Roush Fenway Racing’s five-car operation takes first place in the Forbes estimate of value, revenue and operating income. But that makes sense, since RFR fields nine cars in the Cup and Busch series, easily the most of any team out there. (Childress is the next closest with three Cup and three Busch teams.)

But the numbers are close enough to see that Hendrick has a clear advantage: In value, Roush leads $316 million to $297 million (a difference of $19M); in revenue, Roush leads $189M to $163M (a $33M difference); and in operating income — perhaps the most important category — Roush leads by a scant $200,000, $39.1M to Hendrick’s $38.9.

Take out any of the Roush Cup cars, and logic dictates they’d quickly fall out of the top spot.

But the real story comes when you compare Hendrick’s numbers to the rest of the field, even Childress and Joe Gibbs Racing, the other elite Chevy teams. Hendrick more than doubles the value of RCR and nearly so for Gibbs; revenue and operating income are also significantly behind.

Some other notes about the chart: Knowing what we know now, it’s interesting to see that Evernham Motorsports leapfrogged two spots, including Childress. It’s hard to say whether they’ll keep that spot next year; their revenue will certainly take a hit, given the underperformance of his three drivers — especially Kasey Kahne — this season. But bringing Montreal Canadiens owner George Gillett onboard may open up some new revenue streams before the year is out.

Forbes also has a sidebar on the 10 most valuable cars. There’s not many surprises: Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth comprise the top five. The biggest surprise is at No. 10, with Dale Jarrett. That will change next year, since it’s hard to imagine UPS paying top dollar for a car that, to this point, hasn’t had a top-30 finish since Phoenix.

• RYAN NEWMAN WEIGHED IN on NASCAR’s countersuit with AT&T on Tuesday. NASCAR is seeking the right to throw any communications companies’ sponsorship out of the Nextel Cup series if it desires. That could potentially include Newman’s sponsor, Alltel.

“I know our situation as far as Alltel being grandfathered in. I’m not worried about that. The sale of Alltel didn’t change, the company name didn’t change any personnel to my knowledge,” Newman said on a conference call with reporters. “There’s no issue in respect to that. I understand AT&T and Cingular’s situation and their changing of names and what not, but I think at the same time NASCAR has to be ultimately considerate of who’s supporting the series and why we do that we do from a NASCAR perspective, not necessarily from a Nextel Cup perspective. For me, something may be affected in the future. If it does, we’ll follow suit with what we need to do. Outside of that it’s business as usual as far as Alltel and our Penske team.”

• A HANDFUL OF NON-NASCAR thoughts:

I was covering the Nationals’ loss to Detroit last night, and I chuckled when the Tigers fans started chanting while their team was up by eight runs. Nats fans got all indignant and started booing.

I only know what I know: If the Phillies were down 8-1 in the sixth inning and the opponents’ fans started chanting, the response would be predictable: Philly fans would drown them out with “E-A-G-L-E-S!” Because it’s never too early for football season in Philly (scroll down to the P.S., and note that it was posted April 6).

Speaking of baseball, how about those Beavers? Defending national champion Oregon State put a hurtin’ on Arizona State last night at the College World Series; the Beavers need only beat the winner of today’s UC-Irvine/Sun Devils game to advance to the three-game championship series.

All of this after OSU was a bubble team to even get into the tournament. They came to Charlottesville and took down that regional — which included highly-regard U.Va. — and knocked Michigan out in the Super Regionals. That they beat Cal State Fullerton wasn’t much of a surprise, but the Beavers were swept by ASU in the regular season in Corvallis.

Why would I care about OSU? My wife’s cousin played there. He was a redshirt freshman last season and didn’t see much action; but just after the College World Series, he was the victim of a serious hit and run accident, and the recovery has been steady but painfully slow.

Her family is decidedly split between Washington, Oregon and Oregon State during football season, but everyone’s a Beaver believer in the spring.

Me too.

(Photo by Chuck Burton/Associated Press)

So, with that in mind, we’ll look ahead to some other stuff happening today: Richard Childress Racing announced that both Jeff Burton and his sponsor, AT&T, have signed a contract extension.

This comes a day after NASCAR announced it was countersuing AT&T for $100 million. AT&T had previously won a court decision allowing its blue-and-white globe on Burton’s Chevy, replacing the outdated Cingular brand, which had been bought by AT&T.

Besides the money, NASCAR is also seeking the right to throw out any communications company not named Nextel by 2008.

For our purposes, that last part is the most important part. Did AT&T and, to a lesser degree Burton, jump the gun by signing on despite the NASCAR countersuit?

To be certain, the countersuit is more broadly worded than AT&T’s original complaint. The latter dealt strictly with AT&T’s rights to change the logo on the No. 31, and whether AT&T qualified for the grandfather clause that allowed Cingular and Alltel to stay in Cup.

But instead of grandfathering, NASCAR wants complete control. Suddenly, there must be at least some concern at Penske; its relationship with Alltel could be in jeopardy if NASCAR wins the countersuit. (That said, it would seem silly for NASCAR to toss out Alltel, which has not given it nearly the headache that AT&T has.)

According to the AP story, NASCAR is alleging breach of contract, fraud and misrepresentation, and conspiracy to aid and abet wrongful interference with Nextel. That’s difficult to judge from the outside (and the little matter of not being very knowledgeable in contract law). Wrongful, and especially fraud, seem like awfully strong terms for this sort of suit.

There’s no question that NASCAR has been injured since the AT&T globe was put on the No. 31. At the very least, its series sponsorship with Nextel is devalued because its exclusivity has been compromised. If, for example, Verizon would buy Alltel, they’d now have every right to slap their logo on the No. 12. At least part of the reason Nextel spent so much money was to have that right of exclusivity. If you think Bud (or Miller Lite), Home Depot (or Lowe’s), Crown Royal (or Jack Daniel’s) or any other company with a competitor in the sport wouldn’t jump at the chance to kick their rival out, you’re crazy.

Nextel had to be a little more careful, however, because it was also dealing with existing team contracts that the series has very little control over. And Nextel, of course, did the right thing by allowing those sponsorships to be grandfathered in. (No one’s going to argue that AT&T and Alltel have a greater presence at NASCAR races than does Nextel.)

NASCAR had no choice but to countersue. There certainly had to be a ton of pressure from Nextel; NASCAR couldn’t just kick its feet back and cash the checks.

It’s hard to imagine NASCAR getting a complete victory in the countersuit, given the loss in the earlier round. It’s also just as hard to imagine NASCAR not gaining some sort of concession, either (by settlement or by ruling). It’ll probably be somewhere in the middle.

But for now, we’ll have to wait to see how it plays out. I still believe this is the single most important off-track story of the season in NASCAR, because nothing – not even that driver who has been named too often already – will affect the sport for the foreseeable future like this litigation.

-- I MADE REFERENCE to trying out some NASCAR-themed wines a few weeks ago, namely a few selections from Childress Vineyards and a bottle of The Jeff Gordon Collection.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to get my wine-tasting people together in time for this week’s race as I had originally planned. But we’ll get it done, probably sometime next month after I get back from vacation.

I’ve also mentioned on here that a few people with other sites have left comments. I promised I’d check their sites out, and I wanted you to know I haven’t forgotten about you. We finally seem to have made it to summer break, so I’ll have more time to do that sort of thing in the coming weeks.

Ed Hinton of the Orlando Sentinel provided a good look at what makes Earnhardt and Hendrick such a perfect pairing. The hyperbole in the first few grafs were a bit much for me — the worst mistake we can make is handing someone a trophy before an event, let alone a year — but after that, there’s some rich detail and excellent perspective.

Like this: “Taken from his mother at age 6 to be raised by nannies, military school, a largely absentee (and always hard-bitten) father and (nominally) his stepmother, Earnhardt rarely experienced the simple human kindness shown him as a kid by a rival team owner, Hendrick.”

Over at Fox, Lee Spencer follows a similar tangent and traces the link between the Gee — Earnhardt Jr.’s maternal side — and Hendrick families. Again, more good info that helps paint the whole picture.

One nitpick: Spencer was able, and Hinton unable, to avoid comparisons to Hendrick’s ’08 lineup and the New York Yankees and free-spending owner George Steinbrenner. On the surface, it may seem like an apt comparison, but look a little deeper and the comparison loses steam.

In this decade especially, the Yankees have shown a willingness to spend what it takes to get the biggest names around (see Johnson, Randy; Clemens, Roger; Rodriguez, Alex; Abreu, Bobby; Pettitte, Andy, etc.). The big names that came in trades alone decimated their farm system; in 2004, Baseball America ranked them 27th in terms of minor league talent. But in fairness, they’ve rebounded and ranked fifth heading into this year.

Yet their philosophy has them in a six-year championship drought. And unless they reverse their sorry performance this year, it’ll be six years and counting.

Hendrick built his team from the ground up; his first win as an owner came in the Busch series. He signed Jeff Gordon, which was the first step towards 15 years of success.

Hendrick is not the Yankees; he’s won recently.

But like the Yankees, there’s no guarantee that signing Earnhardt turns them into a superpower. It sure seems that way now, but again, let’s hold off on the breathless predictions until the new foursome actually gets on track.

• WITH EARNHARDT OFF THE MARKET, the biggest piece of the puzzle in is in place. Now, lesser deals will start happening, including Kyle Busch.

Dustin Long takes a look at what could happen next. Busch will be first on the priority list, but Long reminds us not to forget about Greg Biffle, whose contract negotiations with Roush Fenway have come to a grinding halt.

• WHAT, THERE’S A RACE this weekend? Oh, right, Michigan.

MIS is one of those iffy tracks that could go either way: The race could be great or especially boring.

In either case, it’ll probably be the best chance for one of the other manufactures to steal a win from the Chevy juggernaut. According to Racing Reference, Chevy has just two wins at Michigan since 1996: both times it was Gordon, who won the ’01 summer race and the ’98 fall race.

Sunday’s race, by the way, is the Citizens Bank 400. Never heard of Citizens Bank? Well, they also own the naming rights to the Philadelphia Phillies’ ballpark; but the closest branch to Brooklyn, Mich. is in Buffalo.

It’s unusual to see a regional company going outside of their region to sponsor a race.

• A LATE HOUSEKEEPING NOTE: We’ll be out of the office on Friday, so have a good weekend and enjoy the race. In the meantime, pray that it’s not boring.

(Photo by Matt Sayles/Associated Press)

Earnhardt, with 17 wins on his resume, joins defending Nextel Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and four-time champ Jeff Gordon at Hendrick.

As expected, the odd man out is brash youngster Kyle Busch. Hendrick said that during the course of negotiations on Busch’s contract, he became aware of multiple teams that had contacted Busch.

The process intensified over the past few weeks when Earnhardt announced he would become a free agent. Hendrick then sought to release Busch from his contract early — he was originally signed through next season — so Busch could talk with other teams and Hendrick could go after Earnhardt.

“It’ll be good for him to pursue those [opportunities],” Hendrick said.

“We had been working on a contract extension for me to remain at Hendrick Motorsports, but after prolonged negotiations, we mutually agreed that a fresh start was in order.  I have been granted a release after the 2007 season,” Busch said in a statement. “I have tremendous respect for Mr. Hendrick and everyone at Hendrick Motorsports.  It’s where I grew up, and I have a lot of great memories.

“I kind of feel like I’m graduating.  I’m excited about my future, and I know a lot of opportunities await because of what everyone at Hendrick did for me — on the track and off.

“I still have a job to do this year, and will give it my all — just as I’ve always done — to make sure we put the No. 5 car in victory lane a few more times before the year is out.”

There are many details still to be worked out with Earnhardt’s transition to HMS. Sponsorship is the main one, though Budweiser is expected to follow Earnhardt to HMS. Whether Earnhardt’s associate sponsors, like Wrangler, follow suit remains to be seen. Hendrick said that’s a problem that will be worked through in the coming months.

Earnhardt’s car number is no small detail, either, and several questions were asked regarding that. But Dale Earnhardt Inc., specifically Teresa Earnhardt, retains the rights to the “8” that Junior currently runs. Perhaps she’d be willing to part ways with it, but that’s also an issue for the future.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., in his press conference announcing his departure from DEI, said he hoped to bring along some of his crew. Busch’s crew chief, currently, is the very capable Alan Gustafson. Whether any or many current DEI employees come with him Earnhardt is also something to be worked out.

How Earnhardt’s fan base reacts remains to be seen. The drivers they love to hate, Gordon and Johnson, are now teammates, though Earnhardt said the three have always been friends.

“I think my fans will still have the same Junior they’ve always had,” he said, though he admitted that he may not be able to wear jeans and T-shirts as much.

(Sept., 2006 file photo by Jim Cole/Associated Press)

So here’s what we know, as of this moment: Earnhardt wants to stay in a Chevy and Budweiser wants to go with him.

That eliminates the non-Chevy teams and Joe Gibbs Racing, which has repeatedly said it would not be comfortable with Budweiser on board as a sponsor.

(Certainly, there’s the argument that a non-Chevy team could switch manufacturers to lure Earnhardt. Is it possible? Yes. Is it realistic? Probably not. Any team with the equipment to seriously contend on a weekly basis is probably no lower than No. 2 in the Ford, Dodge or Toyota camps. Why would they then want to become, at best, Chevy’s No. 4 team? There’s too much that doesn’t add up for me in that scenario.)

So that leaves three of the top four Chevy teams as serious contenders: Hendrick, Childress and Ginn.

Childress, as we’ve read ad nauseum, is the most logical choice: A contending team that’s still under the pending four-team limit.

Hendrick is at the four-team limit. Casey Mears and the fourth team was thought to be expendable, but his win at Charlotte a few weeks ago seems to have changed this dynamic.

Ginn made the most noise about bringing Earnhardt on board. It was a natural fit for a number of reasons: they’re getting equipment from Hendrick, so you know it’s championship-caliber; Earnhardt would’ve immediately been Ginn’s No. 1 driver and could run whatever Busch races he wanted.

But a report on Scene Daily says that officials from Ginn were not involved in Earnhardt’s pending press conference. So, presumably, they’re a scratch.

So it sounds like we might have a winner, no?

I’m not certain. Earnhardt going to Childress seems, I don’t know, too ordained. It’s like a fastball down the pike.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw some sort of curveball tomorrow instead.

UPDATE: Jenna Fryer of The Associated Press is reporting that “all signs point to” Earnhardt announcing he’ll join Hendrick Motorsports.

Earnhardt would replace Kyle Busch, who may be let out of his contract a year early. Busch then would logically be a prime candidate for Dale Earnhardt Inc., but he would be a free agent and go through much the same thing Earnhardt has just gone through (though without as much media attention).

If, if, this turns out to be true, then kudos to Fryer - not only for getting the scoop, but for writing an excellent piece weeks ago that foreshadowed such a move.

(Photo by Mary Ann Chastain/Associated Press)