Last Lap: Mailbag

I've decided from this point forward to begin mailbag columns with miniature editorials. Gives me more room to mouth off...

Inquiring NASCAR minds -- and I mean everyone: drivers, owners, crewmen and fans alike -- yearn to know why we media types chronicle Dale Earnhardt, Jr. so much.

Heck, even Junior wants to know. Matt Kenseth loves to bust my can about it. So I thought I'd give you a quick example of what's so endearing about the guy.

When he wants to, he has an uncanny ability to mesh with common folk, to make writers from London and fans from Loudon feel like he's telling them something he shouldn't be.

Granted, he picks his spots. He's often difficult to access, and has to be in the right mood to give up the good stuff.

Post-race press conferences often result in such revelations.

Take Saturday night, for example. Following his win at Bristol, Junior was asked whether he felt that being burned may have, in some backward sort of way, ultimately been good for his championship run. His answer was incredible:

"Never. I'd never want to deal with that ever again. I don't think it helped me in any way. We didn't run good. We had to get a couple of relief drivers. I should have been healthy and never been hurt. I should have been able to run races.

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"Even if we failed, we failed together. I felt like I let them down a little bit. But again, I don't put any responsibility on anybody's shoulders for me getting burned. I made that decision to do that and I'd do it again. I wouldn't change things. I found out some people and my family meant a lot more to me.

"My momma took care of me for three or four weeks. I was complaining and cussing her. She just chugged it out. It was awesome. She hadn't done anything like that for a long time because she lived in Virginia for 20 years and I saw her once a year.

"She moved down here and I see her and I take care of her and she works for me and all, but we just never had really been that close in 20 years. I wouldn't trade that."

Rock stars don't divulge such things every day. They save it for Behind the Music. Junior said it on a random Saturday night in Bristol, Tenn. And you wonder why we can't get enough...

On to this week's mailbag:

Hey Marty,

Here's a thought. What would stop a situation like this one from happening again? Here's the scenario. RCR racing currently has one car in the hunt and RYR has two. With the circumstance the way it was -- with Kevin Harvick's arm going numb -- he stood to lose a lot of ground to Dale Jarrett.

When Harvick goes out and Kyle Petty assumes his ride, Harvick now lost a lot of ground because Dale was running in second and had a definite top 3 finish.

Now the "strategy" comes in to play. When you see a lapped car like Robby Gordon (RCR) behind an extremely fast car like Dale Jarrett, who was definitely a candidate to win Bristol. Robby Gordon had no reason to bump Dale other than the RCR teammate issue.

By taking out one of the thorns in Harvick's side (Jarrett) he now won't lose as much ground. All the other top players were running a lap or more down so he had nobody else to worry about except Newman and McMurray.

This may not be the case in this incident but I believe it was. Imagine how many opportunities there will be in the next two races for this to happen again with others.

Please let me know your thoughts.

William Leiterman

Your concern is valid, William, but I don't foresee it becoming an issue. NASCAR won't tolerate it. If blatant teammate assistance, for lack of a better term, became a pattern, John Darby and Mike Helton would make certain to leave a bitter taste in the offender's mouth.

Robby Gordon

Moreover, there's too much respect in the garage and too much responsibility to sponsors on the line. Make no mistake: drivers that don't qualify for the Chase could become worrisome for those vying for the title. But the thought that an owner would tell his driver to purposely demolish a $200,000 racecar is preposterous.

It's dangerous, and I'd venture to say sponsors could probably void contractual obligations to a team that purposely affected a race's outcome in that manner. Robby Gordon didn't wreck Dale Jarrett for Kevin Harvick's benefit. Believe me, here. He was simply trying to better his position.

"This isn't 'Days of Thunder,'" Kenseth told the Associated Press. "That's not going to happen. Everybody has way too much respect for each other in the garage area. We have to live with these people basically every week of the year for 40 weeks, plus it's dangerous."

Marty,

Considering how tight this scramble for the 10th and final spot is, it doesn't seem too far fetched to think there could be a tie between two or more drivers.

In such a scenario, would they both (all) get in, or does it go to tiebreakers like wins, top 5s and top 10s?

Signed,

If Ryan Newman and Bobby Labonte are tied for 10th after Richmond, then Ryan Newman gets in the Chase, since he has more wins.

Brown But Not Out

Great question, Brownie. In the instance that two drivers earned an equal number of championship points, and hence tied for 10th-place overall, just one driver would qualify for The Chase.

NASCAR would use a tie-breaker procedure consisting of most wins, followed, if necessary, by second-place finishes, third-place finishes, and so on. For instance, if two tied drivers both had one victory, NASCAR would move on to second-place finishes. Driver A has three and Driver B has two. Driver A is in.

Marty,

You are the only person I can turn to for this question because no one seems to know the answer, and it's been irking me ever since I became a NASCAR fan back in 1995.

What I would like to know is how are cars, which are involved in a multi-car wreck, placed if none of them make it back to the start/finish line? I know it's a trivial question, but I would really appreciate your answer. Thanks and love the commercial!

Mike in Orlando, FL

Thanks for the commercial love, Mike. Assuming the multi-car wreck brings out the caution, the cars would be scored according to how they crossed the previous timing and scoring loop on the racetrack, prior to the start/finish line.

Hey Marty,

Why don't the drivers use chrome rims on their racecars like they did back in the 80's?

Tommy O'Neal

Tommy's right: Section 20-10.7, Section E, of the Nextel Cup rulebook states: "Chrome wheels will not be permitted." Doesn't say why, however, so I asked around.

Word is the process of making a chrome wheel compromises the integrity of the metal, and wheels undergo so much stress during competition that they aren't overly safe.

Also, a buddy of mine at Joe Gibbs Racing says it's because the chrome plating hides cracks in the wheel. He then admitted he'd never seen a cracked wheel, but he's also on a big budget team that, given they've been in a wreck, merely throws the wheel away. The No. 18 team doesn't reuse wheels, so it's not an issue. But lower budget teams might not have that luxury.

Marty,

Dude, the shirts are sweet! Just ordered one, thanks for a quality product. Also, Jr. dominated the weekend at Bristol. I know he is the first driver to win both the Busch and Cup race at Bristol in the same weekend, but what is

the most dominating performance ever by a Cup driver at a Bristol Cup race?

Sincerely,

Justin Boggs

SWEET! Thanks for buying a t-shirt, boss. Now go tell all your friends to do the same.

True, Dale Jr. is the first driver to ever sweep the Busch and Cup races in the same weekend at Bristol. And despite his astounding 295 laps led Saturday night, Junior's effort wasn't the most dominant single-race effort in Bristol history.

The way I figure it, one can determine the most dominant single performance in a track's history in two ways: 1. Most laps led, and 2: Largest margin of victory. Either way, when it comes to Bristol the distinction goes to Cale Yarborough, albeit on two different occasions.

Yarborough sat on the pole and led every single lap in the March 1973 Southeastern 500. Then, in April 1977, Yarborough lapped the field seven times to win the Southeastern 500.

Hey Marty,

Every race that I watch, fuel mileage becomes an issue at some point. Since cars do not have fuel gauges in them like our everyday vehicles, how exactly do they determine the mileage? You'll hear crew chiefs say on the telecast how far they think they can go, but how do they know without the use of the gauges?

Ken Kendra

Morristown, NJ

Pull out your calculator watch, Kenny. You're gonna need it. I knew calculating fuel mileage required an elaborate equation, but I had no idea just how intricate it could be until I called my man Danny Emerick -- engine expert for Jimmie Johnson's team.

Emerick tried to give me the laymen's version, but I'm way too stupid to understand even the bare bones explanation. It goes something like this:

After a team fills up its gas cans at the Sonoco pump, they weigh the cans. Emerick figures one gallon of gas equals six pounds. Hypothetically, let's say a team pits, runs 30 laps and pits again. They record the fuel can weight information from the first stop, then after the second stop they record the same information again.

They then take the can's weight difference before and after the pit stop, and that difference tells them how much fuel is left in the can. Say it's 80 pounds to start and 30 pounds after. They'll take the difference, 50 pounds, and divide by six pounds per gallon, so you get the amount of gallons of fuel in the car -- 8.33 gallons.

Caution laps weigh in, too. Emerick figures the correction factor from yellow to green is 1.7 laps to one. There are myriad factors than can alter fuel mileage. Emerick cited Atlanta Motor Speedway, and how the low line and the high line require entirely different calculations.

Obviously, if Johnson is driving the high line, it's a longer distance around the track. Handling is a big variable, too. If a car is tight, it'll push up towards the wall on the high side. If it's loose, one can run longer than if he's tight.

Usually, Emerick said, you'll sacrifice some three-tenths of a second per lap when trying to conserve fuel. Hopefully that helps, man. I know I learned something.

I think...