Nascar and Racing Speed Tv

One of the questions fans frequently ask me is whether or not NASCAR drivers harbor a grudge against one another from week to week. Well, if they do, Bristol Motor Speedway is the one place they can get away with returning the not-so-friendly favor.

Whether it's payback from a previous race or for something that happened just a few laps before, we usually can expect retaliation on the high banks of Bristol. And that tit-for-tat can be as simple as a complementary spin or as emotive as a post-race fight. One former series champion told me, "Any driver who says they don't have a 'payback' list is a liar." That mental list can be lengthy and likely covers misdeeds from many years back.

A few random thoughts and observations with four races remaining to qualify for the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup:

The "new and improved" Kyle Busch:

Well, he has to start somewhere with his attitude, so give Kyle Busch credit for climbing out of the race car and doing what he so far had been unable to do so often in the past – conduct a civil and polite interview. We in the NASCAR media are fortunate in our ability to approach our athletes immediately following an event, whereas in most sports, players retreat to the locker room for 30 minutes before facing the press.

It's time for NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers to turn right again – for the second and final time this year – and right into a dispute.

The validity of road course races on the Cup schedule is a perennial source of debate each time we roll into Watkins Glen International and Infineon Raceway. One train of thought says we need more road courses on the schedule, while others suggest eliminating them entirely. However, I remain smack dab in the middle on this issue, content with the current arrangement and our bi-annual road course stops.

What do Ron Hornaday Jr. and the Waukee, Iowa girls' track and field team have in common? Winning four in a row, a remarkable feat in any sport.

The track and field team was four-time consecutive regional champions while Hornaday made NASCAR Camping World Truck Series history last weekend at Indianapolis with his fourth consecutive victory. He now heads to Nashville Superspeedway on Saturday, one of only eight tracks on which he has not yet won.

Debacle. Fiasco. Embarrassment.

All of these words and more were used to describe last year's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.

What could cause utterances of this nature to be used to describe one of NASCAR's crown jewel events, held on sacred racing ground at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway?

We're still a few months away from learning who the first five inductees into the NASCAR Hall of Fame will be, giving us a little time to banter back and forth about who should be in that critical first class.

I'm curious to see how everything plays out with the criteria for induction. With three premier but separate series – the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Sprint Cup Series – how do you arrive at the finalists given the dominant success several drivers have enjoyed across the three different divisions?

One of the loudest buzzes in motor sports the past couple of weeks comes in the form of one tiny, but potent, package -- Danica Patrick. Does she dare make the daunting move from the IndyCar Series to NASCAR?

Only those close to her know Danica's true intentions, but we can say with certainty she is a savvy business woman. Making public her willingness to entertain any and all offers from both series is a prudent business decision. Danica may have every intention of remaining in the IndyCar Series and simply jumping from Andretti-Green Racing to Chip Ganassi's team, so she could very well be using the NASCAR chatter as a bargaining chip. She possesses the driving ability and marketing appeal to demand her price and place.

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It's that time of year again. Sunday's race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway officially kicks off the "Race to the Chase," the 10-race stretch for a shot at the championship.

While there have been several surprises in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series this year, one of the biggest shocks as we close in on the Chase for the Sprint Cup is the absence of a clear-cut favorite for the championship. Last year's dominant teams at this time of the season were the 99 and 18, and the 24 and 48 in 2007, but we really don't have one in 2009, which bodes well for the sport.

Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Infineon Raceway could very well make or break the season of two underrated drivers who are teammates by virtually all definitions of the word.

Marcos Ambrose, who drives for JTG-Daugherty Racing, essentially a satellite of Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR), and David Reutimann, who won his first Cup race for MWR last month at Lowe's Motor Speedway, are two humble and subdued drivers making a lot of noise on the track this year. But the road course in Sonoma, Calif., could mean totally different things to the duo.

If I had said this six months ago, you would have insisted that I'd lost my last marble. But now the notion doesn't seem so crazy, does it? I pick Tony Stewart to win the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship.

That's right - my money's on "Smoke" and I'm feeling pretty confident given the way he's behaving lately. Taking the point lead at Dover, and winning for the first time as a car owner a week later at Pocono, sealed the deal for me, but let me point out that six months ago I was in the minority who believed in the notion that Stewart-Haas Racing would actually succeed.