Full Throttle

So, when will the new restrictor plate be issued?

I mean if NASCAR can selectively give an entire marquee a new plate as a result of a single teams Nationwide Series performance they can certainly give Sprint Cup Chevy teams the same after the #48 made a shambles of the Fontana field Sunday. Right?

They will won’t they? Or am I by chance wishing upon a dry well? (If you hadn’t noticed those were rhetorical questions - ed.)

But hey, it could be far worse than having a single team dominate as Johnson did Sunday. In fact it has been worse, far worse (at many times, at many places and far more wins than even Kyle has now), so be careful what you wish for.

Can we call the Fontana track snake-bit?

Sure you can lay some blame on piss-poor marketing - at least I do - and some poor scheduling by NASCAR that may be solved somewhat in 2009 but really, how else do you describe yellow caution lights falling onto the track, twice, anything but snake-bit?

It’s not like they were smacked by a careening race car, they fell of their own volition and seemed to fall as a result of the whoosh of passing race cars. Is that proof positive the new Sprint Cup car “sucks?”

UNDER THE RADAR: Anyone but me notice Robby Gordon’s slow inexorable slide out of the top 35? He sits in 35th a mere 18 pts ahead of Penske’s #77 - which may be his saving grace - and 55 ahead of the #00. And to make matters slightly worse he has to peddle a bit faster at this weeks venue where his average finish has been a tick over 30th. Oh… and Hornish has averaged 23rd is his short time in Cup at RIR.

IN OTHER NEWS: Frank Kimmel did his best Jimmie Johnson impression in the 56th Southern Illinois 100 Monday afternoon dominating on the one mile dirt surface. Patrick Sheltra was runner-up and ageless Ken Schrader, in his self-own Federated Auto Parts Chevrolet, finished third. That Scott Speed guy crossed the line in eighth and maintains a 75 point advantage over second place Roush driver Ricky Stenhouse, Jr in the points battle.

And finally… China wins, China WINS!

P.S. The small black object in the Fontana sun-setting sky in the image above is NASCAR’s newly formed Cheating Police Eye-in-the-Sky. Equipted with the latest spy gear, such as a civillian version of the U.S. Navys MAD Gear to detect magnetic anomalyies and other illegal subtrafuge by those EVIL “cheaters,” it will be in use at all NASCAR events from now until, well all… perpetuity actually. If that can be called a time limit.