This past weekend featured, not one, not two, but three major wrecks between Turns 1 and 2. The first incident occurred when Ken Schrader attempted to break going into the sharp first turn, only to find the break pedal going straight to the floor with no results, �major break failure� Schrader would say later. The veteran racer manages to steer his car enough to make sure that the #49 did not take a head-on or drivers side hit, but the car would flip onto it�s hood before backing into the outside wall. Incredibly, the car completes it�s 360 and lands back onto it�s wheels as the fuel cell erupts into flames as Schrader already has the window net down with a quick escape already planned. You would have to go back to Talladega in 1995 to remember a more spectacular wreck for Schrader.

Dale Jarrett would be the next to be victimized at the � point in the race when the #88 cuts a tire going into 1 and ultimately takes a rear-end hit on the outside wall. Likewise, the #88�s fuel cell erupts with Jarrett taking quick action to get out of the car. The incident ruined what had appeared to be shaping up as a decent day for once, and relegated Jarrett to a 42nd place finish. That incredibly drops DJ down to 27th in the standings, and mind you that is with a win included. Jarrett is the leading contender for this year�s Ward Burton award.

Then came one of those late-race restarts with just three laps to go (following an incident involving Kurt Busch), and everyone knows those never go well. In this case Jeff Green was trying to hang on to what would be a top-ten finish and was allegedly �mirror driving coming out of Turn 1, cutting in front of Terry LaBonte and others. At the point, Terry had one of two options. Either take a chance on potentially punting Green or check up and possibly take out several other cars. LaBonte chose option #1 and hoped for the best, but had not yet cleared the Green car. The #1 machine went out of control � and like hot snot from a chrome nostril was ticketed head-on with the same inside guard rail that Park had a meeting with last year. The resulting impact obliterates the front-end of the car and leaves Green with a broken tailbone (ouch!!!). The cars behind Green and LaBonte now have no choice but to check up and several other drivers get involved, including Mike Skinner, Bill Elliott, and Greg Biffle. In the aftermath Biffle gets off one of the best blasts of the year saying �It�s just Mike Skinner as usual� then adding �He causes about half the wrecks in Winston Cup�� Actually, that would be an impressive feat since the Bodine clan has in the past caused about two-thirds of Cup incidents. I will have more on the #4 team later and it's actually pretty good.

A race did actually break out in between all of this, including a run so long that it included two green flag stops. Tony Stewart was impressive for a second straight week, and this time was rewarded by breaking a 27-race winless streak (proving even the best have long droughts). Rosch teammates Mark Martin and Matt Kenseth finish second and third, with Kenseth now opening up an impressive 176-point lead in the season standings. That might even get him in the top five in the Power Rankings. Dale Jr. has by far his best-ever Pocono run and places fourth while Ryan Newman gets his third straight top-five by finishing fifth. Sterling Marlin leads the most laps in placing sixth, while Terry LaBonte is none worse for the wear in getting seventh, while remaining 17th in the point standings. Ward Burton gets his second top-ten of the year in eighth while Elliott Sadler and Ricky Craven round out the top-ten.

Todd Bodine matches his best finish of the year in 11th, while pole sitter Jimmie Johnson struggled a bit and placed 12th. Jeff Gordon cut down a tire early but stayed on the lead lap thanks to the Schrader crash and would eventually place 13th. An impressive run for Bobby LaBonte ended as his team missed the set-up (Saturday practice was washed out) and would place 17th after qualifying third. Kurt Busch�s late crash relegated the #97 to a 36th place finish. Casey Atwood (Evernham #91 car) made his first start of the year and was runny very resectfully and was actually challenging for the top ten before dropping a motor on Lap 77.

In an event that I imagine Drag Queen Betty Jack Devine had at least a passing interest as (I will make no further comment) Jeff Gordon and open-wheel star Juan Pablo Montoya swapped rides this week. Gordon drove Montoya�s F1 car while Montoya drove the #24 Chevrolet, with both doing surprisingly well. Which leads to the obvious question. How would a NASCAR star do in F1 and vice versa. I think it�s safe to say that both Gordon�s (Robby and Jeff) along with Tony Stewart would do very well while a few others (Rusty Wallace, Ricky Rudd among them) would not embarrass themselves. There are others that I could just never see in the open-wheel world. I remember the old rumors every May that Dale Earnhardt was going to take a crack at the Daytona 500. That would be the most sac-religious scene I could ever imagine, same goes for Dale Jr.. Without knowing a whole lot about the F1 scene, I couldn�t see Montoya or either of the Schumacher�s faring that well in Cup, especially considering that Stock Cars are nearly non-existent outside of North America. If you put one of those guys in a middle of the Bristol/Darlington/Richmond/New Hampshire/Dover stretch I think they�d find the wall five straight weeks, throw their hands up in frustration, and would beg their way back into the F1 circuit.

But a one-time foreign open-wheel star is about to get his chance in Cup as Petty Enterprises ended their long-time association with John Andretti this week, replacing him with Christian Fittipaldi. Although the #43 has turned into NASCAR�s version of the 1970�s-�80�s Green Bay Packers, it is still one of the most recognized rides in the sport. I have not been impressed with Fittipaldi thus far but it would be nice to see him succeed perhaps in the name of spreading world-wide interest. With two road races coming up, there will be at least two of the remaining 22 races that Christian will not embarrass himself. Fittipaldi is also still honoring his commitment for four faces in the #44 car, meaning another driver will be needed for the #43 on those weeks.

Brett Bodine�s run as the last owner/driver in the sports appears to coming to an end as he will be losing sponsorship after this week. Hooter�s did not mince words saying that they were not happy with the results in the past year and a half, my question is what did they expect??? Not only were the results not there but also there was a nice slimy scandal on top of it. Morgan-McClure racing vehemently denied rumors that Kodak was about to end their long-time association of the #4 car, and then blamed the stories on �SMUT STARTED BY THAT JAYSKI GUY...� � CLASSIC!!!!! Despite the fractured tailbone, expect Jeff Green to race this Sunday in Michigan. Ron Fellows had already been slated to get in the #1 for Sonoma next weekend. After that there�s a weekend off so I imagine Green will be well enough for Daytona. Also expect what had been leaked for several weeks to become official this weekend. California gets a second race on Labor Day weekend next year, the Southern 500 moves to late October/early November, and Rockingham loses their fall race. I get replacing the Rock (60,000 if they sell out) with Cali (120,000), but moving one of the crown jewel races out of it�s traditional (since 1950) Labor Day slot is a head-scratcher. However the Darlington event could become even more interesting from a points standpoint as the third-to-last race of the season. Maybe NASCAR could just go all the way, put all the chips on the line, and make it the season finale. However that thinking may be too far out of the box.

Everyone is down on Dale Jarrett right now, so this a great week to go to the window with him. Especially considering DJ was by far the most successful driver at MIS in 2002 placing a second along with a first. The win came after spinning out early on in the event. Matt Kenseth won the June race then placed 11th in August. Also look out for Johnny Benson on his home track (6th/8th last year) along with Mark Martin (8th/5th). Others who did well here last year include Michael Waltrip (4th in June race), Ryan Newman (third in June race), Kevin Harvick (3rd in August race), and Jeff Burton (4th in August race). Dale Jr. has not had a lot of success, his best effort being a 10th last August, although he leads active drivers with a 6.7 starting average including two poles. Jeff Gordon leads active drivers with a 7.25 average finish (20 races). Others with good batting averages include Bobby LaBonte (13-21 in top tens, but none in 2000-01), Mark Martin (23-34 in top tens including four wins), Jeff Burton (8-18), and Bill Elliott (seven wins, six poles). Those who�ve not fared as well include Kurt Busch (three DNF�s in last four MIS races) and Robby Gordon (no top 15 finishes in six career starts). Here is my finishing order...