Weekend odds and ends after emptying the notepad

After a four-week stretch on the road, the mind tends to wander. Some thoughts on reaching home:

Why we love Junior

Of course, that's Dale Earnhardt Jr. Have said it before -- it's because you definitely will get no bull from this kid.

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When asked if the Chase had become a three-man race, he said "I hope not, hell." Then he thought for a second and threw out, "Unless you're counting me in?"

And after doing the proverbial gator-rassle with an ill-handling car through the final stages of the Camping World RV 400 at Kansas, and apparently showing the ill effects after finishing 13th, he offered this gem: "I think an average driver would have finished about 35th. I told my guys that. I don't know -- we had fun regardless."

Earnhardt was taken to task by some at the start of the Chase for the Sprint Cup for having tantrums on his in-car radio and not cooperating. After bristling a week ago and saying not to expect much change, at Kansas he deferred after a tough day; and ended by offering some Earnhardt charm.

"I toned it down a lot [Sunday]," Earnhardt said. "I've been trying to be better on the radio and be more productive. We kind of gained on it in the center of the race and we were kind of getting better. It just went away, it got so loose at the end. I didn't know what to tell them.

"We made light of it though. I told them they were lucky to have me."

Pardon me for being puzzled

The only way I can see Red Bull Racing Team's move to immediately disconnect A.J. Allmendinger from the No. 84 car he's driven for most of the past two seasons being a benefit to both Red Bull and Allmendinger is if Allmendinger has his next ride not waiting in the wings -- but waiting to be announced for this weekend.

I understand why management would want to forcibly create a disconnect between a guy who obviously drove his guts out for them until the very last lap he had with the team, and the crew that now has to form a bond with its new driver, Scott Speed.

But it also was interesting to learn that I wasn't the only one in the garage who flat knows that Allmendinger is going to hurt some people in the very near future in Sprint Cup racing, including his now former team, via some more top-10 finishes at the very least. Count his former crew chief, Jimmy Elledge, among that bunch.

For sure, this will be interesting to watch as it unfolds in the next five months.

Speedy Lally

Speaking of Scott Speed and his meteoric rise through the stock-car ranks, did anyone else find it odd that Andy Lally not only won the pole for last weekend's ARCA Re/Max Series road race in New Jersey, but also led the most laps in the race that was rain-shortened before his pit cycle was able to work him back to the front and putting him in fourth at the finish?

For what it's worth -- without having any idea what strategy Speed was employing in the race -- Lally had the speed to handle Scott every step of the way throughout the weekend, including every practice session starting with Tuesday's open test, according to team owner Kevin Buckler.

TRG Motorsports, which has been an exemplary sports-car conglomerate for years, branched into stock cars this year and immediately proved its mettle by winning in its seventh Craftsman Truck Series race, courtesy of 2007 Whelen Modified Tour champ Donny Lia. The ARCA program, which was formed for driver development, is even newer, but obviously has just as much promise.

Now, underdog fans have to be hoping sponsorship enables Lally to get the shot he's been waiting for ever since he expressed his desire to go stock-car racing more than five years ago, during which time he's continued to excel in sports cars.

If Cup racing doesn't pan out

It's great to know that Matt Kenseth could, without a doubt, establish a career in drifting. Because what he did from the exit of Turn 1 to the exit of Turn 2 at Kansas, without ever fully losing control of his No. 17 Ford, was one of the best pieces of driving out of a wreck that's been seen lately (watch video).

And what was the best part? After the race, Matt said he wasn't sure if the deal was his fault or not. You just gotta love a guy who just gets it done, without pointing any fingers.

A tree is a tree is a ...

After finishing watching Carl Edwards' spectacular last-lap attempt at Kansas to pass Jimmie Johnson (watch video) -- that is, after you spat out the flies that might have gotten in there when your jaw dropped to the floor at the sheer audacity of it -- listening to Edwards almost had to make you laugh 'til you cried.

"He did exactly what every smart racer does when he sees somebody banzai in, you just lift a little bit, let that guy go run into the fence and then you go by," Edwards said of Johnson's dealing with his move. "I've had it go both ways. We were going to run second if I didn't do it, so I figured why not?"

The real humor came when journalists tried to decipher -- and spell -- Edwards' use of the Asian term that's been bastardized in the west from its intended wish of "long life" to imply a desperate move with a possible death wish.

Edwards even had an interesting take on that, when he was asked if he'd indeed called it a "banzai move?"

"Yeah -- I guess my dad used to always say that, 'banzai move,'" Edwards said, citing another widely used misnomer. "I don't know exactly what that means. I know there's a tree called a bonsai tree -- looks nothing like that move. But I don't know. Kamikaze maybe is where that came from. It's the Midwest, sometimes people don't know."

Carl, lemme tell you, it ain't limited to the Midwest.

But Edwards did have one other notable insight, when he was asked if he ever considered, given that he was in an intense points race, of settling for second and its guaranteed points. And it's why, to many people, he's one of the sport's current treasures.

"[The points] crossed my mind," Edwards said, "but nothing's guaranteed: Not another race, not tomorrow -- nothing. So, I get what I can while I can. I just figured, 'man, I'm not going to be able to live with myself.' It's going to be hard enough to go to sleep [Sunday], but there's no way I'd sleep a wink if I didn't try something on the last lap. You've got to try."

That, my friends, is why this Chase looks to be the best one yet.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.

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• More from Edwards: Post-race interview | Sprint Press Pass