Is David Stremme the next on that list?

Jayski is reporting that Stremme is the front-runner to take over Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s seat. It’s not reported anywhere else, so we’ll have to take Jayski on his word (which may sound like a backhanded compliment, but really it’s not).

In seven and a half seasons, he’s gone through a ton of drivers – and the departures often weren’t because Ganassi wanted to replace a certain person.

McMurray left in the last great driver swap, replacing Kurt Busch at Roush Racing. Busch, of course, moved to Penske. Casey Mears went on to Hendrick. Both have won races since then.

Ganassi’s latest hire, Juan Pablo Montoya, finally got his owner back in victory lane; his last trip there had been in 2002. So, since 2003, drivers who have left Ganassi have more wins than anyone that had driven for him (if that makes sense).

That’s an unusual position to find yourself in. Usually, among the less-competitive teams, there are no hidden gems. Jeff Green or Johnny Sauter probably won’t be jumping to a Hendrick Cup ride anytime soon.

The elite teams find and lock up top talent until time or circumstances necessitate a change. Think of Kyle Busch signing at a young age with Hendrick, or all of the Busch drivers under 21 who are driving for big-time teams.

Ganassi Racing seems to be in the middle somewhere, a purgatory of sorts. Good enough to be competitive in spots, but not good enough to keep their drivers around.

Yes, this assumes that Stremme flees for DEI. But even if he doesn’t, the point stands. Stremme’s name is out there as a potential replacement driver.

Yet another one may fly the coop.

-- YES, I MISSED ANOTHER one yesterday. I do apologize for that, and don’t see any major disruptions in the future. Like me or not, I’ll be back.

Both tracks have their plusses. The best driver and best car doesn’t always win at Daytona (see Cope, Derrike), but Indianapolis, for its long open-wheel history, is short on stock car history.

Here’s one thing we do know: The race is important enough that teams put resources into winning. The top teams want a victory, and they’ll put the research into doing that. Moreso than any other race, the cream rises to the top.

Look at the roll call of winners, from last year back to the inaugural race in ’94: Johnson, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Bill Elliott, Gordon, Bobby Labonte, Dale Jarrett, Gordon, Ricky Rudd, Jarrett, Dale Earnhardt, Gordon. With the exception of Elliott, all of these guys won when they were on top of their game. (Some still are, of course.)

But if history holds true, some the unexpected winners this season – Martin Truex, Jr., Jamie McMurray, Casey Mears – most likely won’t be in victory lane come Sunday. This is a race for the big boys.

It’s going to come down to one of a handful of guys: the other three Hendrick guys, Stewart, Harvick, Matt Kenseth. Maybe Denny Hamlin, maybe Jeff Burton. No matter what, it’s only a handful of people.

-- I DO APOLOGIZE for skipping out yesterday. I’ll be doing our layout on Saturday, so I had to take a day off. Coincidentally, Thursday is also our day to play softball, so that worked out nicely.

-- WHERE HAS SUMMER GONE? I’m writing from Redskin Park. The Redskins’ first training camp practice of the season is just over two hours away.

The NFL preseason leads into high school golf, which leads into prep football. Football gives way to basketball and wrestling, which end just in time for the mad dash of the spring, with prep baseball, Nationals and P-Nats. Then it’s summertime and a chance to catch our breath.

Can’t we just rewind July?

Let’s skip ahead to next year. Earnhardt will be at Hendrick. Martin may or may not be back. Truex will be there; Menard, presumably, will be there too. If DEI loses both Earnhardt and Martin, that could leave Truex as the standard-bearer. (Since we haven’t heard differently, we’ll have to assume Kyle Busch at DEI is still a possibility, but by no means a guarantee.)

Truex (pictured at right) has been a serviceable driver, winning his first Cup race earlier this year at Dover. Since then, he’s been on a roll, with a second and two thirds in six races; he started on the outside poll at Chicagoland, but engine troubles relegated him to 39th.

Is this just a hot streak, or has Truex emerged as a legitimate Cup contender? Time will tell.

Almirola is untested in Cup, and barely a novice in Busch (22 starts since the beginning of 2006). Menard’s performance has been largely forgettable (one top 10 in parts of four Cup seasons, though he started only one race in two of those years; and two sixth-place finishes in the Busch standings in 2005 and 2006).

Even if Martin comes back, that virtually assures that’s another car that will be on the wrong side of the Chase. Martin’s done driving full-time and despite his incredible season this year — he’s 18th even after missing five races — he’s still a long shot to make the Chase (which relies on driver points, not owner points).

And there’s an empty seat, which may be Busch or may be someone considerably less talented.

So that begs the question: If you’ve got one decent car and three mediocre (or worse) ones, how much does that help? Is there strength in numbers, or simply strength in good numbers?

The benefit of a multi-car team is that expenses are spread over a number of cars; testing, for example, affords more choices because different tasks can be assigned to different teams.

But what if three of those four teams need the testing time simply to make sure they’ll be able to qualify for the race? (And yes, I realize that isn’t the case with the current DEI lineup.)

Bobby Ginn believes this is the best way for his teams to stay competitive, so this is the course of action he followed. But will they be competitive next season and years down the road, long after Ginn’s old teams have assimilated into DEI?

(Photo by Russ Hamilton/Associated Press)

In preparation for their movie release this week (which opens in Springfield, Vt., pictured at right), the San Jose Mercury News also did a feature on the sports personalities that have appeared in the Simpsons TV show. (Tip of the hat to our pals at sportsjournalists.com for link.)

I can’t imagine running a cooler paint scheme. With all the hype that’s surrounded this movie, it’s a little surprising it hasn’t run before now; I can’t watch the show in syndication without being bombarded by ads. (Which makes sense, but they repeat the same commercial several times each half-hour.)

This may make me re-visit that coolest sponsor list I did earlier in the year…

• ONCE THE SIMPSONS REPEATS ENDED, there was little else to watch on TV. I caught some of ESPN’s Ultimate NASCAR documentary, and it was a little better than I expected.

We’re leary of ESPN’s motives in many instances. With the network picking up their portion of the season this weekend in Indianapolis, they’ve ramped up their coverage of the sport. But it’s also easy to imagine them doing a fluff piece all the same.

This particular episode was called “Explosion” and detailed NASCAR’s rise from regional sport to national entity.

It can’t be called fluff, because the show did touch on some of the more troubling situations that face NASCAR, like leaving behind its original fan base in the South to enter bigger markets and grow the sport. The site of a locked gate outside and antiquated signs of North Wilkesboro was one of the show’s more telling visual moments.

There was also some consideration given to NASCAR’s lack of diversity, including a good interview with truck series driver Bill Lester, the only African-American in NASCAR’s top three series. (Then, rather coincidentally, the Washington Post’s sports centerpiece was on NASCAR’s efforts to open an urban track in D.C.)

But it wasn’t any sort of investigation into these topics; they were merely touched on.

The show, understandably, centered on the death of Dale Earnhardt and how his passing at the 2001 Daytona 500 changed the sport. By comparison, the other topics are not nearly as dominant, nor should they be.

(Photo by Lisa Poole/Associated Press)

Given how often drivers appear in non-NASCAR events, it’s surprising these things don’t happen more often. When we talked about Tony Stewart’s post-Chicagoland press conference last week, one of the things he talked about was running at Macon, Ill. Speedway; there was also Stewart’s race at Eldora earlier in the year to benefit his foundation and the Victory Junction Gang Camp. Ken Schrader has long been known for jumping at any and every opportunity to go race.

It’s hard to imagine that Edwards’ wreck will change that.

Certainly, Cup drivers likely have stipulations in their contract that prevent them from doing anything unnecessarily risky; but it’s hard to argue that a late model race on dirt qualifies for that.

Plus, they’re often making appearances or running for charity: In the former, they’re doing good by their sponsor; in the latter, they’re doing good by humanity. How do you argue against that?
Edwards was appearing in a race with his father and brother. How do you argue against family?

It just seems like one of those things that happens. Who’s to say he might not have suffered the same if he had a minor accident in his personal car?

The item’s newsworthy because he’s a Chase contender and one of the most likeable drivers around. Anything that happens to him would be news; but it’s silly to think it will have impact beyond the immediate who-what-where-when.

Knowing how much Indianapolis means to Cup drivers (especially ones that haven’t won there), it’s no surprise that he’ll be competing this weekend. Then again, it’s his wrist, and it’s hard to imagine too much going wrong with it — or enough that would keep him out of the car.

It’s just one of those things.

(Photo by Bob Jordan/Associated Press)