Notes: Reutimann, MWR close to contract extension

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- For the second consecutive event, all three Michael Waltrip Racing teams qualified for a Nextel Cup Series event Friday at Kansas Speedway.

And in that upbeat atmosphere, both MWR general manager Ty Norris and rookie driver David Reutimann expressed optimism that Reutimann's multi-year contract extension, which was given to the driver on his way to Dover last weekend, would be acceptable.

"We feel real good about where it is, we just have a few details to work out," Norris said. "There was one detail that was clarified this week as it relates to the Busch car -- everything else seems to be easily worked out. David and I talked Wednesday and I feel like we're in a great place with him."

Norris said Reutimann also wanted to run for a championship next season in what is now the Busch Series, where he currently sits second in the standings.

"He just wants to be racing," Norris said. "We stumbled a little bit out of the box this season with the Busch car, but we've got it to a place where he's consistently one of the top-five or top-seven guys every week. He wants to run for a championship, it's something he doesn't have on his mantle. We discussed it with our sponsor, Aaron's, and we've eliminated that off the table."

"I like the people there and they've done a good job of giving me an opportunity, so we'll get past this weekend and work some stuff out and I think we're in a good spot," Reutimann said. "We're just trying to get everything situated so we can concentrate on racing. I wish it was done a month ago [because] you just want to have everything done as quickly as you can.

One of the sticking points has been sponsorship for Reutimann's No. 00 Cup Toyota, which this season is split between Domino's and Burger King. Norris said he had no updates for either sponsor's decision whether or not to continue with MWR.

One deep breath

Even 10 minutes after the last car had left the racetrack in Bud Pole Qualifying, a run by A.J. Allmendinger that locked Bill Davis Racing driver Dave Blaney into the field for Sunday's LifeLock 400, BDR general manager Mike Brown wasn't looking too comfortable; as like Norris, he's had to get both of his team's Toyotas, driven by Dave Blaney and Jeremy Mayfield, into most races this season based on qualifying speed.

"I haven't taken [that first breath] yet," Brown said, though he was smiling. "I told the guys that if they didn't believe in God, they needed to, now. Going out early like we did [fourth and 21st] and the track being so greasy and you couldn't get a grip on it, and with a couple faster cars going out at the end, it was gonna take some divine intervention [to make the race]."

Mayfield vaulted from next-to-last on the go or go home list in practice to sixth overall; while Blaney survived that fourth out sentence to squeak into the field as the last car to make it.

"Maybe that makes up for some of the bad luck we've had when we've been running good and couldn't finish the deal," Brown said. "Now we can refocus our attention and take a deep breath and fight our way back into the top 35 so we don't have to endure moments like this."

Edwards' busy mind

As much as car set-ups and travel schedules, Roush Fenway Racing dynamo Carl Edwards has also spent a lot of time lately thinking about winning championships in both the Busch Series, where he has a 754-point lead over Reutimann and Nextel Cup, where he's 28 points behind Jeff Gordon.

"Listen," Edwards said. "There's probably not a five-minute window that goes by in the day that I don't think about winning both championships in one year. That would be the ultimate achievement, I think, in American motorsports."

Even-tempered Johnson

Defending Nextel Cup champion Jimmie Johnson has a pretty easygoing attitude about racing Chasers and non-Chasers: Live and let live. It's a front burner topic this week after Chaser Denny Hamlin and non-Chaser Kyle Petty had an on-track incident at Dover that boiled over in the garage area.

"I don't think you race people any differently -- I think there's a level of respect just on the racetrack," Johnson said. "In the Chase last year and the years past I've seen that respect there where you race people how they race you. It's not the non-Chase driver's responsibility to get out of the way, they have a job to do and you just hope that they race you clean and race you with respect.

"I personally have always seen great racing and respect going both directions. You do have flare-ups from time to time but I think that's more between those two drivers than anything else."

Don't blame the rule

As usual, veteran Jeff Burton had a lot of insight to offer when asked if the rule that locks the top 35 drivers in the standings into each week's lineup promoted over-aggressive driving.

"The top 35 rule has its plusses and they far outweigh the minuses [but] as with everything, it's not all positive," Burton said. "I do believe that it is more competitive racing for 35th, 36th and 37th in points than it would be without the top 35 rule, but that doesn't make it wrong.

"I don't think we can blame the points on people wrecking other people or those kinds of things. The drivers are to blame for that. Certainly the circumstances impact the drivers' response and reaction to whatever is going on but at the end of the day, the ultimate responsibility lands on our shoulders."

Gordon frustrated, optimistic

Robby Gordon was happy with the way Friday started for his own No. 7 Ford team, but it was all downhill after his car's engine broke, bringing out the first caution of the day, only 18 minutes -- and nine laps for Gordon -- after practice began.

Gordon was excused from making his scheduled qualifying run, but when he finally got out on track, he had a bigger issue, a stuck throttle that prevented him from completing a lap. Gordon escaped immediate and further engine trouble with quick thinking and flicking his ignition switch off.

"We unloaded the car in race trim and we were the second-fastest car that was in race trim, in practice -- and we lost the motor," Gordon said. "When we lost the motor, we had some things that line up differently, motor-to-motor, and when we went to go qualify, the motor hung wide-open.

"It's something we need to work on as a group, not only among ourselves, but with the Yates guys and everybody, to get our stuff more uniform, because we do trade motors from car-to-car, from time to time.

"That's what I was talking about with Doug [Yates], to make all of the stuff the same that's on my cars and their cars and eventually the Roush cars; and that makes our job easier and theirs, and eliminates potential problems like this."

Gordon also said he was enjoying working with veteran crew chief Peter Sospenzo, who was with his team last weekend at Dover.

No provincialism here

There are eight Nextel Cup races remaining this season for a North Carolina native to win a race, and a certain amount of attention has been paid to the fact that it's never before happened in the sport's history.

One of the men in a position to change that winless skein, which dates back 35 races to Talladega last season, when Brian Vickers won, is Kyle Petty -- who certainly is a student of the sport in a position to offer an opinion.

"I've been asked, on several occasions, my opinion on the fact that no driver from the state of North Carolina has won a race yet this season," Petty said. "If you look, there are probably fewer of us now than at any point in the history of NASCAR -- it's just a part of the evolution of the sport.

"I think North Carolina, as a whole, definitely played a large role in getting Nextel Cup racing to the level it is today. At the same time we're [in] Kansas, the home of Sprint, our series title sponsor in 2008. The sport has changed and it has grown much bigger and better. That is no way a negative."

Allen riding for kidneys

Thorsport Racing Craftsman Truck Series driver Willie Allen recently participated in Tour DaVita to raise funds and awareness for kidney disease. Allen joined more than 200 DaVita employees on the first day of a 230-mile bike ride through Alabama and Tennessee; a journey that hoped to raise $500,000 in donations for The Kidney Trust, a fund that was formed to benefit the 20 million American adults living with Chronic Kidney Disease, as well as the 320,000 Americans with kidney failure who are on dialysis.

Tour DaVita participants finished day one of the ride at Collinwood (Tenn.) High School, where they worked side by side with volunteers from the local Boys and Girls Club to build bicycles for needy children.

"I had a blast doing the Tour DaVita ride," Allen said. "We started the ride in Sheffield, Ala., with about 250 DaVita employees and biked for about 60 miles through the country roads. It was definitely an incredible experience that I will never forget.

"The Kidney Trust is a great charity and they do great job with their fundraising efforts. So many people in this country are affected with kidney disease and it is important that we do everything we can to help raise awareness for the disease."