NASCAR: Homestead / Season Results

NSCS:  the Ford 400 -- Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET (ABC)

NNS:  the Ford 300 -- Saturday at 4 p.m. ET (ESPN2)

NCWTS:  the Ford 200

Kevin Harvick Inc. celebrated a double win for the second week in a row.  Harvick won the Camping World Truck Series season finale, the Ford 200, Friday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and Ron Hornaday finished eighth, good enough to secure the owners' championship for KHI.  It was Harvick's second consecutive victory and third of the season in the Camping World Truck Series.  He lead a race-high 108 of the 136 laps.  Last weekend at Phoenix, Harvick celebrated the win and Hornaday celebrated clinching the drivers' championship.

Ryan Sieg spun and hit the wall with seven laps remaining.  That brought out the fourth and final caution, erased Harvick's four-second lead over Timothy Peters, bunched the field and set up a green-white-checkered restart.  Peters stayed out and inherited the lead, but Harvick took fresh tires and beat everyone else out of the pits to line up behind Peters.  When the green flag flew, Peters was a sitting duck.  Harvick blew past him in Turn One.  On the white flag lap, Colin Braun moved past Peters and Matt Crafton went three-wide to blow past them both and take second. Todd Bodine came to the flag in fifth.  (Race results)

Kyle Busch, who was hoping to capture the owners' championship for Billy Ballew, qualified eighth, but had to start in the rear of the field after an engine change.  He passed ten trucks on the first lap, eight more in the next two laps, and was in second, behind Harvick on Lap 25, when the first caution flew.  Busch's woes started on Lap 82 when he cut a tire.  He had to serve a pass-through penalty when his crew failed to get the tire back to the wall before he left the pit, and dropped to 22nd, two laps down.  Busch finished 13th, one lap down, leaving Harvick and Hornaday to celebrate with double burnouts again.

Braun's third-place finish moved him up two spots in the final standings to fifth.  He takes the final spot for the postseason awards banquet by seven points.

2009 Camping World Truck Series Final Standings:

RANK	+/-	DRIVER	POINTS	BEHIND	STARTS	POLES	WINS	TOP 5	TOP 10
1	--	Ron Hornaday	3959	Leader	25	4	6	15	20
2	--	Matt Crafton	3772	-187	25	2	0	11	21
3	--	Mike Skinner	3602	-357	25	3	3	8	17
4	--	Todd Bodine	3437	-522	25	1	2	11	12
5	+2	Colin Braun	3338	-621	25	5	1	9	14
6	-1	Johnny Sauter*	3331	-628	25	2	1	7	13
7	-1	Brian Scott	3307	-652	25	0	1	7	13
8	+1	Timothy Peters	3289	-670	25	1	1	5	13
9	-1	David Starr	3271	-688	25	0	0	4	14
10	--	Rick Crawford	3161	-798	25	1	0	3	7

NASCAR: Homestead Preview

Image by wcupmartin6 via Flickr

This is it, the final weekend of the 2009 NASCAR season.  All of the national series come to a close this weekend.  First up is the Ford 200, the Camping World Truck Series event.  It takes place Friday night at 8 p.m. ET (Speed).  The final Nationwide Series race, the Ford 300, takes place Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. ET (ESPN2).  The weekend and the season wraps up with the Sprint Cup finale, the Ford 400, Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET (ABC).  It's Ford Championship Weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway and all the champions will be crowned.

That's not entirely true though.  The Camping World Truck Series was over last weekend when Ron Hornaday clinched his fourth championship.  And Kyle Busch got as close to clinching the Nationwide Series as he could get without actually doing it.  All he has to do is show up Saturday and the championship is his.  That leaves only the Sprint Cup Series and Jimmie Johnson is almost a stone cold lock to win his fourth consecutive championship.  All he has to do is finish 25th or better and the championship is his.  Mark Martin is the only driver left who could spoil the party.  He has to gain maximum points and hope for calamity for his Hendrick Motorsports teammate.

Johnson's weekend is off to a good start.  In Friday qualifying he captured the pole for Sunday's race with a lap of 31.049 seconds (173.919 mph). This comes just hours after Rick Hendrick announced that he had signed Johnson to a five-year contract extension. Johnson's contract was to expire at the end of the 2010 season. He is now under contract through 2015. Johnson's primary sponsor, Lowe's, also announced that they would continue with Johnson through at least 2013.

Scott Speed, the last driver to hit the track in the Friday qualifying session, will start on the outside of the front row.  He posted a time of 31.269.  Including Johnson, five Chase drivers took the top eight starting positions.  Mark Martin starts fourth; Tony Stewart, fifth; Ryan Newman, seventh; and Greg Biffle, eighth.  Denny Hamlin starts the farthest back of all the Chasers in 38th position.  Joe Nemechek, Dave Blaney, Mike Skinner, Max Papis and David Stremme failed to make the race.  (Starting lineup)

Johnson, Martin and Jeff Gordon, the top three in the standings, have never won at Homestead-Miami Speedway.  In fact, no Hendrick Motorsports driver has ever won here.  Roush Fenway Racing has taken the last five races at HMS -- Carl Edwards is the defending race winner and Matt Kenseth won in 2007.  Greg Biffle leads all drivers with three wins at HMS.  He won all three in consecutive years, 2004-06.

(more on the Homestead weekend and NASCAR news after the jump)

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NASCAR Tracks: Homestead-Miami Speedway

This is another post in a series on the NASCAR Sprint Cup tracks. I started this series when the 2008 season began, and planned to feature each track as it came up on the schedule. Due to a couple of unscheduled absences from the Internet, I still haven't quite finished the whole list two full seasons later. I'm planning to profile the few remaining tracks before the start of the 2010 season. Here's the list thus far.

Image via Wikipedia

Homestead-Miami Speedway is located in Homestead, Florida, southwest of Miami. Florida developer and promoter Ralph Sanchez proposed building the track to help the area recover from Hurricane Andrew.  With financial backing from H. Wayne Huizenga, groundbreaking began on August 24, 1993, exactly one year after the hurricane. The first race, the Jiffy Lube Miami 300, a Busch (Nationwide) Series race, was held on November 5, 1995, and was won by Dale Jarrett.

When the track first opened it was a four-turn, rectangular oval, a smaller 1.5-mile version of Indianapolis Motor Speedway with long 1760-ft. straightaways, flat turns and short chutes.  The racing was not good.  The flat, almost 90° turns made passing difficult, and the geometry of the track created severe crash angles.  In 1997, the track was reconfigured -- the turns were still a rather flat 6°, but the aprons were widened and the ends of the track were rounded off.  The track went from a rectangle to more of a traditional oval.

After a massive expansion that saw the seating capacity almost double, the NASCAR Winston (Sprint) Cup series made its debut at the track on November 14, 1999.  Tony Stewart won the inaugural Pennzoil 400.  2002 was the year of the first Ford Championship Weekend, with each of NASCAR's three national series all crowning their champions for the first time on the same weekend at the same track.

In 2003 Homestead-Miami Speedway was configured yet again.  The track's website describes this as "the most technologically advanced track-reconfiguration project in the history of motorsports: a $12 million re-banking project that transforms the track from a flat 6-degrees to a computer-designed 18-to-20-degree variable banking system in the turns."  Lights were added a short time later.  The racing is a lot better now.  There is much more side-by-side racing and you'll see drivers moving up and down the track to find the perfect line and the fastest way around.

The track is one of the most beautiful on the NASCAR schedule with soft pastels that evoke the art deco decor of Miami.  1005 palm trees line the track.  Four lakes were created in the construction of the banking.  Three of the lakes are on the speedway property, two are in the infield.  The largest lake covers 18 acres and is stocked with Peacock Bass.  HMS also has a 14-turn 2.2-mile infield road course that utilizes both oval straightaways.

Greg Biffle leads all drivers with three wins at HMS.  Jamie McMurray holds the Sprint Cup qualifying record, 181.111 mph, set in 2003.

In 2009, Homestead-Miami Speedway became the first track ever to host the championship races of six different racing series.  In addition to the season-enders for NASCAR's Sprint Cup, Nationwide, and Truck Series on November 20-22, HMS also hosted the season-enders for the Indy Racing League, the Firestone Indy Light Series, and the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series on October 9-10.

  (diagram from NASCAR.com)

Homestead-Miami Cup winners
NASCAR tracks index

Local Must See Video

I saw this on the local news last week, and meant to try to find it online so that I could share it with you, but I forgot.  Then I saw it a couple of days later on Countdown with Keith Olbermann.  He had it on his Oddball segment.  I forgot again.  Finally remembered.

Here's the scene:  There was a rock slide on U.S. 64  -- I'm guessing maybe 30 miles northeast of Chattanooga.  They sent a crew out to clear the road.  The crew almost had the road cleared.  There was just one good-sized boulder left in the middle of the road, and they went to work to break it up so they could move it.  Click here to see what happened next.

Update:  A local TV station has a report and some aerial photos...and even more aerial photos.

NASCAR: Phoenix Results

NSCS:  the Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 presented by Pennzoil

"Anytime that Jimmie is down is not usually because of performance, it's usually because of an incident like last week.  There was no doubt in my mind they were going to come this week and make a statement."  -- Denny Hamlin

Put an exclamation point on that statement.  Jimmie Johnson rebounded from his misfortunes at Texas last weekend with a dominating performance in Sunday's Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, and closed in on his record fourth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup championship.

It was maximum points again for Johnson -- the fourth time in the Chase -- as he led 208 of the 312 laps in picking up the win.  It was Johnson's seventh win of the season, the fourth in the Chase, and the fourth win in the last five races at PIR.  It was also Johnson's 47th career win, breaking a tie with Buck Baker on the all-time wins list.

Jeff Burton, finally showing some signs of life after a dreadful year for Richard Childress Racing, placed second for his best finish of the season.  Denny Hamlin finished third.  Mark Martin was fourth.  Martin Truex Jr., driving in his penultimate race for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, scored his first Top Five of the season.  (Race results)

Other than Johnson's dominance, it was a pretty uneventful race Sunday.  The race was green for the first 115 laps and the final 134 laps.  The only time Johnson lost the lead over the final run was during a round of pit stops.  Once the field cycled through the stops, he was there at the front again.

(more on the weekend at Phoenix and NASCAR news after the jump)

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NASCAR: Phoenix Qualifying

Martin Truex Jr. picked up his third pole of the year Friday at Phoenix International Raceway.  In qualifying for Sunday's Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 Truex turned a lap of 26.643 seconds (135.120 mph).

Starting on the outside next to Truex's No. 1 Chevy?  Kurt Busch in the No. 2 Dodge.  It's the first time in Sprint Cup history that the No. 1 and No. 2 cars have started a race side-by-side.  Busch turned a lap of 26.750 seconds.

Counting Busch, seven of the top ten starting positions were claimed by Chasers.  Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne start on Row Two.  Denny Hamlin and Greg Biffle start on Row Three.  Tony Stewart is on the fourth row, starting eighth.  Mark Martin starts tenth.  Ryan Newman and Carl Edwards start the farthest back at 24th and 25th respectively.

Regan Smith, Kevin Conway and Brandon Ash failed to make the race.  (Race lineup)

NASCAR: Phoenix Preview

Image via Wikipedia

It's another big weekend with all three national touring series in the same place at the same time.  This weekend the action all goes down at Phoenix International Raceway.  It all starts Friday night at 7:30 p.m. ET (Speed) with the Camping World Truck Series event, the Lucas Oil 150.  The Nationwide race, the Able Body Labor 200, takes place Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. ET (ESPN2).  The main event, the ninth race in the ten-race Chase for the Sprint Cup, the Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 presented by Pennzoil, takes place Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET (ABC).

Next weekend is Championship Week at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but if Jimmie Johnson has his typical 5.4 average finish and Mark Martin runs into serious trouble at Phoenix, all three championships might be decided a week early.  The Camping World Truck Series and the Nationwide Series are almost clinched.  Ron Hornaday leads the Truck Series by 197 points over Matt Crafton, and Kyle Busch leads Carl Edwards by 247 points in the Nationwide Series.  The only thing really still up for grabs in either series is the owners points race in the Truck Series.  Hornaday's No. 33 Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevrolet has about a 75-point lead over the No. 51 Billy Ballew Motorsports Toyota driven by Kyle Busch, Brian Ickler, Aric Almirola and others.

Even after his dreadful day at Texas, Jimmie Johnson still has a commanding 73-point lead in the Sprint Cup Series.  In fact, in the entire history of NASCAR, only once has a driver overcome a deficit that large to win the Cup -- Alan Kulwicki in 1992.  But anything can happen, I guess, and Martin still has a chance, especially if lightning strikes the No. 48 twice.  Johnson clinches at Phoenix if he leaves with a lead of 161 points.  He clinches at Homestead if he averages a fourth-place finish over the final two races.

(more on Phoenix and NASCAR news after the jump)

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The Golden Age of Video

Lemondrop calls this "the best video you will see this week."  Yeah, what they said.  If the techno music was turned down a touch so that you could hear the "lyrics" better, it would be just about perfect. This video also makes for a good game of Name that Movie or TV show...




Here's the "lyrics" and the shows they came from.

NASCAR: Texas Results

NSCS:  the Dickies 500

It all came down to fuel mileage and Kurt Busch had just enough gas to pick up the victory in the Dickies 500 Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.  He took the lead when younger brother Kyle ran out of gas with just two laps to go.  Kyle, driving his first race with new crew chief Dave Rogers, was going for an unprecedented weekend sweep after winning Friday's Truck race and Saturday's Nationwide race, and led 232 of 334 laps Sunday.

It was the elder Busch's second win of the season and the 20th of his career.  Denny Hamlin finished second, followed by Matt Kenseth, Mark Martin and Kevin Harvick.  After dominating most of the race, the younger Busch finished 11th.  (Race results)

The Chase for the Sprint Cup took an unexpected twist on Lap 3.  David Reutimann closed up on Sam Hornish Jr. -- whether he touched him or not is debatable, but he got close enough to get him loose -- and Hornish went up the track into series leader Jimmie Johnson.  Johnson hit the outside wall, then came down the track and hit Hornish and the inside wall hard.  He suffered considerable damage and went to the garage for over an hour for repairs.  He returned over 100 laps down, but logged enough of the remaining laps to pick up four spots.  Johnson finished 38th, 129 laps down.

Mark Martin was able to take advantage of the No. 48's woes, but Jeff Gordon was not.  Gordon narrowly avoided a wreck on Lap 175.  Juan Montoya got loose and collected Carl Edwards.  Gordon spun out avoiding the wreck, but didn't hit anything.  Gordon managed a 13th place finish after fighting an ill-handling race car for most of the day.

Johnson came into Texas with a commanding 184-point lead over Martin.  He leaves with just a 73-point advantage with two races remaining.  Gordon remains in third, now just 112 points behind Johnson.  Kurt Busch gained two spots for fourth.  Montoya dropped two spots to sixth.  Denny Hamlin gained three spots for eighth, passing Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne and Carl Edwards.  (Points standings)

Martin Truex Jr.'s car failed post-race inspection.  It was deemed to be too low.  Penalties will be announced Tuesday.

(results of Saturday's Nationwide race and Friday's Truck race after the jump)

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NASCAR: Texas Qualifying

Jeff Gordon was running out of races in the 2009 season, but finally managed to extend his streak to 17 consecutive years with at least one pole.  In Friday qualifying, Gordon turned a lap of 28.255 seconds (191.117 mph) to capture the pole for Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway.  It was the 68th pole of Gordon's career and his first since last year's fall Texas race.

Chase drivers captured the top four spots in Sunday's race and seven of the top eight spots.  Kasey Kahne starts on the outside of the front row after a lap of 28.276 seconds.  Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart will start on the second row.  Carl Edwards, Mark Martin and Greg Biffle qualified in fifth, sixth and seventh respectively.  Chase leader Jimmie Johnson will start in the 12th position.  Ryan Newman qualified worst among the Chasers; he starts in the 26th position.

Tony Raines, Dave Blaney, Max Papis and Mike Bliss failed to qualify for the race.  (Race lineup)

Gordon has two more chances, at Phoenix and Homestead, to extend his streak of twelve years with at least two poles.

NEWS

Jeff Burton crashed during the first practice for Sunday's Cup race, and Richard Childress Racing has announced that Casey Mears will sub for Burton in Saturday's Nationwide race.  RCR insists that the switch is strictly a precaution and that Burton will be good to go Sunday.

Following his crash at Talladega last weekend, Ryan Newman met with NASCAR vice president for competition Robin Pemberton and Sprint Cup director John Darby to discuss his accident and the prolonged extrication from the car.

Bruton Smith's Speedway Motorsports Inc. is in negotiations with the Emir of Qatar, Sheik Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani, to build three race tracks in the Middle Eastern country.

NASCAR and Texas Motor Speedway are honoring the fallen soldiers at Fort Hood over the weekend with moments of silence before all events and a "God Bless Our Fort Hood Troops" message painted in the infield grass.

Thoreau Mental Floss

In my latest post about John Brown I linked to and quoted from Henry David Thoreau's "A Plea for Captain John Brown."  A little later I was scanning through the mental_floss blog when I ran across "3 Bizarre Cases of Death by Shaving."  Death by shaving?  Wow!  The first guy contracted anthrax from the badger brush the barber used.  The second guy was nicked by a barber and ended up dying of severe edema.  The third guy was John Thoreau...

John Thoreau was the brother of famous American writer and Transcendentalist, Henry David Thoreau. In the winter of 1841, while taking part in his daily shave, John Thoreau cut himself with his razor. A few days later he came down with lockjaw and died in Henry David’s arms. His brother’s death devastated Thoreau. He didn’t talk to his family or write in his journal for weeks.

Thoreau’s good friend, Ralph Waldo Emerson, suggested that he go spend some time out in the woods alone near a pond called Walden. Thoreau took this sage advice, and one of America’s greatest essays was born. All thanks to shaving.

As Paul Harvey might say, "...and now you know...the rest of the story."

NASCAR: Texas Preview

It's a busy weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.  All three national series are in action on three consecutive days.  It all starts Friday night with the Camping World Truck Series race, the WinStar World Casino 350, at 8:30 p.m. ET (Speed).  The Nationwide Series race, the O'Reilly Challenge, takes place Saturday at noon ET (ESPN2).  The main event is Sunday's Sprint Cup race, the Dickies 500.  The eighth race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup starts at 2:30 p.m. ET (ABC).


There's not much doubt about the championships.  Barring a major catastrophe, you can go ahead and give the crowns to Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch and Ron Hornaday.

Johnson enters Sunday's Cup race with a 184-point lead over Mark Martin.  The only other driver within 200 points of Johnson is his car owner, Jeff Gordon.  Johnson has the best average finish among active drivers at TMS (8.5) and has finished out of the Top 15 only once, but eight of the twelve Chase drivers have wins at the track.  Carl Edwards has been to Victory Lane three times.

Kyle Busch enters Saturday's Nationwide race with a 215-point lead over Carl Edwards.  Busch has won and led the most laps in the past three Texas Nationwide races.  In nine career starts, he has seven Top 5s and an average finish of 6.6.

Ron Hornaday has a 202-point lead over Matt Crafton going into Friday night's Truck race.  The real race in this series is for the owner's championship -- Hornaday's No. 33, owned by Kevin and DeLana Harvick, leads Kyle Busch's No. 51, owned by Billy Ballew, by just 100 points.  Hornaday finished 19th in the spring race, but won both Texas Truck races in 2008.

Look for a lot of side-by-side racing and a lot of speed this weekend.  TMS is pretty much a clone of Atlanta Motor Speedway and the two run neck-and-neck for the title of fastest track.  TMS is a 1.50-mile quad-oval with speeds in the 200 mph range heading off into Turns One and Three.


Texas Motor Speedway is welcoming Space Shuttle Endeavor pilot Doug Hurley to Sunday's race.  The plans for his arrival are a closely guarded secret for now.  The only hint is that it involves some form of aircraft.  Hurley, a season ticketholder at TMS, says "this is beyond my wildest dreams."

(a lot of NASCAR news after the jump)

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The New York Frigging Yankees Win the Series

I was really getting into baseball as the season was winding down.  The Atlanta Braves remarkable run that fell just a few wins short, the last couple of races that kept tightening up, the final race that went to an extra game that went into extra innings -- these were happier times.

As the Division Series gave way to the League Championship Series, my mood worsened.  I was hoping for one (or both) of the Los Angeles teams to advance to the World Series so that I might actually care who won.  A Yankees-Phillies Series was the last thing I wanted to see.  Wasn't there some way that they both could lose?  I was still watching, but I had to root for the Phillies.  I wouldn't (couldn't) root for the Yankees if they were playing the al-Qaeda All-Stars.

A clash of the cretins indeed...

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Keith Olbermann had a segment on his Countdown show the other night -- "The Nine Smartest Plays in World Series History."  (I can't find the video on his show's page; the link goes to Olbermann's baseball blog.)  These are the smart, heads-up, small ball plays that are often overshadowed by the big home runs (although one of the plays is a home run -- on the list because of the scouting report that the player, Kirk Gibson, remembered).  Although my Braves got burned by one of the plays and the top play was made by a Yankee this past Sunday, it's a good list.

So now, in a postseason that has habitually failed to go the way I would have liked, the Yankees have won it all.  Hideki Matsui was named the Series MVP after knocking in six runs in the 7-3 clinching win.  I guess I should have used a live chicken.

What a revolting development -- the Yankees have won and another baseball season has come and gone.  There's a chill in the air and winter will be here before you know it.

John Brown Is Found Guilty

Image by Tony the Misfit via Flickr

150 years ago, on November 2, 1859, John Brown was found guilty of treason, multiple first-degree murders, and inciting an insurrection among Virginia slaves. The charges stemmed from the raid on Harpers Ferry in October. The trial took eight days, and although the raid took place on Federal property, Brown was tried by the State of Virginia at Charles Town.

If John Brown had died at Harpers Ferry, the whole episode might have been just a curious footnote in the pages of history.  The real effect of the raid came as Brown wrote letters and gave interviews while awaiting trial.  Though not known for eloquence before, he rose to the occasion, and galvanized public opinion North and South, probably hastening the beginning of the Civil War. At one end of the spectrum of opinion was Henry David Thoreau's "A Plea for Captain John Brown"

It was his peculiar doctrine that a man has a perfect right to interfere by force with the slaveholder, in order to rescue the slave. I agree with him. They who are continually shocked by slavery have some right to be shocked by the violent death of the slaveholder, but no others. Such will be more shocked by his life than by his death. I shall not be forward to think him mistaken in his method who quickest succeeds to liberate the slave. I speak for the slave when I say that I prefer the philanthropy of Captain Brown to that philanthropy which neither shoots me nor liberates me. At any rate, I do not think it is quite sane for one to spend his whole life in talking or writing about this matter, unless he is continuously inspired, and I have not done so. A man may have other affairs to attend to. I do not wish to kill nor to be killed, but I can foresee circumstances in which both these things would be by me unavoidable. We preserve the so-called peace of our community by deeds of petty violence every day. Look at the policeman's billy and handcuffs! Look at the jail! Look at the gallows! Look at the chaplain of the regiment! We are hoping only to live safely on the outskirts of this provisional army. So we defend ourselves and our hen-roosts, and maintain slavery. I know that the mass of my countrymen think that the only righteous use that can be made of Sharp's rifles and revolvers is to fight duels with them, when we are insulted by other nations, or to hunt Indians, or shoot fugitive slaves with them, or the like. I think that for once the Sharp's rifles and the revolvers were employed in a righteous cause. The tools were in the hands of one who could use them.

The same indignation that is said to have cleared the temple once will clear it again. The question is not about the weapon, but the spirit in which you use it. No man has appeared in America, as yet, who loved his fellow-man so well, and treated him so tenderly. He lived for him. He took up his life and he laid it down for him. What sort of violence is that which is encouraged, not by soldiers, but by peaceable citizens, not so much by laymen as by ministers of the Gospel, not so much by the fighting sects as by the Quakers, and not so much by Quaker men as by Quaker women?

...Who is it whose safety requires that Captain Brown be hung? Is it indispensable to any Northern man? Is there no resource but to cast this man also to the Minotaur? If you do not wish it, say so distinctly. While these things are being done, beauty stands veiled and music is a screeching lie. Think of him- of his rare qualities!- such a man as it takes ages to make, and ages to understand; no mock hero, nor the representative of any party. A man such as the sun may not rise upon again in this benighted land. To whose making went the costliest material, the finest adamant; sent to be the redeemer of those in captivity; and the only use to which you can put him is to hang him at the end of a rope! You who pretend to care for Christ crucified, consider what you are about to do to him who offered himself to be the saviour of four millions of men.

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NASCAR: Talladega Results

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

NSCS:  the Amp Energy 500

Jamie McMurray was in the right place at the right time -- in front of the field when the final caution flew on the final lap of the Amp Energy 500 at Talladega Sunday.  It was McMurray's third career win, the first since July 2007 at Daytona, snapping an 86-race winless streak.  It was the first Ford victory at Talladega in 21 races, dating back to October 2005.

McMurray led the field to the flag for a green-white-checkered finish -- actually Brian Vickers beat him to the start/finish line on the restart and had to relinquish the position -- and was still in front when The Big One finally happened.  The outside lane slowed and Brian Vickers, Brad Keselowski and Kurt Busch stacked up unleashing a multi-car accident that took out several Chase drivers, including Mark Martin who took a ride on his hood.  The white and the yellow flags came out at the same time.  All McMurray had to do was coast back around under yellow to take the checkered.  Kasey Kahne was second, followed by Joey Lagano, Greg Biffle and Jeff Burton.  (Race results)

The scariest wreck came with just five laps to go, setting up the green-white-checkered finish.  Again, the outside line seemed to slow and several cars stacked up.  Tony Stewart was spit out into the wall, but Ryan Newman took the wildest ride of all.  His car was shoved into the inside row of cars, and he hit Kevin Harvick's car and spun, then the rear end lifted and the car went end over end and landed upside down and backwards on Harvick's hood.  The ride wasn't over.  Newman slid on his hood, hit the outside wall hard, then tumbled down to the infield, doing a last little toe loop before coming to rest on the hood.

The race was red-flagged for almost 13 minutes to clear the debris and extricate Newman from his car.  Because he was okay, safety officials decided to flip the car upright before cutting the roof away and getting him out.

I'm not saying Jimmie Johnson made a deal with the Devil, but he has to be the luckiest SOB to ever drive a race car.  As the laps wound down, it appeared his conservative strategy of riding around in the back was about to backfire.  He couldn't hook up with anyone to draft and he appeared on the verge of losing the huge lead pack.  As the Newman wreck was happening, crew chief Chad Knaus called him onto pit road and he took fuel before NASCAR red-flagged the race.  Johnson got back into line in 25th position.

(more on Sunday's Cup race and Saturday's Truck race after the jump)

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