Cross' Words: Michigan

Filed under the "what have you done lately" header: Dave Blaney has two top-10 finishes in the past four races. To which some race fans would reply, "Yeah, and ..."

Well, fact is those two finishes are the high-water mark for the No. 22 Toyota this year. Even more, they have come at a point during the season in which teams generally begin experimenting -- especially teams that have been virtually eliminated from Chase contention since Daytona. In February.

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That said, the Bill Davis Racing team deserves your attention. Blaney -- or any Toyota driver -- posting a top-10 finish is worth a sentence at the end of the weekly notes package. A couple top 10s here, a top-five finish there ... good for Toyota; they've spent so much money at least they're getting something for their efforts.

Ditto Red Bull. When Brian Vickers upped with Toyota it was clear that the manufacturer was serious about racing. He has three top-10 finishes in 14 starts, which is nothing to write home about -- but then again, he's now being monitored by the Rundle-Tiampo Forecast. For Vickers, something big is coming.

Thing is, these teams have gathered a lot of information and now they are beginning to put the pieces together, slowly. So, will Toyota contend for the Cup Series championship in 2008 -- no, there are still too many obstacles (namely Hendrick, Roush and Childress). But by the turn of the decade, without question.

And it will be Blaney and Vickers who are leading the charge. They are the most experienced of the Toyota drivers. Dale Jarrett is on record as saying 2008 is his last season, and Michael Waltrip should follow suit and focus on his fledgling (fleeting?) race team.

Toyota has posted six top-10 finishes this season, and Tuesday at Michigan marked the first time two Toyota drivers had top-10s in the same race. Bottom line: You have to crawl before you can run, but I'd say the newbie is making progress.

Random ruminations ...

• Give it up for Dr. Jerry Punch. If you channel-surfed across the race broadcast Tuesday a.m. you probably thought it was a replay. Alas, he never missed a beat, even almost 48 hours after the race was supposed to have started, and he did a good job staying focused on the race at hand. If he didn't want to be there, Oscar needs to come calling.

• For everyone behind the scenes, here's to you -- getting from Brooklyn, Mich., to Bristol, Tenn., is no easy feat when you have three days to turn it around, much less 24 hours. NASCAR may be a traveling circus, but fans appreciate the ringmasters, the ones who really get it done.

• Coming outta the rain in Michigan don't be surprised if all heck breaks loose at Bristol. The bullring is synonymous with bending fenders, so there will be plenty of sparks. But for those who believe Thunder Valley is the end-all, be-all of stock-car racing -- the Alpha and the Omega, if you will -- think about this: Jeff Green has three top-10 finishes in Car of Tomorrow races ... sixth at Bristol, sixth at Phoenix, sixth at New Hampshire. 6. 6. 6.

Say What?

"My crew chief bought me and my lovely bride Marriage for Dummies and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Marriage. Tatum and I had a big fight over which one should get which book. We couldn't choose who was the idiot and who was the dummy, so we share them. We each get a chapter and then we switch books."
-- Brendan Gaughan, who's learned the art of sharing

Now repeat after me: What's mine is hers and what's hers is still hers ...

Figuratively Speaking

391 -- If Matt Kenseth (or any other driver) ends the Bristol race 391 points ahead of the 13th-place driver, he'll clinch a spot in the Chase alongside Jeff Gordon and Denny Hamlin.

719 -- Length, in feet, of the 43 cars that will start Saturday night's race at Bristol, if the cars were lined up fender to fender (each car is 200.7 inches, which is approximately 16 feet 9 inches). The length of the straightaways at Bristol is 650 feet.

Bill Marx, you're a beast with numbers! (Continued)