Notebook: Crash mars early laps of O'Reilly 300

FORT WORTH, Texas -- A couple of Busch Series drivers making their second start of the year got together in a frightening crash on Lap 3 of the O'Reilly 300 at Texas Motor Speedway.

VIDEO CLIPS J.J. Yeley spins and collects two other drivers Play video Clint Bowyer spins and hits the wall hard at Lap 31 Play video

Rookie J.J. Yeley got loose and spun in Turn 2, sending him directly into the path of Tony Raines.

Raines spun his No. 74 Chevrolet around to avoid hitting Yeley head-on, but he still took a hard hit.

Jason Shuler was also involved, but he was able to drive his car back to the garage.

"I think (I am OK), a little fuzzy, you know how it is," said Raines, who replaced Damon Lusk at BACE this week. "It's amazing what you can do to protect yourself sometimes. I don't know what really all happened."

Yeley, driving Joe Gibbs' No. 18 Chevrolet, couldn't recover from an unexpected loose condition his car picked up.

"I have not experienced that the whole time we've' been here," Yeley said. "We've been way too tight and we didn't change too many things.

"(I) went down there, and I just couldn't save it. Anytime you crash at someplace like Texas, it's going to be hard."

Bowyer has trouble, too

Another rookie driving for a Nextel Cup car owner also crashed. Clint Bowyer, making his first start of the season in Richard Childress Racing's No. 21 Chevrolet, lost it in Turn 4 and slammed the outside wall. No other cars were involved.

"What a way to start the year," Bowyer said. "The car really never felt good from the get-go. The rear end wasn't in the track, but the front end was pushing. I was just trying to back the corner up and got in and it just came around on me."

Evernham Motorsports building own chassis

Ray Evernham is working on an in-house chassis program, and Bill Elliott put one of those chassis in the second starting spot for Sunday's Samsung/RadioShack 500. Evernham said Saturday morning that his team has built four chassis in his shop in Statesville, N.C. but has only used two.

	Ray Evernham

"Right now Bill is with stage two," Evernham said. "Jeremy (Mayfield) has got a brand new one, and there's a brand new one being built for Kasey (Kahne). We'll see how Bill makes out with his this weekend. We'd like to start to get those things in regular rotation before the end of the season.

"I'm looking at having to draw a line in the sand by June, probably sometime after Charlotte to decide if we're going to go full production. Our cars are running well right now. I don't want to do anything to disrupt that. I want to make sure when we make that jump that that we're going to be as good or better."

The plan is to convert all Evernham cars to in-house chassis, but that takes time. Evernham said he wants to make sure his team has control over its own destiny and not have to rely on outside vendors for major parts and pieces.

"That's the way the sport's going," Evernham said. "Soon you're going to have to control everything. It's so critical that you're not going to be able to rely on outside suppliers for delivery or keeping innovations in house.

"The best teams in the future are going to be the teams that have all that in control, whether it's bodies, chassis, suspension components, even a lot of the engine components that you used to buy like camshafts, crankshafts, connecting rods, you're seeing companies take that on themselves and having them built."

Jarrett, Sadler have special guests

Robert Yates Racing drivers Dale Jarrett and Elliott Sadler will each have a guest from the sports world Sunday. Texas basketball coach Rick Barnes will be Jarrett's guest, while Sadler will host Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Tommy Maddox.

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Barnes grew up in Hickory, N.C., Jarrett's hometown. But the two didn't get to know each other until Barnes coached at Clemson. Since then, they've been friends.

"I don't think he's ever been to a race," Jarrett said. "I know he certainly hasn't been here to Texas, but he was good enough last year to give us some tickets to the Final Four in New Orleans that they were a part of, and we went down for that.

"We were hoping to go to San Antonio, and he offered it to us, but we decided to stay here this weekend. ... He's become a good friend, so I'll be glad to have him here and help cheer us on tomorrow."

Sadler and Maddox met earlier this week while playing golf.

"I came in Thursday to go play some golf around here and when I walked in I said, 'Man, that guy looks familiar,'" Sadler said. "He said something to me and then we just played golf together. He actually shot a 69, so he's a great athlete off the football field also.

"He's one of the nicest guys I've ever met. To be in pro sports and be as nice and genuine as he is was pretty cool.

"He wasn't able to get tickets to the race and couldn't get anybody to help him with pit passes and stuff like that, so we kind of set him up and got it to where him and his brother were involved with us yesterday. They were hanging out and listening to us on the radio, and they're definitely coming back Sunday to enjoy the race, so, hopefully, it'll be a good day for everybody."

Evernham: Traffic a big concern

Evernham loves coming to Texas Motor Speedway, and he wouldn't mind it if the track got a second date. But something has to be done, he said, about the traffic.

"I'm going to tell you, and I'm going to get in a little trouble for this: I like the racetrack, and I love the people," Evernham said. "I was just out there doing a little autograph session and there's a gazillion fans out there.

"Every one of them has got something on representing their driver. That's great. The money's great, but they've got to fix the roads around here. You can't get in and out. That's the tough part. I tried to get out of here last night and the gate was locked.

"I'd come here five times a year if (TMS general manager) Eddie Gossage and those guys would just make it so the people could get in and out. We just need to get in and out a little better."