Weekend That Was (cont'd)

Questionable decision

You've got to wonder if Joe Gibbs Racing made the right call when it had Aric Almirola pulled from a Busch car and replaced at mid-race by Cup regular Denny Hamlin last Saturday in The Milwaukee Mile. You've also got to wonder if Hamlin might not have prevented it by refusing to get into the car, and telling his bosses that he wanted to do the right thing and let the 22-year-old Almirola attempt to finish what he had started.

Sponsor-skipped

J.D. Gibbs remains committed to Aric Almirola and hopes the young development driver, despite being pulled from the car at Milwaukee for sponsor obligations, lands a full-time Busch ride in 2008.

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As it was, Almirola was ordered to the pits after leading 43 of the first 57 laps. Hamlin, who arrived late from far, far away Infineon Raceway, jumped in the car and guided it to a victory that will be credited to Almirola -- who nonetheless was reportedly so upset that he left the track and wasn't around to see it.

Yes, Hamlin came a long way to show his appreciation for longtime Gibbs Racing Busch sponsor Rockwell Automation. But by forcing Almirola out of the car, the entire Gibbs operation risked alienating one of the most talented up-and-coming drivers in the sport -- one that they've invested four years in developing.

Who deserved more loyalty? Almirola or the sponsor? And wouldn't the sponsor have understood if Hamlin volunteered to stay out of the seat and let Almirola have his chance to shine?

Mounting a comeback

The top-finishing Ford at Infineon on Sunday was Greg Biffle, driver of the No. 16 car owned by Roush Fenway Racing. Biffle finished fifth.

A week earlier in Michigan, Biffle admitted that car owner Jack Roush's claim that his team can regroup in time to make a run for the championship this season may be, well, a little far-fetched. After first stating that, yes, that was what Biffle was here to do, he was pressed on whether Roush's recently ramped-up testing program and the upcoming installation of a seven-post shaker rig that other top teams have had in place for two years or more would be enough to make a real difference before this season was out.

"Not this year, no," Biffle admitted. "With something like that, with how far behind the field we are, that's not going to happen in six months. Those kinds of things take 12 to 18 months to recover from, I think.

"It's a big disadvantage right now. But we feel like we're gaining on them ... Robbie Reiser is heading up our testing program, and he's got a very aggressive testing schedule set up now. So we're definitely gaining ground."

When pressed on whether or not it was realistic to expect that he could regroup enough to contend for a spot in the Chase and the championship this season, Biffle, now 17th in points, bristled and added: "What do you want me to do? Give up? What would you expect me to do? It's going to be tough, that's all I'm saying. It's going to be hard to do, but I've just got to dig as hard as I can. I'm not going to give up. I never have and I never will."

Pit stops

• Did any driver struggle more obviously at Infineon than Matt Kenseth, who pilots the No. 17 Ford of Roush Fenway Racing? He plowed into Kyle Petty (watch video) needlessly and clumsily on the first lap of the race, spun off the course at least one other time, and staggered home in 34th place. Despite starting in the top 10 four times in his career at the track, Kenseth has never finished in the top 10 at Sonoma.

• At least Kenseth fared better Sunday than he did a week earlier at Michigan International Speedway, when his string of finishing 44 consecutive races was snapped. Prior to his early exit at MIS, Kenseth was the only Cup driver who could boast that he had completed every lap run this season. He finished one lap down at Infineon.

• Both Petty and his Petty Enterprises teammate, Bobby Labonte in the No. 43 Dodge, had potential strong finishes ruined at the end of Sunday's race by their own bad gambles on gas. Labonte was running fifth with two laps to go when he ran out of fuel; Petty was running 14th and closing in on the top 10 in the closing laps when he ran out.

That only further illustrates how you win some and you lose some when you gamble on gas, but it's always exciting. A fuel-mileage gamble that broke the right way for Petty enabled him to finish third in the Coca-Cola 600 earlier this year. It was his highest finish in a decade.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.