Due to the fact that Sprint Cup Series was off last weekend for Easter, the Fanhouse is digging deep for some past highlights from Martinsville Speedway, site of this Sunday's Goody's Cool Orange 500.
In this one from 1999, Tony Stewart and the late Kenny Irwin have their share of run-ins on the half-mile paper clip. Apologies in advance for the European broadcast commentary, I couldn't find the ESPN version.
The conflict got started early in the day when Stewart spun out Irwin in turn 4.
Tony would later call that a mistake, and with good reason.
Ricky Rudd will miss his third consecutive race this weekend at Dover International Speedway. Rudd suffered a serious shoulder separation during a crash at California Speedway.
Kenny Wallace has filled in Rudd's No. 88 since that time and will continue this weekend with Dover's Dodge Dealers 400.
Wallace says that he is looking forward to running in the Dodge Dealers 400.
"I really have a love/hate relationship with Dover," he said. "I've had some good runs there, and those are the runs I always try to remember when we head there for a race. I really enjoy the track a lot, and I'm just waiting to love the track, but I really feel that I can do well up there in the car of tomorrow this weekend. For as much as I enjoy Dover, I haven't had the finishes that I should have so far, but I'm just going to keep on trying."
During his time in the RYR Ford, Wallace has posted unremarkable finishes of 28th and 34th respectively at Richmond and Loudon.
David Gililland, the other Yates driver, has only posted finishes of 22nd and 39th at the same events -- showing that the Yates machines aren't exactly up-to-par at the moment, however.
For Wallace's future, you've got to hope that Yates brings a better package to the Monster Mile this weekend.
It's not known when Ricky Rudd, who is retiring at the end of this season, will come back -- if at all -- from his injury.
Roush Fenway Racing, which already shared an engine program with [Robert Yates Racing], will expand its relationship in 2008 to include building and selling cars and parts to its fellow Ford partner as well as licensing and marketing.
That ultimately will allow Roush after the 2009 season -- the deadline NASCAR has set for it to get to four teams -- to send its fifth car and whatever employees that might go with it to RYR.
"That's not part of the deal, but it certainly won't shock anybody here if in two years that's where it goes," Roush Fenway president Geoff Smith said before Saturday night's Nextel Cup race at Richmond International Raceway.
Roush's Smith apparently thinks he's been absolutely cunning with the manuever of not saying that specifically Roush's "extra" assets will find a way over to Yates. Come on, dude, how stupid do you think we are?
This is all comes when Roush's resources seem already pressed much too thin within the organization -- as they have seemed to been since having the hoopla of five cars in the 2005 Chase.
The funny thing about the potential Roush/Yates eight-car conglomerate is that NASCAR -- more specifically NASCAR's VP of Competition Robin Pemberton -- is apparently already on board with it.
Travis Kvapil will return to the Cup series (yea!) replacing the retiring Ricky Rudd in the #88 Chevy in 2008--or sooner. Owner Robert Yates, 64, is also retiring and will turn the reigns of the renamed Yates Racing over to son Doug at the end of this season. The Roush Yates engine partnership will continue and Doug shall strive to grow Yates into a pre-eminent team like Roush Fenway.
Stremme Latest Free Agent Car owner Chip Ganassi doesn't really want to let David Stremme go, but since losing the Coors sponsorship he has nothing to offer the driver for next season so he has not yet picked up his option. Career stats: 2 top 10s, 8 laps led. Ouch. But ... even with the Yates and DEI opening already filled, silly season is still going strong. There'll be somebody out there looking for a little experience.
I wonder ... if I were an owner, who would look more appealing ... Stremme? or Mayfield? Eh. I'd like more choices, but ... I'm going to have to go with Mayfield, baggage and all. A mere two seasons ago, he was contending for the championship. He hasn't forgotten how to drive. But first we'd have to have a come to Jesus meeting. Then again, Stremme is probably more marketable, so ... let's make that an undecided, dependent upon sponsors.
Bob Dilner reported last night that Hendrick Motor Sports has requested the #38 from Robert Yates Racing for Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I think he's on to something ... but the chatter in my inbox suggests that RYR offered the #38 up to HMS and will acquire the rights to the #89, which is currently assigned to Morgan Shepherd but hasn't been run in 2007. Yates would then have the #88 and #89 in Sprint Cup and the #90 in the Busch Series.
Since he can't get the #8, I have to guess that having his daddy's number along side his own has got to be the next best thing for Junior. That ought to even satisfy the fans that continually beg him to drive the #3 made famous by Dale Earnhardt.
Can he still make a connection to his grandfather in the #38? Well, Ralph drove a 1938 Chevrolet making a name for himself on the short tracks of North Carolina. That ought to count for something.
I don't suppose I need to mention the difference between 8 and 3 is 5. Rick Hendrick, for whom the #5 holds sentimental value, will still have that number in Busch to honor his son, the late Ricky Hendrick, who, incidentally, ran 38 Busch Series races in his career.
Dale Jarrett hasn't had the best of years -- by far.
That, though, doesn't mean the Cup Champ is going to step out of the driver seat of the No. 44 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota before his contract is up at the end of 2008.
"I'm very fortunate to have a sponsor that's very committed to our program, and I'm fortunate as a driver that they built their marketing program around me, and so that's very good," he said. "Do they want to do better? Sure. We all do. They're no different than anyone else, but never has there been anything said about making a change or doing anything different."
UPS really should be given a pat on the back for their support of Jarrett. Can the man still wheel a race car? Definitely. Can he make hilarious commercials? He can act in them, I suppose.
And they realize that Toyota will make some nice strides in 2008 with the Car of Tomorrow.
Rudd One and Done
As for Jarrett's old car and teammate, Ricky Rudd has deciding to hang it up again next year.
Though contemplating full retirement, Rudd hasn't taken his name away from anything, other than saying he won't be back at Yates and that he is tired of the daily grind.
Last year, when David Gilliland won his first ever Busch race in an unsponsored car at the spring Kentucky event, by the fall he was piloting Robert Yates Racing No. 38.
Stephen Leicht took his first Busch win at the same track Saturday night, but he's already racing for RYR and has Citifinancial as a sponsor.
Does that mean he gets an automatic Cup ride, too?
Doubt it.
But hey, he's a winner, right? I'm sure the party will be nice tonight -- mainly because he doesn't have to be at Michigan for the Cup race Sunday.
One minor issue though. Leicht is only 20, and underage drinking is wrong. Especially in the Busch Series. Wrong.
At least now, however, Leicht has the first win slump past him. He was the first non-Cup driver to win a Busch race in 52 consecutive races.
Busch Series point leader -- or the guy that's suffocating NASCAR's idea to not add the Chase for the Busch Series -- Carl Edwards led a race-high 96 of 200 laps before being caught up in a wreck with less than 30 laps to go on a restart.
He'll probably leave Kentucky with a 30-bajillion point lead, instead of 39-bajillion one. Darn.
It was a big night otherwise for non-Cup Busch regulars.
Say goodbye to any rumors that Robert Yates Racing will be running any other model than a Ford in the near future.
Yates told ESPN on Thursday that he had signed a new five-year deal with the manufacturer in a move that quieted some gossip but didn't clear up much.
"We have been talking to different people and they ask, 'What manufacturer are you with? How strong is that? How long term is it?' [This contract] puts a lot to bed. We have a good relationship with Ford, and we continue to," said Yates.
It's good to see one of NASCAR's traditional names still find a place in the growing sport. Yates knows he has some catching up to do to get Ricky Rudd and David Gilliland running like the Yates teams of the 90's, but this new contract helps solidify things for a few years.
The DEI-RYR partnership rumor is still alive and kicking, however, because DEI hasn't ruled out not campaigning with a different make in 2008. DEI has, however, inked a deal with Richard Childress Racing to build engines.
Negotiations between Robert Yates Racing and Dale Earnhardt Inc. were already slow-going ...
Doug Yates, co-owner of the #38 and #88 Ford Fusions:
"Our position all along has been that we're trying to do whatever we can do to get our team as strong as we can get it, so we've looked at a lot of situations – DEI being one of them. They've talked to us and we've talked to them, plus there is other stuff, but at the end of the day we haven't gotten anywhere with that in particular.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s exit isn't going to move things along any:
"It definitely makes it look different, that's for sure. I think looking at DEI without Dale Jr. is a different situation. It doesn't mean that it's any better or any worse, it's just different. We're still open to trying to, like I said, our goal is to make our team as strong as we can make it and we're gonna continue to look at scenarios until we can figure out what that is."
Is Junior driving for RYR one of the scenarios they'd like to look at?
"Obviously, everybody here would love to have Dale Jr. drive for them, so we'll see what happens."
All the talk of Dale Earnhardt Inc. buying Robert Yates Racing has everyone talking manufacturers.
Doug Yates builds Ford engines.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. drives Chevys.
If the deal goes down and Junior stays with DEI, change is imminent for one of them.
Not likely for Junior, a Chevy devotee.
On his XM radio show last night, Junior, whose own classic car collection doesn't include a single Ford, declared his love for Chevy and made his thoughts about driving a Ford crystal clear:
"Ford is like the other half and you don't play with the other half."
No word on whether or not he will move to disallow Ford plugging him in their commercials.
Ricky Rudd will miss his third consecutive race this weekend at Dover International Speedway. Rudd suffered a serious shoulder separation during a 
Owner Jack Roush has apparently solved the riddle of getting back on top of NASCAR Nextel Cup racing.
Travis Kvapil will 
Dale Jarrett hasn't had the best of years -- by far.
Last year, when David Gilliland won his first ever Busch race in an unsponsored car at the spring Kentucky event, by the fall he was piloting Robert Yates Racing No. 38.
Say goodbye to any rumors that Robert Yates Racing will be running any other model than a Ford in the near future.
All the talk of Dale Earnhardt Inc. buying Robert Yates Racing has everyone talking manufacturers. 
