Rumblings – Kansas:

It was almost as if this race took all day to run…..and confusion reigned supreme at the end. I don’t know how you can have a winner sitting in the grass on the frontstretch (presumably with the engine not running….whether there was any fuel left is open to discussion) with at least the top-three cars passing him before the finish line (while staying behind the pace car, I might add)….and we get that old “field is frozen” line from NASCAR. Now, any good sports fan knows the only frozen field is the tundra at Lambeau in Green Bay, but maybe it moved? And besides, if the field was frozen, why did we continue to circulate around behind the pace car…and aren’t you supposed to maintain pace car speed? Why do we always get the feeling they make this stuff up as they go along? In any event, NASCAR has decreed that the #16 Aflac Ford of Greg Biffle was the winner this afternoon/evening at Kansas Speedway in the oft-delayed Lifelock 315 (even if our eyes deceived us). This was Greg’s first win of the season (he won the finale last year at Homestead) and 12th of his Nextel Cup career (he’s now tied with Ryan Newman for 49th place on the all- time win list). He becomes the 16th different winner of ’07 (we had 17 different drivers grace Victory Lane in 2003) and accounts for win #101 for Roush Racing (their 6th of the season). It was worth $316,225 from the over $6M in posted awards. Casey Mears (4th) had his best finish since he was 4th at Michigan in June. Kevin Harvick (6th) had his best finish since he was 4th at Chicagoland in July. Reed Sorenson (7th) had his best finish since he was 5th at the Brickyard in August. Elliott Sadler (8th) had his best finish since he was 6th at Daytona in February. Scott Riggs (13th) had his best finish since he was 11th at Talladega in April. Tony Raines (18th) had his best finish since he was 18th at Pocono in August. Kyle Petty (21st) had his best finish since he was 3rd at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in May. Jeremy Mayfield (22nd) had his best finish since he was 22nd at Infineon Raceway in June of 2006! Dale Jarrett (26th) had his best finish since he was 26th at Infineon Raceway this past June. John Andretti (33rd) had his best finish since he was 18th at Chicagoland in July. The Chasers all took a hit today…..six of the twelve were 35th or worse! STREAKIN….Jimmie Johnson has 4 Top-10’s in the last 5 races. The Rookie Report: David Ragan (16th) takes this award for the 13th time this season. He was followed by Paul Menard (27th), Juan Pablo Montoya (28th), and David Reutimann (31st). AJ Allmendinger was a dnq this weekend. This Week’s Elevator….UP: Operator of the Week is Dave Blaney (+28), followed by Mark Martin (+27), Tony Raines (+22), Robby Gordon (+22), and Kasey Kahne (+20). DOWN: The Big Dropper was a tie between Kyle Busch (-33) and Matt Kenseth (-33), followed by Martin Truex Jr (-29, Denny Hamlin (-24), and Tony Stewart (-20). Jimmie Johnson grabs the lead in the Chase by six points over teammate Jeff Gordon. Every position but last changed hands this week, and we’re able to hang up our first elimination numbers of the playoffs. In “Classic” points, Clint Bowyer (9th to 7th) made the best forward move today, while Ryan Newman (14th to 16th) fell the most spots.(Stock Car Fans)(9-30-2007)