TOO FUNNY!
"Thought we had a really good shot at a top-10. You know, had a big-eared knucklehead that wanted to use an excuse that the car got away from him. You know, he's a champion -- a Nextel Cup champion. [He] got into us. Of course he apologized, of course. And it took us out of the race."
-- Scott Riggs on his Lap 123 bump with Kurt Busch
Who's got the Pang LIst???
Got this offa Yahoo!
Junior and Jeff will race for the Cup! (Well, in theory ...)
By Matt Crossman - SportingNews
Die-hard fans think NASCAR makes up the rules as it goes along. Those fans think that because it's true. Green-white-checkered flag finishes, the "lucky dog" rule, body changes -- NASCAR institutes new policies in the middle of the season all the time.
Fans also often accuse NASCAR of showing favoritism to its stars, though there's little convincing evidence, except for the time Brian France personally replaced Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s regular engine with a jet engine. Just kidding. France hired somebody to do it.
Now, making its way from cyberspace to radio waves, comes talk that NASCAR will change the rules to make sure Junior and Jeff Gordon -- by far NASCAR's most popular drivers but stink bombs on the track for large chunks of this season -- qualify for the Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup. Yes, there are conspiracy theories about an as-yet-unperpetrated conspiracy. Exactly how NASCAR would "manipulate" the rules to get those two in remains unknown (at least by those outside of the corporate headquarters).
The first theory to float up was that fans would be allowed to vote one driver into the Chase -- an election Junior would win in a walk. France shot that down. Probably because he already had cooked up a simpler, undetectable scheme to get both of them in.
Matt Crossman is an associate editor for Sporting News. E-mail him at mcrossman@sportingnews.com.