Former NASCAR champion has made it a well-known fact that he doesn't get along with Martinsville Speedway.

Sunday, he made it very well known that he just isn't very good at wrecking people intentionally without getting caught. Catch the first replay at 0:10:



As you can see, Kenseth's yellow and black DeWalt Ford suddenly swiped up the track directly into the right rear corner of David Gilliland's No. 38. Naturally, the No. 38 quickly spun up against the turn 2 wall.

Check out all of the NASCAR Fanhouse Daytona Speedweeks Coverage.
On Sunday, stop by for the live blog of the 50th Daytona 500 at 3:00pm/ET.

In addition to Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s well-publicized move to Hendrick Motorsports in the off-season, his personal team, JR Motorsports, merged operations with Hendrick for the Nationwide Series campaign.

That hasn't started off well at Daytona International Speedway.

Earnhardt Jr.'s No. 5 National Guard Chevrolet will start 19th Saturday afternoon in the Camping World 300 (1:15/ET ESPN2), but qualifying for the race has been about the only bright spot.

Prior to qualifying, Earnhardt Jr.'s No 5 was impounded Thursday night by NASCAR after they noticed illegal rear spoiler modifications. The crew had changed something about the decklid and spoiler after inspection on Thursday morning, and NASCAR wasn't happy.

Friday morning, the No. 5 was returned to the team minus a decklid and spoiler, forcing the team to unbolt the decklid and spoiler assembly from the team's backup car and transfer it to the primary.

Earnhardt Jr. wasn't too happy.

"Everybody tries to get a little bit on the cars and the rules and get in the gray area," Earnhardt said in a television interview. "Our guys were trying too hard on a car that didn't need it. The car's pretty good. We all learned a lesson and probably deal with penalties next week, which is pretty much standard. We'll be all right."

In other words, Earnhardt Jr. is ticked that his team is going to be fined and penalized for a race car that before the infraction could have won the race.

Other pre-race rules infractions included Michael Waltrip Racing's David Reutimann having his carburetor confiscated and drivers Cale Gale, Johnny Sauter, David Gililland, David Stremme and Kertus David having post-qualifying issues with their oil tank lids.

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.

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.

Confused yet? I am.

Just a quick shot of 110 octane to get you goin' for 500 499 miles of NASCAR Nextel Cup Racing at Talladega. Today's coverage starts at 1:30pm/et on FOX with the green flag sometime after 2:15pm/et. The weather forecast today is remarkable -- Sunny and a high of 82.

Would the Real Tony Stewart Please Stand Up?
First, he wouldn't talk. Then, he blasted NASCAR for being the new professional wrestling. NASCAR then, for all intents and purposes, laid a verbal lashing on him. Yesterday? Defiant as ever, acting as if he was still right. Which are you, Tony? When will you pick a stand and quit waffling? I can't agree more with this column over on ThatsRacin. The first line really says it all -- Tony Stewart is no hero for what he said on the radio, rather, he is just talking to be heard because the method in which he displays his displeasure is utterly ineffective for change. The NASCAR Nation thanks you, Tony, for so damaging any credibility this sport has worked so hard to have. Today begins an attempt to bring that back.

Don't Let the 499 Fool You