SCENE & HEARD

Several teams contending for the Nextel Cup championship were making last-minute adjustments following Happy Hour. Among those was the team of Kevin Harvick, whose crew switched the brakes because they didn't feel right during the final practice.

Harvick's team was second-fastest in the first practice, but slowed to 18th after running only eight laps to begin the brake change.

Crew chief Todd Berrier said the changes aren't a concern for Sunday's race in which Harvick enters 90 points behind points leader Jimmie Johnson.
-- David Newton

If Carl Edwards has his way, Tom Giacchi will play a clean-shaven Jesus in his church's Christmas pageant this holiday season.

Giacchi, Edwards' longtime friend and motorcoach driver, has famously refused to shave since November 2005, when Edwards last won a race in the Nextel Cup Series.

Despite considerable discomfort and countless laughs, Giacchi has refused to fold, and his beard now extends to his chest. He hopes to play a Jesus in his church's Christmas pageant. Seriously. Not kidding.

Sunday's Ford 400 is obviously the final race of the season, and if Edwards can't break his 37-race losing streak, Giacchi will have to wait a minimum of three months.
-- Ryan Smithson

I am hearing that Johnny Sauter is the top candidate to drive the No. 88 for Robert Yates Racing next year. I have no idea how that affects his Busch job with Haas CNC, but he can run both schedules if need be. However, Haas CNC is in the middle of a major expansion, and they obviously will need him if they decide to run a few Nextel Cup races in a second car.
-- Ryan Smithson

A visitor to Robby Gordon's Nextel Cup hauler right after practice caught him laying on one of the counters, looking like he was ready to catch a few Z's. He had a right to, as he had flown part of the night to get from Mexico back to Key Largo, Fla., at 9 o'clock Friday morning.

Gordon, you see, won his third career Baja 1000 off-road race, driving the first 750 miles in his Robby Gordon Motorsports Red Bull Trophy Truck before handing off to its regular driver, Andy McMillin, who took it home.

Gordon, who started 31st of 36 Trophy Trucks, didn't take the lead on time until the race had covered 450 miles, and he wasn't the first vehicle on course until the 600-mile mark. He'll never complain about the length of the Coca-Cola 600 again.

"We are really, really happy with the progress we have made with our off-road program and we obviously are working hard on our Nextel Cup cars as well," Gordon said, before he broke his Chevrolet's engine and qualified 35th. "The field is just so tight now, fractions of a second make a big difference."

I hope he sleeps well in the Keys tonight.
-- Dave Rodman

It depends how much stock you put in preparing for Nextel Cup by ARCA RE/MAX Series and Busch racing -- but it seems if Juan Montoya makes as much progress at the beginning of his first full Nextel Cup season in 2007 as he has in his first six stock car weekends this year, he could be a threat to make the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

OK, maybe not, but at the very least, it appears he'll be a fixture in the top 35 in Nextel Cup owner points after five races, based on the 104-point average he's attained in his first three Busch Series starts, plus the performance he posted in his first Nextel Cup effort, 29th overall and fifth of the go-or-go-home cars.
-- Dave Rodman

Geoff Bodine has got a "pile of money" from a couple of sponsors who are ready to back the New York veteran, the 1986 Daytona 500 winner who finished third in his most recent "Great American Race," in 2002.

Bodine was trolling the garage area Friday looking for a car owner that needed backing to make the 2007 500, but wasn't having much luck. One owner who spoke with Bodine said a lack of speedway cars was an issue, as having a Budweiser Shootout entry meant an owner needed a minimum of two cars for its own use.

Bodine himself laughed when asked if he'd pitched Richard Childress, saying "Can you imagine RC putting a Bodine in one of his cars?" I wonder if Geoff had a chance to talk to Frank Stoddard about possibly running one of his No Fear Racing cars, which Boris Said put on the pole for last July's Pepsi 400 at Daytona? Said, however, does have a Shootout start on his schedule for next year, thanks to that feat, so that might preclude it.
-- Dave Rodman

Petty Enterprises had a neat idea this weekend for Kyle Petty's No. 45 Dodge -- highlight the four primary sponsors that provided the funding for Petty's come-from-behind season back into the top 35 in owner points.

The team placed decals for all four sponsors all over the car -- but the base color was a familiar Petty Blue. The hue dominated the stickers, and for anyone who grew up eyeballing The King's STP cars in the same blue, it was a welcomed sight.
-- Dave Rodman

Mark Martin's No. 6 Roush Racing Ford is carrying a special paint scheme this weekend as a tribute to Martin's 19-year career driving that numbered car for Jack Roush.

If you ask me, the scheme, far from being flashy, is as solid and sedate as the Arkansas veteran himself is -- a black nose blending back into brick maroon at the tail. And for being low-key, it was pretty attractive, if I do say so.
-- Dave Rodman

Jeremy Mayfield cried the blues earlier this week when he talked about the detriment of being low in the Nextel Cup owners' points -- and the effect it had on teams trying to get through the line in order to practice.

It came into reality Friday morning at Homestead. As the 56-car field began to line up for practice, the cars of Carl Long, Scott Wimmer and Morgan Shepherd -- who only entered the race Friday morning -- were still in the inspection queue.

After 15 minutes of practice, they had not yet hit the track. Shepherd was the last of the group to make it out, some 45 minutes into the session -- and by the time it was over the impact was obvious. He was last on the sheet, more than two-and-a-half seconds off fast man Kurt Busch.
-- Dave Rodman

One Jimmie Johnson in the garage at Homestead-Miami Speedway is looking for his first championship on Sunday. The other Jimmy Johnson making the rounds already has three.

The former Miami Hurricanes and Dallas Cowboys coach was wearing a purple Crown Royal shirt and signing autographs in front of Jamie McMurray's hauler while the Nextel Cup points leader circled the 1.5-mile track in practice.

Johnson with a "y" won a national championship with the Hurricanes in 1987 and consecutive Super Bowls with the Cowboys in 1992 and '93. Johnson with an "ie" has been a bridesmaid twice.

There's no confusing the two outside of their names, although neither had a hair out of place.
-- David Newton

I really bet it's a role Kevin Harvick would rather not play, but I had to laugh when I walked through the gate into the Nextel Cup garage closest to the media center, and saw Harvick hustling, with the purposeful stride he usually carries, through the garage getting from one point to another and obviously in a hurry.

At least one autograph seeker was alongside, but Harvick was leaving a trail of disappointed would-be customers in his wake -- as he signed for anyone who could keep up.

All I could think of was the "You da man!" cries you hear after drives on golf tee boxes, as a sidelines onlooker to the sight cried out "You gotta be quick!"
-- Dave Rodman

This has to be the best one yet -- in years, actually. The media parking area at PIR is a rectangular area in the middle of the infield that is completely untended -- even at the gate to enter the area.

When the lot filled up, the last people looking for spots parked in the entrances, so when I arrived fashionably late after a 34-minute trip to go 29.4 miles, the rectangle was a solid block of cars.

Hope no one has a family emergency and has to leave early!
-- Dave Rodman

When Taylor Swift, a lovely young lady who's singing the national anthem today and appeared to be in her early 20s, came to the media center she was asked about the propensity of country singers to write their own material, unlike many other genre's performers.

Her answer was appropriate and intriguing, but it left you shaking your head if you still think like you're a youngster.

"I started writing and playing 12-string guitar when I was 12 years old ... about relationships -- even though I wasn't in any," Swift said. "I'm 16 now and I think doing things the way I have I just have a heightened perception of what's going on around me. And when I was a kid, I was kind of on the outside looking in."

All I can say is, mature minds are a wonderful thing. But isn't 16 still considered part of kid-dom?
-- Dave Rodman