Category: Featured Stories

Kevin Harvick won at Michigan, locked his place in the Chase, and has moved to within 20 bonus points of Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin when they reset things next month. All in all, the boy has got some pretty good reason to be…er…well, Happy.

Harvick is also our hottest driver over the past ten events, with a pair of wins, but Tony Stewart has almost matched him in points. In fact, over the span Smoke has managed a top ten in all but one, with the lone exception of that 25th place finish at Daytona in July.

When it comes to hot drivers, Carl Edwards does not come to mind, but there he is. Six straight top tens can do that for you. Appearing out of nowhere, or so it seemed, to finish third at Michigan is just one example of why he is a bonafide contender.

While some are going up, others are taking a plunge the other direction. Mark Martin has dived behind Clint Bowyer for that last playoff spot and there doesn’t seem to be any water left in his pool. If you are hoping the likes of David Reutimann, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Jamie McMurray or Ryan Newman might make the Chase, I wouldn’t be holding my breath. A Top Ten in Bristol might help save the day or at least delay things. Better yet, maybe a top five. Kyle Busch should make the Chase, but right now he has all the momentum of a ball and chain.

Here is a look at our hottest 20 drivers over the past 10 races…

1 (2) Kevin Harvick – 1502 pts – 2 wins, 7 Top Fives, 7 Top Tens
Whose a Happy boy? Whose a Happy boy?

2 (1) Tony Stewart – 1500 pts – 5 Top Fives, 9 Top Tens
A top ten in nine of the past ten.

3 (5) Carl Edwards – 1384 pts – 4 Top Fives, 6 Top Tens
Showed up like Rosie Ruiz to claim third at Michigan.

4 (3) Jeff Gordon – 1347 pts – 5 Top Fives, 7 Top Tens
Race was all cute and cuddly until he checked the diaper.

5 (6) Jeff Burton – 1329 pts – 2 Top Fives, 6 Top Tens
Pit crew might be walking funny this week.

6 (9) Jimmie Johnson – 1320 pts – 3 Top Fives, 5 Top Tens
Slump will end when the Chase begins.

7 (8) Denny Hamlin – 1315 pts – 2 Wins, 4 Top Fives, 5 Top Tens
Eight races without a win. Oh, the humanity!

8 (7) Kasey Kahne – 1265 pts – 3 Top Fives, 4 Top Tens
Captain Hook isn’t the only one hearing the clock ticking.

8 (17) Greg Biffle – 1265 pts – 1 Win, 3 Top Fives, 5 Top Tens
Like Batman, Biff, bam, boom and he’s back.

10 (10) Clint Bowyer – 1212 pts – 2 Top Fives, 4 Top Tens
A Chase place is his, for now.

11 (21) Juan Pablo Montoya – 1211 pts – 1 Wins, 1 Top Five, 4 Top Tens
This team has come to love the Juan their with.

12 (4) Kurt Busch – 1209 pts – 3 Top Fives, 5 Top Tens
Having a wall banger before the race is bad, doing one during it is worse.

13 (16) Matt Kenseth – 1180 pts – 1 Top Five, 1 Top Ten
Jack returns and so does his boys.

14 (13) A.J. Allmendinger – 1176 pts – 1 Top Five, 3 Top Tens
Two single digit finishes doesn’t get the job done.

15 (11) David Reutimann – 1168 pts – 1 Win, 1 Top Five, 1 Top Ten
Chicago was a dream, the last four were reality.

16 (19) Dale Earnhardt Jr – 1133 pts – 1 Top Five, 3 Top Tens
While he might not be good, you can always find someone worse

17 (12) Jamie McMurray – 1129 pts – 1 Win, 2 Top Fives, 3 Top Tens
Won the 500 and the Brickyard, what more do you want?

18 (14) Kyle Busch – 1106 pts – 1 Top Five, 2 Top Tens
Bristol might be the medicine the doctor ordered.

19 (18) Ryan Newman – 1105 pts – 1 Top Ten
When  push comes to shove, Logano is there for you.

20 (15) Mark Martin – 1085 pts – 1 Top Ten
On your Mark, get set, Gone!

So, what did we learn at Michigan?

Well, we learned why Kevin Harvick is so darned happy. He is first in the standings, the hottest driver in recent weeks, and the first to lock his way into the Chase. So, why not add his third win of the season to the mix? Those ten Chase bonus points for the victory has him only 20 behind Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin when they re-set the points next month.

We learned it was not a good day to be a Hendrick driver. Johnson looked good early, but found himself slipping back in the second half of the event to finish a fortunate 12th. He was the best of the lot. Mark Martin creased the wall early, and his 28th place result was one behind Jeff Gordon, who had a tire go down at the three-quarter pole. As for Dale Earnhardt Jr, he was 19th on a day we noticed David Ragan a heck of a lot more.

We learned that those who led the first half of the event were not necessarily the guys we saw up there at the end. Harvick, Greg Biffle (4th) and Tony Stewart (6th) proved to be the exceptions. Denny Hamlin came from the outback at the start to be the runner-up, while emerging from somewhere in the twilight zone was Carl Edwards to earn third.

We learned that Ryan Newman was not happy with Joey Logano. We don’t know if their post-race argument, including a shove from the veteran, was about the racing deal that saw Newman go for a spin or if it resulted from Logano trying to criticize the Rocketman’s driving style. If he thought Newman drove aggressively, he now knows the man also argues the same way.

We learned it was a good day for Jack Roush to make his return after his latest plane crash. Biffle and Matt Kenseth finished right behind Edwards, while Ragan was 11th. With Roush now surviving two such accidents in just over eight years, I suggest he might wish to avoid future such landings and take up parachuting. Going up is fine, but he needs a new plan coming down.

We learned that Kurt Busch could have used a different engine. Maybe one that might last more than 60 miles before blowing up. Two DNF’s in his last three is not good, but even though he fell to tenth in the standings, he is in a Chase place by a good 200 points.

We learned that Clint Bowyer would regain the final invitation to the fall ball, though by just 35 points over Martin with three races to go before the deadline. Newman, Jamie McMurray, Kasey Kahne, and Junior are also close enough to grab it if all goes very well for them at Bristol. I suggest, however, that no one hold their breath on that happening.

One of the circuits marquee tracks is next on the schedule, a place Johnson claimed the prize in the spring and where Kyle Busch swept the pair in 2009. It is where legends visit Victory Lane, including three Hall of Famers and seventeen Cup champions since 1961. Bristol is indeed hallowed ground.

One of NASCAR’s most passionate racers is Max Papis, the ebullient driver of the No. 13 Geico Toyota Camry, affectionately nicknamed ‘Mad Max’. But right next to him is his petite yet powerful wife Tatiana.

Tatiana Papis, originally from Sao Paulo, Brazil, is no stranger to the world of racing. After all, Tatiana’s maiden name is Fittipaldi and she just happens to be the daughter of famed racer Emerson Fittipaldi and cousin to Formula One and CART racer Christian Fittipaldi.

“That’s how I got into racing,” Papis said. “My parents were divorced but when I would spend summer vacation with my dad, I would go to all the IndyCar races with him and I really liked it.”

“That’s how I met Max,” Papis continued. “He was really good friends with my cousin Christian who raced in Champ car too.”

For Tatiana, it was not necessarily love at first sight. But she admits that “Max was very persistent.”

“I was quite annoyed in the beginning,” Papis said. “But then we fell in love and we’ve been together ever since.”

Although Tatiana and Max have been together for eleven years, they have only been living the NASCAR life for the past two years. Papis moved into the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series last year, after serving as the “road course test guy” for Hendrick Motorsports.

In the midst of living their NASCAR dream, the couple also is balancing their parenting of two young children, Marco, aged four and Mateo, a precocious one and a half year old. That balancing act, wife as well as mom, has been one of the biggest juggling acts according to Tatiana.

“It’s really hard to balance,” Papis said. “Sometimes we don’t bring the kids so we can have time. It’s hard to balance that. As Max would say, we’re one person and we do everything together. It’s been hard when that hasn’t been possible, especially with the kids. It’s really hard to balance that out.”

Papis does, however, appreciate some of the amenities that come with the NASCAR lifestyle, especially as it relates to being a wife and mother.

“We love it,” Papis said. “We are so fortunate to have a bus. When we traveled with Marco, I had to change him on the grass. We didn’t have a motor home. I would nurse him in a rental car. We didn’t have private planes but we did it. Now, things are a little bit easier.”

While the NASCAR traveling may be a bit easier in comparison to other racing series in which the Papis family has participated, Tatiana admits that the stock car racing world has its own set of challenges.

“This is the hardest racing world,” Papis said. “It’s rough with the competition and the lifestyle. It’s such a competitive sport and everyone’s out there for themselves pretty much.”

Papis credits their success in navigating living the NASCAR lifestyle to the strength of her relationship with her husband, family and friends.

“Max and I are very strong,” Papis said. “My family is in Brazil and his family is in Italy so we rely on each other for support. We have good friends as supports, other NASCAR wives that are good friends. We’re all in the same boat at the end of the day.”

Papis especially appreciates her friendship with several other drivers’ wives and has great admiration for them in their own right. She especially looks up to Krissie Newman, animal champion and soon to be new mom, DeLana Harvick, who partners with her husband on their own race team, Angie Skinner, Mike’s wife and substitute co-host on Sirius NASCAR Radio’s afternoon show, and Lynne Allmendinger, AJ’s wife, who has her own career as a practicing chiropractor.

“I think people underestimate the power of wives and girlfriends in this sport,” Papis said. “It’s not easy for us.”

In addition to her role as wife and mom, Papis too has her own career. She is one of the principals with MOMO, an Italian company specializing in steering wheels for race cars.

In addition to MOMO, Papis has another passion that she hopes to pursue, that of animal therapy with children and adults. She even hopes to pursue her PhD in psychology if possible to help her dream come true.

“One day when all this racing stuff is over, I’d like to use the psychology that I’ve learned,” Papis said passionately. “I love animals, I love kids and I’d love to use animals in therapy with adults and kids. So, one day I think of getting my PhD.”

But for now, Papis is concentrating on pursuing her family’s current dream, racing at the highest level of NASCAR.

“The most fulfilling is living this dream,” Papis said. “Max’s dad passed away in December of 2006 and he promised his dad that he would make it to NASCAR. We look back now and we’re here and we’re doing it. No matter how hard and how many sacrifices, we’re living that dream.”

“So many people dream of this,” Papis continued. “We dreamed it. We made it happen and we did it together.”

“To be able to one day tell our kids what we did, what we’ve been through, it hasn’t all been pretty, but we made it,” Papis said. “And I think that’s what’s fulfilling at the end of the day. Not a lot of people can say they fulfilled their dreams.”

Yet, even with that passion for the sport, Papis understands that this racing will not be forever. And she works very hard to keep it all in perspective.

“This is only one part of our lives – it’s a really big part – but this is just one part of our lives,” Papis said. “It’s not going to last forever. But we’re going to last forever and our kids are. That’s what keeps us going.”

“When we’re 80 or 90 years old, this will be one chapter, a big chapter, but just another chapter in our lives,” Papis said thoughtfully. “There’s nothing like looking at our children and you realize you can go through anything.”

“I think in the end of the day, whatever we do, we’ll do together as a family and that’s really important to us,” Papis said. “Whatever happens, we’re together and that’s what matters.”

It all makes sense – Kevin Harvick needs a sponsor and Budweiser needs a new star driver. It’s a prediction that the majority of NASCAR Nation were predicting earlier this year. Well, this prediction may actually come true.

Harvick was left without a sponsor for 2011 after Shell/Pennzoil made an announcement in April that they’d be leaving RCR for Penske Racing driver Kurt Busch.

On August 7th, Marty Smith revealed in his door-to-door article on ESPN.com that sources were telling him that Harvick would have split sponsorship in 2011, with Budweiser taking the majority of the races.

At the time, Richard Childress Racing and Budweiser both had no comments for Smith.

Though Smith went on to add that his sources did say, “Harvick did himself a huge favor with the way he conducted himself in Victory Lane at the Shootout in February — beer in hand while saying and doing the right things in front of the company’s new management.”

Yesterday, SceneDaily confirmed Smith’s findings as their sources told them that the deal is close to being done and is in it’s final stages with an announcement coming next week.

Currently, Budweiser sponsors the No. 9 Ford driven by Richard Petty Motorsports (RPM) driver Kasey Kahne. However, Kahne will be leaving at season’s end to drive for Red Bull Racing in 2011 and Hendrick Motorsports in 2012, replacing Mark Martin. As the deal looks right now, GoDaddy will carry their sponsorship from Martin to Kahne, but that hasn’t been confirmed yet.

Budweiser, meanwhile, decided to also leave RPM after Kahne’s departure.

“Budweiser has decided to go in another direction with regard to its driver/team sponsorship and will announce those plans in the very near future,” Mark Wright, Vice President, Media, Sports & Entertainment Marketing for Anheuser-Busch, Inc., said in a statement provided by the company.

“We enjoyed our three-year relationship with Kasey Kahne and wish him all the best in the future.”

Budweiser has been involved with NASCAR since 1984 when they were paired up with team owner Junior Johnson. They have also spent time at Hendrick Motorsports (1995-1999) and at Dale Earnhardt Incorperated with Dale Earnhardt Jr. from 2000-2007. When Earnhardt Jr. made the move to Hendrick, Budweiser paired up with Kahne and Gillett Evernham Motorsports, which is now known as Richard Petty Motorsports.

This looks to be the perfect partnership, once again, for Budweiser, though one could argue there could be brand identity problems. NASCAR fans like to align brands with drivers, though with Budweiser constantly moving star-to-star, that could cause some issues in the fans eyes.

As far as the current sponsorship situation at RPM, officials haven’t announced any plans yet though co-owners Richard Petty and Foster Gillett said announcements are planned for the future.

So far they’ve announced a contract extention with driver A.J. Allmendinger while both Elliott Sadler and Paul Menard look to be following in Kahne’s footsteps. Sadler told SceneDaily last month that he’s had no talks with team officials and doesn’t expect to be back. Meanwhile, Menard is rumored to be heading over to RCR in a fourth car there.

With regards to who will replace Kahne, which could possibly be Marcos Ambrose, who recently announced that he was leaving JTG-Daughtry Racing.

Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.

1. Kevin Harvick: Harvick was running sixth before suffering a flat tire on the final lap at Watkins Glen, spoiling a certain top-10 finish. He surrendered five positions on the final lap, and was nipped at the line for tenth by Jeff Gordon, his closest pursuer in the point standings.

“The flat tire cost us several places,” Harvick said. “Had it happened at any other point in the race, I’m sure the No. 29 Shell/Pennzoil crew could have quickly remedied it, I’m guessing in well under the four months it took BP to stop their leak.”

“When the Chase starts, I plan to be right in the middle of the mix. I am definitely a legitimate contender for the title. Even my wife DeLana thinks so, and, as you know, what she thinks carries weight in this family. But her support can only do so much for me; the actual winning is up to me. Yes, I’ll concede that she wears the firesuit in this family, but heaven help me if she’s the one fitted for a Cup come November.”

2. Jimmie Johnson: Johnson was collected in a lap 70 incident involving Kyle Busch and Jeff Burton, who made contact racing into Turn 11. Johnson lit up his tires, and the smoke obscured the view of Denny Hamlin, whose No. 11 Toyota rammed Johnson’s No. 48 Chevy. Johnson eventually finished 29th, and dropped to fifth in the point standings, 328 out of first.

“We may only be fifth in the points,” Johnson said, “but we’ve got everyone right where we want them. When you say ‘Jimmie Johnson’ and ‘fifth,’ people get nervous.”

“That’s now four finishes outside of the top 20 in the last five races. Many have wondered if this team has lost its edge. Maybe, put there’s no need to panic. In the Chase For The Cup format, there’s no urgency to ‘make a stand’ when we’re ‘sitting’ on five wins. Trust me, the cushion is comforting.”

3. Kurt Busch: Busch posted his best-ever finish on a road course, taking second behind Juan Montoya in the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips At The Glen. Busch picked off Marcos Ambrose on the race’s final restart, but the No. 2 Miller Lite Vortex Dodge was no match for Montoya, who won by five seconds. Busch vaulted three spots in the points to fourth, and is 318 out of first.

“You know race sponsorship has reached its saturation point when punctuation appears in the race title,” Busch said. “Not to be confused with ‘punk­-tuation,’ which happens when I get slapped by another driver.”

“Now, you may have heard that I called the Hendrick drivers ‘pretty boys,’ and implied that had I wrecked Jimmie Johnson, and not the other way around, I would have faced an inordinate amount of criticism. It’s clear evidence that ‘looks can be deceiving,’ which, as the wives of many a NASCAR driver can tell you, can be a good reason for marriage.”

“But Johnson knows I owe him for wrecking me at Pocono, and I will have my revenge someday. As Miller Lite pouring through the Vortex bottle is my witness, my vengeance will be ‘liquidated.’”

4. Jeff Gordon: Gordon charged from 15th to tenth on the final green flag run at Watkins Glen, salvaging his seventh top-10 finish in his last eight races on a day marked by handling issues. Gordon maintained the second position in the Sprint Cup point standings, 185 behind Kevin Harvick.

“That’s 51 races without a win,” Gordon said. “That’s a long time, but everyone goes through their own slow times. You have to look at it in perspective—my wife went nearly three years without ‘delivering.’”

5. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin finished 37th after suffering damage in a lap 65 incident when Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota slammed Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48. Johnson lost control after being nudged by Jeff Burton, as Johnson, Burton, and Kyle Busch went three wide into Turn 11. It was Hamlin’s worst finish of the year and dropped him three spots in the Sprint Cup point standings to sixth, 338 out of first.

“I equate some of the racing at that fateful corner to ‘dive-bombing,’” Hamlin explained. “With that in mind, I guess that means if you put Kyle Busch in a Toyota, he becomes a ‘kamikaze.’”

“If it’s not a dent in my car, it’s a dent in my wallet. Now, I’ve had my ups and downs this year. Five wins earlier this year were followed by a $50,000 fine for some derogatory things about NASCAR I said on my Twitter account. So, thus far this year, I’ve experienced the thrill of victory, and the agony of the Tweet.”

“But this won’t deter me from using my Twitter account. In fact, I’ll be paying the fine via Twitter. I’ll simply text ‘K’ to NASCAR fifty times, and my $50,000 fine should be covered.”

6. Tony Stewart: Stewart finished seventh at Watkins Glen, surviving an on-the-track run-in with Boris Said on lap 66 that sent Said into the wall. As the two raced for position in the top 10 off of Turn 1, Said drifted wide. Stewart didn’t budge, held his line, and punted Said into the wall. Said finished a distant 38th, while Stewart’s 12th top 10 of the year kept him eighth in the point standings, 345 out of first.

“Slowly but surely,” Stewart said, “we are making progress. And that’s not surprising given the time of the year. It’s summertime, so one would expect us to improve ‘by degrees.’”

“Now, I may have called Boris and ‘idiot’ after our incident,” Stewart said, “but I have the utmost respect for him, as I do for any white man with an afro. I hear the ‘Said-head’ wigs were popular at Watkins Glen, and when fans don the fake hair, they often look just like Boris. So, I can’t feel too bad about knocking this road course specialist out of the race, thus creating another ‘dead ringer.’”

7. Jeff Burton: Burton posted his 12th top-10 result of the year, finishing ninth at Watkins Glen by employing a conservative approach that kept him free of trouble for the most part. Burton advanced two places in the Sprint Cup point standings to third, and trails Kevin Harvick by 315.

“That was quite a dominating drive by Juan Montoya, the pride of South America,” Burton said. “In the only race in the state of New York, those Yankees had to be taken aback by the audacity of a true ‘Southerner.’

“Of course, Montoya’s win, and standing of 19th in the point standings, begs the question, ‘Should any driver with a win automatically qualify for the Chase, despite his points standing?’ I say ‘yes.’ If there’s one thing Montoya can bring to the Chase, it’s international flavor.”

8. Kyle Busch: Busch faced an early obstacle at Watkins Glen, forced to bring the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota to the pits even before the drop of the green flag. After a spacer was inserted in the right rear, Busch charged through the field, and was in tenth place on lap 75. He finished in eighth, capturing only his second top 10 in the last eight races.

“We dug ourselves a hole early,” Busch said, “which is in stark contrast to our usual strategy in season’s past, digging ourselves a hole late.”

“I hear that I was partly responsible for the incident that wrecked my teammate Denny Hamlin. I heard that through the grapevine, and not through Twitter. Joe Gibbs says teammates should bring out the best in each other. Obviously, that philosophy doesn’t apply to Denny and I. We don’t complement each other, nor will we ever compliment each other.”

9. Carl Edwards: Edwards won the pole at Watkins Glen, and raced to his fifth consecutive top-10 finish with a fifth in the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips At The Glen. He improved one place in the point standings to ninth, 190 ahead of Clint Bowyer in 13th.

“I’m incredibly proud of winning the pole,” said Edwards. “You know what’s so great about starting in the front of the grid? It guarantees that Brad Keselowski won’t be in front of me.”

10. Greg Biffle: After topping both practice sessions and qualifying seventh, Biffle had high hopes at Watkins Glen. Those hopes soured on lap 62, when contact with Boris Said’s No. 83 cost Biffle about 20 positions. With his track position defeated, Biffle could only make up one position the rest of the way, and finished 24th. He now sits 11th in the point standings, 112 ahead of Clint Bowyer in 13th.

“Any momentum we garnered in the last two races has been lost,” Biffle said. “But we can quickly recover it in Michigan, where the 3M Ford will proudly display the ‘3 Eminem’ paint scheme, featuring Michigan’s adopted son and rap hero Marshall Mathers.”

“That’s actually not true, but here at Roush Fenway, we do refer to Carl Edwards, our svelte teammate of questionable character, as ‘Slim Shady.’”