Jimmie Johnson will go for an unprecedented fourth straight Cup championship from the pole position after qualifying up front Friday to secure the top starting spot in today's season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Johnson needs to finish in 25th place or better to secure a record-setting title. Johnson ran a lap at 173.919 mph to start up front, while Scott Speed took advantage of his late draw and qualified second with a lap of 172.695 mph after being the last driver to qualify.

Johnson enters the Ford 400 with a 108-point lead over Hendrick Motorsports teammate Mark Martin, who is mathematically still in the Chase for the Cup but would have to lead the most laps and win to have a puncher's chance of claiming the title. Martin is the only other Chase driver that has the chance to overtake his teammate for the title.Johnson is clearly in control of his own destiny, all the defending champ has to do is drive up front part of the race and be among the upper half of finishing drivers in today's race.

Marcos Ambrose qualified in the third spot, posting a lap at 172.678 followed by Martin in fourth. Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, Ryan Newman, Greg Biffle, Bill Elliott, and Clint Bowyer round out the top 10 qualifying positions.

Johnson signed a contract extension on Friday with Hendrick to drive through the 2015 season, a few days before he competes for his fourth-consecutive championship. Lowe's, the home improvement chain and Johnson's primary car sponsor, also signed an extension with Hendrick to be Johnson's sponsor on the No. 48 Chevrolet through the 2013 season.

Crew chief Chad Knaus will most likely be next to sign an extension with HMS, as talks have begun to stay in line with Johnson's contract. Knaus and Johnson have been paired up since Johnson's rookie year in 2002, and his current contract runs through the 2010 season.

NASCAR jimmie johnson, mark martin, nextel cup series

Jimmie Johnson put himself in a good position to get his first road course victory after he picked up the pole position for Sunday's Heluva Good at the Glen Cup race.  Johnson put in a lap of 123.633 mph on Friday at the 2.45-mile Watkins Glen International, beating out Kurt Busch for the top spot by .008 seconds.

The final road race of the season should be a good barometer to see which drivers can emerge to challenge series points leader Tony Stewart in the five races leading up to the Chase. Denny Hamlin, winner of last weekend's race at Pocono, qualified third. Marcos Ambrose, who won last night's Nationwide Zippo 200 at The Glen, qualified fourth followed by Penske driver David Stremme. Ryan Newman, Greg Biffle, Kyle Busch, Boris Said, and Juan Pablo Montoya rounded out the top 10 positions. The weather conditions for today's race should make things interesting as rain supposed to wet the track early on. How the teams react to the changing weather on the track and which does the best to adjust to the more slippery conditions will determine which drivers will stay up front.

TOP PICKS
Tony Stewart: Though the series points leader starts 13th on a day where passing will be difficult, Stewart has four wins at Watkins Glen in his Cup career and has either won or finished second the past five races at the road course. Points leader or not, Stewart will be up front for at least part of today and always has a great shot at winning a road race.

Jimmie Johnson: The three-time Cup champion has never won on a road course in his career, but not for lack of trying. Johnson has three top-five finishes at The Glen and hasn't started from outside the top-10 since 2003. Today will be Johnson's best shot at snapping his road course slump, should he be able to stay up front.

Denny Hamlin: Hamlin's remarkable win at Pocono after the death of his grandmother, certainly has him poised to take the next step on his way towards the Chase and possibly move up a spot today. Hamlin has a top five and three top-10's at The Glen and also has never started outside the top-10 after qualifying. If he races with the same fire that he did at Pocono last week, Hamlin will be hard to stop.

SLEEPERS
Juan Pablo Montoya: After his second-place finish at Pocono, Montoya has a chance at back-to-back top-fives as he starts 10th today. Montoya has won on a road course before, Infineon in '07, and finished fourth in last season's race at The Glen. A win or a top-five today would solidify Montoya as a rising contender going into the final four races before the Chase.

Marcos Ambrose: Saturday's Nationwide race winner has a chance of winning the Cup race after qualifying fourth. Ambrose has a top-three at The Glen in Cup competition after finishing third at last year's race. He has won the Nationwide race two years running and looks to become the second driver this season to sweep both races in one weekend.

Kyle Busch: Busch, the '08 Watkins Glen winner, has tumbled to 13th in points since his seventh-place finish at Loudon in June. Busch does have three top-10 finishes at The Glen in his career, all in the past three seasons. A win would put the struggling driver back in the thick of the Chase and boost his chances of making the 10 race playoff.

NO CHANCE
Matt Kenseth: This is the one day where Kenseth will start from the back of the pack at 42nd and be unable to pass all the way to the front. Passing will be too difficult even for the former Cup champion. Kenseth's last top-10 finish at The Glen was a ninth-place run in 2004.

Joey Logano: Logano has had a great rookie season thus far posting his first win at the rain-shortened Loudon race and currently residing 19th in the Cup standings. But Logano is still too young to even think of competing in a road race. And after his run-in with Robby Gordon during the Nationwide race, he will need to mature a little more at places like The Glen and learn to stay away from wreck-magnet Gordon. Logano will start 35th.

Robby Gordon: Gordon gave away a top-five finish in yesterday's Nationwide race just to run Logano off the road. Maybe that makes sense to the seasoned Cup veteran, but that makes zero sense to me. Gordon showed his arrogance once again on the track, which will translate into more Cup futility. Gordon starts 22nd.

NASCAR jimmie johnson, heluva good at the glen, tony stewart, denny hamlin, juan pablo montoya, marcos ambrose, kyle busch

Surely, you've heard by now that a certain sideline reporter for the four-letter network had her privacy invaded by an unnamed party with a camera pointed through an opening in a hotel where she was staying. Reports from TMZ.com tend to indicate that the voyeur-in-question may have been a co-worker of Erin Andrews at the network and part of the game day crew, allegedly. This was a tasteless act committed without Andrews knowledge or permission that is virtually becoming sensationalized and has blown up every conceivable news outlet there is.

Deadspin blogged about it and posted a link to the footage of Andrews. The 'Spin editor A.J. Daulerio has since apologized, though no one knows if he had his fingers crossed while he did it. Bill O'Reilly played clips of the video in question on his show, live on television. Not a surprise considering the source, but even he should know better. Andrews' employer, ESPN, is trying everything to stop people from seeing this nude video of one of their prized employees, including banning New York Post personalities from their shows. Not a major loss, but if the sports network keeps rooting out those news services that put Andrews' unclothed, blurred out pics online it makes you wonder if they secretly want to keep this story going. Sure they would like for it to go away, yet are drawing more attention and curiosity from its audience just so the network can sweep this unfortunate incident under their rug.

The revealing of sports celebrities or on-air personalities private lives is nothing new in the era of twitter and internet blogging. With that comes some distortion of the truth at time. While most of Bengals receiver Chris Henry's mistakes have been well-documented, I'm sure now all he has to do is look at some over served fan the wrong way and next thing you know he's back to being the old Chris Henry.

What separates this incident from ones involving other visible sports personalties, is that Ms. Andrews is a beautiful, pinup-style sideline reporter who has not herself attracted undue attention from her actions. Andrews has at times seemed to play to the frat-boy, party crowd while doing her job covering sporting events, adding to her popularity and ratings. Besides that she hasn't incriminated herself publicly in anyway.

That her privacy invasion has made this big of a splash in the media so quickly already is another troubling aspect. Within a day if a football star runs over a person, like Donte Stallworth did, it is all over ESPN and all sports outlets. Coverage of his trial is seen and heard until their is an outcome. But this is different. Andrews own body was videotaped in her hotel room without her knowledge. Now this problem is magnified by most mainstream news services and she is being publicly objectified.

Unfortunately, for better or worse this story will go on until they find who did this and Ms. Andrews gets the legal justice she's looking for. It just seems like just because she's a pretty face and her bare self was photographed and splashed on the web, that it's open season on showing those pictures and all news organizations will just follow suit. At this point Deadspin and TMZ are still feeding the fire, when they should've checked themselves to start with. While Deadspin apologized, most other outlets will just keep going saying its news and should be reported. The message sent is that while what happened to Andrews is heinous and deplorable, we as a news organization will show you this and keep objectifying the product, Erin Andrews.  

Look I love football and college football as much as the next red-blooded American male and I am also guilty of viewing Erin Andrews more than just for her sideline reporting skills. But there has to be a point where the pursuit of TV or web ratings has to chill out once a story like this gets out. It's stuff like this that messes up something good. In the future do you want all-male sideline reporters?  Those females who would like to break into the business might think twice from now on.

This could all be some backward publicity stunt hatched by the people at the four-letter network to get better ratings for their football programming involving Andrews in the future. As unlikely as that sounds, it is something to think about in these rough economic times.

The handling of this story could have been better handled by Deadspin, the New York Post, and even ESPN to some degree. The drive for ratings and attention has to have a stopping point. Showing Andrews blurred out body has no real journalistic purpose. Condemning this behavior instead of ingratiating it would have been the better way to go.  

erin andrews, espn, peep hole video, peepgate

Not necessarily being the most dominant driver at Martinsville didn't stop Jimmie Johnson from winning at the short track for the fifth time in the past six Cup races there. Johnson took the lead from Denny Hamlin, who led a race-high 296 laps, with 15 laps remaining on an aggressive pass on Lap 485 and held on to win the Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500.

Johnson and Hamlin battled hard towards the end with the Hendrick driver winning by a .774 second margin. The victory was the 41st win of Johnson's career and his first of the season. He now has totaled six of those wins at Martinsville, quickly becoming one of Johnson's best tracks. Owner Rick Hendrick has 18 wins there, including this latest one on the 25th anniversary of his first win as a car owner.

Tony Stewart finished third followed by Johnson teammate and series points leader Jeff Gordon in fourth, with Clint Bowyer following suit in fifth place. Ryan Newman, Mark Martin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., A.J. Allmendinger, and Jamie McMurray rounded out the top 10.

Hamlin had wrested the lead from Johnson with a bold move to the inside on a Lap 456 restart. Johnson trailed Hamlin through two short green-flag runs and two cautions before Johnson saw his opportunity seven laps after a restart on Lap 478. Entering Turn 3 on Lap 485, Johnson nosed beneath Hamlin's No. 11 Toyota. Hamlin squeezed Johnson to the inside and the No. 48 Chevy bounced off the inside curb. Johnson slid up the track, and contact between the two lead cars allowed Johnson to pass for the lead.

Though for many of the race's laps the race was a two-man show that didn't involve Johnson. Gordon led 141 of the first 155 laps before Hamlin slipped into the inside of Gordon at Turn 4 of Lap 156 and held the top spot for 187 laps until Gordon passed him on Lap 343. Six laps later Hamlin would again have the lead before dealing with the points leader again. After holding of Gordon, Hamlin would have to try and hold off the hard-charging Johson, who got the lead on Lap 434 after coming out first from pit row. Hamlin dived to the inside of Johnson on Lap 456, which was helped by Kyle Busch's car which was one lap down and the first lapped car on the inside lane. Busch gave Hamlin enough room to pass Johnson on the inside corner.

Six of the top eight positions belonged to Hendrick cars(Gordon, Johnson, Martin, and Earnhardt.)

The Busch brothers were unable to keep their streak of wins going beyond three races and were non-factors at a short track race, which is rare indeed. Kurt started second but steadily fell and finished 18th, while Kyle had a tire issue which caused him to end up 24th at the finish.

Gordon extended his lead in the points standings to 89 over second-place Bowyer and 132 over Kurt Busch.

Geoffrey Bodine won the 1984 Sovran Bank 500 at Martinsville, which was the first of many Cup victories to come for Hendrick Motorsports. Johnson's win was the 176th of Hendrick's career.

NASCAR martinsville, jimmy johnson, denny hamlin, tony stewart, jeff gordon, clint bowyer, ryan newman, mark martin, dale earnhardt jr, aj allmedinger, jamie mcmurray, kyle busch, kurt busch, geoffrey bodine

Ryan Newman has been said to be the rumored second driver for Tony Stewart's new race team for next season. Stewart has yet to confirm Newman as the prime candidate for his second car, but Newman himself confirmed that he is in the running for the spot before the LifeLock.com Sprint Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway two weeks ago.

Newman announced to NASCAR.com's David Caraviello that "driving for Tony's team is an option." He went on to comment on Stewart: "Tony's a great competitor in a great many ways, because he's tough, but he's also respectful," said Newman, like Stewart a native of Indiana. "He's been a good friend on and off the racetrack, specifically off. He's done a lot to help me and guide me. He's an Indiana boy, so I have a different respect for him because of that. But in general, he's just a hard-nosed racer, and I've always appreciated him for that. Whether we argue on the racetrack or not, we're two hard-nosed racers."

Stewart is leaving his long-held seat at Joe Gibbs Racing at the end of this season to become an owner-driver with the newly formed Stewart-Haas race team. The two-time Cup champion will own half the race team, which will start as a two-car operation in 2009. Now that Newman will no longer be affiliated with Penske Racing after this season, the driver of the No. 12 Alltel Dodge and the organization decided to part ways before the Chicagoland race, his name has shot to the top of possible candidates who could join Stewart in his new team. There has been speculation that Stewart would name Newman as his second driver in a press conference as soon as Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The only announcement from Stewart is that he's going to drive the No. 14 car with Office Depot and Old Spice gracing his hoods.

Newman hasn't made his mind up according to sources close to the situation. Joe Gibbs Racing has an opening with Stewart leaving and could sway this year's Daytona 500 winner. Nationwide Series phenom Joey Logano has also been linked with the No. 20. Though it remains to be seen if that was to happen with Newman in a new team or if Newman would jump in the 20 car with Logano in a fourth team for JGR.

Stewart wants a driver not content with running in the top 15 to 20 positions in points and he wants to be able to mesh with that driver. Both drivers want to contend for championships and want to be put in a position to do so. Newman has not made the Chase since 2005 and would like to get back there soon. He comes to Indianapolis ranked 16th in the points and looking to move up.

Newman wants to do way better and be more consistent on the track than he is right now. If Stewart's team is the right fit then so be it, but Newman is going to be a hot commodity as a free agent since Greg Biffle went off the market after re-signing with Roush Fenway Racing for another three seasons. This story will keep going until Newman announces where he's going so stay tuned. 

NASCAR ryan newman, joey logano, tony stewart, greg biffle

Here's a rundown of the Sprint Cup drivers who will most likely be switching teams for the 2009 season:

Mark Martin confirmed Friday that he will give up his duties driving the No. 8 car for Dale Earnhardt Inc. to drive the No. 5 car full-time next season for Hendrick Motorsports. A four-time Series runner-up, Martin will take one last shot at winning the Cup title before splitting the 2010 season with a driver to be named. Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 88 in the Nationwide Series, is an option. Martin, 49, almost won last year's Daytona 500 with Ginn Racing, before Kevin Harvick beat him to the line, so he has shown he can still be a very competitive and a winning race car driver. This may be his best shot at winning a Cup title.

Casey Mears will be leaving the No. 5 car at the end of this season due to inconsistency on the track and a lack of results from the team. Mears finished 15th in the points standings last year with Hendrick's No. 25 team, who are now part of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s No. 88 team, and won the Coca-Cola 600 with them. Once he finds a team Mears will be in his fifth program in as many years, starting his career with Chip Ganassi Racing in the No. 41 and 42 cars before joining Hendrick last season. Mears has been linked to the fourth driver team of Richard Childress Racing that will start next season and a possible opening at Joe Gibbs Racing where Tony Stewart may leave at the end of this season. Mears is the best driver with the worst luck in the Cup Series, but he'll land on his feet somewhere and get the support he needs.

Dario Franchitti's No. 40 team has been shut down by Ganassi Racing because of lack of funding. The team cited "lack of sponsorship funding", for cutting the No. 40 team which resulted in 71 layoffs. Ganassi officials have said that they are "committed to Franchitti's continued stock-car development." Franchitti has missed five races this season due to a broken ankle at the Nationwide Talladega race. Franchitti is set to speak with Chip Ganassi next week concerning his future, which could include the former IndyCar champ to race in the Nationwide Series for the rest of the season.

Tony Stewart has reached an agreement with Office Depot to be the sponsor of his car if he can finalize a deal with Haas CNC Racing to become a part-owner/driver with the team. The two-time Cup champion has been in serious talks with both Haas since early this season, furthering speculation that he will want to be released from the last year of his contract with Gibbs Racing. An announcement could be made as soon as the July 27 race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, near Stewart's hometown of Columbus, Ind. Stewart would need an official release from his deal with Gibbs, before he can move to another team. JD Gibbs has said that the organization might be willing to start a fourth team to make room for 18-year-old phenom Joey Logano.

NASCAR mark martin, casey mears, dario franchitti, tony stewart

Busch takes pole, Kahne looks to build on All-Star win 
Kyle Busch ran a fastest lap of 185.433 on Thursday to take the pole position for Sunday night's Coca-Cola 600. Kasey Kahne, looking to build momentum after an impressive win in the All-Star Challenge, qualified second making for a formidable front row featuring two of NASCAR'S hottest young guns. Kahne's season starting promising with four top-10's in five races, but has yet to find consistency as of late. Busch on the other hand has been arguably the best driver up until this point of the season, winning three races and riding high atop the Sprint Cup points standings. Kahne will be attempting to lay the ground work on a much more consistent season compared to last year, while Busch will try to stretch his points lead over Jeff Burton into triple digits.

TOP PICKS
Kyle Busch: The aforementioned Busch has been on an impressive early season tear, picking up wins at Atlanta, Talladega, and Darlington. The points leader has not had the best of luck at Lowe's in the past, but with his momentum this may be his best shot at winning one of NASCAR's premier races.

Kasey Kahne: Kahne smoothed over doubts that he was capable of putting together a solid string of runs by passing Jimmie Johnson for the victory in the All-Star Challenge. He will be going after another big payday, but will have to contend with drivers that will be on their best game. Kahne swept both Lowe's races in '06 and is starting to figure out what it takes to make it to the Chase.

Jimmie Johnson: Mr. Lowe's himself has collected five wins at his sponsor's track, sweeping the season's races there in '04 and the '05 seasons. Johnson is usually a virtual lock to finish in the top-five or above, but his best finish there last season was only 10th. Most drivers would take that any year, though Johnson seems to hold himself to a higher standard here since he owns on this intermediate speedway.

SLEEPERS
Brian Vickers/A.J. Allmendinger: Allmendinger managed to hold off a hard-charging Sam Hornish Jr. to take Sprint Showdown to get in the All-Star race. And with Vickers qualifying third, this pair of teammates could give the wily vets a run for the money Sunday night. Vickers may be the most likely to surprise fans, but Allmendinger running up front and showing signs that he's starting to "get it" in NASCAR may be a sign he is ready to take the next step.

Greg Biffle: Biffle hasn't broke the top-10 at Lowe's since finishing seventh two seasons ago, but is racing for a major extension with Roush Fenway. Never underestimate drivers with jobs on the line. Biffle has 11 career wins at intermediate tracks.

Jamie McMurray: Kahne's season hasn't been nearly as inconsistent as McMurray's. He had his breakthough win at Lowe's while subbing for Sterling Marlin in only his second Cup start. McMurray will need help, but he has proven he can get up front and keep a lead here.

NO CHANCE
Ryan Newman: Newman has never had good luck here and has not finished above 27th in his past four races at Lowe's. Will at least look to avoid finishing in the latter half of drivers in this race.

Juan Montoya: The driver everyone loves to hate has yet to score big at any intermediate track that isn't a road course. With Marlin filling in for Franchitti and Reed Sorenson being the only other Ganassi driver in the field, Chip might have a better day with his Indy Cars than his Cup teams.

Elliott Sadler: Sadler hasn't finished on the lead lap at Lowe's since the spring race in '05 when he finished 13th. Sadler might have a small window to chase the leader if he gets towards the front where teammate Kahne is, but look for him to keep sliding back.

NASCAR coca-cola 600, kyle busch, kasey kahne, jimmie johnson, brian vickers, a.j. allmendinger, greg biffle, jamie mcmurray, ryan newman, juan montoya, elliott sadler

Carl Edwards was penalized 100 championship driver points Wednesday by NASCAR for a rule infraction involving the oil tank lid cover on his car following his victory Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Edwards stay atop the Sprint Cup leader board was short lived as he went from a 21-point lead over Kyle Busch to seventh place following the penalties. Edwards also lost the 10 bonus points he would have gotten when the points are reshuffled for the Chase to the Championship should he be one of the 12 drivers to qualify for the 10-race playoff. It is the first time that NASCAR has deducted those points for winning a race since that bonus system was put in.

Edwards crew chief Bob Osborne was fined $100,000 and was suspended for the next six races, while team owner Jack Roush was penalized 100 owner points. NASCAR discovered the infraction during post-race inspection that the lid from Edwards' oil tank had come off. NASCAR officials said that could create an aerodynamic advantage because it allows air to escape inside the car to create more downforce.

Rusty Wallace, whose Nationwide Series team was fined for a similar incident at Daytona before it was overturned, said that would create a minimal advantage at a track such as Las Vegas. The biggest difference between Edwards' car and Wallace's Nationwide team is that the lid came completely off the Sprint star's car. They were bent in several Nationwide cars.

Roush Fenway Racing president Geoff Smith said that it is in the best interest of the team for Osborne to begin serving his suspension immediately starting with this weekend's race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Missing races earlier in the season would be better than and not be as detrimental as it would be closer to the start of the Chase. Chris Andrews, the head of the engineering department at Roush Fenway, will serve as Edwards' interim crew chief until Osborne returns. He will be assisted on top of the pit box by Robbie Reiser, Matt Kenseth's longtime crew chief, who was promoted to general manager of the race teams during the offseason.

Edwards will be better off getting this penalty out of the way this early in the season. Had something like this happened much closer to the Chase started, it may have had a major effect on whether or not he would be in the playoff. Even if what they were penalized for, at least in the eyes of some experienced racing personnel, only gave them a slight advantage on the track. Edwards has plenty of time to catch back up.    

NASCAR