Nascar and Racing Ford

RICHMOND, Va. -- Tthere was mixed reaction in the Richmond International Raceway garage Friday morning to the news that Richard Petty Motorsports (RPM) and Yates Racing plans to merge for the 2010 NASCAR season and will field a four-car Ford team under the RPM name.

RPM currently fields Dodges and the move to Ford would leave Dodge only the three-car Penske Racing stable in the Sprint Cup Series.

Dodge Motorsports President and CEO Mike Accavitti issued a statement saying, "Richard (Petty) has made a business decision to merge with Yates Racing. We wish Richard and RPM luck the rest of the season and in the future.''

RICHMOND, Va. -- Two of the biggest names in NASCAR -- Richard Petty Motorsports and Yates Racing -- announced Thursday they have signed a letter-of-intent to merge for the 2010 season and will field a four-car Ford team under the Richard Petty Motorsports (RPM) banner.

Current Yates driver Paul Menard and current RPM drivers Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler and A.J. Allmendinger will be the drivers.

"This is a pretty big deal for us," Richard Petty said. "We've talked with a lot of folks, but in the end it came down to the success the Gilletts (co-owner George Gillett and his sons) and and I think we can achieve with Ford Racing.

What with Tony Stewart going it on his own just fine, thank you; Kyle Busch smashing trophies in victory lane; Dale Earnhardt Jr. struggling to live up to his hype; 50-year old Mark Martin winning races; and Hendrick Motorsports being, well ... Hendrick Motorsports, the once dominant Roush Fenway Ford team finds itself on NASCAR's attention periphery here at the midseason point.

Jack Roush, co-owner of NASCAR's Roush Fenway Racing, can sleep a little better these days.

Toyota Racing Development -- long the rotten apple in the eye of Roush -- acknowledged this week in a conference call that it too expects budgetary cuts in the coming year thanks to an automobile market that's having a problem or two selling cars.

75 percent? That number works just fine for Carl Edwards.

Banging the Sprint Cup point leader out of the way for a win? Well, that works too.

For the third time in four races, Edwards has chopped into the bonus point lead held by Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch via a race win in the Sprint Cup Series. Saturday night that win -- his sixth of 2008 -- came in the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

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

It's a good day to be a driver from Australia or Canada in Indianapolis.

Both drivers representing their respective countries managed to qualify for their first Allstate 400 at the Brickyard Saturday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the session's go-or-go-home finale.

Australian Marcus Ambrose, who announced just last week that he would be jumping from the Nationwide Series to the Sprint Cup Series full-time in 2009 with the creation of JTG Daughtery Racing, qualified for his first oval race. Needless to say, he was excited:

"I've never been so anxious and nervous and apprenhensive all my life. Two laps on the race track here at the Brickyard, which is so famous and so intimidating as well, I just had to suck all that up and let her rip," said Ambrose.

"We're racing against the big boys and we qualified ourselves in on merit. It means an awful lot to me. I feel like today I've made it. I feel like we're in the Brickyard."

Now isn't refreshing to hear a guy who is that excited to make the race? Ambrose's run is all that more impressive because his team had just two laps in practice on Friday thanks to NASCAR rules that allow Top-35 cars to go through technical inspection first.

Welcome to the Carl Edwards Sprint Cup Crazy Train, the newest attraction at Roush-land Amusement Park. Before boarding, realize that this ride is not for the faint of heart. Be sure to keep the lap bar down at all times, and enjoy your ride on the Carl Edwards Sprint Cup Crazy Train.

It's been an interesting couple of race weekends for Carl Edwards in the Sprint Cup Series. Winning races, cheating accusations, penalties, and a blown engine don't generally run together for a driver, so let's rewind:

Monday, Feb. 25, 2008 - Auto Club 500: Edwards takes his No. 99 to victory lane on rain-delayed Monday. The No. 99 led 64 of 250 laps for Edwards 8th-career victory at the Auto Club Speedway of Southern California.

Sunday, March 2, 2008 - UAW-Dodge 400: For the second week in-a-row, Edwards carries his Roush team to victory, backflip and all. It's his 9th-career victory and is a sign that Roush-Fenway Racing has made significant strides in 2008.

Hours later though, problems would arise.

Welcome to the 2007 NASCAR FanHouse Year in Review. Follow along each day as we look back on the top 25 drivers of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for the 2007 season. Heck, bookmark us if you have to! Today, we review the season of 4th-place Matt Kenseth.

Driver: Matt Kenseth -- Cambridge, Wisconsin
Team: No. 17 DeWalt Ford
Points: 4th (-425)
2006: 2nd in Cup Standings
Key Stats: 2 wins, 13 Top-5s, 22 Top-10s
Back in 2008?: Yes

Generally, when a driver changes crew chiefs in the off-season, one would tend to believe that the previous season was a total loss. Especially so when the two people involved are Matt Kenseth and Robbie Reiser.

Kenseth and Reiser have worked together from the get-go of Matt's NASCAR career. Two former rivals on the short-tracks of Wisconsin, they teamed up and headed south for the riches of NASCAR's top series nearly a decade ago and found success quickly. They latched on with Roush Racing and together won the 2003 Winston Cup Championship.

And so, in 2007, it looks like on paper that if Reiser is leaving, something went drastically wrong.

But it didn't.

Driver: Carl Edwards -- Columbia, Missouri
Team: No. 99 Office Depot Ford
Points: 9th (-501)
2006: 12th in Cup Standings
Key Stats: 3 wins, 1 pole, 11 Top-5s, 15 Top-10s
Back in 2008?: Yes

The NASCAR world welcomed Carl Edwards back -- or at least he acted like it -- with a vengeance in 2007.

A year removed from not winning a race and finishing outside the Chase for the Nextel Cup, Edwards came back to life with his No. 99 Roush-Fenway Ford. Edwards notched three wins in '07, with the first coming at Michigan in June. From there, he would play master of concrete speedways by winning the 500-lapper at Bristol in the fall and the second race in the Chase at Dover.

On the Busch Series side of things, Edwards flat-out whipped the field early in the season, gaining a nearly 800-point lead on second place around Charlotte in May. That early domination was enough for Edwards to slide through a tough end of the season with his second career Busch Series title.

In 2007, we got to see a different side of Carl Edwards -- one that doesn't always smile and can be just a little bit scary. Each time, though, involved teammate Matt Kenseth.

Welcome to the 2007 NASCAR FanHouse Year in Review. Follow along each day until the end of 2007 as we look back on the top 25 drivers of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for the 2007 season. Heck, bookmark us if you have to! Today, we review the season of 14th-place Greg Biffle.

Driver: Greg Biffle -- Vancouver, Washington
Team: No. 16 3M Ford
Points: 14th (-2732)
2006: 14th in Cup Standings
Key Stats: 1 win, 1 pole, 5 Top-5s, 11 Top-10s
Back in 2008?: Yes

Where exactly has Greg Biffle gone?

No, not the one who also finished 14th in points a year ago, but the Greg Biffle from 2005 when he personally put his No. 16 Roush Ford into victory lane 5 times.

Biffle did come up with a win at Kansas Speedway in October in what was likely one of the weirdest events of the NASCAR season -- complete with two rain delays, a shortened race, and a winner (Biffle) who didn't technically cross the finish line first.

That is just that though, a technicality.

Otherwise, Biffle's season wasn't horrendous but it didn't reach hardly any potential of what his Roush-Fenway Racing team should be doing on a daily basis. Only a handful of times or less this year actually looked like it could turn into be Greg Biffle's winning day which, to say the least, didn't look possible after 2005.

Biffle's lone 2007 race win helped total the same amount of race wins earned during his rookie campaign. Each other year, he's won at least two other races.

To add to the drama and suspense hanging over Biffle's head for his 2008 season is the final year of his contact with Roush. Biffle's contract has been somewhat of a contentious issue and if it doesn't get resolved in the offseason, things could get really ugly.

Performance on the track, like always, could really help Biffle's cause there.