auto racing

With NASCAR's regular season now behind us and championship possibilities afoot -- all of our points have been reset now -- it's time to start thinking about title contenders and Chase pretenders. There may be a list of 12 drivers eligible, but in actuality we're likely talking about three drivers here.

During all the years, from growing up at Martinsville Speedway to presiding over the track, Clay Campbell has heard the sounds during NASCAR driver introductions -- the general applause, inattentive claps, cheers and boos. But it's the jeering that rings loudest.

Clint Bowyer was last season's surprise in the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship, coming from seemingly out of nowhere. He opened the 10-race playoffs with a victory at Loudon, N.H., and was the only guy who stayed in sight of Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon the rest of the way.This season?

Rick Hendrick was NASCAR's hot-ticket car owner the last two seasons, winning back-to-back championships with Jimmie Johnson, Sunday night's winner here in a duel with Greg Biffle.But this season, well, Hendrick all but rolls his eyes.

After following Kyle Busch for all those laps around Bristol, running second to the multi-colored Toyota that has dominated most of 2008, Carl Edwards took matters into his own hands and did his part to make The Chase for the Championship a little more interesting.

At first glance, nothing should seem amiss this weekend at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.When the NASCAR cars line up for Saturday's Nationwide Series race and Sunday's Sprint Cup extravaganza, it will be the same kaleidoscope of color and the same roar of horsepower that keep race fans coming back.

DETROIT -- The effervescent and engaging Helio Castroneves does not keep a whole lot to himself, but in his few private moments, the Brazilian-born IndyCar Series driver has to be asking himself: "What does a guy have to do to win this championship?"

Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards might swap paint, roar to another narrow finish ahead of the pack, bicker and add another episode to their flowering rivalry. Cool, but who's the poor sap in the smoking junker getting lapped?

Yes, the weather was scorching. Temperatures at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., rose as high as 114 degrees over Labor Day weekend last year, sucking the life out of drivers and the liveliness out of its fans. What did you expect? In NASCAR, things are always heating up this time of year.

All the NASCAR signs seemed to point to driver Ryan Newman joining Tony Stewart's new Stewart-Haas Racing during the weekend at Indianapolis, the home track to the pair of Hoosiers. But the numbers all finally began to add up earlier this month at Michigan. And this whole situation between the pair of Indiana natives is about numbers -- some that work, some that don't.