Nascar and Racing Dale Earnhardt Inc

NASCAR's two biggest names -- Earnhardt and Petty -- might fall under the same banner in the near future in the latest sign of how NASCAR's middle-of-the-road teams are struggling to keep pace with multi-car and mega-supported teams in the Sprint Cup Series.

While Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty never were true rivals on-track, the competition between each drivers' stats always persisted. Earnhardt never matched Petty's incredible 200-win total, but in 1992, he reached seven championships in NASCAR's top division to tie "The King".

Knowing that, it seems especially weird that at least one team representative acknowledge this weekend that Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Petty Enterprises have had discussions about joining forces.

"I think in this time, in this sport, anybody running from one team to three teams is talking to somebody, and anybody with four teams is trying to get to eight teams," said Loomis, vice president of race operations for Petty Enterprises.

Loomis likened it to what has been taking place throughout the financial world in recent weeks. Organizations such as Petty Enterprises and DEI, which are short on sponsorship dollar commitments for next season, are trying to align themselves with larger companies that are on more solid financial ground.

So there you have it.

FanHouse's Geoffrey Miller is at the track in Concord, N.C. for Saturday night's Bank of America 500 in full fan mode. He's hoping to avoid Kevin Harvick's motor coach driver from his location in the Ford Grandstand, Section I.

Regan Smith may drive for the race team that Dale Earnhardt Jr. left in 2007, but that didn't keep the now-Hendrick Motorsports driver from taking Smith's side after last week's controversial finish at Talladega Superspeedway.

Smith, a rookie in the Sprint Cup series, was denied his first-career win after NASCAR declared his last-lap pass underneath Tony Stewart illegal and gave Stewart the win despite getting beat by Smith to the finish line.

I was thoroughly against the ruling, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. made his support of Smith clear and questioned NASCAR's judgment on Friday at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

"In my opinion, the 01 (Smith) was forced below the line," Earnhardt Jr. said on Friday at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

"The two did make contact – (Smith) was on the inside of Tony and he had no choice other than to move away from Tony and that sends him below the line and in my opinion, the 01 wins the race. I feel like Tony did what he had to do. In the car, everyone would have done what Tony did, everyone would have done what the 01 did. Neither one of them were wrong or right.

"What's curious is when are you forced? Show me some video. I want to know what's forced and what's not. I felt like that was being forced."

And can you argue with Earnhardt Jr.? His statement further exemplifies how confused drivers were on NASCAR's rule, and how they remain to be confused now even after NASCAR tried to clarify the rule this week.

Leading up to the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, word was that Martin Truex Jr. was going to re-sign with Dale Earnhardt Inc. for 2009, and potentially longer. Truex, though, wasn't happy about the report done by ESPN.com's David Newton:

"It's (expletive). I don't know what the hell (the reporter) is talking about. He doesn't know what he's talking about," Truex said.

It turns out, though, that Newton was ultimately right. Whether or not he was right at the time, though, is still up in the air.

Regardless, Martin Truex Jr. is expected to announce later Friday that he will be staying at DEI in the No. 1 car for at least one more year. In contract terms, Truex actually just accepted the DEI's proposal to pick up the one-year option for '09 that was already in his previous deal.

Truex's move takes away at least a fraction of the rumor game being currently played throughout the Sprint Cup garage area, as he has been rumored for any number of open seats in 2009 including Stewart-Haas Racing, Penske Racing, and Richard Childress Racing.

Mark Martin had a terrifically fast car for the second week in a row at Pocono Raceway Sunday afternoon.

Pit problems, though, kept him from battling his No. 8 DEI Chevrolet for its first win of 2008 in the closing laps of the Pennsylvania 500.

Martin started second in Sunday's race and jumped out to the lead early on as part of his race-high 55 laps led in the 500-mile event, but a problem with the socket on the air gun that removes the lug nuts from the tires early in the race got put Martin further and further back on two consecutive pit stops.

Crew chief Tony Gibson seemed a little flabbergasted after Martin started second and seemed to have the car to beat.

"You can't run the same socket all year long," Gibson said. "You've got to eventually change it because it will break. Something about it hung up on a nut. It wasn't [the crew's] fault. They didn't do anything wrong.

"It kind of threw us out of our gameplan and got us off sync on fuel. But, hey, we had the car to beat here today by far, and that was a good day for us. I wish we would have won it. Should have won it. But it didn't happen."

The team's new gameplan involved Martin staying out while the rest of the leaders came to pit road just before the red flag came out on lap 128 for rain.

FanHouse's Geoffrey Miller is on location & blogging away at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Sunday's 15th Running of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.

Martin Truex Jr. appears set to end the rumor mill swirling around his future.

ESPN.com's David Newton reported on Saturday that "several sources" are confirming that Truex will now stay right where he's at -- with Dale Earnhardt Inc. -- until at least 2010:

The 28-year-old New Jersey native has agreed in principle to a two-year deal that will keep him at Dale Earnhardt Inc. through the 2010 season, multiple sources close to the situation told ESPN.com on Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Sources said an official announcement is expected any day, and that details with multiple sponsors remain to be finalized.

Truex, asked if he has an agreement, said: "We're getting there, yeah. Things are going well right. I'm pretty happy. I just want to think about racing this weekend."

That quote from Truex seems to seal the deal for me, as he definitely didn't make any attempt to deny the report. He pretty much gave the "yeah, that's been correctly reported but I can't say anything yet so I'm going to get back in my race car and stay away from you media-types"-style answer.

I'm glad Truex has got his deal seemingly worked out with DEI, a team where he'll remain as the No. 1 driver in the camp. I don't think, however, that re-signing with the team will lead him towards a Sprint Cup championship any time soon.

McMurray Grows Weary of Constant Free Agency Reports

It must be tough to have the media firing you from a high-profile job before you get the news, unless, you know, the media is wrong.

FanHouse's Geoffrey Miller is on-location at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Sunday's 15th Running of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.


Jimmie Johnson was the fastest man during Saturday morning's qualifying session for Sunday's Allstate 400, but Mark Martin backed up what he said at Pocono in June -- that he's a contender for this race.

Martin qualified second to Johnson's pole-winning lap of 181.793 mph in his No. 8 DEI Chevrolet.

Generally, Martin isn't one to make bold predictions about how well he could run, but after the June event at Pocono Raceway he told the media "I'm planning on winning the Brickyard 400 in the No. 8 car."