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You gotta give Caraway a try

More often than not, bad weather does nothing but a disservice to racing and its fans. But some recent bad weather becomes a blessing for me, because the Whelen Southern Modified Tour is racing this Saturday evening at Caraway Speedway in Sophia, N.C., near Asheboro while the Sprint Cup and Camping World Trucks are at Martinsville during the day.

You remember -- well, maybe you don't because I'm not sure I ever wrote about it -- but I stopped by Caraway one evening last year after a tour of the Victory Junction Gang Camp. After a half-hour visit with owner Russell Hackett and a quick view of the track, I just knew I had to organize a bus trip there -- or at least get there myself.

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The place is one of the coolest short tracks I've ever seen. And tricky? I can't even imagine trying to get around the place with its high-banked straightaways, a la Bristol and two vastly different corner configurations.

But if you see Bobby Labonte or Dennis Setzer, ask them about it. I'm sure they'd tell you plenty. The Southern mods have visited there five times this season and had four different winners, with George Brunnhoelzl III scoring twice. I can't wait.

Sub drivers

In a throwback to the last couple years in the Nationwide Series, a whopping six drivers will need subs at Memphis to work on their Nationwide cars while they take care of business in Martinsville. In a nutshell, Nationwide practice is 2:30 -- 6 p.m. ET Friday, with qualifying at 10:35 a.m. Saturday for the 3:30 p.m. race.

Sprint Cup qualifying Friday starts at 3:10, so a Cupper with a whopping aircraft budget might try to make an hour of practice at Memphis. But qualifying is definitely out, though with Cup Happy Hour getting over at 12:15, the race is no problem.

Now we know championship rivals Carl Edwards and the point leader and most recent winner Kyle Busch were locked-into having to go. And it figures Michael McDowell would do it, because he's battling to stay in the top 10 in the standings, as is Mike Wallace in the top 30. David Reutimann is a former Memphis winner, so that figures, too. But why go with Matt Kenseth instead of Ricky Stenhouse Jr.? Go figure on that one.

What'll Kevin do next?

Don't know about the rest of you, but there's definite fascination anticipating Kevin Harvick's appearance this weekend in his own No. 2 Camping World Truck Series ride for the Kroger 200 at Martinsville.

Harvick has history -- both good and bad -- at Martinsville, particularly in the Truck Series. And the last time he was in a truck, at New Hampshire, some of the things that occurred both with the competition and within his own team ventured into the neighborhood of ridiculous.

The bottom line is, crew chief John Monsam has a pretty spiffy Martinsville track record, winning with both Jon Wood and Dennis Setzer, so you can only hope Harvick will keep his eye on the prize -- a win -- even if it means taking another one from his championship-leading driver, Ron Hornaday.

Stay tuned

I call anyone who says Jimmie Johnson's handling of the Chase, and anyone trying to beat him in it, a bore or an interest killer, not much of a fan. For me, a couple high-profile topics right now are "can Juan Montoya come back and finish in the top five?" and "can Denny Hamlin rebound and make it onto the stage in Vegas by finishing in the top 10?"

All you have to do is listen to Earnhardt Ganassi Racing director of competition Steve Hmiel to know his team is fired-up, so why wouldn't that carry over to the fans?

"You don't want to be disrespectful of other people by saying we're still going to get them [in the points] and things like that," Hmiel said, "but the truth is the work ethic is still here, the goals are still here and everybody is still digging like mad."

Wins: Through Lowe's

	2008	2009
Cup Series	8	4
Nationwide	9	7
Truck Series	3	5

Kyle Busch Victory Watch

Despite the near-frigid temperatures in Charlotte, Kyle Busch showed he was virtually recovered from a bout with pneumonia by defending his victory in the Lowe's Motor Speedway Dollar General 300, being somewhat competitive in the NASCAR Banking 500 and then winning the Winchester 400 late model race on Sunday.

So it appears Busch's quest to eclipse his 2008 record total of 21 wins (8 Cup, 10 Nationwide, 3 Truck); is back on track.

With his win Busch moved to 16 wins: 4 Cup, 7 Nationwide, 5 Truck. At this point last year Busch was at 20: 8 Cup, 9 Nationwide, 3 Truck; so he's still got plenty of ground to cover. This weekend Memphis is his best chance to score, so it'll be interesting to see how the commute treats him.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.