Sunday's Sprint Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway saw its share of spins and wrecks to contribute the races 18 cautions.

Aside from Matt Kenseth's antics, the biggest crash of the day involved 5 cars early in the 500 lap event. The melee, shown below, involved Jeff Gordon, Bobby Labonte, Aric Almirola, Scott Riggs, and Martin Truex Jr.


Almirola slid the nose of his No. 8 coming off of turn four into Bobby Labonte on the outside, turning the No. 43 and blocking the track for the rest of the field. Riggs then gets turned by Gordon as the accordion effect takes shape, damaging the nose of the No. 24.

Candian Patrick Carpentier sat on the pole and finished 2nd in his first-ever NASCAR race at Montreal last Satuday.

This Sunday, he's expecting to sport Valvoline colors for Evernham Motorsports.

Because the No. 10 that Scott Riggs usually campaigns is out of the top-35 in owner points, Ray Evernham decided that putting in a road course guru might be beneficial.

Evernham has already made it quite clear in early July that he doesn't see Riggs as part of the long-term future, anyways.

Evernham said negotiations to extend the contract of Scott Riggs, who has missed the past two races and is 36th in points, continue. But he wasn't quite as adamant that Riggs will be a part of the organization in 2008 as he was three weeks ago.

"He's a good little guy," Evernham said. "I just feel bad for what's going on with him."

There's so many things demeaning with that statement, and not the least of it is the diss on Rigg's height.

I really have nothing against Dave Blaney. Really, I don't. He just happens to be that guy sitting in the hot seat right now. Nothing personal ... except that I personally have never been impressed by him.

No, I haven't followed his whole career--my only frame of reference is the Nextel Cup Series. No, I've never met him personally so I don't know what a great guy he is, or how nice his parents are ... but even if I did I might still feel the same about his driving.

Some fans are taking this personally.

The Blaniacs have taken me to task for my criticism of Blaney's inability to close and for questioning his ability to take advantage of recent situations he's found himself in.

For daring to doubt his talent, I've been issued a challenge:

"If you are so sure he has no talent, let's make a friendly wager of $100.00, if he finishes the season outside of the top 35, you get my hundred bucks, if he finishes inside the top 35, you make a check out to VJGC....and in the memo put, "KTF Blaniacs."

For the record, I never said he had no talent, I just said his talent hasn't impressed me. The passion of his fans, however, has.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. scored his first pole in five years ... on the third day of the eighth month. 8-3=5 Is it a sign he should drive the #5? I don't know, but a reader told me the fans were discussing it on the The Pit Board.

On the Pocono Racway tri-oval no less, where he's only had only one top 5 starting spot in 15 races and has never had a win.

Unfortunately, right after qualifying, the #8 team managed to push the Budweiser Chevrolet off the scales smack into a Gator vehicle smashing the front end in--nothing they could have done to stop it. Hmmm. Just what we need ... more fuel for the conspiracy theorists.

Nonetheless, I'm sure Junior celebrated with a few Buds tonight and is totally stoked about winning another Bud Pole Award before he passes the Bud (Light) sponsor torch to Kasey Kahne at the end of the season.

Kahne's teammate, Scott Riggs, was once again the highest qualifier of those racing in on time.

Losers of the Week (DNQs)
#49 Mike Bliss (12), #84 AJ Allmendinger (13), # 37 Kevin Lepage (16), # 78 Kenny Wallace (12)

Pennsylvania 500 Race Lineup

Casey Mears posted Friday's top qualifying lap at Chicagoland Speedway to take the pole for Sunday's USG Sheetrock 400.

Mears start at the front will be the eighth time this season that a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet has started from that position. Jeff Gordon, who starts 11th, tallied the other seven, including five official poles.

The remaining events had qualifying rained out, thus the field was started by owner points.

The pole was the third of Mears' career in a season that has seen a steady rise since a rough start -- capitalized by his win in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. He starts Sunday's race 19th in points after hovering on the top-35 bubble before Charlotte.

"I pity the other competitors the day [Michael Waltrip] makes the race, because he's going to have some pent-up frustrations. He wants to race. That's not relevant. He's ready."
~ Ty Norris, General Manager, Michael Waltrip Racing

I pity the fool who thinks Michael Waltrip might ever qualify for a race--and yet I never stop hoping he does.

It was another tough qualifying day for the Coca-Cola Racing driver, the only one of thirteen not representing their soft drink sponsor in its title race. Waltrip and MWR driver David Reutimann both hit the wall in qualifying [video] and failed to make the show. The Coca-Cola 600 will be Waltrip's 11th consecutive DNQ and Reutimann's fourth.

Poor Mikey. On the upside, Dale Jarrett, who is just inside the top 35 this week, qualified a season best 23rd.

Other Losers of the Week (DNQs)
Paul Menard (4), Ward Burton (7), Kevin LePage (10), Mike Bliss (8)

Made the Show
Dave Blaney was the best of the worst today getting a starting spot on the fourth row for the #22 Caterpillar Toyota, the manufacturer's only entry in the top 10.

Bill Elliott, who's racing to get the Wood Brothers/JTG Racing #21 Ford from 39th into the top 35, didn't need a championship provisional--he raced his way into the 22nd starting spot. Given their positions in the standings, with Menard and Waltrip on the sidelines this weekend, the #21 team stands to gain one spot just by starting the race. Awesome.

Scott Riggs will start 15th and Jeremy Mayfield 24th in his fourth race of the season. Brian Vickers starts 26th with his Red Bull teammate, A.J. Allmendinger, two rows behind in 29th.

Kenny Wallace avoided his fifth DNQ and kept Menard out by .08 seconds to start in the 43rd spot. It's his lowest starting position of the season ... but I bet if you when they ask him about it he'll say he's just happy to be in the race. As well he should be. Just ask Waltrip.

Carl Edwards looked like a shoe-in for tonight's Nextel All-Star Challenge after leading 36 of 40 laps during the Nextel Open. Then, Martin Truex Jr. showed up. And Johnny Sauter.

Edwards finished 3rd in the race, leaving Sauter and Truex to earn automatic bids into the All-Star race.

Sauter came from nearly two seconds back with 12 laps to go to catch Truex, but Truex had other plans. Instead of getting passed by Sauter's No. 70, the No. 1 car made it around Edwards with a three-wide move after Sauter looked low.

David Ragan spun during the start of second segment and collected Reed Sorenson.

Carl Edwards won the incident-filled first segment after leading all 20 laps -- eight ran under green. Ten cars were involved in wrecks.

Juan Pablo Montoya got the first segment off to an inauspicious start after causing multi-car pileup off of turn 2. Montoya started 5th on the grid and took Dave Blaney's spot on the start on a three-wide move. Montoya had too much momentum and lost the car up the race track.

"I had a really good start under Blaney. As soon as a I went to pick up the gas, it spun out," said Montoya.

The incident took out Gilliland, Joe Nemechek, Paul Menard, Jon Wood, A.J. Allemendinger and Scott Riggs. Paul Menard didn't seem too pleased.

"Juan went three-wide right way. These tires are so hard you can't be doing that," said Menard.

Mike Bliss brought out the second caution after spinning off of turn 2 and collecting Boris Said. The 3rd caution flew when Elliott Sadler slid into the turn 3 wall and Jeff Green later cut through the infield grass after contact with Jamie McMurray.

Leader of the Outside the Top 35 Pack
Kenny Wallace raced his Furniture Row #78 Chevrolet into the show for the seventh time this season. He will start 6th tonight at Darlington Raceway, matching his best qualifying effort of the season last week in Richmond.

Good thing, too, because Kenny really wants to race in Charlotte and now he gets another chance to remind fans to vote for him:

"The 'Vote for Kenny' campaign has grown its own legs and developed into a huge deal. I am very appreciative to Furniture Row for being such a supportive sponsor by getting behind the 'Vote For Kenny' campaign. I don't think that many other sponsors, if any at all, would give up the hood of their racecar for a weekend to promote voting their driver into the NEXTEL All-Star Challenge. Being voted into this race would be a huge deal, not just for me, but for my Furniture Row Racing team too!"

Following The Leader
Ken Schrader also starts in the top 10 in the 8th position. David Reuitmann starts 14th.

Both Red Bull racers are on track this weekend for just the second time this season, the first being Bristol. Brian Vickers starts in the 15th spot and A.J. Allmendinger starts 20th.p>Paul Menard starts 23rd in his eighth race of the season, Dave Blaney starts 27th and Ricky Rudd 40th.

Kevin LePage will start his first race of the season after attempting to qualify for 9 of the previous 10 races.

Losers of The Week (DNQs)
Scott Riggs, who has been outside the top 35 since the beginning of the season, failed to qualify for his first race in 2007 in Darlington.

Michael Waltrip (10), Jeremy Mayfield (8), Mike Bliss (7), Dale Jarrett (2), Ward Burton (6)

Scott Riggs will start 3rd Saturday in Richmond, his best start of the season and the best of those drivers sitting outside the top 35 who had to race their way in.

Riggs' qualifying effort for the Crown Royal Presents The Jim Stewart 400 marks the fifth consecutive race the 36th points position holder has qualified for on time. With only seven points to gain on Casey Mears, he's likely to move into the top 35 this week.

Dave Blaney, who added his name to the 2007 DNQ list last weekend in Talladega, will start 10th Saturday.

A.J. Allmendinger, the top qualifying rookie, starts 13th in his third race of the season, his first at Richmond International Raceway.

David Reutimann, the only Michael Waltrip Racing driver in the show this weekend, starts 14th for the second consecutive week--his highest for the season.

Ward Burton makes his 5th start and Kenny Wallace his 6th in 25th and 26th positions respectively.

NCTS driver Johnny Benson qualified 31st in his first Cup effort since 2005.

Losers of the Week (DNQs)
Brian Vickers (6), Ken Schrader (3), Michael Waltrip (9), Jeremy Mayfield (7), Dale Jarrett (1), Kevin LePage (9) and Mike Bliss (6).

As both the Busch Series and the Nextel Cup Series head to central Alabama for this weekend's races at Talladega, it's quite often a necessity to reminisce on some incredible crashes from the track.

This gem comes from the 2002 Aaron's 312 Busch Series race. 13 cars were left on track after this wreck to duel it out for another 100 laps. The wreck was started by Shane Hmiel (who interestingly enough was banned from NASCAR forever a while back for substance abuse) after he got a run on Scott Riggs in the yellow Nesquick car. The impact spun around Riggs in front of the entire pack, and carnage ensued.

You've gotta love some of the commentary from the FOX booth on this one. First, just as the wreck is happening, Darrell Waltrip is saying "Rut-roh!" and then later (with credit to a poster on Youtube) Larry McReynolds says "people cars driving under cars" at about the :32 mark in one of the better crash analysis quotes of all time.

Enjoy.