Nascar and Racing Toyota

If we celebrated David Reutimann's win at Charlotte last month and Matt Kenseth's February Daytona 500 victory -- both races called off early because of rain -- then no one can begrudge rookie Joey Logano his maiden win Sunday at rain-soaked New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

However, we can question NASCAR's schedule. And we're entitled to bristle just a bit at Sunday's finish.

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It almost seems like a broken record.

While Kyle Busch continues to own the NASCAR Nationwide Series points standings, he is having awful issues finishing races. He's had some bad luck, no doubt about it. However, Saturday night in the Meijer 300 at Kentucky Speedway, Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Joey Logano simply had a better racecar. It helps that he picked a good time for what could have been his best restart of the night.

Perhaps Jimmy Watts was just doing what he had always done as a firefighter for the Charlotte (N.C.) Fire Department on Sunday when he dashed across the unprotected frontstretch Atlanta Motor Speedway grass to retrieve an errant tire from his team's recently completed pit stop -- preventing a potentially harmful situation.

Regardless, the NASCAR gas man who helped bring out a caution that changed the complexion of the Kobalt Tools 500 and was suspended by NASCAR for the remainder of the event felt obligated Sunday evening to apologize for his actions.

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.

Warning: Objects in this post may be the only way to successfully live through the NASCAR off-season. For best results, read rearview mirror early and often.

Driver: Brian Vickers
Team: No. 83 Red Bull Racing Toyota
'08 Final Standing: 19th (-3104)
Best Race: Pocono 500 (2nd-place)
Worst Race: Phoenix, Indianapolis & Lowes (42nd-place)

Season in a box: Aside from a not-so-surprising impressive first year under the Toyota banner for Joe Gibbs Racing, Brian Vickers was easily the brightest star from NASCAR's newest manufacturer with some near-wins and consistent finishes.

Remember the cheating story that hit Joe Gibbs Racing like a ton of bricks after the Nationwide Series race at Michigan International Speedway in August? You know, the one involving magnets on pedals for the horsepower testing?

For those with short memories or lazy mouse-clicking fingers, the JGR Nationwide Series No. 18 and No. 20 cars were found to have magnets that prevented the throttle pedal from being fully depressed, leaving skewed numbers for NASCAR to examine during a post-race performance test.

It's a genius plan, really, and if it had worked, JGR and Toyota might have had a nice advantage in the series. But it didn't, and NASCAR wasn't too pleased. They showed it with heavy fines, suspensions and point deductions in the week that followed.

This week, though, JGR crew chief Dave Rogers -- who's still indefinitely suspended from NASCAR -- fully admitted to the cheating.

"I made a mistake, and I owned up to that mistake, and I didn't make excuses," said Rogers.

And for that, you've got to applaud him because it's not too often that NASCAR crew chiefs profess guilt instead of pleading innocence.

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.

Brad Coleman's entry and exit to and from the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series with Hall of Fame Racing came to an abrupt halt after just one race, ESPN says.

[Brad] Coleman's fortunes changed quickly [...] According to Hall of Fame Racing, Coleman is now a free agent. He is no longer under contract to Hall of Fame.

Coleman's lone Sprint Cup race came at Michigan International Speedway in August when the 20-year-old driver replaced a fired J.J. Yeley in the No. 96 DLP Toyota. In that event, he started 37th and finished 43rd.

For giggles, I think I'll cite my previous post on Coleman's quick turn up to NASCAR's top division:

Hall of Fame sure isn't a place where a driver is going to go win championships, and knowing that Coleman just might be making a career mistake of jumping in a car that races in the Sprint Cup Series but doesn't compete.

Now I get that "just might be making a career mistake" isn't a "Coleman will be cut after one race"-type prediction, but come on, the writing was on the wall for this kid and his move to a team I wouldn't even drive for if offered the chance.

Yeah, Hall of Shame Fame Racing is just that bad, but this certainly leaves plenty of questions as to why it took so long for word to come out about Coleman.

Brian Vickers and Red Bull Racing weren't expecting to be the big news of the week -- especially after ex-Formula 1 driver Scott Speed made his Sprint Cup debut at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday.

Instead, the team was given all but a heavy dose of corporal punishment Wednesday afternoon thanks to NASCAR finding that the sheet metal on Vickers' No. 83 was too thin for NASCAR's specifications.

The lack of depth left Vickers with 150 less points (drops from 15th to 17th in the driver point standings) and without a car cheif (Craig Smokstad) or crew chief (Kevin Hamlin) for an unknown amount of time after both were suspended indefinitely by NASCAR.

Ouch.

However, the team took complete responsibility for the violation in a subsequent press release saying they wouldn't appeal the ruling and that they realize it's a "privilege" to compete in NASCAR. Ominous words for the person mainly behind this penalty were also included in the release as it said "necessary steps will be taken to rectify the situation and ensure it won't happen again".

All that being said, what in the world does it mean and why does it help for a team to have thin sheet metal?

Scott Speed, the former Formula 1 driver from the good ol' US of A, will make his first career Sprint Cup Series start Sunday afternoon at Martinsville Speedway.

It's an interesting way to start for Speed -- at the circuit's smallest track that has roots deeper in NASCAR than ugly driver t-shirts -- but he'll do so anyway in the No. 84 Toyota from Red Bull Racing.

Speed is apparently ready for NASCAR, but the real question lies not in his awareness or readiness.

Rather, is NASCAR ready for Scott Speed?

He's brash, he's outspoken, and he's talented. He'll tell you how he feels, and doesn't mind who's feathers get ruffled along the way. Simply, he wants to win, and truly thinks he can be a champion rather quickly in stock car racing.

Ultimately, he's pretty darn close to being the open-wheel crossover driver version of the always oh-so-well-received Kyle Busch.