Other drivers said afterward they had the same understanding that “anything goes” on the last lap. But Jim Hunter, NASCAR’s vice president of corporate communications, insisted in a post-race statement that the rule had been clearly spelled out for all the competitors at the pre-race drivers’ meeting.

You cannot improve your position anytime you go below the yellow line is what the rules state, but what about the “unless” clause in regards to being forced below the line?

As for Smith’s contention that Stewart forced him below the line, Hunter was unsympathetic as well. And for all those fans out there who could not understand why Smith wouldn’t at the very worst be credited with second, Hunter explained why Smith eventually was scored with an 18th-place finish instead.

In their judgment, he improved his position and the penalty for that is a pass-through, so he was moved back to the tail end of the longest line, that being 18th position. But is that not very similar to being black flagged and by rule, allowed three laps to acknowledge the penalty? He was not given the opportunity to acknowledge his “penalty”, and therefore should not be penalized for that, going back to “anything goes” on the final lap.

Although not the first to cross the finish line, Tony Stewart was awarded with the victory at Talladega in the Amp Energy 500. Paul Menard was moved up to second, and David Ragan third.

I don’t necessarally agree with this call, but what I think does not matter, they make up the rules as the go. NASCAR says the call is final and will not be changed, but what do you think would have been correct call for that situation?

Paul Menard has reached an agreement to drive for Yates Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series beginning with the 2009 season.

Menard’s Ford Fusion will feature sponsorship from Menards, his father’s Midwest-based hardware chain that will follow him from his current ride at Dale Earnhardt Inc. Yates Racing can make whatever statement they want to, but we all know this entire deal was made solely on the fact that Menard would guarantee at least ONE sponsorship for the team. Yates has struggled to bring in any sponsors at all, but this addition driver/sponsor is a huge step for the entire team. As a driver, Paul Menard has yet to impress me in any way shape or form!

Without Menard, DEI has just one full sponsor in Bass Pro Shops for Martin Truex Jr. He recently agreed to a one-year extension with DEI that takes him through 2009. Sponsorship from the U.S. Army is expected to leave DEI at the end of the year as well, leaving DEI without funding for the No. 8 Chevrolet that Aric Almirola will drive.

Because of the economy, sponsorship has been incredibly difficult to find this year and very little new business is coming into NASCAR. Instead, longtime sponsors are simply moving to the best teams, and the smaller organizations are struggling for funding.

Yates Racing general manager Max Jones sees Menard as a fresh addition to his current roster. While details of Menard’s car design and car number have yet to be finalized, team principal Doug Yates sees Menard really fitting in at Yates Racing. Menard will be the third team driver, teaming up with Travis Kvapil and David Gilliland.

“Where the hell did he come from those last two laps?” Johnson asked Knaus after taking the checkered flag just seconds ahead of the No. 99 Ford. Edwards came out of nowhere to layed it all out on the line in his final attempt at the victory. I am not sure what most people may think or know, but I have never known of anyone actually going faster by intentionally hitting the wall. It is inevitable, it will slow you down and kill all of your momentum, but somehow he almost pulled it off and gave Jimmie Johnson a run for his money. That was definitely a first, and I must commend Carl on his gallant effort in the final turn.  

Greg Biffle was able to edge out Jeff Gordon coming out of the final turn to pick up a 3rd place finish and knocking Gordon back to fourth. The top five finishers were comprised of 2 Hendrick Motorsports cars and 3 Roush Fenway Racing cars. Those appear to be the teams to beat in 2008 now that Joe Gibbs Racing has nearly disappeared it seems.

A popular story as of the past several weeks, as in the entire season as well, is about the driver of the No. 18, Kyle Busch. But his publicity as of late has not been the kind that most people wish to have, its all about his failures, mishaps, DNF’s, and being out of championship contention just to name a few. With a 28th place finish, he is still 12th in the point standings, behind his two JGR teammates. The Chase has not been kind to the JGR team in 2008 as Denny Hamlin is 10th and Tony Stewart is 11th. Joey Lagono finished 39th in Kansas driving the No. 96 Home Depot Toyota.

Keselowski will attempt to qualify a fifth Hendrick Motorsports entry, the No. 25 Chevrolet, for the Oct. 11 Bank of America 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway and the Nov. 2 Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Veteran crew chief Lance McGrew will step in to lead the effort.

Keselowski, who already has tested the new Chevrolet Impala SS for Hendrick Motorsports in 2008, will also drive the No. 25 Chevy this week during the two-day Cup Series open test at Lowe’s.

Keselowski sits third in the Nationwide championship standings with two victories, 10 top-five finishes and 16 top-10s in the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, which is co-owned by Hendrick and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

His debut in the Sprint Cup Series comes at nearly the same time and in the same fashion as in that of Joey Lagono, so it should be interesting to compare the success of those two drivers. Logano does have slightly more experience than Keselowski in the Cup series, but we should be able to independently follow their ability to adapt and fit in to NASCAR’s top series. Is he truly the “best thing since sliced bread”, or has he never had a comparison to prove it wrong?

Once again Jimmie Johnson was a tough competitor, but when it came down to it, he had nothing for the Roush Fenway Racing team. He wound up finishing 5th, behind a very quiet Mark Martin, in the No. 8 DEI entry. It was good to see Martin running well up front, hopefully that is a pre show, so-to-speak, in terms of what he will do at Hendrick Motorsports next season.

Pole-sitter Jeff Gordon never seemed to have his car handling the way he wanted it all day, but was able to bring it home in 7th. Gordon moved up 3 positions in the point standings, although not mathematically, but he is most likely out of any Championship contentions at this point in 8th. With mid-race tire problems, Earnhardt Jr. was never able to recover, and would wind up dropping 5 point positions with his poor 24th place finish.

Kevin Harvick(+5) and Clint Bowyer(+3) made big leaps this past weekend, now sitting 5th and 6thin points respectively, just over 100 points outside of the lead. And with Jeff Burton in 4th, RCR has made a statement that they are here to contend, with 3 drivers in the top-6.

And I had to save the best for last….. with an INCREDIBLE 43rd place finish, Kyle Busch is now sitting dead last (12th) in the Chase. Its amazing how fast a big lead can completely disappear with just 2 bad weeks. He is basically out of it at this point, toooooo bad. And there is not much better news for his teammate Denny Hamlin either, because he dropped 5 positions, not sitting just above Kyle in 11th.

Biffle passed Jimmie Johnson on Lap 289 of Sunday’s Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and held on for the victory, the 13th of his career and his first since winning at Kansas Speedway in the third race of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup last year. Johnson led the most laps and gained a tie with Edwards at the top of the Chase standings, though Edwards gets credit for first place with six victories this year to Johnson’s four.

I don’t know if its just me, but it was good to finally see that No. 18 Toyota struggle for once and allow new faces into Victory Lane. Busch lost more than just the race, he lost 7 positions and 74 points to current points leader, Carl Edwards. There is no room for error at this point, Busch entered the Chase with 8 wins, while Greg Biffle entered with 0, and Biffle is now sitting 3rd in points, up 6 positions from before the race started.

I must say that I was pulling for Jimmie Johnson to make it 2 victories in a row, but had to settle for second. Johnson was followed by Carl Edwards, Jeff Burton, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. to round out the top-5. With Jr.’s strong 5th place run, he is still currently sitting 4th in points. Congrats to Biffle on that victory. He ran a clean race and at the end of the day, he did have the fastest car on the track without a doubt.

In the Chase era, the eventual champion has an average finish of 12.0 in the first race of the Chase, which has always been held at New Hampshire. Kurt Busch won in 2004, Tony Stewart finished second in 2005 and Jimmie Johnson finished 39th and sixth in 2006 and 2007, respectively. Johnson by far has the momentum on his side and would definitely be a top candidate to win yet another race and set the tone for the Chase, but as we all know, not one driver should be counted out from winning this race, especially not points leader and pole sitter Kyle Busch, although no one has ever won this race from the pole.  

Just as it happened during the first NHMS race this season, it appears that weather may play huge factor once again. It has already had an impact on qualifying, but what effect could it have on raceday? Kurt Busch won here back in June with crazy pit strategy as threatening weather was approaching, how much of that will we see this weekend. Jeff Burton has the most wins at New Hampshire with four, and now sitting 7th in points, he would love to add another win to that record. But the very quiet Clint Bowyer is ready to show that he is here once again to compete and making his presence more evident by leading all practice sessions leading up to the race on Sunday. I would love to see Jeff Gordon get his first win of 2008, but he cannot seem to get his car to handle at any track, making him a hard pick to win. I am going to go with the driver of the No. 07 Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet, Clint Bowyer, to win the Sylvania 300 and help get his team off to a good start in the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup, just as he did last year. But at the same time, I would like to throw Tony Stewart’s name in there as well as a candidate to win. I am definitely looking forward to the start of this race as it should be interesting to watch Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards start side-by-side on the front row, I wonder if we will see any conflict between the two of them? Starting on the pole, you know Kyle Busch will have a huge target on his back during the entire race, should be something to watch.

Although they are trying to say that this removal from the Craftsman Truck Series will have no affect on any of the other NASCAR series, I find it hard to believe. The Nationwide Series and Sprint Cup Series is where most of their money would be, so it does not seem feasible for them to only pull out of the lowest series, when they are struggling in all. It may not be next year but, I would think this is going to have a much bigger impact on NASCAR’s other two series before it is all said and done. Maybe they will prove me wrong and have a huge turnaround.

In a race postponed from Saturday night due to the threat of Tropical Storm Hanna, Johnson was able to hold off Tony Stewart in a very tight side-by-side battle in the closing laps at Richmond International Raceway to win his second consecutive race. That was his fourth of the season and the 37th of his career. This scenario has begun to seem all too familiar now as Johnson has won 3 of the past 7 races to secure the third seed inthe Chase for the Sprint cup, behindKyle Busch with 8 victories, and Carl Edwards with wins this season. 

Johnson held the lead for the restart on Lap 375 of 400, after an accident in Turn 2 bought out the 14th and final caution of the race. Johnson was able pull away at the beginning of the run, but Stewart quickly closed the gap, and by Lap 388 he was putting the pressure on Johnson through every corner. Johnson attributed his ability to hold off Stewart in the final laps to a nearly 50-lap battle in which he had earlier in the race with Jeff Burton, causing him to run a different line than preferred early in the race, but turned out to be faster.

Stewart and third-place finisher Denny Hamlin also clinched spots in the Chase. Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran fourth, followed by Mark Martin, Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon, David Reutimann and Kurt Busch.

Bowyer also clinched his spot in the Chase with a 12th-place finish, but it didn’t come easy. He entered the race only 17 points ahead of David Ragan, who was 13th in points, but at the expense of Ragan’s car he was able to pull through. The Sprint Cup Point Standing have now been reset and the top-12 that entered the race, also left that way. The Chase for the Sprint Cup will begin next weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with five drivers in the Chase still looking for their first win of the season.