Team owner Jack Roush and team president Geoff Smith said that Roush has had a meeting with the two, but will take a hands-off approach. If the tiff festers and becomes a detriment to the organization at large, Roush will again step.

Roush must walk a fine line between treading too lightly and trampling on his drivers.

If the meeting fails to squash the ill will, there’s a real potential for a wide rift at the top of his organization. Then it’s not much of a stretch to imagine the entire operation being pulled in two different directions. Are their teammates - Jamie McMurray, Greg Biffle and David Ragan - Kenseth guys or Edwards guys? What about their crews and all of the support personnel?

On the other hand, if Roush tramples too hard, he risks alienating his drivers - one of whom has won a Cup championship, the other who’s about to win a Busch championship.

A certain amount of disagreement is expected. To some degree, every professional racecar driver is a Type-A personality; along with the fearlessness they display in driving at 200 mph is a certain bullheadedness. It’s exemplified in some drivers more than others, like Tony Stewart or Kyle Busch, who will say what’s on their mind, consequences be damned. From time to time, actions and words offend, and generally the drivers have no problem telling you about it.

That hard-charging attitude likely played at least some part in getting each of those drivers to the level that they’re at.

To come down hard on those drivers risks dulling that competitive edge, however slightly.

For the Roush organization right now, that doesn’t seem like a great idea.

That same CNN story quoted a man from El Cajon, who sought refuge at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, home of the Chargers. The photo at right is from Rancho Bernardo, a community in San Diego.

Unusually strong Santa Ana winds, occasionally gusting at hurricane force, and very low humidity have fueled fires stretching along the California coast from Santa Barbara south to San Diego. Until the winds die down, there’s little chance that the more than 5,000 firefighters on the scene can make any substantial headway.

Johnson specifically remembered a fire that swept through his old neighborhood; though many homes there were destroyed, the one he grew up in remained standing.

“Unfortunately, it’s something that Southern Californians have to live with,” he said.

And really, that’s true of everywhere on the West Coast. Wildfires are a threat from Seattle to San Diego; even though it’s nowhere near the coast, my brother-in-law was forced to deal with a substantial wildfire on the mountains surrounding his home in Hailey, Idaho, near the famous Sun Valley resort.

Remnants of a wildfire are easily seen on the outskirts of my wife’s hometown of Bend, Ore. Driving down a mountain in Reno, Nev., the hillside was blackened from a fire that had swept through several years prior.

“I hope everyone is OK out there, and I know that’s a crazy request,” Johnson said.

Crazy though it may be, it’s one we certainly echo.

• CARL EDWARDS is scheduled for a teleconference this afternoon, too. Perhaps he’ll be able to shed some light on the skirmish he had with teammate Matt Kenseth after Sunday’s race at Martinsville.

If you haven’t seen the video, here it is. Kenseth is about to be interviewed on Speed when Edwards appears out of nowhere and pushes him away, almost like Edwards is pushing him out of some bad situation.

Words are exchanged and at the very end, Edwards raises a fist like he’s about to punch Kenseth in the mouth. Kenseth noticeably flinches, and is seen with a deer-in-the-headlights look on his face.

Perhaps Edwards can explain what really happened. Certainly there’s got to be more to this than what was said on Speed.

Johnson said he did see the replay and was “shocked.”

Check back for an update, and we’ll let you know what Edwards had to say.

• UPDATE: NASCAR’s transcript hasn’t been forthcoming, but Dustin Long’s blog has a good write-up of what was said.

It was the concilliatory thing you’d expect Edwards to say. He’s sorry, apologizing to Kenseth, Office Depot, DeWalt, Jack Roush, fans and anyone you can think of.

Now, it’ll be interesting to see what happens. Is this a situation like the one in Chicago between Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin, where team owner Joe Gibbs flew in from his vacation to settle differences between the two? Will Roush do the same in some sort of pow-wow?

Or now that it’s out in the open, does Roush simply need to make sure Edwards follows through on what he says?

We’ll have to wait for Kenseth’s response, which will probably come on Friday, assuming he has media availability in Atlanta.

Even so, this is a situation worth watching. It’s one thing when you have two random people getting upset with each other - think Gordon/Stewart, Kahne/Stremme or any of the other recent skirmishes we’ve seen. But it’s a whole lot different when you have teammates sniping in public and nearly coming to blows.

Whatever Roush does, he’ll have to squash this quickly. Even if things aren’t always pretty over at Hendrick Motorsports, at least they keep the dirty laundry in-house.

(Photo by Lenny Ignelzi/Associated Press)

With four races left, needs to make up at least 29 points per race. Leaving the laps-led bonus out for a moment, Bowyer would have to win each of the final four races and hope that Gordon doesn’t finish any better than sixth in any of those races; the former is slightly more unlikely than the latter.

So, for what it’s worth, the career finishes of Gordon and Johnson at the final four tracks, thanks for Racing Reference from oldest to most recent (wins in bold):

GORDON
• At Atlanta: 31, 4, 31, 8, 15, 1, 32, 3, 3, 42, 17, 19, 1, 1, 38, 9, 4, 2, 6, 16, 6, 2, 1, 10, 34, 39, 2, 4, 6, 12.
• At Texas: 30, 31, 43, 25, 5, 2, 3, 3, 15, 14, 22, 9, 4.
• At Phoenix: 35, 4, 5, 5, 17, 7, 10, 7, 6, 3, 7, 3, 12, 3, 10, 4, 1.
• At Homestead: 10, 7, 28, 5, 5, 3, 9, 24.

JOHNSON
• At Atlanta: 29, 3, 22, 32, 3, 4, 1, 2, 16, 6, 2, 1.
• At Texas: 6, 8, 9, 3, 5, 11, 2, 38.
• At Phoenix: 15, 2, 6, 15, 7, 7, 2, 4.
• At Homestead: 25, 8, 3, 2, 40, 9.

That’s a pretty stout track record for Bowyer to beat. Wins and top-fives are far more prevalent than anything else.

• SO, IF YOU BELIEVE the rumor mill, NASCAR will have a new boss real soon. A handful of different outlets are reporting that Brian France will hand off to his uncle, Jim France.

Yahoo posted the write-up from a place called Cup Scene Daily, which shouldn’t be confused with NASCAR Scene and its Web site, scenedaily.com, which we link to frequently. It was also mentioned in a column by Robin Miller.

Anyway, here’s the lead from Cup Scene Daily:

“If rumblings are to be believed NASCAR may soon have a new CEO.

“According to some there is speculation inside International Speedway Corporation that current NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France will step down from his post ‘in days’ to make room for his uncle, Jim France.”

The key words here: rumblings, may, speculation. In the third graf, CSD used the term “conjecture,” which is the same thing as rumor.

Rumor. Rumblings.

Where have I heard this before? Ah, it’s coming back to me: That fateful column in the Daily Oklahoman by Jenni Carlson that led to the now-famous tirade by Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy, male, age 40.

The ensuing 43-page thread on SportsJournalists.com came to a few basic conclusions: Gundy was out of line with his response. Carlson was out of line by failing to get any sort of concrete information, instead relying on — her words — “the rumors and the rumblings.”

Back to CSD: They write that because of NASCAR’s stagnant state, a change in leadership may be necessary.

Huh?

It’s impossible to argue that NASCAR has hit a plateau; we all know this. But why would Brian France willingly cede control of a billion-dollar enterprise? Why would any of us?

Does France not have enough self-confidence to say, ‘Hey, I can get this thing turned around’? If he’s that weak-willed, how did he get to run the show anyway? Furthermore, would someone that wishy-washy institute the Chase for the Cup and the COT, against pressures from fans, owners and drivers?

It doesn’t make sense. Things don’t add up.

I may yet be proven wrong. If this announcement happens later this week, I’ll be the first to stand up and congratulate Robin Miller and CSD on their reporting.

I’ve made this offer before.

And I’m still waiting to have to make good on it.

(Photo by Steve Helber/Associated Press)

I’ve had discussions with folks who cover NASCAR regularly, and they always dread going to Martinsville. The reasons are easy enough: When most other tracks are located not far from metro-politan areas, there’s comparatively little to do in Martinsville. Certainly fans are likely to feel that way as well to some degree.

And the closest cities of note are Roanoke and Lynchburg, which — with all due respect to those places, where I make annual or semi-annual trips — don’t exactly compare to, say, Chicago, Los Angeles, Las Vegas or Miami. Or, more aptly, they don’t compare to the suburbs of each.

But as Mulhern writes, Martinsville is a throwback to a simpler time; don’t we all long for places like that?

As we discussed earlier in the post about trophies, Martinsville still gives out a grandfather clock as a trophy. No matter how nice the clock (and I’m certain they’re pretty darn nice), compare it with the trophy at Richmond for a second: a huge, elaborate case with an electric guitar.

Full disclosure: I myself have never been to Martinsville, the town or the track. I just hear lots of stories from people I know and trust.

But I see signs for it on US-220 when I stay down in Roanoke, which is the case when I go to Salem for the Group AA/A wrestling tournament there. Right as you start to get out of Roanoke, there’s a big overhead sign with two arrows and “Martinsville”.

One of these days I’ll go ahead and make the drive, just to form my own conclusion about the place.

(Photo by Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)

It certainly may. We’ve talked about Hendrick’s dominance at the track; only twice in the past nine races has Hendrick not gone to victory lane. Think about that for a minute: You’re more likely to win if you bet on Jeff Gordon or Jimmie Johnson as compared to the field – 41 other entrants.

The ‘wildcard’ factor was easier to dismiss at Talladega, so everyone was so hesitant about running the COT there. That factor will be greatly lessened at Martinsville, since the COT has run at short tracks all season.

But it can’t be completely dismissed.

The racing is tight, especially in those two hairpin turns. With two lanes available, drivers on the outside place a lot of trust in the drivers on the inside not to get loose. Sometimes it happens, and two or three cars spin harmlessly toward the wall; the danger is often not in smacking the wall, but watching helplessly as a string of cars go by as you search for a spot to fall into.

The other danger area is entering those two hairpin turns. Driver A gets aggressive goes much harder into the corner than he should and punts the car in front of him. Again, it may not hit the wall, but within a few seconds you could drop 20 spots.

Let’s say either of these scenarios happens to Johnson or Gordon. They get punted, spin around but stay off the wall; suddenly, they’re back in 38th.

Initially, it won’t be much of a concern. They’ll be able to pass the back-markers with little difficulty; moreover, those drivers are more apt to let Johnson or Gordon by, knowing what the stakes are for them.

The challenge comes when you hit the low-20s. That’s when they’re more likely to encounter a fellow Chaser, who’s less likely to give a position, no matter how far behind they are. They’ll also have to hope they won’t get caught behind slower (perhaps lapped) cars that hold them up, even on the bottom.

So unlike Talladega, hanging around in the back won’t be an option.

They’re better served to be out front, which is where they’ll likely qualify. The front has its dangers as well, but it’s a lot better than the alternative.