Rank..........Driver..............Points Behind

1...........Jimmie Johnson................Leader
2...........Casey Mears...................-39
3...........Matt Kenseth..................-47
4...........Kasey Kahne...................-60
5...........Dale Earnhardt Jr.............-68
6...........Mark Martin...................-80
7...........Ryan Newman.................-82
8...........Clint Bowyer...................-84
9...........Brian Vickers..................-95
10..........Elliott Sadler..................-96

I came across an interesting post by John Davison at the FastMachines motorsports blog where Jimmie Johnson's crew chief Chad Knaus, pictured at left (AP photo), speaks during a teleconference about being penalized for cheating prior to the Daytona 500.

Yes, I said cheating. That's exactly what happened, and Knaus got away with just a slap on the wrist by being suspended. What really should have happened is that points should have been taken away from Johnson.

Knaus claims that his suspension was far more detrimental to the team than any deduction of points could have been.

Not!

If Knaus' presence in the pits is so important, how come Jimmie has won one race and finished second in the other in the two races that NASCAR has told Knaus to plant his butt on his sofa and watch the races on his television?

Johnson, in repeated interviews, has downplayed the actions that led to the suspension of his chief, which could be considered by some to be admirable and is obviously a racing tradition, but is also a bit laughable.

Johnson claims that the car modifications that led to the suspension were no different than any other team does every week to get the most out of their car. He's also said that his team is picked on because it goes through more inspections than other teams because they are so good. What he's really saying is that, sure, we cheat, but it's not cheating unless you get caught. Unfortunately for the 48 team, they seem to be caught quite often.

That's exactly why NASCAR should have made a stronger stand and taken away points. When it is points that count toward getting in the Chase, that is the only thing that would really make Johnson and Knaus feel some pain.

David Newton, of NASCAR.com, has a nice article with legendary driver Richard Petty on the "Car of Tomorrow."
You can find out more information on the process of changing the cars for NASCAR at this link.

-- AP photo

It was a nice win for Matt Kenseth today, but I'd have to say the two fastest cars finished the day in the garage. With blown engines forcing both Greg Biffle and Tony Stewart to the sidelines, Kenseth held off hard-charging Jimmie Johnson for the win. It was a tough break for Biffle, who dominated the race all day, only to see it all fall apart with about 20 laps to go when his engine failed him.

Biffle was one of my starters today, which really hurts in the fantasy auto racing points department.

For B drivers, I started Kasey Kahne, who finished 4th, and Elliott Sadler (23rd). My C List driver was Kenny Wallace, who finished 41st.

If Biffle doesn't blow an engine, I would have likely had two in the top 10. As it is, though, Kahne was my only top driver.

Many of the so-called experts didn't fare much better, though, so we'll keep plugging along and hope for better results as racing moves to Las Vegas.

I didn't get a chance to do much studying to make picks for today's Auto Club 500, so I'm going on blind luck.

These are my drivers; the four starters will be revealed later.

A List
Greg Biffle
Ryan Newman

B List
Jeremy Mayfield
Brian Vickers
Elliott Sadler
Kasey Kahne

C List
Kenny Wallace
Scott Wimmer

It seems the experts like Biffle in the A List, Sadler and Kyle Busch in the B List, and Scott Riggs in the C List.

You can see expert picks and the concensus picks of Yahoo members at this link.

Let me back up a bit. In 1964 Ford put Mustang on the street, I had one, for a short time. In 1967 Chevrolet countered with Camaro. In 2004 Ford brought out the "retro Mustang". I don't want one, but quite a nice car. In 2006 Chevy has a Concept Car that will be a new Camaro in 2-3 years. Turns out rear-wheel drive isn't dead, and GM needed Ford to point it out. I haven't paid much attention to what talk there has been about the 2000-whatever Camaro, until I saw a photo of the concept on the cover, of the March Motor Trend Magazine. If Chevrolet Performance builds one anything like this I want one. This concept has a modern, muscular look, with lots of retro from the best Camaro ever built, the 1969 model. The grill, the interior gauge package, and the rear fender air inlets, all are from 69', and there are some styling aspects that look to have come from the C6 Corvette. This could be worth waiting for. (Chevrolet Performance photo)

Saturday night, after watching GU beat LMU, and then going out to dinner it seemed like a good idea to turn on TV and catch up on what had gone on at Daytona. Bad idea. Turning to Speed, I discovered why a lot of people think auto racing isn't a sport. I believe it was called "Team Demolition", and because there were cars and drivers wearing helmuts, this will be related to auto racing. I don't really want to explain how I think it worked, but it takes place on a muddy surface, and the rules seem to resemble Roller Derby. This made Monster Trucks look interesting. Sunday afternoon, I went to Hasting's for a book.

NASCAR fans are almost as jacked about the upcoming movie "Talladega Nights" as they were about the Daytona 500. The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is scheduled to hit theaters on Aug. 4. See a trailer for the movie here.

As promised, here's how I predicted Sunday's Daytona 500 in my two fantasy leagues on Yahoo.

A DRIVERS
Jeff Gordon - Started
Tony Stewart - Bench

Tony must have known how I picked JG instead of him and got mad, thus sending Gordon to the garage for the day with some aggressive driving tactics, which he continued throughout the day. I should have known better; Tony carried me to the league championship last season.

But Tony, I didn't have Matt Kenseth on my roster. What did you take it out on him for?

I should have given more thought to Jimmie Johnson's strong showing in the qualifying race and given him a second look. He obviously had a strong car, and I should have spotted the trend - cheating or no cheating.

To be fair, though, only 24 percent of Yahoo users picked Jimmie for their teams. See the full breakdown at this link.

B DRIVERS
Kyle Busch - Started
Dale Earnhardt Jr. - Started
Jeff Burton - Bench
Kevin Harvick - Bench

I know. I know. I badmouthed Kyle all week before the race, then picked him to start. I figured with his strong starting position he could stay out of trouble. Thanks to Junior, I picked up a good number of points from my B drivers. I'm thinking Junior is primed for a great season.

C DRIVERS
Kyle Petty - Started
Bill Elliott - Benched

I planned to start Elliott all week, then changed my mind on a hunch at the last minute. Bad move. I would have earned many more points off of Elliott's 19th place finish rather than Petty's 39th.

Overall, it was a poor showing on my part, and I'm way down in the standings of both my leagues. But I'll rebound and be the first to reach the checkered flag at the end of the season.

A break from NASCAR for a bowling update: North Central High School's varsity bowling team took third place in its division at the Washington state tournament in Tacoma over the weekend, missing first by 1.5 points (out of 70 total) and second by 1 point. I had the honor to coach the team, which included Kevin Uddman, Ben Harris, Adrian Hammer, Alex Earle, Casey Anderson, and my son, Lucas House. Three team members, Ben, Alex and Lucas, made the 10-team All-State team. I'm proud of all you guys! Next year, state champs!

Well, my concerns about Ryan Newman causing accidents because of his lead foot just increased. I came across a Daytona 500 notebook at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram where Newman is already complaining about the new rule against bump drafting.

Newman says in the article:
"It's a joke, because NASCAR's job is to control the races, not control the drivers," Newman said. "We've got some drivers that are ruining it for everybody, and I say ruining it because the judgment call part of it is the ridiculous part of it."

NASCAR CHANGES: Here's a story from the Kansas City Star on some of the changes this year, including the tire-leasing program I mentioned in an earlier comment.

I just joined my second NASCAR fantasy league last night, this time with some co-workers and other media sorts. I'll be racing under the name EAT MY DUST on Yahoo's Auto Racing site. I've been participating with some friends on that site for a couple of years, and it seems to add a bit more excitement to root for drivers that you have picked for individual races.

By the way, to my favorite Bill Elliott fan, I will be taking home the title again in the CheckeredFlag&TrophyGirls league!

I haven't made my final picks yet for the big race on Sunday, but here are some of the issues I'm weighing as I handicap the race:

Running from the front: Guys who start from the front of the pack on the Superspeedways have an inherent advantage because of the inevitable crashes that will occur. Despite new bump-drafting rules, expect at least two "Big One" crashes on Sunday, which will probably take out up to a total of 12-15 drivers.

Stay away from Kyle: Drive by the overly agressive Kyle Busch and you are likely to find yourself in the garage early.

Stay away from Ryan Newman: The Rocket Man always runs all out - not a good strategy in restrictor plate racing. If he can work his way to the front and clean air, though, he could be very dangerous.

Jimmie Rebounds: After being pushed to the back of the pack for qualifiers because of some innovative "engineering," Johnson pushed hard in racing Thursday and earned a nice starting position in the ninth spot. He'll have a different crew chief, though, because Chad Knaus was suspended because of that "engineering" move. That could hold him back on Sunday.

Who will win? Can't reveal that yet; my fantasy league competitors might be spying. But I promise to reveal my picks and post my results, no matter how I do.

GO NORTH CENTRAL: Just a side note to wish the best of luck to the North Central Indians high school bowling team, which is in Tacoma this weekend for the state tournament. Let's hear it for the Red and Black!

Starting order for Daytona 500:
(Car number in parentheses)

1. (31) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, 189.151 mph.

2. (24) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 188.877.

3. (38) Elliott Sadler, Ford, 188.810.

4. (5) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 187.570.

5. (99) Carl Edwards, Ford, 186.614.

6. (26) Jamie McMurray, Ford, 187.743.

7. (8) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 185.124.

8. (43) Bobby Labonte, Dodge, 187.935.

9. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet,

10. (6) Mark Martin, Ford, 186.436.

11. (17) Matt Kenseth, Ford,

12. (45) Kyle Petty, Dodge, 184.794.

13. (2) Kurt Busch, Dodge, 187.539.

14. (42) Casey Mears, Dodge, 186.127.

15. (20) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 187.196.

16. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 186.672.

17. (11) Denny Hamlin, Chevrolet, 187.488.

18. (12) Ryan Newman, Dodge, 185.774.

19. (1) Martin Truex Jr., Chevrolet, 185.242.

20. (7) Robby Gordon, Chevrolet, 186.850.

21. (66) Jeff Green, Chevrolet, 186.990.

22. (41) Reed Sorenson, Dodge, 186.289.

23. (21) Ken Schrader, Ford, 186.043.

24. (09) Mike Wallace, Dodge, 182.953.

25. (88) Dale Jarrett, Ford, 188.849.

26. (19) Jeremy Mayfield, Dodge, 186.908.

27. (9) Kasey Kahne, Dodge, 186.691.

28. (29) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 187.406.

29. (49) Brent Sherman, Dodge, 182.142.

30. (55) Michael Waltrip, Dodge, 183.411.

31. (61) Kevin Lepage, Ford, 186.097.

32. (40) David Stremme, Dodge, 184.543.

33. (36) Bill Elliott, Chevrolet, 187.715.

34. (22) Dave Blaney, Dodge, 184.566.

35. (25) Brian Vickers, Chevrolet, 187.239.

36. (18) J.J. Yeley, Chevrolet, 187.207.

37. (07) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 187.786.

Watching the Budweiser Shootout over the weekend brought about these observations on my part:

--- Kyle Busch (pictured right/AP photo) is more out of control than his brother, Kurt. Only problem is, Kyle's out of control on the racetrack, whereas his bro is a menace off the track. Kyle was at the center of several mishaps in the Shootout, and I'm sure he didn't make too many friends.

Also, as usual, Ryan Newman flew around the track with his usual wreckless abandon. Somebody needs to show that guy that there is a time to slow down. Do they glue his accelerator foot to the floor?

All this prompts me to ask this question:

Which driver will cause more accidents this season, Kyle Busch or Ryan Newman?

Other observations:

-- Dale Earnhardt Jr. looked good, and it could be a good sign that he is starting to turn things around after an off year last year.
-- Jeff Gordon seems to still be finding trouble. Will it be another season of bad luck for him?
-- Tony Stewart looked great again, and I think he could have won the Shootout if he really wanted to. My guess is he was just running interference for the eventual winner, rookie Denny Hamlin, whom Stewart has apparently taken under his wing.

An eye on bump drafting: After Stewart's strong post-Shootout comments that bump drafting could get someone killed if it continues, NASCAR has decided to police the problem. See the story at SpeedTV.com.

You can weigh in with your thoughts on bump drafting here or at OnlineRacin.com.

Ed Hinton writes a nice column for the South Florida Sun Sentinel about some of the foolish driving that's going on.

Saturday night, after the GU basketball game, I sat down to read my new copy of Truckin magazine. The first story I came across was an interesting explanation of "dubs" and "ballers". Suffice it to say that they have to do with big wheels. What caught my eye was a few graphs about a company called Asanti Wheels that is offering a wheel with 12,000 diamonds, 800 sapphires, adding up to 1,100 carats. The wheels are available in 20-26" sizes and go for $1 million per set. That might sound a little steep but they will throw in a new $200,000 Bently as part of the deal. So, you just get your new $1 million wheels installed at the local tire store, head north across the Maple Street bridge, hit the pothole field on the north end and there are diamonds and sapphires flying everywhere. Let me know when a set of these goes for a run.

Here are my picks for the Budweiser Shootout Saturday night (coverage begins at 5 p.m. on TNT):

1: Carl Edwards
2: Joe Nemechek
3: Kasey Kahne
4: Jeff Gordon
5: Dale Jarrett

Just as the race doesn't really matter, neither do my picks. It's all for fun, and braggin' rights if I get 'em right.

Cruising the photo wires this morning turned up this photo of the Dodge Charger, decked out in police finery. Turns out the New York City Police department plans to purchase a group of Chargers, some dressed in black and white, and others not so easy to identify. I love the Police emblem on this car, I assume NYPD will take the Dodge Ram off and use their own. Underneath the Police sticker it will read "Protect-Serve-and race you to the next light". So, are these faster than cop equipped Mustangs? (AP Photo)

Rick and I have teamed up to bring readers our thoughts about things, auto and race related. Rick is a sports nut, who recently discovered he was really into NASCAR racing. Me, I am more interested in the small car shows, or odd and obscure events. And they don't get any more odd and obscure than camel racing. Well, maybe a demolition derby using combines qualifies. In Kuwait, according to the Associated Press, camel racing has a fairly large following. That is understandable, I am guessing they have a lot of camels. Where it gets odd, is, they seem to have rules. Including a new one that bans the use of children as jockeys. So they are now using robots. It is hard to tell what the robots job is, but they seem to have whips in one appendage. I understand NASCAR is working hard to open a market in Mexico, could be they should look to Kuwait. (AP Photo)

The 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup season revs up Saturday night with the Budweiser Shootout, followed by the Feb. 19 Daytona 500. A few tidbits from The Associated Press as we get ready to drop the flag on the season:

SOLD OUT: Reserved seats for the Daytona 500 are sold out, and Daytona International Speedway has announced the event will pay more than $18 million, the biggest purse in the history of stock car racing. The winner of this year’s season-opening Daytona 500 will collect a minimum of $1,438,155. Last place in the 43-car field will be worth at least $224,665.

BUSCH WHACKED: NASCAR driver Kurt Busch (pictured at left) was ordered Wednesday to perform 50 hours of community service as part of a plea agreement over a reckless driving citation he received near Phoenix International Raceway toward the end of last season.
The traffic stop came the night before the Checker Auto Parts 500 at the Phoenix track. As a result of his run-in, Busch was suspended from the final two NASCAR races of the season by his former team.
His lawyer, Lee Stein, said his client admitted to speeding, a misdemeanor, and two civil citations: following too closely and passing in a no-passing zone. In exchange, the reckless driving charge was dropped.
According to the police report, this is what Busch told the officer who pulled him over: “You’re only doing this because you’re a Jeff Gordon fan.”

ROGER DODGER: Talk about an incentive! Terry Labonte, only a part-time driver in NASCAR’s Nextel Cup Series these days, has been offered a nice prize from one of the owners of his racing team. That owner is former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach. Staubach has told Labonte (pictured at right) he will give him his 1963 Heisman Trophy if he wins the Daytona 500.
Labonte will drive in the season-opening Daytona 500 for the new Hall of Fame Racing team, whose ownership includes Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterbacks Staubach and Troy Aikman.
Labonte, who plans to retire at the end of 2006, said he would love to take possession of the big trophy — at least for a while.
“Am I going to take it? Heck, yeah, I’m going to take it,” Labonte said. “I’m going to take it for two weeks and carry it around to all my buddies and get my pictures made with it, and then I’m going to give it back to him.”

--- Associated Press photos

The half-dozen people who read this blog, know that I enjoy reading the newspapers classified ads, looking for gems, which is not to say I plan to buy anything. This time of year things are slow because people aren't quite ready to put their dream machine up for sale. But I did manage to find a couple of interesting items. Under Antiques/Classics their is a buyer, who describes himself/herself as a "nostalgia victim" wanting to buy a clean 36' Ford sedan. I hope if you find one it brings back the memories you are looking for. For driving fun, a 56 T'bird is more my idea of nostalgia. Speaking of T-Bird's, Wendle Ford is advertising a 2003 Black one, with 23,000 miles. That could be fun. And, under Jaguar, there is a 1985 Jaguar Vanden Plas for sale. I admit to having owned only one foreign car in my lifetime, and it was a far cry from a Jaguar, but, I have spent a lot of time around cars, and have no idea what a Vanden Plas is. The seller may have been better served to add more of a description. At any rate, turns out that model Jag is a beautiful 4 door sedan, while there aren't a lot of them around, we have all seen one. I think the name is rarer than the car. I found a lot of them on the web, mostly for more money than the one being sold locally. So, how many of you knew what model a Vanden Plas is?

There should be lots of chrome, high gloss paint, and leather at the Spokane Convention and Ag Trade Centers this weekend, when the Inland Northwest Motorcycle Show and Sale opens their doors Friday, Feb. 10. Besides a bunch of bikes, of all types, Darrel Waltrip's NASCAR Toyota truck will be on display, and a motorcycle will be given away. The show runs through Sunday. Also this weekend, at the Spokane Interstate Fairgrounds, the Spokane New Car Dealers Association, International Auto Show takes place starting Friday. The Pontiac Solstice should be one of the stars of the show. If you would rather look at auto and speed parts, then Puyallup is the place to be this week end. The annual Corvette and High Performance Swap meet runs Saturday and Sunday. Silver Collector Car Auctions will be running a two day sale in conjuction with the meet. Both events are on the grounds of the Western Washington Fairgrounds. Spring can't be far away.

TESTING: According to Rotowire.com, Jamie McMurray was fastest in day two of testing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He turned a fast lap of 169.316 mph.

TRACK CHANGE: According to a story by The Associated Press, the Las Vegas Motor Speedway will get a multimillion-dollar makeover to increase the embankment angle on turns and give fans more access in the pits, officials said.

Speedway Motorsports Inc., owner of the 10-year-old facility, plans to spend up to $27 million renovating the 1.5-mile tri-oval track, track general manager Chris Powell said Monday. Construction is set to begin March 13, the day after the NASCAR Nextel Cup UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 race.

Toyota's move: Jerry Bonkowski, writing in his Trading Paint column for Yahoo sports, says readers who e-mailed him regarding Toyota joining the NASCAR circuit were about 70 percent in favor of the foreign invasion. It would be interesting to see some reaction from local readers on the subject.