It all started so innocently for Casey Mears Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway. As he came off of turn four, he'd slide up to the wall and cross the start/finish line to complete lap 355.

Trouble was, Michael Waltrip was there, and when Mears came across the nose of the No. 55, Waltrip was none too pleased and displayed it by pushing Mears down the straightaway and into the turn one wall. Follow along below at 0:13:



For the blatant contact following Mears' incidental mistake, Waltrip was parked by NASCAR for the remainder of the race, relegating him to a 37th-place finish.

Mears said this week that he was happy with the punishment handed out, and NASCAR also said that they wouldn't pursue any further sanctions against Waltrip mainly because the penalty cost Waltrip quite a few points.

As I stated in the previous blog post, this effort out of Waltrip seems to be a near-yearly occurence after he gets into a disagreement with a fellow driver. He just simply overreacts, and in this case, used his car ultimately as a weapon.

All of this, of course, goes back to one question.

Do you think Waltrip is upset with the people he meets at autograph signings?

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.

Last year, Michael Waltrip and his race team, Michael Waltrip Racing, faced one of most-publicized cheating scandals in NASCAR history. An illegal additive in Waltrip's No. 55 had set his team on its collective ear, and proved to be a barometer of the season MWR would have.

2008, though, is a much different story.

Waltrip put his No. 55 NAPA Toyota on the outside of the front row for Sunday's 50th-running of the Daytona 500 and his teammates, David Reutimann and Dale Jarrett, secured starting positions in the event.

The team has sported silver wheels for the past year and in all on-track activities during the 2008 Daytona Speedweeks. Sunday though, that will change.

Michael Waltrip and his three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams will pay tribute to the golden anniversary of the Daytona 500 on Sunday by starting the 50th running of The Great American Race sporting specially-designed gold wheels.

Following the 200-lap event, the wheels will be autographed and sold to raise money for charities supported by the France family.

[...]

The Waltrip teams will run the gold wheels only for the start of the race, moving back to their traditional chrome wheels after the first round of pit stops.

I don't think I can remember too many cars in history that have sported gold wheels, but if anyone in the NASCAR garage would do this, it'd be Waltrip.

With only 12 of these wheels available for auction, I'd imagine the price will be pretty steep, and if one of the MWR cars wins on Sunday -- it wouldn't be as surprising as you'd think -- expect that price to raise ten-fold.

Check out all of the NASCAR Fanhouse Daytona Speedweeks Coverage.

The start of the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season has brought together two names that ultimately ended the 2007 season on the opposite ends of the spectrum.

Michael Waltrip will start alongside pole winner Jimmie Johnson for Sunday's 50th running of the Daytona 500.

Johnson, last year's Sprint Cup champion, drove a lap at 187.075 mph to secure his second-career pole for the season-opener. Waltrip, who finished 44th in last year's season standings, guaranteed his spot in the Daytona 500 with a lap of 186.734 mph.

Both laps were faster than the pole-winning speed in 2007.

While Johnson was excited to be on the pole for the season's biggest event, it was Waltrip that was nearly speechless about his effort. Exactly one year ago, Waltrip was facing the biggest storm of his career after his car was found to have an illegal additive in the engine prior to qualifying for the 2007 edition.

It would lead to a season that saw both he and his Michael Waltrip Racing team miss several races, fall out of the top-35, and lose sponsors for 2008. Somehow, his team trucked on and this time around at Daytona, all three MWR cars face a go-or-go-home situation if they want to make the event.

Waltrip, a two-time 500 winner, joined teammate David Reutimann and Joe Nemechek as the three drivers that guaranteed a spot in next Sunday's race based on time. The third MWR car with Dale Jarrett on-board will have to race his way into the race on Thursday during the qualifying races.

Nemechek's near pole-winning run was doubly impressive considering the team operates out of Denver, Colo. and has only been in business for three years.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. jumped to the top of the speed chart Tuesday morning at Daytona International Speedway, in a possible effort to gain some credence to his crew chief's predictions for 2008.

Monday afternoon, Tony Eury Jr. predicted his driver would pilot the Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 to four race victories in the coming season.

Earnhardt Jr.'s lap of 185.820mph landed him the fastest single-lap speed of any driver through both this and last week's test session at the legendary 2.5-mile track. That figure will stand as the top overall single-lap time as the Sprint Cup Series drivers will now switch to multi-car drafting mode for the afternoon session on Tuesday.

Wednesday, testing will wrap up with two more drafting sessions in the schedule -- pending forecasted afternoon rain stays away. If Wednesday is enough of a washout, Thursday is scheduled as the additional rain-date but the forecast that day looks even worse.

The Toyotas remained a strong presence at the top of the leader board Tuesday morning with Michael Waltrip, Brian Vickers, Dale Jarrett and Tony Stewart rounding out the Top-5 of the final single-lap session.

There were no reported incidents in the morning session, but stay tuned to NASCAR Fanhouse for updates on the Tuesday afternoon session and activities on Wednesday.

Is it wrong that we keep picking on Rusty Wallace, Brad and Suzie, et. al. on ESPN? Heck no! They're the ones who've got the rights to the NASCAR action at the moment and the ones we have to put up with right now. It just so happens they also suck the most.

What did we learn during ESPN's Atlanta broadcast? Rusty can't say Truex. Not like it's hard ... Sounds like: TRUE-EX. Not like: TUR-EX or TRUR-EX or whatever it was he was saying--I can't even replicate the sound.

Oh, we also learned that Teresa Earnhardt isn't dead. Thanks for the tip. Only three more races to go, race fans. Three more. Maybe by mid-season next year we'll have something good to talk about.

Ok ... so maybe ESPN is the worst ... or maybe they're just the worst right now because that's what we're dealing with. They all have their moments of less-than-stellar commentary--even Speed, as highlighted by Michael Waltrip in the above video.

Holy crap! Michael Waltrip, meet Pole.

Waltrip's fourth career pole was his first of the season. It's the second Bud Pole Award of the season for Toyota, which has five of its cars starting in the top 10 in tomorrow's UAW-Ford 500. All five were go or go home cars. All five do not typically run out front of the field. Five more things to weigh on the minds of the Chase drivers, not one of whom qualified in the top 10.

Talladega's top-qualifying rookie, David Reutimann, secured a career best spot in fifth and his Michael Waltrip Racing teammate Dale Jarrett qualified 8th but will start 43rd because of some rule that I forget. This is the third consecutive week all three MWR drivers made the show.

The team's season is finishing much better than it started. Reutimann is close to re-signing and Jarrett says he knows his fate, the rest of us will find out on Thursday. Hmmm ... Broadcasting?

Dave Blaney and Brian Vickers start 2nd and 3rd, respectively.

A.J. Allmendinger qualified his Toyota in the ninth overall position, but the top 10 finish wasn't good enough to make the race. Could he have worse luck?

It's pretty messed up that a full-time team qualified in the top 10 but won't get to race. Especially when a team that hasn't run all year gets to race--and with a first-time driver no less. But Jacques Villeneuve qualified his Toyota 6th! Since NASCAR has allowed him to qualify, it's hard to argue now why he shouldn't he be allowed to race, too.

UAW-Ford 500 Lineup

Does the Top 35 Rule Need Tweaking?
What if all cars have to qualify straight-up on time with no guarantee every week? If applied this week, it would mean that championship contenders Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick would not be in the field. I don't think that's the answer, but I certainly wouldn't argue with a guarantee for the top 10 qualifiers and the top 25 in owner points. In a 43-car field, with sometimes over 50 teams attempting to qualify, 35 is too many guaranteed spots on points alone--many of which are reserved for mediocre teams. Some regard needs to be given to the cars with the fastest speeds.

NASCAR fans now a few more good examples of why NASCAR racing will never get boring after the steaming weekend at California Speedway -- for they know that at any time anything can happen in NASCAR.


Brad Keselowski, Ricky Rudd (as the video shows at 0:16) and Michael Waltrip are feeling why today.

Waltrip was the only driver of the three that had a faint idea that his race was about to end early when the left-front tire finally cut down entering turn three during Sunday night's Sharp Aquos 500, sheering an oil line and igniting the No. 55 Napa Toyota. Luckily, Waltrip was able to get out in time -- but not very quickly.

Rudd's fortunes weren't as obvious.

Update: Separated Shoulder?

The NASCAR Scene had this to say about Ricky Rudd's Injury:

Rudd, driver of the No. 88 Robert Yates Racing Ford, separated his left shoulder according to FoxSports.com. NASCAR officials would only confirm that Rudd injured that shoulder.

For a guy who's driven a race and won at Martinsville with eyelids taped open, I'll bet he'll be back for Richmond.

Original: Ricky Rudd appeared to come up a little lame, if you will, after a drivers-side hit against the California Speedway frontstretch wall during Sunday night's Sharp Aquos 500.

Rudd, the driver of Robert Yates' No. 88 Ford Fusion, was taken to the hospital via ambulance, and he was later treated and released. Remember, though, that "treated" can mean a number of things. (In other words, Kenny Wallace might be needed for stand-by duties at Richmond.)

The incident that Rudd, who's retiring from full-time competition (again) after 2007, was involved in happened on lap 180 when NASCAR point leader Jeff Gordon slid into the side of Jeremy Mayfield off of turn four. Mayfield clipped David Reutimann who spun towards the infield grass, but not before catching the rear-end of Rudd's Ford. Rudd's car then impacted the frontstretch wall nearly flat on with the driver's door.

What Were They Thinking?
"They" being the California Speedway track safety workers.

Michael Waltrip was involved in the other serious incident of the night at California -- at least the one that will get way overplayed on ESPN -- when Waltrip cut a tire that had been rubbing entering turn three.

Michael Waltrip Racing denied today a report from RacingOne that Dale Jarrett would be out of the ride in 2008 and that UPS was already packing up. (Heh, get it?)

The original report about DJ from International Speedway Corporation affiliate RacingOne:

Toyota is expected to pair down Michael Waltrip racing from a three-car effort to a two-car squad, shifting some of that support to JGR's three-car team of Busch, Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin. Dale Jarrett is said to be seriously considering retirement, trading in his helmet for a microphone as a television analyst, which would leave MWR with Waltrip and David Reutimann.

There must be something to the rampant rumor that Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing are forming a partnership for '08, you'd think.

Anyways, this race fan would be more than happy to have Dale Jarrett replace Rusty Wallace in the ESPN booth. MWR's words with ESPN (via Jayski) didn't sound like that was even feasible:

Sterling Marlin won't be back in the drivers seat for Morgan-McClure Motorsports, despite a report yesterday that he might find a ride in a second car from the team, XM radio reported.

The FanHouse wasn't exactly believing the idea behind Marlin moving in as a teammate with Ward Burton yesterday, either.

XM Radio got a hold of McClure Thursday.

Morgan McClure team owner Larry McClure told Claire B. Lang on XM Satellite Radio that the rumor is absolutely not true.

McClure: "I know nothing about it. I have talked to no one. I have not talked to Sterling in a year and I have not talked to any of his people."

CBL: By no stretch of the imagination would anyone think that Sterling Marlin is going to go work for you.

McClure: "No mam."

Interestingly enough, the Cup Scene Daily no longer has any mention of the article up on the site. (HT: Jayski)

Ken Schrader Makes One-Race Cup Return w/ BAM Racing

I'd imagine when Ken Schrader decided to allow Bill Elliott to fill his seat in the No. 21 due to champion's provisionals in May, he didn't expect the end of July to roll around until he found a new ride.