! Welcome to the family!

For the guys who apply the name decals to the Haas CNC No. 66 Chevrolets and the No. 36 Bill Davis Racing Toyota, Monday brought plenty of new work.

Jeremy Mayfield will replace Jeff Green in the No. 66 immediately after departing Bill Davis' ride. He'll be there in 2008 as well.

For the guys who apply the name decals to the Haas CNC No. 66 Chevrolets and the No. 36 Bill Davis Racing Toyota, Monday brought plenty of new work.

Jeremy Mayfield will replace Jeff Green in the No. 66 immediately after departing Bill Davis' ride. With the No. 36 BDR ride available (and lacking a sponsor in '08), Davis hired a pair of Craftsman Truck Series drivers with past Cup experience to finish out the year.

Johnny Benson and Mike Skinner will split those duties. Skinner gets the gig at Atlanta this weekend and then at Texas Motor Speedway while Benson will wrap up the year at Phoenix and Homestead.

With Scott Riggs already announced as a Haas CNC driver for 2007, the driver lineup will completely change at Haas with both Jeff Green and Johnny Sauter on the way out it seems.

What are you doing this weekend, Boris? What's that? You're helping TGOM win the Blaniac Challenge, you say?

Most of the road race ringers were shut out by rain this weekend at Watkins Glen International, but at least one driver thought it would be a shame not to have Boris Said behind the wheel of a race car. I totally agree!

Wood Brothers/JTG Racing co-owner Len Wood:

"Bill [Elliott] came to me and said, 'In the best interest of the team, let's put Boris in. Bill is an excellent road racer - the first race he ever won was at Riverside. He suggested putting Boris in. We first cleared it with our sponsors and then went to NASCAR and cleared it with them."

Woohoo! I'm sure that makes the Said Heads happy. But more importantly, it makes me very happy!

Both the WBJTF #21 and BDR #22 cars will finally push the Ginn Racing #13 out of the top 35 in owner points and one of them will officially gain the spot. With the #21 only 26 points behind the #22 heading to a road course with Said behind the wheel, it's highly likely they could steal the Ginn Gift back from Dave Blaney, who would then be on the outside looking in again next week at MIS.

This weekend I'm a Said Head!

Bill Davis Racing announced today that driver Jeremy Mayfield has decided not to return to the #36 team next year and wants to explore other opportunities.

Mayfield:

"I've been in this sport long enough to know that it takes time to bring a brand new car up to speed in what is probably the most competitive racing series in the world.

"When I made the decision to move here to BDR with an untested car and a sponsor completely unfamiliar with NASCAR, I knew it would be somewhat of a gamble. I believed then, and I believe now, that Toyota has a bright future in the Cup Series and is making progress every weekend. You only have to look at their success in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and now in the Busch Series to see where it can go.

"I think Bill will be successful in resolving the issues that have hampered the #36 team this year. But I think I have delivered what I can to the effort and looking at the total picture-what's best for me, what's best for the team-I believe this is the right time for me to consider other opportunities. I can assure you, we will do our best to build on the first half of this season and put the #36 in front in this second half of the 2007 season."

I can't be the only one wondering if Mayfield decided on his own that now was the right time to consider other opportunities or this is PR speak for, "You're outta here at the end of the season. If you want to save face, we're willing to say it was your decision."