What, if anything, does this tell us about the state of the Busch series?

It’s hard to say. The series has been dominated by Cup drivers and teams for several years. Martin Truex Jr. won back-to-back titles in 2004 and 2005, and he was the last driver to win a Busch title while not on the Cup series full-time.

In the past two seasons, the following drivers that were not full-time Cup drivers have won Busch races: Jason Leffler, Stephen Leicht, David Gilliland and Paul Menard (the latter two are Cup rookies this year but won a Busch race in 2005).

But none of this is anything we didn’t already know, independent of how many cars are lining up on Saturdays: Multi-car teams and those with talented drivers tend to come out ahead.

The races that had a short field this year don’t tell us much either; in three of the four cases, the Busch race was a companion race to a Cup event. Geography doesn’t tell us anything either; Dover and Nashville aren’t prohibitively far from Charlotte, where most teams are located.

Maybe this is just something that happens from time to time. If it’s Busch’s smallest field in six years, that means six years ago, there was a comparably-sized field.

But it seems odd that with back-to-back road course races, NASCAR would have a hard time filling the field. There were no such problems in Montreal; a week later, how — and why — would that change?

Maybe it’s just something that happens from time to time.

That’s not a good answer, I know. But it’s a perplexing problem that’s enough to make one wonder.
(Photo by Seth Rossman/Associated Press)

A report was circulating that Busch had signed a letter of intent to join JGR, he was told.

“I know this: We like Kyle, and that’s all we’ll say,” Gibbs responded.

Hmmm… sounds like we’ll have an announcement pretty soon.

—NOW, AS PROMISED: When will the other shoe drop for Robby Gordon?

Recapping: Gordon was involved in a late-race controversy at the Busch race in Montreal. While running near the front, an accident developed further back in the pack. The caution flew with Marcos Ambrose still in the lead. At some point, Gordon passed Ambrose to gain the lead. When the yellow came out, Ambrose punted Gordon and spun him out.

NASCAR said that when the field was frozen by the yellow, Ambrose was in the lead and Gordon was second. But because he couldn’t maintain a “cautious pace,” Gordon was ordered to the back. Gordon went bananas, and charged back to the front of the field, defying NASCAR.

He was black flagged but ignored the tower. He then punted Ambrose back, at which point NASCAR claims it made an emergency decision to stop scoring Gordon. He was ordered to the garage, but ignored that order. He continued racing and, in a further show of defiance, did a burnout with Kevin Harvick on the frontstretch celebrating his victory.

Gordon was subsequently parked for Sunday’s Cup race at Pocono. He told the Associated Press that NASCAR would allow him to run next week at Watkins Glen, but NASCAR said it is considering further punishment.

Gordon was clearly out of line, and NASCAR is going to make him pay. Only in this sport could one person point a giant middle finger at the whole sanctioning body; and it’s hard to imagine that NASCAR won’t push back with a vengeance. (I keep wondering what Bill France Jr.’s reaction to this would have been. I’d have been amazed if Gordon would be able to race the rest of the month.)

Plus, the conspiracy theorists may want to believe that Gordon will get hammered because, well, he’s Robby Gordon. Anyone with star appeal, they’d guess, would get a comparatively lighter penalty, but I guess will have to wait until Jimmie Johnson snaps to see what happens.

But there’s a bigger issue to look at. NASCAR’s PR folks maintained throughout the weekend that Gordon’s inability to keep a yellow-flag pace was ultimately what pushed him further back in the field. It’s right in the rulebook, they said. We’d love to verify that, but hey, only people who compete in the sport can see the rulebook. (When Gordon walked out of the NASCAR hauler on Saturday, he reportedly was carrying a copy of the rulebook. Hey, Robby, if that’s an extra copy we’d love to get our hands on it.)

Why is this provision necessary? It seems like a blanket rule where a case-by-case ruling should be necessary. If Gordon had blown an engine, had a tire go down and spun or something like that, of course he should be relegated to the end of the longest line. Then again, a severe mechanical failure would automatically put someone further back in the field. By the time they got to pit road, several other competitors would have passed the stricken car.

But Gordon was unable to maintain the pace through no fault of his (or his car’s) own. He was bumped and had every opportunity to continue the race. He should have been placed back in second place, period.

Perhaps this is only a case in semantics. But ever since racing back to the yellow was disallowed and scoring loops began to be used, we’ve been told that on a caution, NASCAR freezes the field. But this provision means that they don’t really freeze anything. They kind of do, but not really. “Freeze,” however, doesn’t carry that kind of meaning; the word is considerably more black and white than that.

And that’s what we’ve been told all along. Perhaps there’s some fault with the media, who didn’t get the rule right or didn’t have the rule properly explained to them (since, after all, we can’t see a copy of the rulebook). Perhaps there’s some fault with NASCAR in writing a rule without enough foresight to imagine a circumstance – which isn’t all that far-fetched – that may possibly happen.

But that’s all conjecture. We can be certain that Gordon is going to face a good bit more punishment from NASCAR. Moreover, we’d like to think that NASCAR sees this as an opportunity to look back at a rule that, no matter how brazenly it was broken, doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense.

It’s good to see Biffle have some sort of sponsorship; the year he’s had to deal with is unlike any in recent memory. He figured he’d be running Ameriquest all year, but when the subprime mortgage industry collapsed, he had to scramble for sponsorship.

Think about that for a minute. Sponsors change all the time, but almost always in the offseason. Rarely is it in season and, even more rarely, because the cash flow suddenly dried up.

Ouch.

• SPOILED BRAT, HUH? I see Dale was kind enough to leave a comment yesterday. For that, I thank you.

However, I will take umbrage with the leap in logic that because I don’t care for Tony Stewart’s attitude, I must suddenly be a spoiled rich kid who enjoys working in the air conditioning. Well, yes, I certainly enjoy the a/c; who wouldn’t? But that does not necessarily preclude me from appreciating the hard work that many men and women across this country do every day. That’s a big leap there, assuming (b) must follow (a). I do appreciate those people who have to sweat and bust their butts every day in often thankless jobs; so, let me say publicly, in case it wasn’t clear before: Thank you, all of you.

It was only a week ago when I wrote that if being a sportswriter has taught me one thing, it’s this: Don’t ever assume you know all the crap and B.S. that comes with another person’s job. It’s true with being a NASCAR driver, it’s true with being a sportswriter, it’s true with any line of work, manual labor or not.

So if you want to think this job makes me a spoiled brat, that’s certainly your right.

But, if you’ll indulge me for a moment, let’s take a look at the less positive aspects of being a sportswriter:

• Industry-wide, newspapers are cutting staff left and right to try to appease Wall Street. (Don’t believe me? Try here, here and here.) There are a lot of my colleagues who wonder how long they’ll have their job.

• In pro sports, we often deal with people who don’t necessarily want to deal with us; some offer a brusque no comment. Stewart once slapped the tape recorder out of a reporter’s hand. What if you went to work and were surrounded by people who, at best, wish like heck you weren’t there?

• You’re still a rookie in this line of work until you’ve been called a homer for one team or school or sport. Parents sometimes call and all they want to do is scream at you: “You’re biased!” “You’re costing my kid a scholarship!” “Football is the only sport that matters to you!” Uh, no, no and no.

• When do NASCAR races happen? Sundays or, occasionally, Saturday nights. When do pro sports take place? For the NFL, it’s usually on Sunday; for all other sports, it’s usually at night. When others are recreating, we’re working. My wife has a more normal 9-to-5 job. Sometimes, duty calls and I miss nights at home with her; it’s not hard to imagine a baseball beat guy missing a fair amount of his son’s or daughter’s childhood.

• Deadlines are a fact of life for people in any line of work; they’re accentuated — and daily — in this business. True story: I once covered a regional wrestling meet at Forest Park High School, about six miles from the office. A heavyweight from our area, who was well regarded, had a key match in the quarterfinals against another top heavyweight; only the bracket prevented this match from happening in the finals — probably the biggest match of the night. Of course, the tournament ran late and that heavyweight match didn’t end until just after 11. I still need quotes, and my deadline is less than an hour away. I got my quotes, zoomed back to the office (arriving around 11:30), pounded out 15 column inches and somehow, by the grace of God, made deadline.

There you go. Five anecdotes that show just because this job is in air conditioning doesn’t mean it’s a breeze.

Tony Stewart’s job isn’t a breeze either, not by any means. But that doesn’t mean he can’t handle himself a little better than he does. Just my opinion — about him and no one else and no other segment of society.

There’s a reason I don’t lob the same charges at Dale Earnhardt Jr.

• JUST A REMINDER we’re taking the day off tomorrow. Glad I didn’t forget this time.

(Photo by Matt Slocum/Associated Press)

• You have the option of throwing in a cussword on live, national television after winning a race. Sure, you run the risk of incurring NASCAR’s wrath (or just a standard $25,000 fine and 25-point penalty), but you get a chance to stick it to fans who aren’t your fans.

• After winning a race, you press “X” to go through the motions at a post-race press conference, or you push “O” to make things difficult and be a royal pain — even if you’ve just won for the second time at your legendary, hometown track.

• Holding down “R1” allows you to continue grudges for as long as your hand strength allows.

After all, we’d want the game to be true to the cover boy, right?

Here’s how he handled those scenarios:

First, as you probably know, he went for the jugular. His B.S. comment earned him that standard fine, though he’s not really in any danger of missing the Chase, at least not yet.

Second, he pushed “O.” He alternated between grumpy and enlightened, expanding on the questions he liked and pooh-poohing the ones he didn’t. From the transcript:

Q. Your father told me at the beginning of the day that you were going to win; he felt it.

TONY STEWART: He’s getting old and senile. He says a lot of things that just don’t make sense some days.

And that’s all there was.

Third, he managed to hold the button down for multiple weeks. One of the myriad ESPN com-mentators took Stewart to task for his post-race comments at Chicago — just as we did — but Stewart wanted nothing to do with it.

“I don’t want anybody from ESPN talking about how irresponsible I am, even though it’s legal to do everything I did. Heaven forbid you actually have fun in life,” he said. It really kind of misses the point, but whatever.

There’s a line between being blunt, calling things as you see them, and taking a broad jump across that line.

I read one opinion on a message board (from someone I trust) that Stewart isn’t feeling right unless he’s being persecuted for something or another. And there’s probably something to that. He acts like a jerk, gets slammed for it, and suddenly all is right with the world. I don’t really under-stand that line of thinking (and I’m probably not helping), but again, whatever.

I don’t, however, want to lump him in with someone like Kyle Busch, who’s rude because that’s who he is. We’ve seen Stewart be intelligent and kind; it almost seems like, depending on the situa-tion, he chooses to be a jerk. And on some level, that’s worse than Busch.

But we’re stuck with him. He’s not leaving the scene anytime soon, so I guess it’s just up to us to suck it up and deal with him.

• SINCE I’VE BEEN so forgetful lately, an advance head’s up: We’re working on Saturday, so we won’t be here on Friday.

(Photo by David Noble/Associated Press)