Just in case you need proof: I saved the pic at right because it shows the less-flattering half of me in a crowd of three reporters interviewing Virginia Tech football coach Frank Beamer. The photo was taken in 2007, a month after the shootings at Tech; Beamer had not planned on attending the race, but came to personally thank NASCAR for its support in the aftermath of the shootings. So that’s how I came to be in AP photo interviewing Beamer with Kaine in the background talking to an older gentleman.

This weekend’s race in Phoenix won’t be any different. Arizona’s Senatorial delegation will almost definitely be represented. Sen. John McCain (R), as you may have heard, is the Republican nominee for president. He attended two races last year, the spring race at Phoenix and the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe’s on Memorial Day weekend.

There’s nothing specific on McCain’s campaign Web site that says he’ll be there on Sunday. Chances are 50-50, since he’d probably prefer to use the time on the campaign trail — especially since the site does say he’ll be in New York today. Those trips between the east coast and Phoenix are long. Trust me, I’ve done them.

Sen. Jon Kyl (R), Arizona’s other Senator, will be a stronger bet; he’s among the biggest NASCAR fans in Congress. (He may rank behind Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., who actually races as a hobby.)

But Kyl — in the photo at right with McCain and NASCAR boss Brian France — is a big-time fan. He does post-race analysis on KMLE-FM in Phoenix each Monday. Once, he was interrupted by President Bush calling from Air Force One. President Bush sent off a note of apology to host Dave Pratt for cutting the segment short.

I know from first-hand experience as well. My wife and I are good friends with Andrew and Rebecca Wilder; Andrew happens to be Kyl’s public relations guy. They moved to Phoenix late last year, and we miss them terribly. (And in the interest of transparency: Heller’s PR guy, Mac Bybee, is also a good friend.)

I always had fun talking NASCAR with Andrew. He had never been much of a NASCAR fan, but his boss’s interest allowed me to give him a crash course in what the sport was about. He always seemed impressed that Kyl’s appetite for NASCAR statistics and minutiae were endless; I passed along some loop stats for him one time.

“Oh, he’s gonna love this,” he remarked.

So, for at least one pol, catching a race won’t just be a token chance to mingle with the masses.

(Photos by Steve Helber/Associated Press [Beamer] and Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Per Jayski, the drivers that are in the last year of their contracts: Greg Biffle, Dave Blaney, Carl Edwards, Bobby Labonte, Ryan Newman, David Ragan, Ken Schrader and Martin Truex Jr. (And, if you’re paying attention, you know that Jeremy Mayfield is looking for a job too.)

Labonte, pictured at right, was immediately linked to the move, given that he’s represented General Mills for several years now. Petty Enterprises has countered that they expect to re-sign Labonte.
SI.com had a breakdown of the five most likely drivers to end up in that ride. Take it for what it’s worth.

It’s hard to imagine Biffle going anywhere. If and when Jack Roush cuts down to the five-car limit, there are more expendable drivers in that organization than Biffle: Jamie McMurray (he’s run well lately but most show it’s not a passing fad) and Ragan (ditto). His teammate, Edwards, isn’t going anywhere, especially after the start he’s had.

Blaney would be a wild card. He’s a talented driver that hasn’t run in great equipment; were he at Gibbs or Childress, he’d be far more well known. But, as the list shows, the amount of premium rides is limited; Blaney would be a longshot for any of them.

Newman’s an interesting case. He gave owner Roger Penske his first Daytona 500 victory, but his fourth at Texas was his first top-five since then. He’s always been a superb qualifier, but less skilled at finishing in first; still, he’s only five years removed from an eight-win season.

Truex is interesting as well. DEI is not the powerhouse it once was, yet Truex won a race last season and qualified for the Chase, something Earnhardt did not do. But Truex has failed to distinguish himself yet this season.

Of the eight drivers above, here’s my revamped list with the most likely to leave at the top: Truex, Newman, Blaney, Labonte, Ragan, Schrader, Biffle, Edwards. Just my guess.

• IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN ESPN’s story on Aaron Fike, go check it out. Fike admits that he was a heroin addict and used prior to competition in the Truck series.

He flew under the radar of NASCAR’s drug-testing policy; only after an arrest was he suspended from NASCAR.

ESPN’s story points out that of the seven drivers suspended for drug infractions since 2000, four were nailed by NASCAR’s policy; the other three stemmed from arrests. That’s not a great batting average.
It’s a tough spot for NASCAR to be in. The teams and drivers are all supposed to be independent contractors; that in itself means NASCAR has a more hands-off policy toward its teams than other sports do. Yet NASCAR somehow must make sure the competition is as safe as it can be without stepping on individual rights.

NASCAR has dealt swiftly and severely with offenders, which is the only stance it can take. There simply is no ground to give on that issue.

But it’s worth taking a look at; NASCAR communications chief Jim Hunter said just that in the ESPN story. Here’s hoping they can find a system that works better but still balances due process.

(Photo by John Raoux/Associated Press)

Just to recap: Johnson was a disappointing 27th in the opener at Daytona, the first of two poor finishes in the season’s first three races. He was 13th at Atlanta, again a disappointment for someone who has run well there in the past (three wins, nine top-10s in 14 career races) and who’s sponsor was the title sponsor for the race. He won the pole the following week at Bristol, but finished in 18th, two laps down.

But Johnson seems to have shaken off the rust in the past two weeks. A fourth at Martinsville – just where you’d expect him to be at that track – and a second at Texas have boosted him to sixth-place in the standings. He gained four positions alone from his efforts at Texas.

On Friday, Johnson said he and his team were trying to make up for a gap in testing. They had always performed well on the short tracks, whether in the old model or the COT; their testing at superspeedways made them a little more comfortable at the bigger tracks. But the intermediate tracks were pushed to the back burner, and Johnson, crew chief Chad Knaus and the rest of his team are trying to make up for that lost time.

“We were really hopeful we were going to find something big and through our testing we didn’t find anything big,” Johnson said. “We threw everything at it, a variety of combinations and ideas and it really came down to massaging a lot of little areas and found a tenth here and a tenth there. We’re optimistic but at the same time we couldn’t test on the right tire or on the right tracks so if we can just bring half of what we learned at the tracks that we tested at and get half of that speed here, we’ll be in the top five and have a very competitive race.”

It sounds like a similar situation with Carl Edwards that we wrote about yesterday – but in reverse. Edwards excels at the intermediate tracks.

Johnson was a solid second behind Edwards at Texas; both drivers finished where they deserved to. Johnson had multiple opportunities in the closing laps to catch Edwards, particularly on restarts, but Edwards simply drove away each time. While Johnson couldn’t catch Edwards, the rest of the field couldn’t catch either of them.

And that should be a concern for the rest of the teams. Johnson’s championship last season notwithstanding, titles aren’t won on the strength of victories. It’s the consistent top-fives and eeking out an 11th when your car was garbage for most of the day.

His car was anything but garbage on Sunday; Edwards was just better.

But Johnson’s getting there. The Hendrick drought and Johnson’s drought will be over before long.

Sunday’s race at Texas struck me as one of those moments. What does it all mean?

Carl Edwards won, of course, establishing himself as someone to watch as the season goes on. The win was Edwards’ third this season, all at the cookie-cutter 1.5-mile tracks. That bodes well for Edwards, since most of the season will be contested on such tracks.

But the Cup circuit won’t return to such a track until the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend at Lowe’s. Between now and then, we’ll see how Edwards fares. None of his 10 career wins have come at the next three tracks, all of which are distinctive in their own way: Phoenix, Talladega and Richmond.

A win at any of those places would be a surprise for Edwards. It’s been at least three seasons since a Roush Fenway car won at any of those venues: Kurt Busch won at Phoenix and Richmond in 2005; a Roush car hasn’t won at Talladega since 1997. (The race immediately before Lowe’s — at Darlington — has been far more successful for Roush. Greg Biffle won there in 2005 and 2006; Edwards has three top-10s in four starts there.)

Despite Edwards’ success, a cautionary tale comes to mind: Kasey Kahne in 2006. Kahne’s series-best six victories came at the following tracks: Atlanta, Texas, Lowe’s (twice), Michigan and California. Had Kahne run at Las Vegas as it’s now configured, he likely would have been in contention there as well. As it was, he finished fourth at that race.

Notice a trend?

Yet he nipped Tony Stewart as the last driver into the Chase. When the Chase concluded, Kahne had been no factor in the championship — though that had as much to do with poor showings at other tracks (six finishes of 35th or worse) as anything.

It seems like a good gamble, betting that performances at the most common tracks. But that doesn’t get you anywhere unless you can at least manage serviceable finishes at the other tracks.
That should be a concern for Edwards, who was 19th at Daytona, 16th at Bristol and ninth at Martinsville. (He also had a 42nd at Atlanta, but ran well before engine problems put him out of the race.)
Those are solid finishes, certainly, but a finish 10 spots higher would leave him a lot more room for error.

But there’s a lot to like about Edwards’ chances at this point. He’s got a reason to race beyond winning: The oil tank lid controversy has brought him and Jack Roush under fire; don’t think that Edwards isn’t racing with an I’ll-show-them mentality — it was readily apparent on the television broadcast, when Edwards needed less than five seconds to dedicate the win to suspended crew chief Bob Osborne.

Osborne will be out for the next three weeks. Robbie Reiser has filled in and knows what he’s doing after all those years with Matt Kenseth; Edwards need not worry about losing talent or knowledge on the top of the pit box.

The next three weeks will be key ones for Edwards. We’ll get a better indication then of what the fall holds for him and his team.

(Photo by Mark Humphrey/Associated Press)

I stumbled upon him by accident. I was hanging out by one of Junior’s merchandise trailers looking for some people who looked like hardcore Junior fans (not that they’re very hard to find). But Wilkinson, from Belpre, Ohio, stuck out; nearly everything he was wearing had some reference to Junior, the number eight or Budweiser.

In the course of talking to him, he asked if I wanted to see his car. Painted up just like Junior’s, he said. I agreed and walked over to see.

Boy, was he right.

Of course, by then, he had quite a decision to make. The red Bud scheme wouldn’t be around for much longer. At the time of the story, Wilkinson wasn’t sure what he would do.

In the time since, however, he decided to repaint his cars. And, just like his last effort, he’s nailed this version, too; that’s his car in the picture above. Below is Junior’s on-track car.

In some ways, the latest incarnation is better than the last. Wilkinson’s car now has all of the contingency sponsors on the front quarterpanels. Really, it’s as close as you’re going to get to replicating Junior’s ride on a street car.

But that’s not the end of the story. Wilkinson has two Impalas. One, as the photo shows, has Junior’s Amp scheme. Junior also runs a blue, National Guard scheme; Wilkinson has a car in that scheme as well. But that car’s in the shop at the moment — nothing major, he said on Wednesday, just at the upholstery shop for some enhancements — and he promised photos within the next few days.

He also was able to realize a dream. He took his cars to JR Motorsports in Mooresville, N.C., and got one signed by Earnhardt, sister and business manager Kelly Elledge, crew chief Tony Eury Jr. and many other members of JR Motorsports.

And, as we mentioned before, Amp came to Ohio to feature Wilkinson and his car in a commercial. The spot is now up on Amp’s Web site, and the YouTube version has nearly 5,000 views — not too shabby.

Wilkinson said he’ll be at Richmond in a month and can’t wait to get there.

You just know he’ll be smiling broadly as people stop to check out his car.

• WE’RE TAKING A PERSONAL DAY tomorrow; my wife and I will be closing on a house. There will be lots of signing different documents to make sure we fully understand what we’re getting ourselves into (so long as you can make some translation between English and lawyerese). An hour, I’m told, if we don’t ask any questions; two hours if we ask lots of questions.

I’ve offered to get a rubber stamp for my signature to save my wrist, but my wife nixed that idea. I thought it was a good idea…

At any rate, enjoy the race. See you on Monday.

(Top photo by Joe Wilkinson and used with permission; bottom photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images for NASCAR)