NASCAR roundup

News:

• Sources: Sadler set to return to No. 19
• Petty, Gillett Evernham to merge
• Chevy to remain Daytona sponsor
• Owner reaches deal on fraud charges
• Logano to defend All-Star title
• Baldwin to debut Cup team at Daytona

Analysis:

• DW: Teams spend too much
• Owens: Where were the fireworks?
• DW: Petty cash, not enough
• McReynolds: It all starts here
• Mondaca: Nine stories for '09

Looking back at 2008:

• Sprint Cup
• Nationwide
• Trucks

Blog:

• Check out the NASCAR community

Before I get into that I wanted to mention that this past weekend was a tough weekend for those of us in racing. Three people who made significant contributions to our sport at one time or another passed away.

Dick Bahre started a company called Bahari Racing along with Chuck Rider. Dick gave my brother Michael his first chance to drive in the Cup series in the Country Time car. Dick is the reason that Michael moved to North Carolina and Michael was very close to him. Our entire Waltrip family is grateful for what Dick Bahre did for my brother.

Then we also lost Hal Hamrick who was a good friend of mine back in the day. He did a lot of broadcasting and a lot of reporting. He even had a newspaper that he started. He was just a great guy. He was one of the old-school guys.

And obviously the other we lost was Paul Newman. If you read my story from over the weekend you knew about my relationship with him. Like I said over the weekend, he was the coolest man I ever met. To me, Paul will always be Cool Hand Luke.

So this past weekend we had to cope with a pretty heavy heart. I just wanted to mention all three of those great guys. They were great friends and great buddies and they will truly be missed. In addition to that, they were great friends of racing.

Now back to last Sunday at Kansas. It's amazing to me how critical we can be of people out on the race track who are putting on a show. I have said this before but back in the day when we would roll into town and check into the hotel they would ask me, "Are you with the show?" I would always reply, "No ma'am, I am the show." That's basically what we have now, three guys who have been putting on quite a show the last three weekends.

The dominant force in the 2008 Chase has certainly been Greg Biffle, Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards. I predicted a three-man race and I was right. Only problem was, one of my three men fell out early. But we still have a three-man race and they are putting on some exciting racing.

You had Biffle and Jimmie at Loudon. You had Carl, Matt Kenseth and Greg at Dover. Then this past Sunday you had Carl and Jimmie and Greg was right there, too. I thought the move Carl made was an Eldora move. That's a classic dirt track move. It's one of those things you have to think about. You kinda gotta know you are going to put a slide job on the guy. That's a kind of move you also have to anticipate what the other guy is going to do.

Carl knew Jimmie was going to take that top groove away from him because that was where Carl was making all his time. So Carl knew that when Jimmie went high, his opportunity was to drive that thing into the third turn as hard as it would go and try to put the ol' slide job on Jimmie. And he did. He went blowing by Jimmie like he had the brakes on and for that matter, Jimmie probably did. Jimmie didn't want to screw up. He didn't want to go into the corner too hard and get up in the loose stuff.

For me, I thought it was brilliant. I mean, son of a gun, it almost worked. I think it just goes to show how much Carl wanted to win that race in his home state. It sure did create a lot of excitement and that's my Carl right there. They call him Crazy Carl, Cousin Carl, Concrete Carl -- well I call him Cool Carl. That was just a cool move.

So another good finish to another good Chase race. It basically looks like now it is going to come down to the top three guys there -- Jimmie, Carl and the Biff. If you look from about seventh place on back, it's going to be pretty darn hard for some of these guys to pull themselves back into this thing. Clint Bowyer is already one complete race behind in points from the front three.

Look at Matt Kenseth in ninth. He is already 192 points back. Loudon killed his chances. He has had two great runs the last two weeks but he has only made up roughly 20 points. For that matter, look at Greg Biffle. He has won two races and finished third in the other one and he is still 30 points out of the lead.

As you know, that's been one of my beefs about this Chase format. Once you get that far behind like the 192 that Matt is behind and all the guys behind him, they are basically out of it. I am not real sure there is a lot of excitement as far as the Chase goes, but the racing has been good.

This weekend of course is Talladega and it is the wildest race you will ever go to. The way folks have been pushing and shoving each other around on the track lately plus factor in the non-Chase racers who are trying to win a race before the season ends, by golly I think we will see a great race Sunday.

My hope is they don't have the Big One at all Sunday. If they do, well at least I hope it isn't early in the race. But again, it is Talladega after all. So you can pretty much anticipate what is going to happen there with good reason.

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Oh, by the way

Folks have been asking me what is going on with Kyle Petty. There's a lot of turmoil going on over there right now with who is going to drive his car. Terry Labonte is going to drive it this weekend. Folks, Kyle Petty is a super human being. He and his wife Patti, for what they have endured and for what they have done since Adam's death with the Victory Junction Gang Camp and opening a second one in Kansas, is truly inspiring.

Trust me, I know how hard it is to walk away from racing. Kyle is a pretty good entertainer. He plays the guitar and is a song writer plus he is pretty good up in the booth. Unfortunately for Kyle if the new investors at Petty Enterprises don't want him around, it's going to be pretty hard for him to find another good ride at his age.

I love Kyle. I love what he has done to take the ultimate tragedy that any parent has to endure and turned it into a positive and it has given lots of children hope. I am not suggesting Kyle can't still drive, but when opportunities run out it might be time to hang up the ol' helmet. Again, trust me, I know. I lived it. Nobody wanted an old driver like me so I speak from experience here.

Oh, by the way II

Let me state this up front: I do not mean this sarcastically, it is strictly an observation. I found it interesting that when Kansas wanted a second race it wasn't a question of if, but a question of when. Now nothing has been said officially yet, but they are, with a capital A-R-E going to have a second race there. It looks like it will be 2010 and they are going to put up lights there for night racing. I don't think I have ever seen it where a track has asked for a second date and be assured of one so easily. Like I said, that is just my observation and I just found it interesting.