auto racing

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. -- Matt Kenseth isn't afraid of the dark, and he's sure not afraid of a little rubbin' on the racetrack.The 2003 Cup champion has won two of Bristol Motor Speedway's fall classic night races in his career, establishing himself as one of the hardest chargers on the .533-mile oval.

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- J.D. Gibbs squirmed in his seat, just like the little kid at grandma's house who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

If you've ever wondered why perennial mid-packers and backmarkers continue to come to the track with a remote chance of beating the Big Boys of NASCAR -- Hendrick, Gibbs, Roush, Childress and Evernham -- then the venerable Wood Brothers showed at Watkins Glen why they show up each week.

This may be judgment week for Patrick Carpentier.Carpentier is making a racing comeback this season, in NASCAR no less, after most of his career in open-wheel racing. And he's incurably upbeat, despite numerous setbacks. But NASCAR is a performance business, and will Carpentier's numbers be enough to keep him in the seat of George Gillett's and Ray Evernham's Dodges?

Just back from a European vacation, Jimmie Johnson took Sunday's tire disaster at the Brickyard in stride, played his hand coolly, and launched what he and wily crew chief Chad Knaus hope will be a successful second half of the NASCAR season after a rather woeful first half.

Ryan Newman says he didn't really understand why NASCAR's summer rite was called "Silly Season" until he became embroiled in one. But the 30-year-old Sprint Cup driver became just more fodder for the annual speculation festival about drivers' futures when he first complained about his lot at Penske Racing then said last week that he will not return for a 10th season.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Debacle, fiasco, blunder: pick any word to describe Sunday's NASCAR-Goodyear screw-up here, but the 250,000 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway deserved much better than what they got in the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.Perhaps it was just the perfect storm.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Safety is just taken for granted in NASCAR these days, mostly because of all the improvements made since Dale Earnhardt's death in 2001.But two things -- the unexpected death last week of Steve Peterson, NASCAR's safety guru, and racing this weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway -- offer reminders of just how much things have changed.

Times are tough for NASCAR teams all the way around -- owners, drivers, crewmen and sponsors -- and those new to the Sprint Cup tour, such as promising rookie Regan Smith, have it rougher than usual. No matter how talented they are or how fast they're learning, it might not be fast enough to keep sponsors happy.

If you were to summarize the past few weeks of NASCAR driver Ryan Newman's 2008 season, it would come down to off-track issues rather than on-track performance. In fact, it would come down to three words: choices, choices and choices.