Cross' Words: Texas

If you haven't heard, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon are battling it out for the Nextel Cup with only two races remaining. And stop me if you have heard this: They are teammates at Hendrick Motorsports, and Gordon is listed as the car owner for Johnson, who is the series' defending champion. ... Yawn, if you must.

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While 68 drivers have started a Cup race this year, 98 percent of them already are looking ahead to 2008. It's a two-man Chase, frankly, and that doesn't bode well for TV ratings.

But there's more to the final two stops -- Phoenix and Homestead -- than Jimmie vs. Jeff.

• The top 35 in owner points has a good battle going on. Kyle Petty, currently 34th, is only 23 points ahead of Dave Blaney, while Bill Elliott is 127 points out of 35th. Whomever locks into the top 35 is guaranteed a spot in the first five races of 2008.

• Meanwhile in the top 12, only 10 drivers will have a seat on stage at the year-end awards banquet in New York. Matt Kenseth is 10th, one point behind Kurt Busch. However, 11th- and 12th-place is a dead heat between Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr., both 70 points behind Kenseth.

• And then there's the Junior Tracker, a very unscientific look at Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s final season with DEI. His eight DNFs have been well documented, mostly focusing on six engine failures. But lost in the smoke has been a very racy season for Driver 8.

In 26 finishes Junior has seven top-five, 12 top-10s and 19 top-15s. Only twice has he finished off the lead lap -- Dover (two laps down) and Daytona (-26). Take away those two races and his average finish is 9.7.

Forget all the Junior Nation-hatin'. Nix the put-downs of Teresa Earnhardt, who couldn't have resigned Dale even if she'd really tried. Put aside the venom for Hendrick Motorsports, which lured away the face of DEI. The guy has put together a rock-solid season, when he's been on the lead lap.

In the end it comes down to consistency and performance. Unfortunately for the No. 8 team, performance has outweighed consistency too many times this season. It's easy to see why Junior is giddy when the talk turns to 2008; HMS' four drivers have nine DNFs combined.

Say What?

"I have no plans to move anything or do anything. We're just into this thing one week. All of our plans certainly are not in place. But it will take some time. Right now we have no plans of moving anything."
-- Bruton Smith, on the possibility of moving a race date (to Las Vegas?) from the just-purchased (and renamed) New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Of course Smith also said, "Do you realize they have 140,000 hotel rooms in Las Vegas? In about another 18 months, they'll be up to 175,000. That's more hotel rooms than any other city in the world, even today."

Read between the lines at your own leisure ...

Figuratively Speaking

934 -- Fastest laps run by Jimmie Johnson this year, out of 10,003 total laps. Jeff Gordon is second with 654. Rounding out the top five: Tony Stewart, 612; Dale Earnhardt Jr., 552; and Kurt Busch, 517.

Sound off

• This week's topic
Given the ebb and flow of TV ratings, what should NASCAR do to help the viewing experience?

Surf over and weigh in on the blog.

• Last week's topic
Both have unique qualities, but which is your go-to during the race: radio or television?

MikeShaffer
Mute the TV and turn on the radio. The TV broadcast has too much background noise from the track and I can not hear the announcers or the interviews.

Kraw
TV for me. I tend to travel a lot on the weekends, so sometimes I have to listen in on MRN. Don't get me wrong, they do a great job of announcing. What gets me is, sometimes it takes a while to find out where your favorite driver is, or find out why they are out of the race. So, next to being there (still sun burned from AMS weekend!), I'll take TV.

kd4ctg
I prefer to watch race live on TV, but ESPN is usually commenting on a another subject during the race or another commercial is on so listen to MRN and TrackPass to keep up with the race.

dhrLimited
It's been awhile since I listened to a whole broadcast on radio, but I did Sunday while driving. It was pretty good. I'd been looking forward to ESPN's return, but the telecasts are no where near as good as the "old" ESPN.

Bstew
I like TV better, but I could definitely go without hearing the announcers.

pkbunny
I always turn the volume down and listen on Sirius. I put it on Tony's channel to listen to his radio, it can be entertaining and sometimes educational. I prefer the radio because they just tell me what is going on.

saranicole
You Mean Hendrick TV vs. Radio? I have almost totally lost interest in this season. The TV coverage is all Hendrick all the time. Jimmie or Jeff could be in dead last and the announcers would say "they're just hanging back waiting to strike."

Read all the responses ...

Up Next

Checker Auto Parts 500 | Phoenix | 3 p.m. ET Sunday | ABC
Race No. 35 of 36 | Get tickets | Book travel

• Defending race winner: Kevin Harvick
• Most victories at the track: Jeff Burton, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick (2)
• Best average finish (minimum five starts): Jimmie Johnson (7.2 in eight starts)
Active drivers only

Six of one ... half a dozen of the other

It doesn't matter. Six of the Chase drivers officially have been eliminated, and while a half of the field mathematically remains alive it's not that dramatic.

It's down to Johnson vs. Gordon. As much as I'd like to see Clint Bowyer remain in the mix, the front-runners are going to have to lay down at Phoenix for it to even have the illusion of a three-driver Chase come Homestead.

In the end, Gordon takes the points lead after Phoenix (check the script) and holds on for his fifth Cup championship at Homestead. Otherwise, there's going to be a lot of yammering about Gordon getting "robbed" of yet another title.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.