This was supposed to be the year Martin, one of NASCAR’s most well-liked people, rode off into the sunset and put the finishing touches on a superb career.

Come to think of it, last year was supposed to be the year that Martin rode off into the sunset and put the finishing touches on a superb career. But apparently at the behest of owner Jack Roush, Martin stayed on for another season — this one.

Martin has already hinted he may run a few races next year, like Terry Labonte has since retiring from full-time Cup competition. But is there any chance that he may be around for the full season?

That’s been a point of speculation for much of the season. Todd Kleuver was to be the heir apparent to Martin’s ride; but some at Roush feel he’s not ready to take over the No. 6 yet. Now, a report on Jayski (second item) says Kleuver is in danger of losing his Busch series ride to David Ragan, a driver for one of Roush’s truck teams.

Perhaps that means Martin will be asked to stay on for another year, though the principals involved — Roush, Martin and Kleuver — all said that Kleuver is still expected to be in the No. 6 in 2007.

But the speculation is out there. On Jayski’s Mark Martin page, four of the top five items deal with what’s going on in the No. 6 for next year.

As I’ve said on here before, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Whether it’s Martin, Kleuver or someone else, we won’t know the full answer until next year’s Daytona 500.

He takes NASCAR to task for not doing so, and he’s right. But should it come as a surprise that NASCAR has inconsistencies?
Ashenfelter’s vitriol is aimed correctly at NASCAR, but it’s just more of the same. Whether it’s a scoring decision or not throwing a yellow on the last lap at Indy, we’ve seen this from NASCAR before.
Marty Smith of nascar.com reminds us (third item) that Kevin Harvick was parked in 2002 for overly aggressive driving. Harvick, then, was suspended for one Winston Cup race because of his actions in the Truck and Busch series. He was on probation when those incidents happened, and according to the story that AP filed when the suspension was announced, NASCAR’s rulebook says that incidents incurred while on probation — no matter what series they occur in — will be taken into account when the punishment is meted.
Look, if NASCAR’s serious about cleaning up on-track activity, they’ll extend that decree to drivers who aren’t on probation, too. Edwards, by all accounts and a few, brief encounters I’ve had with him, is an extraordinarily nice guy. But no one can argue his actions weren’t in the same ZIP code as the over-the-line boundary.
Fine, if he wants to ram Junior and crash his victory celebration, penalize the Cup team. Dock points from the Cup team, and this nonsense will stop quicker than you can say “Office Depot.” Owners will complain, as Richard Childress did in 2002, that the actions of one will hamper the efforts of many. File that under the “tough crap” rule: Your driver did it? His team suffers. He has more control over a race than your standard gas man.
But NASCAR isn’t serious about this. The buzz about it creates headlines and publicity, and NASCAR’s not been one to turn down publicity, for better or for worse.
The Harvick suspension was thought to be the beginning of a new era, when NASCAR’s tolerance for on-track stupidity would reach new lows.
Edwards’ penalty, or lack of it, shows that it’s just more of the same from NASCAR. Until the sanctioning body shows us they’re serious, through actions and not words, all the vitriol in the world won’t mean a thing.

NASCAR’s intention was to promote safety by, among other things, adding downforce with a giant rear wing and moving the driver closer to the center of the cockpit. The tests have produced no major gripes from drivers, so that’s a good sign.
But aside from the unknowns, there has been one consistent complaint: The car just isn’t very pretty.
Cup cars are hardly the beauties of the racing world. They’re heavy and as aerodynamically sound as NASCAR allows — which isn’t very much. Open-wheel drivers have derisively referred to them as taxicabs.
The CoT seems to make it even worse. The shot of Bill Elliott testing a Red Bull Toyota (below) looks more like a road-racing Porsche than a traditional Cup car.
Cup cars run as fast as they do because the powerful engines push the beast through the unwilling air. The engines will have to work that much harder to achieve the same speeds for a less aerodynamic car.
Aesthetics are one thing, and so long as NASCAR’s primary motivation is driver safety, it’s hard to complain about the CoT. If it does its job and prevents deaths or serious injuries, the looks, frankly, don’t mean a thing. Clearly, safety is the most important factor.
But that doesn’t change the fact that the CoT just isn’t very visually appealing, no matter how petty that may seem.

(Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images via NASCAR)

Kenseth, of course, won on Sunday. Burton and Busch were sidelined with car troubles, and that threw the whole thing into a tizzy. Half the field — literally — is somewhere different on the pecking order today.
The current stats (bold for drivers who moved up or down): 1. Johnson; 2. Kenseth, 58 points back; 3. Harvick, 317; 4. Martin, 395; 5. Stewart, 406; 6. Gordon, 434; 7. Busch, 443; 8. Hamlin, 445; 9. Burton, 449; 10. Earnhardt, 484.
It’s not inconceivable that a win at Bristol this weekend could move Earnhardt halfway up the charts. Likewise, another early exit by Burton would spell disaster in what has otherwise been a superb season.
And it’s no surprise that the drivers in the top 10 are the heavy favorites to win at each track they go to. They’ll have the best cars — comparably speaking — and a top-20 finish is an expectation.
Perhaps that’s where the Chase will turn: If Burton or someone clinging to a spot develops mechanical problems and is forced to retire early, the standings fall into a bigger state of upheaval. There’s a far greater chance of that this weekend at Bristol, where former driver Dick Trickle famously compared the track to flying fighter jets in a gymnasium.
Cautions are a fact of life at Bristol, and they’re rarely debris cautions. Someone’s going to get taken out, whether through their own fault or someone else’s, and a week from now I could be writing much the same thing: Holy crap, look at how different the standings are!
I’ll try to find something different, of course. But with only three left until the Chase actually begins, the points race — and the difference between 10th and 11th — becomes a story unto itself.

But what led up to Mayfield’s firing and the immediate aftermath are emerging.
NASCAR Scene’s Bob Pockrass reported on the court filings as Mayfield fought to hang on to his job. In the filings, Mayfield talks about Evernham’s absence as the primary contributing factor for the 19’s struggles.
What turned heads most is Mayfield’s comment that Evernham’s “close personal relationship” with an unnamed female development driver employed by Evernham. But ARCA/Busch/Truck driver Erin Crocker is the only female driver on EMS’ roster. That, Mayfield asserted, caused a distraction to Mayfield’s team. (According to the reports, nothing is said beyond “close personal relationship.” Both Evernham and Crocker have refused comment, according to a Charlotte Observer story.)
Evernham fired back in his affidavit, alleging that Mayfield breached the terms of his contract and intentionally wrecked his car in Indianapolis, where he finished 41st.
“[Mayfield] slowed dramatically to let other cars past the #19 Dodge in Turn 1 and then brushed the wall at two places,” Evernham’s affidavit stated, according to the Observer story by David Poole. “This wreck was done in a manner to damage the #19 Dodge but not harm Mayfield. Based on my experience, I believed that Mayfield’s conduct in wrecking the car was on purpose. Sam Johns, my competition director, agreed with my opinion.”
Later in the story, Poole writes of take-it-or-leave-it e-mails exchanged between Evernham’s organization and Mayfield’s business manager. In a separate story by Poole, Mayfield explained his side of it and how, in his view, he was wronged by Evernham and the organization.
That all of this has been opened to public view is unique. Drivers are released every year, some-times with a handshake and best wishes and others with sniping and bruised feelings. But NASCAR teams are often guarded about internal workings — which is why you’ll only ever see best-guesses at a driver’s salary or how much it takes to fund a Cup team — so a glimpse into the Evernham-Mayfield spat is a new one.
For anyone who’s followed the sport, it wasn’t a secret that Evernham’s and Mayfield’s relation-ship had soured beyond repair, particularly after Mayfield’s comments in Chicago. But because of the subsequent court case, we got a rare look at just how badly things had deteriorated.