By Steve Parker 

Remember last season when Carl Edwards went “bully” on teammate Matt Kenseth? On pit road after a race – I believe at Martinsville - while Kenseth was being interviewed on live TV, Edwards walked in front of the camera and rather forcefully planted his hand in the middle of Kenseth’s chest and pushed him backward. Carl was apparently not very happy with his Roush/Fenway teammate because of an on track incident in the closing laps. Carl felt that was the appropriate time and place to express his displeasure. It was not, and many jumped to the defense of Kenseth and said Edwards was way out of line. One of the more vocal critics of Edwards’ actions was Roush driver Greg Biffle. He said Edwards was just showing his “true colors.”

What also came of this little incident was the fact that Roush/Fenway was apparently not one big happy family.
Edwards said he and Kenseth virtually never talked. This is a far cry from what goes on at say….Hendrick Motorsports where Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon always seem to get along great, even when battling each other for race wins. Johnson and Casey Mears are very good friends as well. This season Dale Earnhardt, Jr. seems to be a very good fit and has talked about how freely information is shared among all the Hendrick teams. He said at Phoenix that he had gotten much of his car’s setup from the 48 team after Johnson was faster in practice.

So far this season, Carl Edwards’ 99 team has been flat unbeatable on the mile and a half tracks (and the 2 mile oval at California) where they did not race the new car last season. He’s won three races and had the Atlanta event in the bag until a late mechanical issue derailed his dominant car. Without that late problem at Atlanta, Edwards would be four for four on the intermediate tracks. His team has hit on something that no other team has so far. This would seem to include the rest of his mates in the Roush/Fenway stable. I haven’t seen Greg Biffle or Matt Kenseth up there challenging for wins. In fact Kenseth is off to a bit of a disappointing start. Kenseth is a former champion and one of only two drivers to make every chase. Biffle finished as championship runner up in 2005.

Edwards is a huge talent. He’s easily a championship caliber driver. But is he really head and shoulders above the rest of the Sprint Cup field as he’s looked at times this year? I think not. He’s also been without his regular crew chief Bob Osborne. His team knows something the others don’t right now. I’m not at all suggesting they’re doing something shady. They’ve just found something with the new car and it doesn’t look like they’re sharing that information anyone, including the rest of the guys at Roush.

Edwards is becoming one of the more popular drivers on the scene. With everyone it would seem - based on comments from Biffle and Kenseth last season – except his teammates. If he continues to pile up victories and his Roush cohorts continue to struggle, that probably won’t change.

By Sam Atwell

The older I get the more I do not like change.  I guess I am set in my ways and I like what is familiar to me.  If you listen to The Race Report Radio show then you know I am a very traditional NASCAR fan.  I didn’t like it when Rockingham was abandoned, I didn’t like the Southern 500 being moved from Darlington, I didn’t want the points system to change, and oh yeah, how is that open wheel invasion going for you?

This week we are possibly seeing some things change, and I again don’t like it.  Betty Crocker announced this week that it was leaving the #42 team of Petty Enterprises for the greener pastures of Richard Childress Racing.  This could be a devastating blow to Petty Enterprises.  Sprint Cup Series teams are having trouble-finding sponsors to plunk down millions of dollars to sponsor a cup car for a season.  Petty Enterprises may well have the same problem.  I understand the premise behind the move to RCR, but I don’t like it. 

Petty Enterprises is NASCAR.  They have been in existence as long as NASCAR.  60 years of racing for the Petty family should not fade away into the background.  I know that the results have not been there in recent years and Petty Enterprises had fallen behind the times, but they are NASCAR!  I fear that a sponsor that can fund the team may not be found, and that is sad.  If Bobby Labonte leaves the 43 team, then I fear them being able to attract a top tier driver.  Like I said I understand the reasons for these changes, but again I don’t like it.  Petty’s have made some huge changes in the last couple of seasons that I believe will lead to their resurgence in the cup series, but it is going to take money.  I hope that they have found and will be able to announce a financial partner to help them continue into the future.  Does Petty Enterprises have anything to prove in NASCAR?  No, with 268 wins and 7 championships, they have nothing to prove, but they are NASCAR.

I guess that one of the reason it makes me sad to see them have such struggles is because they are such wonderful people.  All racing aside, they have given so much of themselves back to the world.  Richard, Kyle, and their families have done so much to make the lives of sick kids better through the Victory Junction Gang Camp.  They participate in an endless amount of charity events and are just good human beings.  They have endured the premature death of Adam Petty in a racing accident, but it did not defeat them.  They took that experience and built on it and it has made them stronger.

I don’t like change, but I hope for things to change for the better at Petty Enterprises.  I hope that there is a sponsor out there that wants to work with the Petty Enterprises and help them make the climb back towards the top.  From the racing,  to the charity events, to the giving back and for just being outstanding people, Petty Enterprises is NASCAR.

By Steve Parker

One of the more talked about stories here still very early in the 2008 Sprint Cup season has been that Hendrick Motorsports has yet to send a car to Victory Lane in the first six races.  More than one scribe or talking head has asked what’s wrong with the team that dominated the ’07 campaign.  After all, the team won exactly half of the points races last year and had its top two drivers battle for the championship.  They were clearly on another level one year ago.  Now there are six races down and not one of those has ended with a Hendrick driver first to the checkered flag.  So clearly Jeff Gordon is washed up.  Jimmie Johnson’s reign of dominance has obviously come to an end.  Dale Earnhardt, Jr. never was that good anyway.  And Casey Mears…forget him.  He never belonged in a Cup car anyway.  What a bunch of bullpoopy!It’s extremely tough to win a Sprint Cup Series race.  You have to do everything right and have some luck break your way.  Is Matt Kenseth washed up?  Does Tony Stewart suddenly suck?  These former champs and perennial contenders have not won yet this season either.  I tell you right now what’s wrong with Hendrick.  NOTHING!  Nothing at all.  Have the other top teams closed the gap on them?  Absolutely.  But that’s because they have stepped it up rather than a big step backward for last year’s top dog.Hendrick put a lot of focus on the new car that was raced part time in 2007 and definitely got a jump start on their competition.  Rival owner Jack Roush even admitted that his teams were behind on the COT development early and vowed to rectify that problem.  He was good on his word as Carl Edwards won a COT race at Bristol last season and with the two early season wins for Edwards this year, Roush has obviously done a great job of catching up.But has Hendrick maybe slipped a bit?  Let’s look at how they’ve done this so far.  Jeff Gordon had one of the few cars capable of running up front with the Gibbs Toyotas at Daytona.  He was in the top three to top five until a suspension problem first caused him to fall back and eventually head to the garage.  Jimmie Johnson had trouble at Daytona as well and did finish a miserable 29^th.  The very next week at California, who was that right behind winner Carl Edwards … Johnson and Gordon.  On to Las Vegas where Jimmie did have a car that he called “evil.”  But Gordon was battling for second with five laps to go until he slipped up, hit Matt Kenseth and had that horrific crash into the inside wall.  At Atlanta, Earnhardt, Jr. was third, Gordon fifth.  Jimmie was in the top ten most of the day until a flat tire late dropped him to 13^th.You get the idea.  The final results are what really matter but where you finish is not always a real indication of how you ran that day.  Gordon and Junior have three top five finishes in the first six races.  If you watched the race at Martinsville you know that if Jeff Gordon had three to five more laps we probably wouldn’t be talking about Hendrick being winless anyway.  He was clearly the fastest car at the end of that race, closing on Denny Hamlin like a freight train until running out of laps.The bottom line is Gordon has had a top five car in every race but Bristol where he finished 11^th and was never a factor.  Johnson has struggled a bit but has said