Weekend That Was: PIR

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- There aren't many surprises when it comes down to the next-to-last weekend of a 36-race season and the same two guys, who happen to be from the same organization, have won nearly half of the main events.

But here were five surprising things that happened last weekend at Phoenix International Raceway:

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1. Everyone knows Roger Penske has a penchant for doing everything big and doing it right, with a touch of that gentlemanly class that he so clearly possesses. But who knew he had such an impressive complex out in the desert?

When it was first proposed that Saturday evening be spent at the "Penske Museum" in Scottsdale, Ariz. where Penske was going to officially announce what everybody already knew (that Sam Hornish Jr. was going to be put in a full-time Sprint Cup ride for 2008, sponsored by Mobil 1), the most appealing aspect of the invitation was the offer to be transported there from the Phoenix track via helicopter.

The general reaction in the media center seemed to be, "There's a Penske Museum in Scottsdale?"

There actually is so much more than that out there. The 42-acre complex that is home to the Penske Automotive Group sells 1,000 mostly luxury cars every month, and the museum houses all 14 Penske-owned winning Indy 500 cars, plus lots of other cool stuff in a gleaming facility that had 10 times the wow factor of the helicopter ride to and from the place (this included a return trip with none other than driver Ryan Newman and his lovely wife, Krissie) (complete story).

2. The fact that Hornish qualified for both the Busch race and the Cup race. It marked the first time in seven tries he made the Cup race, which may say something about him performing under pressure, which may bode well for the future.

Can you imagine him failing to make the Sunday race, yet still having to stick around and go through the humiliation of Saturday's big shin-dig at the Penske Automotive Group Mansion? It was bad enough that he had to go out there and graciously answer lots of hard questions (which he handled with a good deal of class himself, by the way) after crashing out of the Busch Series race on Lap 22 only a few hours earlier.

3. The fact that Hornish finished the Cup race. Sure, it was only a 30th-place finish. But you have to start somewhere.

4. Kyle Busch's amazing and almost overlooked weekend, because he finished a respectable but relatively uninteresting eighth in Sunday's Cup race. This guy won the Craftsman Truck Series race on Friday and then came back to win the Busch Series race on Saturday before flying to Las Vegas to compete in a Super Late Model event there just five hours later.

He was battling near the front in his Late Model, too, when a side-by-side duel for second place ended up in a wreck. Even though his car sustained no significant damage, race officials ruled that Busch had to restart at the rear of the field. In what was no surprise whatsoever, he then chose instead to drive his car to the pits and hop on a helicopter to fly back to Phoenix to rest up for Sunday's Cup race. His chopper (that's what those of us who fly in the birds like to call 'em) was seen darting overhead with 10 laps still left in the Late Model event.

Hey, you can't blame a guy for knowing when to quit. All in all, it was an outstanding weekend for the young fella who may just win as many or more races for Joe Gibbs Racing next season as Dale Earnhardt Jr. does in his new ride for Hendrick Motorsports.

5. Try as one might, no column about a NASCAR weekend is complete these days without some reference to JimmieandJeff (complete story).

Yes, that is what it has come down to -- they are their own combined noun now, JimmieandJeff. So much has been said and so much has been written about JimmieandJeff and their bond as friends and Hendrick Motorsports teammates that there is next to nothing left to be said or written.

Note, though, that Jimmie now comes first. Johnson has earned that right via a series-high 10 Cup victories this season, including his fourth in a row Sunday (watch video). But frankly, Sunday's win ranked as a surprise because so many thought Jeff would make his final stand in the Chase for the Nextel Cup by capturing the win instead. Plus no driver had won four races in a row since Gordon himself did it in 1998, when he piled up 13 victories en route to a championship. Perhaps it shouldn't have been a surprise that Johnson won to match that feat, but in most quarters it was; while Gordon fought an ill-handling car for much of the day and fell 86 points off the Chase pace by finishing 10th (official standings).

Both drivers have had outstanding seasons. Let's be perfectly clear on that. Perhaps the only thing in NASCAR more impressive than JimmieandJeff these days is the Penske Museum, now that we know it exists and even where it is (although some of us can only tell you how to get there by chopper).

Now the JimmieandJeff Show moves on to Miami, Fla., and Homestead-Miami Speedway for the final weekend of the long, grueling season. Stay tuned to see if there are any surprises left.

Brian's World

Brian France, chairman and CEO of NASCAR, touched on a few points in a brief question-and-answer session with a handful of media members Saturday at PIR (complete story).

Asked if NASCAR has had any more discussions with Bruton Smith of Speedway Motorsports Inc. about his future plans for the speedway in New Hampshire that he just purchased, France said: "We've had conversations, but they're not anything new. This will make some opportunities for SMI more possible. We'll have to see what they bring to us; what they think is going to work for them."

There has been speculation that Smith bought the New Hampshire track with the intention of moving one of its two Cup dates to Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which SMI also owns.

"I think two events that were working as well as those two events were (in New Hampshire), you would like to think they would work best there versus taking one somewhere else," France said. "But I think they've got to get in there -- Bruton and Humpy (Wheeler) and those guys -- and determine some of that on their own."

France also touched on the sport's declining television ratings and the fact that he recently toured a Formula One track in China.

Concerning the TV ratings, he said: "Television ratings for almost everything are down. Prime-time, day-time, sports. We're probably a victim of that to some level. You have to remember that we're still posting big audiences, and our TV partners are very satisfied. We'd love to be growing at better rates, but we're not contracting at all. We're pretty satisfied that the story lines of the future and as things go on in television, we'll be fine and comfortable with it."

Of visiting China and possibly looking to grow NASCAR globally down the road, he added: "Well, I went there and I took a look at it. I can tell you that there is nothing on the horizon beyond Montreal and Mexico City (where Busch Series races currently are being run). But we get opportunities to look at things all the time -- and we want to be able to be in position to take advantage of them, not maybe in the foreseeable future but at some point."

Not pleased

Gordon of JimmieandJeff fame was not at all pleased with fellow driver Kevin Harvick following Sunday's Cup race. The two swapped paint on two occasions late in the race.

"You can't touch Kevin Harvick, because if you touch him he's got a short fuse and he's going to be upset," Gordon said. "He rubbed on me because I was racing too hard, I guess. I didn't like it, either, so I rubbed back on him -- and for a minute, I thought we were all going to wreck." (watch video)

Harvick told reporters he basically didn't care what Gordon said or thought, and added that none of it was his fault. Official records on this are muddied and impossible to track for certain, but Sunday appears to have been the 213th time in 213 career Cup starts that Harvick refused to accept any blame for anything that happened on the track when his car ran into another.

Get on board

Hornish addressed the perception that he is deserting his fan base built on loyalty to open-wheel racing by making the full-time switch over to NASCAR.

"At some point in time, I was not going to be an Indy car driver anymore. I wasn't going to race those cars until I was 70 years old," Hornish said. "I hope the ones that are true fans are going to be able to follow me over here. And the other ones who are die-hard [open-wheel] fans will pick a new driver to follow.

"But I'm a die-hard racing fan. Yeah, I've been able to make a living as a racecar driver. But some of my happiest Sundays have been sitting at home on the couch, watching drag racing, NASCAR, whatever. I love watching racing.

"So a lot of times I get that from people, where they're like, 'I can't believe you're going over there. I can't watch that kind of racing.' And my response is, 'Hey, you're not a true racing fan then, if you're not willing to take it all in."

Memo to Hornish: your days of lying around on the couch watching racing are pretty much over now that you're going from an IndyCar schedule of 14 races per year to 36 per season on the Cup side.

Truckers gone wild

It was another wild Craftsman Truck Series race this weekend, with all kinds of crazy stuff happening before Kyle Busch pulled out the victory.

Particularly noteworthy was the fact that Harvick, who is Ron Hornaday's teammate, appeared to deliberately drive through Mike Skinner's pit stall (in a legal but frowned-upon move) at one point, contributing to a poor pit stop that clearly aided Hornaday.

Then late in the race, Skinner was passed by teammate Johnny Benson for seventh place -- a swing of four points that could cost Skinner, who leads Hornaday now by only 29 points heading into Homestead (official standings), dearly in the long run. Skinner wasn't pleased about Benson's late pass, adding: "I'm not the boss. I guess we're not teammates. I thought he was taking care of me."

Thumbs up

To the Roush Fenway tandem of Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth, who on Sunday finished second and third, respectively, and didn't make each other flinch as they sat amicably next to one another at the post-race interview table (complete story).

Thumbs down

To the media center at PIR. Forget the fact that there have been multiple scorpion sightings there in the past (although that's bad, too). Could it possibly be any more cramped or antiquated?

Pit stops

• Ten of the top-12 finishers in Sunday's Cup race were Chase participants. The only Chasers who failed to crack the top 12 were Denny Hamlin, who finished 16th, and Carl Edwards, whose engine blew after he led 87 laps early (watch video).

• It went almost unnoticed, but Juan Montoya closed out top rookie honors with his 17th-place finish Sunday. His closest pursuer, David Ragan, can't catch him now.

• The white flag has been waved. There is one more weekend to go. As Johnson of JimmieandJeff fame said: "Then we'll go nuts."

The opinions expressed are those solely of the writer