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Even with the manufacturers struggling in this economy, don't expect them to disappear anytime soon.

A future without U.S. carmakers: Never, but ...

By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM
June 16, 2009
02:57 PM EDT

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Last weekend at Michigan and Kentucky was a whirlwind, both on and off the race track. Kyle Busch was in the middle of a lot of it and far away from the rest, which is good.

But then we had that crazy finish to the LifeLock 400 and the director went to one of the end game's key players, fifth-place finisher Greg Biffle.

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Right off the bat, Biff, you confused the heck outta me.

The race had just ended and it was bad enough my fantasy team's lead guy had outraced you and the 20 other cars on the lead lap, before he ran out of gas within yards of the white flag.

No confusion there. You knew that had 22nd-place written all over it when Jimmie Johnson's latest fuel mileage failure flourished.

But Biff, you said your Roush Fenway Ford got great fuel mileage. I might grant you that, but if it did then it was even bigger of you to man-up, even if by default, because you ran out of gas with less than a mile to go.

That means you screwed it up, man -- though as a fan on this day I loved yah for it, pal; because you went for the win -- fuming-out be damned.

But then you confused me again because you said something like, "go to your Ford dealer and drive one of those Ford Fusions -- they get great mileage, too."

No. 1, Greg, a Chevy won by getting better mileage. I would've gone Impala shopping early Monday morning to beat the lines. And No. 2, your Fusion's got a danged carburetor.

Try asking a dealer if you can road test one of those. After he stops laughing, he might send you to Jack's place -- that's right, your shop -- in Concord, N.C., to test drive one of the show car fleet.

But to get serious for a moment, I guess that's the point this week: Confusion and impact.

The latter is what the manufacturers get from NASCAR racing and you can be sure there'll always be involved as much as they can be, because of the payback. (Continued)

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