JUAN PABLO MONTOYA“This racing is incredible.''

LOUDON, N.H. - To Juan Pablo Montoya, who has piloted the jewels of automobiles, the old-school Sprint Cup racecar is about as sporty as an 18-wheeler trying to pick its way around Storrow Drive.

“As a car to drive, from the things I’ve driven, it handles horrible. The old car did as well,’’ said Montoya of the Car of Tomorrow and the previous Cup vehicle.

Before his migration to NASCAR, Montoya commanded the cockpit of the multimillion-dollar BMW Williams rocket ship. When Montoya stepped on the gas, the lightweight Formula One machine sprinted with a fury. When he stomped on the brakes, the car stopped in an instant. When he turned the wheel, the car jerked to the side while its tires kept its clutches on the track.

Just about none of that stuff applies in NASCAR.

The car handles like a dump truck. It requires touch, especially at a flat track such as New Hampshire Motor Speedway, to go fast on the straightaways, slow down in the corners, rotate the car, and power through the turn. But for all those drawbacks, Montoya is having more fun in NASCAR than he ever did in F1 because of the fireworks involved in stock car racing.

“I’ve driven all the great cars,’’ Montoya said. “But the racing has always been terrible. This racing is incredible. I love it. I get a kick out of it. I had more fun in Formula One when we used to go get some rentals and go play with friends. That was more exciting. This is why I love it here. You race close to everybody. You pass cars. Cars pass you. In Formula One, nothing happens. You come in, you go, you come in, you go, and that’s it.’’

Montoya may be having more fun now that he’s in the running for the Chase for the Cup. Montoya is 12th in points, and will start in the 12th position tomorrow for the Lenox Industrial Tools 301. Montoya will be hustling after his fourth straight top-10 finish.

“I knew it was going to take time,’’ Montoya said of his adjustment to NASCAR. “I knew there were going to be good races. There were going to be weeks where everything clicked and we were going to run great. But there were going to be a lot of weeks where it was going to be trouble. When I came to Ganassi, the team was running OK. But it wasn’t a great team. So we’ve done a lot of work over the last couple of years to get to where we are. It’s been hard. Last year was a tough season changing crew chiefs and everything. I think the ability is there and the momentum is there. We’ve just got to keep the ball rolling.’’

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Ferrari: Le Mans programme unlikely

By Jonathan Noble and Matt Beer Saturday, June 27th 2009, 10:04 GMT

Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo has played down the chances of the legendary manufacturer making a full-scale return to the Le Mans 24 Hours in the near future.

Di Montezemolo attended this year's race as the official starter, and at the height of the row over Formula 1's future he had hinted that Le Mans could be an alternative should Ferrari decide to pull out of F1.

But with the world championship's future looking much brighter after this week's exit, di Montezemolo believes it will be impossible to devote sufficient attention to Le Mans alongside Ferrari's F1 efforts.

"Le Mans is unique, I have been really fascinated by Le Mans," said di Montezemolo in an interview with Ferrari's website. "Unfortunately to race at Le Mans you have to concentrate for many, many months to prepare, to test and develop a car for Le Mans, and I think this today is quite impossible to do at the same time as racing at the maximum level in F1."

He did concede that the classic endurance race held great appeal for Ferrari.

"Having said that, we will see because Le Mans is something fantastic, as Sebring, endurance races, night, day, two drivers, I love it and sooner or later we will want to go back with an official car," said di Montezemolo.

Ferrari has continued to be represented at Le Mans by works-blessed private cars, such as the Risi Ferrari 430 that won the GT2 class this year.

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The Fiat Offers Italian Flair at Blue-Collar Prices

From the Brochure Collection of Steve Hayes

1981 Spider 2000 More Photos »

Like classic Austin-Healeys, MGs and Triumphs of the bell-bottom era, Fiats could be lovely to look at and delightful on the road. In particular, they were loads of fun when driven with urgency — ideally with the engine screaming at maximum revs and with minimal regard to the tires’ limits of adhesion.

But they also carried the stigma of being unable to return home from dinner and a movie without an alternator dying, a fuel pump expiring or a head gasket blowing. Worse yet, many of the cars that Fiat sold in the United States before pulling up stakes in 1983 tended to age badly, suffering from poor paint, metastatic rust and fragile trim.

The reputation for shoddy quality may be the product of a few historical factors: pressing demand in postwar Italy for low-cost cars; a desperate need to export as the country rebuilt; and trade restrictions that kept high-quality Japanese cars out of the home market.

Bill Baker was the public relations director for Fiat North America in 1978-83, and he was a busy man. During his tenure, the federal government issued a highly unusual recall for the Fiat 850 — going back 10 years — for rust problems. Mr. Baker also had to cope with dealers who had never received service manuals in English for some models.

The 1979 introduction of what was supposed to be a world-beating economy hatchback, the Strada, instead turned out to be a swan song: that car was the last Fiat-branded product in the United States. Among the Strada’s myriad faults, Mr. Baker recalls, was an engine compartment that got so hot the electric cooling fan, controlled by a thermostat, would never shut off. It simply stayed on until it drained the battery. Even impressive gas mileage — the E.P.A. highway rating was 38 m.p.g. — would not sustain the troublesome Strada.

Jonathan Stein, an automotive historian who comes from a family of Fiat owners, recalls a particular 1981 Fiat 131 sedan bought after sitting on a dealer’s lot for a year. “The car already had body rust when we bought it,” he said. “Every six months, we had to return it to the dealer to have the rust repaired.”

My mother, Joyce Sass, recalls her 1981 Spider 2000, painted a pretty shade of light blue, as the “bring it on by” car. It earned the name because that was the phrase consistently offered by the service manager of Archway Imports in St. Louis, in response to her latest description of the car’s malfunctions.

Some Fiat owners did get excellent service from their cars. Rich Williams of Santa Barbara, Calif., owned a 1976 124 Spider from 1986 until 2001. “I bought it not because I had any interest in Fiats per se, but simply because I was a poor grad student,” he said. “It was cheap transportation, and the top went down.”

Mr. Williams’s care for his 124 was not exactly that of a doting owner. “I rarely changed the oil, and I bought the cheapest parts for it possible,” he said. “Still, I got about 125,000 miles out of it. It only broke down on me once.

“I did go through numerous convertible tops, though. When they wore out, I just drove to the manufacturer in L.A., bought a top and replaced it myself.”

Mr. Baker said he thought that at the time Fiat left the United States in 1983, the company’s management simply didn’t understand how the American market was evolving. “We kept telling them that quality was becoming the most important attribute to American buyers, and their response was, ‘How good is good enough?’” he said.

Still, Fiats were often a darling of the enthusiast press. In 1967, Road & Track called the Fiat 850 coupe “one of the handsomest, best-balanced designs ever seen on a small car.” And of the 1100R sedan tested the same year, it said, “Despite the car’s first purpose as economy transportation, it can deliver more sheer fun than almost any small sedan on the market.”

Little has changed in this regard. John Montgomery, president of Fiat Lancia Unlimited, a club based in Coldwater, Mich., said vintage Fiat sports cars had a junior-exotic appeal, giving enthusiasts of average means a taste of the Ferrari experience.

In addition to common ownership, Fiat and Ferrari have often shared the services of styling houses like Pininfarina and Bertone, Mr. Montgomery points out. Little surprise, then, that the Fiat 124 Spider bears more than a passing resemblance to the Ferrari 275 GTS, and the wedge profile of the Fiat X 1/9 can be seen in the Ferrari 308 GT/4.

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Pile-up in world of fast cars...

  Posted on » Friday, June 26, 2009

You may have noticed that Formula One, one of the grandest and most popular sports in the world, has been involved in a car crash of its own making. The governing body has collided in monumental fashion with eight of the leading teams.

Until yesterday there had been a real possibility of two rival championships next season, something that would confuse, irritate and ultimately turn off the watching public.

Some presented the impasse as a dispute about freedom. Max Mosley, the boss of the governing body, was keen to introduce stringent budget caps, something that was being resisted, particularly by many of the bigger teams, who portrayed it as an assault on their commercial autonomy, compromising their ability to spend big on innovation, wind tunnels and the other essential elements of a successful F1 operation.

But the reality is that such financial restrictions are ubiquitous across planet sport. In the National Football League and National Basketball League, two of the most lucrative leagues in the world, all franchises operate under stringent salary caps and with a collegiate draft system favouring the weaker teams. In the Premier League, a redistributive system takes television rights income from the biggest clubs and hands it to those lower down the table.

All these regulations guard against the threat that one financially muscular team (or coterie of teams) will monopolise the competition to the exclusion of everyone else; they are there to ensure the kind of intense, vigorous, unpredictable sporting dynamic that most fans want to see.

But, as with all financial regulation, there is a delicate balance to be struck. In the case of the Premier League, for example, the governing body knows that competition could be increased further if more money were taken from the big four and handed to the rest. So, why doesn't it act? Because it fears that any more financial interference will cause the top clubs to form a breakaway league.

Mosley's radical vision was precisely what Formula One needed, reducing barriers to entry, bringing more teams on to the grid and creating more excitement from those already on it. Competition cannot work, cannot exist, unless it is protected by regulation. Deep down, many of the teams understand this, which is why they have at least accepted the principle of a budget cap, even if they rebelled over the details.

All of which hints at a deeper truth: that what was really exercising the teams is not the cap itself but Mosley's "dictatorial" style, introducing rule changes without proper consultation. In which case this dispute was less about freedom than democracy.

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Great roads . . . great rides

There are great roads. There are great cars. Is it possible to choose a car that's just right for a particular great stretch of road? Wheels columnist Jim Kenzie gives it his best shot, with the promise that if you find yourself on any of these roads in almost any car, you're bound to have a memorable drive.

1.THE ROAD

Italy's Dolomites region

THE RIDE

Maserati Gran Turismo

Northeastern Italy is one of my favourite places. It combines the brio of Italy with Teutonic tidiness - for much of history, this region was part of Austria.

Cortina d'Ampezzo, site of the 1956 Winter Olympics, is so exclusive, the residents stopped the Italian government from building an autostrada into town - if you don't already live here, they don't want you.

The rugged Dolomites, with ridges that look like the backs of dinosaurs, are like chameleons, if you'll pardon the extended reptilian metaphor - they change colour as the day passes; white in the morning, golden in the afternoon, pink as evening approaches.

The roads are narrow, and you sometimes come across an old Fiat tractor putt-putting along as the farmer heads to his sheep fold. Good brakes are a must.

The Maserati Gran Turismo, a two-door two-plus-two coupe in the grand touring tradition, is designed to take (typically) two people and their luggage, at speed, in comfort, to All the Best Places. The Ferrari-based V8 engine takes care of the speed part very comfortably.

The so-called "skyhook" active suspension takes care of the "comfortable" part equally as comfortably.

2. THE ROAD Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia

THE RIDE Cadillac CTS

The Blue Ridge Parkway, running from just west of Charlottesville, Va. southwest for 750 kilometres along the Appalachian Mountains to Cherokee, N.C., was built as a make-work project during the Great Depression.

The beautifully-maintained two-lane road is within a series of national parks, with a rigidly enforced 90 km/h speed limit, so throttle back, and enjoy the ambiance of a bygone era.

The views over the Smoky (and smoky) Mountains are spectacular; there are places where you can see forever both east and west. Take extra care at dusk, because white-tailed deer are everywhere.

Cadillac was the car brand in the 1930s when this road was built, so it is doubly appropriate that one of my most entertaining drives on this road was in a Cadillac, the CTS mid-size sports sedan that helped put Cadillac back on the luxury car radar screen. That was the first-generation CTS, launched in 2003; the newer one, introduced in 2008, is even better. Strong engines, taut handling - yes, in a Cadillac - and all the mod cons that the famous nameplate promises.

3. THE ROAD Alicante to Benidorm, Spain

THE RIDE BMW Z4

No country save perhaps Ireland has benefited more from European Union membership than Spain - massive investments have improved the road network beyond all reckoning.

But few European countries have been hit harder by the economic depression than Spain. Huge apartment/condo blocks in Benidorm stand unsold, many of them unfinished.

Both factors conspire to create a driver's dream world - beautifully-surfaced roads, with very little traffic.

Alicante to Benidorm can be reached in 40 minutes on the fee-charging AutoVia (toll freeway). But why would you? In the hinterland routes, the fun never stops. Ups, downs, rights, lefts. There are even straight stretches once in a while if you have to blow by the rare transport truck.

My steed was the new BMW Z4 roadster, with the 300-horsepower, 3.0-litre twin-turbo six cylinder engine, which is a perennial winner in the International Engine of the Year awards.

The styling of the new Z4 is less radical than its predecessor, yet equally striking. The addition of a folding steel hardtop seriously impacts trunk space and accessibility, but increases the car's all-weather capability. Trust me - in southern Spain, the top will be down.

 

4. THE ROAD Germany's Autobahn

THE RIDE Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster

The question is often asked: If the speed limit is 100 km/h, why are some cars capable of twice that?

Thank heavens for Germany. It's the last place on Earth where there are no speed limits (at least on on ever-diminishing sub-set of their Autobahn superhighways, although a limit of 130 km/h is "recommended").

On the face of it, the A5 autobahn north out of Frankfurt has nothing to recommend it as a driving road. Other than it leads out of Frankfurt. Yes, Wiesbaden with its casino and spas isn't far away. Nor are the pretty Taunus Mountains.

The road is three lanes wide in each direction at this point. I saw the sign all German drivers love to see - a white circle with three diagonal lines, which means: "Go Nuts'' (not sure of the exact German translation).

This was God's way of telling me to get the hammer down, which in this case was the accelerator pedal of a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren roadster, a 626-horsepower supercharged V8 monster; one of the fastest cars in the world.

The throttles gaped open; the intake roar combining with the exhaust bellow sounded like the beast from hell. The speedo needle continued to rotate clockwise.

The car registered 300 km/h even, which is faster than the lift-off velocity of a jet airliner. It was also the fastest I have ever travelled on land. I didn't stay there for long. Everyone else on the highway seemed to be backing up. Down to 200 km/h - twice the limit in my part of the world.

The best part of 300 km/h on A5? It was legal.

5. THE ROAD 60-km autour de Nice

THE RIDE Jaguar XF

The roads around the flower capital of the world twist and turn through the ancient towns and villages of the Maritime Alps, with glimpses of the blue Mediterranean in the distance. It's a region steeped in history: Grasse, with its perfume factories; the Col de Vence and the medieval walled town of St-Paul; Cannes, of film festival fame.

Or, you can follow the Lower Corniche along the seafront, and even do a lap or two of the Grand Prix circuit in Monaco.

Jaguar has traditionally used this region to introduce their new cars. Last year, it was the turn of the XF mid-size sports sedan. The sleek five-seater has an all-new interior design and new engines to go along with Jag's traditional ride comfort and sporty handling.

Oooh-la-la.

6. THE ROAD To Leading Tickles, Nfld.

THE RIDE Mini Cooper S JCW

The Targa Newfoundland Rally is one of the great motorsport events in the world. I've run this event for each of its seven years, all but the first one in a Mini Cooper S JCW.

The 30-odd-kilometre run from Point Leamington to Leading Tickles is entertaining and challenging, even when there is other traffic on the road. Like most secondary roads in Newfoundland, the surface is variable - smooth one klick, potholed the next.

At the speeds we reach in the rally - more than 170 km/h on this stage - some of those long, sweeping curves will pucker every orifice in your body. At semi-legal speeds, they're still fun.

At the start, you run alongside Southwest Arm (part of Notre Dame Bay). The road devolves into a more prosaic run through scrub forest, emerging near the northern coast in a series of long, sweeping curves, finally crossing a long bridge to enter the town.

The Mini Cooper S is ideal for this sort of drive. Fast, excellent handling, terrific brakes, small enough to be nimble in the tight spots.

7. THE ROAD California Highway 1

THE RIDE Ford Mustang Convertible

California 1 from San Francisco to Los Angeles is truly one of the great driving roads in the world. Driving it southbound is not recommended for acrophobes - if you fall off, your clothes would be back in style by the time you hit the Pacific Ocean.

The northernmost section south of San Francisco is surprisingly rural in spots, passing through small towns like Davenport. It gets crowded through Santa Cruz, then you work your way into farm country.

Monterey with its fantastic aquarium, vestiges of John Steinbeck's Cannery Row, Monarch butterflies in Pacific Grove (in season) and the famed Pebble Beach golf course on 17 Mile Drive, is tourism time well spent.

Continue south through the brooding forests of Big Sur, then into sweeping coastal vistas. The Hearst Castle in San Simeon, playground of newspaper mogul Randolph Hearst, is so obscenely opulent it'll turn the most rock-ribbed conservative into a socialist.

At Pismo Beach the road curves inland for a stretch, rejoining the coast at Gaviota. The road tames as it passes lovely, laid-back Santa Barbara, through Malibu and on into Shakytown.

If you're going to drive this most American of great roads, it seems natural to do it in the most American of cars - a Ford Mustang convertible. The recently updated Mustang is a surprisingly refined car, with excellent performance from the base six cylinder or GT's V8.

Good looks and decent handling, too.

8. THE ROAD Chapman's Peak Highway, South Africa

THE RIDE Superformance Cobra

South Africa is among the most interesting places in the world, and one of the most beautiful, too. The Chapman's Peak Highway runs between Hout Bay and Noordhoek, just south of Cape Town. As with many of these great roads, it runs along an ocean coast - in this case, the South Atlantic.

It's only 10 kilometres long, but it ranks among the most breathtaking drives on Earth. Sunsets are particularly sensational here. There are quite a few parking places, but get there early (bring a picnic supper) because they fill up fast.

You might not know that South Africa has a fairly substantial automobile industry. Most of the major players, even prestigious manufacturers, have assembly operations there. Let's go with an exotic mount - a Ford Cobra. Not a real one, but what most experts consider to be the best replica, built by the Superformance outfit in Port Elizabeth, about 750 kilometres east of Cape Town. A fully modern suspension system and your choice of new Ford engines means your Cobra will handle Chapman's Peak far better and much more safely than an original one would.

9. THE ROAD The "Alphabet Highway" to Nikko, Japan

THE RIDE Nissan GT-R

Everybody knows the Japanese build good cars. There are dozens of exotic high-performance cars there, which usually meet safety and emissions standards but not, apparently, the objectives of the marketing mavens for the North American subsidiaries.

We also don't hear much about Japanese performance car culture. We have this image of them all driving slowly, politely, on immaculately maintained highways - which is largely true. But there is at least one road there that tends to bring out the hooligan element, and is one of the most challenging stretches of pavement you'll ever find.

The Irohazaka Road runs from the resort town of Nikko, about 130 kilometres north of Tokyo. It is nicknamed the "Alphabet" road because the original contained 48 hairpins, one for each character in the ancient Japanese alphabet.

A re-engineering effort in the 1950s reduced this to a mere 30, but a second road was completed in 1965 for uphill traffic (the original was all downhill), bringing the number back to the mystical 48. Your front wheels still won't be pointing straight for much of this run. You'll also have to deal with driving hooligans, hordes of motorcycles, and the occasional idiot who stops to take pictures of the monkeys frolicking by the roadside.

The obvious car to choose for this trip would be the Nissan GT-R. The first time I drove this road was in the third-generation GT-R, then a twin-turbo inline six-cylinder four-wheel drive sports coupe that quickly made a name for itself in any country lucky enough for it to be offered for sale.

Sadly, not ours. We had to wait for the current sixth-generation version.

10. THE ROAD Banff-Jasper Highway

THE RIDE Audi TT

The National Parks of Banff and Jasper, Alta., are two of the most scenic sites anywhere. And fortunately, they're linked by an equally sensational highway.

The Icefields Parkway spins some 230 kilometres from Banff, up to Jasper. It's non-stop "Ho hum, another gorgeous mountain view ..... '' the entire way.

The road, officially Alberta Highway 93, is well-engineered but largely only two lanes. In summer, it can be very crowded, with motorhomes, cyclists and rubber-necking camera-toting tourists creating additional hazards. Not to mention the four-legged wildlife, which abounds.

The ice theme suggests a car that would be ideal for something like this - the Audi TT quattro.

Chances are you won't drive this route in winter, but in these parts winter is defined as two weeks of bad skiing, so the TT quattro's four-wheel drive might come in handy.

The stylish little sports coupe is also a nimble handler, with a strong turbocharged engine and slick-shifting gearbox.

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Ferrari may shift focus on to 2010 car

Friday, June 26th 2009, 20:21 GMT

Ferrari has dropped a firm hint that it will soon switch its focus on to the 2010 car, with its current F60 having failed to prove a match for the race-winning Brawn and Red Bull Racing cars.

With Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen having scored just one podium finish so far this year, the team has little chance of turning its fortunes around in time to battle for the title.

And that is why Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has suggested that the team will soon start shifting its efforts on to making sure that it gets its 2010 car spot on.

"I am confident we can improve our performance in the next races, but having said that it is quite difficult if not impossible really to dramatically change the car during the season without tests," di Montezemolo told the official Ferrari website.

"When you have a car at the beginning of the season with certain characteristics it is difficult to change it during the season between one race and the other.

"But I am very confident we can improve our performances in the next race, and then we will be fully concentrated to next year's car, without KERS, with clear rules after the important agreement that we have been very pleased to find with the FIA last week."

Di Montezemolo has once again blamed the early season uncertainty over double-decker diffusers for playing a part in Ferrari's troubles this season.

"Unfortunately we started the season with grey rules," he said. "It is difficult to give a correct interpretation, and the proof is that the three teams that have won the last F1 world championship - like Ferrari, McLaren and Renault have made the same interpretation of the rules, and they are not as competitive as before.

"This is one of the reasons of our battle, to have rules more stable, clear, transparent, and we have done the car with the KERS, it means more weight on the car and a lot of other teams have not done the KERS.

"So if the federation wants to introduce the KERS, it has to be the same for everybody. Now I think it is time to go back to clear rules."

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INSIDE NASCAR

The two biggest racing series in the world, Formula 1 and NASCAR, don't have much in common. NASCAR's big, bulky stock cars pale in comparison to F1's open-wheel marvels of engineering precision, with the wind tunnel meaning just as much to a team's finish as the driver in the cockpit. With side-by-side racing difficult in F1, there are more lead changes in one stock car race than there are in one-third of an F1 season.

But off the track, the two series share a common bond of multi-car team organizations that threaten to dominate their sport. It's a hot-button issue in a tough economy, and NASCAR should take note of the tumult that swept F1 this month.

This week's agreement by FOTA and the FIA to come together for the 2010 season not only preserved the future of the open-wheel series but also allowed for an important measure: cost-cutting. For the first time, the series' biggest organizations -- Ferrari, McLaren and Toyota among them -- came together on a plan to curb spending. Sure, it wasn't exactly what FIA President Max Mosley had in mind -- he couldn't get everyone to commit to a hard cap of $60 million -- but there were still enough concessions to ensure the 2010 season will be a cheaper one.

Three new teams will still be entering the sport next year, and now the cost of staying involved will be low enough to keep the old ones from dipping in the red. That means while other series are struggling to attract new owners to the grid, the F1 series will actually expand next year by as many as half-a-dozen cars.

What does all that have to do with NASCAR? While series head Brian France has done his best to cut costs in recent years (see: no testing, the Car of Tomorrow), it hasn't been enough to attract successful new owners during this latest recession. As I documented two weeks ago, start and parkers continue to dominate the back end of the garage due to an inability to make money and remain competitive at the same time. The sport is struggling to fill its fields, and when it does, the cars that show up rarely have the cash flow and the intentions of running an entire race.

Solving the problem is difficult, but to make the playing field more cost-effective you have to find a way to make the big teams stop spending. A top-level Cup team these days has costs around $25 million per car, money not many people have when both manufacturer and sponsorship money is drying up. Yet when money is tight, the old saying rings true: "To the victors go the spoils." With the cost of competition going up each year, the bigger organizations can't stand pat with the sponsors they already have; rather, they're forced to add new ones in order to offset higher expenses.

Just look at the No. 17 of Matt Kenseth as an example. On one of the top-tier teams at Roush Fenway Racing, Kenseth used to only need money from longtime supporter DeWalt to run for the series title. But with costs increasing, the tool company can only give the team so much money, meaning Kenseth's list of backers has grown significantly. USG, R & L Carriers, and Carhartt are just some of the roughly half-a-dozen primary sponsors that will plaster the side of Kenseth's Ford this year, and that's still not enough. RFR announced recently DeWalt needs additional financial relief to keep sponsoring the car in 2010.

What's interesting about that example is two of the sponsors listed (USG and R & L Carriers) came into the sport supporting smaller organizations that no longer exist. As the balance of power shifted, these sponsors jumped ship and aligned themselves with surefire exposure -- the coverage that comes from the sport's top teams -- while leaving one less financial piece of the puzzle out there for new owners looking to develop into contenders.

Now, with the manufacturer cutbacks, that cycle of gobbling up the smaller sponsors is only going to get worse. Teams like Richard Childress Racing are set to lose as much as $10 million next season from GM's recent struggles, leaving them in desperate need of additional financial support. Rick Hendrick is in the same boat, and the sport's richest car owner announced recently the team may need additional backing for 2010 for Mark Martin's No. 5 car -- even if sponsors Kellogg's and CARQUEST stay on board.

Of course, both teams wouldn't need that money if the cost of competition went down by $10 million. But how does the cycle of spending stop?

NASCAR is looking at several options -- crate engines appear to be one likely solution -- but nothing that's a permanent answer. To solve this problem it may take a group effort the likes of which the sport has never seen before. NASCAR just had a town hall meeting with all of its participants -- perhaps it's time for a second one with just the sport's multi-car giants in the room. Roger Penske, Jack Roush, Rick Hendrick, Joe Gibbs Racing, Richard Childress and, yes, Michael Waltrip either own or supply chassis and engines to over half the Cup Series garage. Until these men can come to terms on a spending cap, they're going to keep finding ways to make the cost of competition increase: and in doing so, they'll risk pricing the sport they love right out of business.

Bowles Bits

Joey Logano may be running away with the Rookie of the Year chase, but he's only the third-best first-year driver on the circuit. Not only has Brad Keselowski won a race already (Talladega), but also Tasmanian Marcos Ambrose is having a more impressive full-time season. With two top-5 and four top-10 finishes -- including a third at Infineon -- he's up to 18th in points and has a slight chance to make the Chase. So why is Logano so far out in front? Keselowski never applied to run for this year's award, while Ambrose ran too many races last year (11) to be eligible. That's a little confusing to the casual fan, though, and you wonder if the rookie program won't get itself a revamp prior to 2010.

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With Kevin Harvick enduring the worst Cup season of his career, there's been talk he would bolt RCR and start his own team next year under the Kevin Harvick, Inc. banner. But with GM cutbacks to both the Nationwide and Truck Series, that's far less likely as Harvick's cars were among the hardest hit. How can you fund a Cup team when you need to scramble to save your lower-tier programs instead?

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With all due respect to Tony Stewart, through 16 races Jimmie Johnson remains the clear favorite to win his fourth straight title. He's scored more points at this stage (2,207) than in two of the past three years he took home the trophy, and he's shown no signs of vulnerability heading into the sport's summer stretch.

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