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Fryer’s Five: Bye bye Bobby (Yahoo! Sports)

Business decisions are usually the hardest ones to make, especially when they involve decent people.

So there was nothing easy about Yates Racing’s decision to pull former Cup champion Bobby Labonte from the No. 96 car for seven of the remaining 12 races this season.

His sabbatical begins this weekend, at Atlanta of all places, where Labonte made his name with six career victories.

Erik Darnell, an up-and-coming driver stuck in neutral because of the lack of open seats, will make his Sprint Cup Series debut in Labonte’s car at Labonte’s best track.

Beginning this weekend at Atlanta, Erik Darnell will replace Bobby Labonte for seven of the final 12 races of 2009. (Getty)

More From Jenna Fryer Fryers Five: Martin loses with honor Aug 24, 2009 Martins dream season on the ropes Aug 21, 2009

So how did Labonte take the news?

“Not good,” Yates general manager Max Jones said Monday. “I wouldn’t have either if I was him. He’s a class act; he’s a professional. I had to explain my side, why I was doing it, and he wasn’t happy about it. But he understood, and I respect that.”

This isn’t about Labonte, who came to Yates in a last-minute deal that gave the fledgling organization some credibility. Despite its alliance with Roush Fenway Racing, the team could not lure top sponsors or top drivers.

Then a late-December alliance with Hall of Fame Racing brought Yates a funded car with a championship-caliber driver. Labonte and Ask.com fit the program perfectly because it gave the team both a veteran and the money it had lacked all of last season.

But the sponsorship wasn’t complete, and Jones still had seven races to fill this year. And let’s face it, despite a flash here and there, Yates Racing still is what it is, and not Labonte in his prime, or Jimmie Johnson or Jeff Gordon or Tony Stewart could singlehandedly turn the team into a contender.

So at 45 years old, with just one top-10 finish this season and five consecutive winless years behind him, Labonte becomes a tough sell to sponsors. It doesn’t matter that he outruns teammate Paul Menard, who has zero top-10 finishes this season and is 32nd in the standings.

What Labonte has in history – 21 wins and 18 years of professionalism – Menard trumps with a lucrative sponsorship package from his old man’s hardware chain. Menard, so long as his dad is paying the bills, is in effect untouchable.

Don’t blame Darnell for this, though. Like Labonte, he’s a victim of the economy.

He landed a job in the Roush stable, and likely believed he was on the Carl Edwards or Kurt Busch fast track from “Gong Show” to truck ride to Cup stardom. But those career tracks dried up when sponsorship dollars became scarce, and Darnell has been patiently waiting for his shot.

“He deserves this opportunity. He’s a really talented race car driver,” Jones said. “It’s taken a lot of guys a long time to move up because of the funding, the opportunities just aren’t there. Five or six or eight years ago, you could jump from trucks to Cup. But everything came to a screeching halt a few years ago, and Erik has been waiting for his chance.”

It comes at Labonte’s expense, because Jones has to think about the future of Yates Racing.

And the future, these days, is about what and who you can sell. He can sell promise in Darnell, who is untested at the highest level. He can sell potential for 2010, when Yates plans to have at least two cars but doesn’t have a driver lineup or the sponsorship yet to make any official announcements.

It could be that Labonte will be back with the team, but my guess is he’ll be soured by this seven-race injustice and look for something new. It could be Darnell will finally get a Cup ride. Or it could be that Jones is able to find the sponsorship that can keep Jamie McMurray under the Roush umbrella.

Jones doesn’t know what’s going to happen. He just knows that he had to make a hard decision that ultimately has to the best thing for the race team.

“This is not about Bobby. It’s about making sure we have funding for these races,” Jones explained. “If it was about Bobby, I would have just put Erik in the car for the rest of the year. That was hard to convey to Bobby.

“But we have this opportunity to get Erik some races and that’s the business part of this sport. It’s challenging. But you can’t let it frustrate you.

“If you let it frustrate you, you won’t get it done. It’s just challenging times, but the sport is not broken.”

Try telling that to Labonte right about now.

1. Poor Marcos Ambrose: If Marcos Ambrose didn’t have bad luck in Montreal, he’d have no luck at all.

He’s been inching his way toward Victory Lane since NASCAR took the Nationwide Series north to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. He led 37 laps in the 2007 debut, but was spun late by Robby Gordon in what developed into an international incident for NASCAR.

Gordon was parked for the next day’s Sprint Cup race at Pocono, and as retribution for costing Ambrose his first victory, Gordon gave him a car for the Cup race at Watkins Glen.

That incident may very well be the defining moment of Ambrose’s stock-car career. With one spin, he was elevated from NASCAR obscurity and given a platform to showcase the graciousness and professionalism he consistently displays.

Still, he’d have preferred the win. And two years later, he’s still searching for it.

He lost a chance at the win last year when a speeding penalty took him out of contention after leading 27 laps, and he was determined not to make the same mistake again. Indeed, he was fine on pit road all race. His mistake this time came in the final turn.

Ambrose led 60 laps Sunday, holding down the top spot on restart after agonizing restart in what developed into the longest race in Nationwide Series history. As the race headed into a green-white-checkered finish, Ambrose finally slipped as the Napa Auto Parts 200 closed in on the four-hour mark.

Ambrose hit the rumble strips in Turn 14, causing his car to slide sideways and give Carl Edwards room to slip by and beat him down the final straightaway.

“I made a mistake on the last corner, the last lap and lost the race because of it,” Ambrose said. “It’s disappointing, but you have to take the lumps as they come. We led a lot of laps and I’m starting to get annoyed with this track, to be honest with you. That’s three years in a row that I have seemed to [have] given it away.”

It’s easy to say Ambrose’s time will come, and eventually he’ll break whatever curse seems to follow him into Canada every year. But that’s no consolation today for Ambrose, and also no guarantee.

The best of the very best will tell you that losing can play tricks with the mind, and they’ll wonder if they will ever win again. Although Ambrose has a win this year, on the road course at Watkins Glen in the Nationwide race, he can’t help but believe he should have two victories.

He won’t be able to avoid lamenting what slipped away, again, and agonize over what he should have done differently on that final lap.

The bright spot is that Ambrose has proven in the Cup Series to be a burgeoning star. His NASCAR future is firmly in front of him, and there’s no reason he should look back for too long on another Montreal disappointment.

2. Kudos to Carl Edwards: It hasn’t been a great season for Edwards, who has not lived up to the expectations set for the preseason favorite to dethrone Jimme Johnson in the Cup Series.

He’s still seeking his first win of the year in the Cup Series, and it took him 15 races to reach Victory Lane in the Nationwide Series. Hoping for a second Nationwide title, his winless streak allowed Kyle Busch to build a healthy points lead that was starting to look insurmountable.

But Edwards has turned it up a notch over the last six weeks and has considerably closed the gap on Busch.

He was steady through the closing laps Sunday at Montreal, where he put himself in position to capitalize following Ambrose’s slip. It gave Edwards his third Nationwide win of the season, and he now trails Busch by only 192 points in the standings.

Since winning in Indianapolis in July, Edwards has five more top-four finishes. A wreck at Michigan is his only blemish, and that 40th-place finish is the only thing standing in the way of a much tighter title race.

He’s not out of it, though, and despite his drought in the Cup Series, he’s not out of that race, either. The momentum he’s building in the Nationwide car could potentially carry over into the Cup car, and Edwards could still get hot enough during the 10-race Chase to contend for the championship.

Although Edwards didn’t win at Talladega in April, when he went airborne into the fence on the final lap, just being out front at the end was a significant step in his progress and patience. Montreal has now added a road course win to his resume, which is shaping up nicely as Edwards is excelling at tracks that had troubled him in the past.

People will allege that Edwards inherited Sunday’s win when Ambrose coughed it away, but he had to be in position to capitalize. It’s up to him to do it again with two titles now on the line.

3. Hey, at least they tried to race in the rain: So it was painful to watch the end of the marathon in Montreal, but give NASCAR credit for pulling out the rain tires this weekend and giving them a shot.

Earlier this month everyone complained when the Cup race at Watkins Glen was held over a day because of rain, and fans questioned why NASCAR didn’t use rain tires then. The answer was because the technology is not complete, and the stakes are too high to experiment.

For the second straight year at Montreal, NASCAR utilized rain tires. (Getty)

The Nationwide Series is the right place for that, proven last year at Montreal when drivers raced in the rain for the first time in NASCAR history. So there was no hesitation to make Saturday’s qualifying session the first ever to be run in the rain. Then with 16 laps to go Sunday and rain falling on the track, NASCAR called the cars to pit road and gave teams five minutes to switch to a wet-weather setup. The decision was made even though it was past the halfway point that made the race official.

It was immediately evident most of the field was not comfortable driving in those conditions. There were 11 cautions all race, and three came in the final 11 laps.

Brad Keselowski, who finished fifth, said racing in the rain transitioned everyone from “race car drivers to daredevils.

“It’s self-serving,” he continued. “When you’re running well and you pass [a] car, it’s fun. But when you get wrecked, you think it’s the dumbest thing ever. You can’t see, and you’re in a hairpin corner starting double-file, that’s what’s going to happen. It’s unfortunate. I feel bad for everybody who got wrecked. But that’s what this racing is.”

The decision to continue the race on rain tires cost Busch, who was collected in an accident during the green-white-checkered finish. It led to a 10th-place finish that cost him ground in the title race with winner Edwards, and Busch’s crew chief wondered why NASCAR put the drivers in that position.

“Maybe when it got to looking like a circus or a demolition derby it was time to call it,” Jason Ratcliff said. “It’s a great idea to come out here and run in the rain. Everybody puts forth a lot of effort, but it wasn’t working. It wasn’t racing. You couldn’t even make a lap without a caution coming out. Basically, you’re getting to a point where you’re degrading the series. It got to where it was bumper cars.”

You can’t have it both ways, folks. You can gripe about rainouts and NASCAR’s unwillingness to try something new, or you can gripe about what the product ultimately looked like after they tried the rain tires. And you can’t overlook that many of those guys out there don’t have road course or rain-tire experience, and Steve Wallace is a far cry from Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart or Juan Pablo Montoya.

Did racing in the rain stink up the show? Depends on how you look at it. But at least NASCAR tried.

4. Now, looking ahead to Atlanta: The Labor Day race is back in the South – where it belongs – and heads to Atlanta for a high-stakes event that could determine the 12-driver Chase field. There are nine spots up for grabs with two races to go, and realistically, only three more – Stewart, Gordon and Jimmie Johnson are already locked into the Chase – will be locked down Sunday.

So it’s a big weekend for drivers in the seventh through 14th positions. And it will be a critical race for Brian Vickers and Kyle Busch, the two drivers trying to race their way into the field.

I received an email from a reader who essentially called me an idiot for suggesting Busch may have problems at Atlanta, where he has one win and two top-10s in 10 previous starts. But Busch is worried about this upcoming race, and with good reason.

Busch was 18th at Atlanta during the spring race this year, and struggled to convey why the car had dropped off so far from last season, when he won in his first visit with Joe Gibbs Racing and finished fifth in the fall.

“We have a little bit of work to do. We weren’t as good as we needed to be there this spring,” he said after last week’s win at Bristol put him just 34 points behind Matt Kenseth for the 12th and final Chase berth.

“I think my biggest concern is going to be Atlanta, just trying to get through Atlanta with a solid top-10 finish.”

But because Busch is also in the Nationwide race that weekend, which is a condensed two-day show, he’ll have little time to sit with crew chief Steve Addington and diagnose the race car. Instead, he’ll be running back and forth between cars and hoping Addington can get the setup right.

“That’s not going to be much fun for Steve and I trying to communicate,” he said. “We’ll just have to get together Saturday night after Nationwide or Sunday morning. Talk about what we got, see what we can do to make it better.”

Compounding the problem is that Atlanta is one of Vickers’ best tracks.

At 14th in the standings and 39 points out of 12th, he’s just as much alive for the Chase as Busch. He has five top-10 finishes in 12 Atlanta starts and is looking forward to staking a claim on the Chase there.

He stepped up with a strong 12th-place finish at Bristol, where he was most worried about his Chase position, and now can capitalize on any troubles Busch may have on Sunday.

“Atlanta has always been a really good track,” he said, somewhat downplaying his results there. “We’ve run well there. I think our chances are great. I think we’re capable of it, as much or more capable of it than anybody that has an opportunity to make the Chase as of right now.”

5. So who is in the most trouble with two races to go? My guess is Kasey Kahne, who is dropping fast in the standings.

He’s fallen from seventh to 11th in the past four races, and doesn’t have the best track record for stepping up when the Chase is on the line. He failed to qualify in 2004 when he went to Richmond with a chance to race his way in, an opportunity that then-teammate Jeremy Mayfield seized as Kahne was shut out.

For a guy with so much hype, he’s only made the Chase once, in 2006 when he finished eighth in what was then a 10-driver field.

Conversely, Matt Kenseth has stepped up every time the Chase is on the line and is one of only two drivers, along with Johnson, to make the field in every season since its 2004 debut.

Kenseth has come from deep in the standings to lock up a berth, and although he’s clinging to the 12th-place spot right now, he can’t be counted out.

Sure, Kenseth has struggled this season since winning the first two races of the year, but no more than Kahne, who has been up and down and not always thrilled with management at Richard Petty Motorsports.

More telling is that when the stakes are at their highest, Kenseth delivered at Bristol with a 10th-place finish that helped stave off Busch and Vickers. Kahne, meanwhile, was a miserable 28th and three laps off the pace.

It’s time to step up, and I’m not so certain that Kahne is in a position to deliver.

Jenna Fryer covers NASCAR for The Associated Press and is a regular contributor to Yahoo! Sports. Send Jenna a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.

Atlanta the benefactor of close battle for Chase berth (NASCAR.com)

It's no secret that the road to the Chase runs through Atlanta.

That's new this season, in case anyone has forgotten. Sunday's night race at Atlanta Motor Speedway—the Pep Boys Auto 500—appears to offer more promise in the way of excitement than it ever did in its previous home as the sixth stop in the actual 10-race Chase.

For starters, it will be run under the lights on Labor Day weekend. Officials at AMS and their parent company, Speedway Motorsports Inc., gladly traded off their Chase date for this prime piece of real estate on the Cup schedule—and now they're poised, or at least optimistically hopeful, of taking full advantage.

The drama being produced by the current Cup point standings should help. Eight drivers within 89 points of one another are vying for the final six spots in the Chase, which will include the top 12 drivers.

Greg Biffle crashed out of the… NASCAR.com – Aug 31, 1:16 pm EDT Greg Biffle crashed out of the… NASCAR.com – Aug 31, 1:16 pm EDT YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_last_index = 1; YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_lazy_images = [http://d.yimg.com/a/p/sp/turner/b6/fullj.5b09526a84c8357c39a900857f507fc4/one.menz.jmenzer.atlan200908310.jpg?x=180&y=200&xc=129&yc=1&wc=184&hc=204&q=70&sig=iiIGXtnw3Jkpg01HQNYwIg--]; YAHOO.util.Event.addListener(window,load,YAHOO.Sports.articleLazyLoadCarousel.init); 1 of 2 NASCAR Gallery function prev_photo() { if (YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_current_index > 0) { goto_photo(YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_current_index – 1); } else { goto_photo(YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_last_index); }}function next_photo() { if (YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_current_index 0) { YAHOO.util.Dom.addClass(article_carousel_prev, prev); YAHOO.util.Dom.removeClass(article_carousel_prev, prev_disabled); } else { YAHOO.util.Dom.addClass(article_carousel_prev, prev_disabled); YAHOO.util.Dom.removeClass(article_carousel_prev, prev); } if (YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_current_index < YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_last_index) { YAHOO.util.Dom.addClass(article_carousel_next, next); YAHOO.util.Dom.removeClass(article_carousel_next, next_disabled); } else { YAHOO.util.Dom.addClass(article_carousel_next, next_disabled); YAHOO.util.Dom.removeClass(article_carousel_next, next); }*/}function goto_photo(p) { if (YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_photos) { for(i = 0; i < YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_photos.length; i++) { if (i == p) { YAHOO.util.Dom.setStyle(YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_photos[i], display, ); } else { YAHOO.util.Dom.setStyle(YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_photos[i], display, none); } } if (YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_current_page) { YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_current_page.innerHTML =(p + 1); YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_current_index = p; } } update_buttons();}YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_init = function () { YAHOO.util.Event.addListener(article_carousel_prev, click, prev_photo); YAHOO.util.Event.addListener(article_carousel_next, click, next_photo); YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_current_index = 0; YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_current_page = YAHOO.util.Dom.get(carousel_page); YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_photos = YAHOO.util.Dom.getElementsByClassName(item, div, leadphoto); if (YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_photos) { goto_photo(0); }}YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_init();

So as they head to Atlanta this week for the next-to-last race before the Chase cutoff, half the playoff field is yet to be set. That could produce some fireworks Sunday night.

Having established that, which drivers amongst the eight who enter Atlanta mired in a standings logjam stand the best chances of surviving and putting themselves in a better position when they subsequently head to Richmond a week later for the final race of the regular season?

There are clues, to be sure, in the past performances of each on the racy 1.54-mile AMS track.

The Elite Eight

The eight drivers involved, currently occupying seventh through 14th in the standings, are Ryan Newman, Greg Biffle, Juan Montoya, Mark Martin, Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch and Brian Vickers.

The six in front of them in the standings are virtually locked in, no matter what arithmetic is used and whether or not some officially have clinched a Chase berth. The drivers behind the eight aforementioned competitors have squandered their chances of making it and reduced themselves to little more than a collection of sideshows working mostly toward next year.

Of the eight, only three—Martin, Kahne and Busch—have won Cup races previously at AMS. Martin is the only one who has done it twice.

But you have to dig into the numbers deeper than that to draw a reasonable conclusion of what to expect from this bunch come this Sunday.

Martin, for instance, won the pole for the last Atlanta race in the spring—but cut a tire late in the race while running near the front and finished 31st. That was nothing but bad luck, and considering Martin finished second to Busch in the last Cup race at Bristol, both of those drivers bring some momentum into this event.

Then again, some drivers don't believe in such things as momentum carrying them from one race to another. Busch and Martin are more likely to run up front in Atlanta because they've done so there lately. Busch finished fifth and first in the two 2008 races at the track, but in eight other career starts at AMS has never finished higher than 12th.

Breaking it down

For consistency, you can't beat Kenseth at Atlanta—and when you're sitting 12th in the points with two races left before the Chase cutoff, consistency is what you're after. His average career finish of 13.8 at AMS is far superior to the average finish offered by any of the other Elite Eight.

Kenseth has never won at the track, but he has seven top-five and 11 top-10 finishes. Except for Martin—whose 22 top-10s at the track reflect the fact that he has been racing there almost since it opened in 1960 more than anything else—none of the other eight scrambling for their Chase lives has more than seven top-10s.

Those seven top-10s belong to Biffle, whose 15.4 average career finish at AMS ranks second to Kenseth among the eight drivers. Like Kenseth, he has never won there.

Five of the eight drivers have career average finishes of 18th or worse at AMS, including Newman (18.5), Montoya (24.4), Kahne (18.5), Busch (18.2) and Vickers (18.4). Of course Newman, Montoya and Kahne also enter Sunday's event with the small luxury of being ahead of the rest in the standings before the green flag drops.

Add it all up and what does it mean?

The semi-educated guess here is that Martin, Busch and Vickers will all be good. It will be interesting to see how Busch and Vickers handle it if they run well and in close proximity to each other, especially if they're close at the end. They aren't exactly fond of each other these days.

Montoya, as always, is a wild card. His career average finish is deceptive because he's run only five Cup races at AMS, and it is a track where he has shown flashes of coming around. One way or another, he will be a factor Sunday.

What could make the race great is that the top six in the current standings have little or nothing to lose, so they'll be aggressive in going for the victory and that should add to the excitement mix.

Meanwhile, despite their slight points advantage coming in, Newman, Biffle and Montoya will have to guard against racing too conservatively—because that tends to be like going into the prevent defense too early in a football game. It almost always backfires. Plus if any of those guys want to get into the Chase and have any chance of winning it, they could use the 10 bonus points that will come with a race victory.

The bottom line is that there should be great battles not only for the victory this Sunday, but there will be several individual races within the race that will greatly impact how the standings look heading into Richmond.

Bring it on, boys. It should be good stuff.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.

Joe Menzer is the author of "The Great American Gamble: How the 1979 Daytona 500 Gave Birth to a NASCAR Nation." Click here to purchase.

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Pa.-based memorial car to race in Va. on Sept. 11

NEW YORK (AP)—A custom-designed racecar bearing the phrase “Always Remember” was unveiled Monday by NASCAR’s Benny Gordon across from the World Trade Center site.

Gordon will race the car on Sept. 11 at the Richmond International Speedway in Virginia. It also bears the phrase “9/11 Memorial,” a reference to the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum.

Gordon co-owns the North South Motorsports team, based in DuBois, Pa. It’s near the memorial site for United 93, one of four hijacked jetliners that crashed on Sept. 11, 2001.

“It’s a real honor and privilege for us to do this,” said Gordon, adding that hearing the stories of firefighters and police officers has been “incredible.”

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The car is a black, blue and white Ford Fusion with patriotic stars and stripes. After being delivered in a 53-foot-long truck, the hood was removed so trade center responders could sign its underside.

“I don’t know much about NASCAR, but now I’ve become a huge fan,” said retired fire Lt. Mickey Krofs, who survived the collapse of the trade center’s north tower.

The unveiling took place at the museum preview site, where visitors can use interactive computers and view photos and a model of what the ground zero site eventually will look like.

“No matter what profession you’re in, there are important ways to contribute to building a 9/11 memorial and museum,” said Joseph Daniels, president of the 9/11 Memorial Foundation, adding that he hopes the car will inspire NASCAR fans to learn more about the memorial.

Jim O’Connell, NASCAR spokesman, said up to 75,000 people will be in the stands at the NASCAR Nationwide Series, and he predicted about 2 million TV viewers would watch it on ESPN 2. An identical car is ready as a backup, in case the other one is damaged in the race.

It’s assigned No. 72, the number of retired racer Bill McKenzie, who’s now part of Gordon’s team.

The vehicle, with a 358 engine by Roush Yates, can reach around 200 mph.

“I hope everybody is cheering for us, and I hope we have a good run,” Gordon said.

On the Net:

— http://www.national911memorial.org

— http://www.nascar.com/races/tracks/rir/

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Belgium result raises expectations at Force India (PA SportsTicker)

By PAUL LOGOTHETIS AP Auto Racing Writer

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium(AP)—Force India is confident that a second-place finish at the Belgian Grand Prix means the team can contend at the Italian GP, the next race on the Formula One calendar.

Giancarlo Fisichella started from the pole position and finished second to Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen in Sunday’s 44-lap race, giving the team its first points in its 30th race.

Expectations for a victory now abound, and with good reason.

“Why not?” team owner Vijay Mallya said. “We know that the car is quick – blindingly quick I would say. The sector times show it and I think the Monza track will suit us.”

Fisichella navigated the Spa-Francorchamps’ high speed circuit with ease and could have won if Raikkonen didn’t have his KERS boost to fend off any overtaking challenges. And Monza is a similar track to the Ardennes forest track, only faster.

“It looks very promising, it looks very good,” Fisichella said. “I’m not saying that we will repeat a result like today’s – which would be fantastic – but obviously getting into the top 10 and scoring points would be another fantastic result.”

Still, Force India’s first podium finish in a Formula One race received a bittersweet reception in its home country Monday, when India’s sports minister applauded the result but insisted that F1 was more entertainment than sport.

“I congratulate them for their efforts, but our view has been known for the past many months … Formula One is the most expensive entertainment,” Manohar Singh Gill said.

Mallya now has to try and hang on to Fisichella with Ferrari rumored to be interested in hiring the 36-year-old Italian to fill in for the injured Felipe Massa. Ferrari said it would make a decision by Wednesday whether Luca Badoer continues to drive Massa’s car after two straight last-place finishes.

“I’m just concentrating for the next race with Force India unless they are going to call me, but even if they do call me, there are many things to think about, so we will see,” Fisichella said.

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali was impressed with the former Minardi and Renault driver’s driving.

“He was performing fantastically, and he was pushing Kimi from the back very strongly,” Domenicali said. “I cannot say that following the speculation whether it is true or not, but sure today he did a great race.”

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Yates to replace Labonte with Darnell for 7 races

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP)—Former NASCAR champion Bobby Labonte won’t race this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway, his best track, because of sponsorship issues at Yates Racing.

The team had seven races to sell this season for the No. 96 Ford, and the sponsorship it secured wanted Erik Darnell in the car. The 26-year-old will make his Sprint Cup Series debut at Atlanta, where Labonte has six career victories.

“This is not about Bobby; it’s about making sure we have funding for these races,” Yates co-owner Max Jones said Monday. “If it was about Bobby, I would have just put Erik in the car for the rest of the year. That was hard to convey to Bobby.

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“But we have this opportunity to get Erik some races, and that’s the business part of this sport. It’s challenging.”

Academy Sports & Outdoors will sponsor Darnell for three races, at Atlanta, Talladega and Texas. Northern Tool + Equipment, his current sponsor in the Truck Series, will be on the car at New Hampshire and Kansas.

Sponsorship for the other two races Darnell is slated to run was not announced.

Jones said Labonte did not take the decision well.

“I wouldn’t have either if I was him,” Jones said. “He’s a class act, he’s a professional. I had to explain my side, why I was doing it, and he wasn’t happy about it. But he understood, and I respect that.”

Labonte, the 2000 series champion, left Petty Enterprises last season because he was unsure of its long-term stability. He put together a late deal with Hall of Fame Racing, the team owned by San Diego Padres owner Jeff Moorad and president Tom Garfinkel.

Garfinkel and Moorad were able to land a sponsorship deal with Ask.com, one of the only new companies to enter NASCAR since last fall’s economic collapse, and then partnered with Yates Racing for equipment and technical support. The Ask.com deal is a one-year deal and covered only 29 of the 36 races.

Jones worked hard to fill the car, but ultimately was able to sell the potential in Darnell over the history of Labonte.

Labonte, who is 45, is in the midst of his sixth winless season. He’s 30th in the standings with one top-10 finish this season. Teammate Paul Menard is 32nd in the points with no top-10 finishes. He has full sponsorship from his family’s Midwest-based hardware chain.

The team also fielded a car for Travis Kvapil for four races but stopped when no sponsorship was found.

Labonte will return to the car at Richmond, Dover, Fontana, Charlotte and Martinsville.

“This is a move that will be beneficial to Yates Racing surviving this difficult economic time,” he said in a statement. “Of course, I’m disappointed that the sponsorship environment is so challenging right now, but I intend to make the most out of the remaining races that I’m behind the wheel.”

Yates Racing is the sister team to powerhouse Roush Fenway Racing, and Jones said he doesn’t expect Hall of Fame to be back under the umbrella in 2010. So he’s had to approach future planning with a long-range view, which could include Darnell.

Stuck in the RFR development program because sponsorship issues and lack of available seats have slowed his progression, Jones said Darnell has earned this opportunity. He’s currently ranked fourth in the Truck standings with two career victories, and has five top-10s in 11 career Nationwide Series starts.

Jones worked at Roush Fenway when Darnell won a seat in its development program.

“He deserves this opportunity. He’s a really talented race car driver,” Jones said. “It’s taken a lot of guys a long time to move up because of the funding issues, and the opportunities aren’t there anymore. Five or six or eight years ago, you could jump from Trucks to Cup.

“Then everything came to a screeching halt a few years ago.”

Although Labonte has not been ruled out for a Yates ride in 2010, Jones said Darnell is in the mix, as is current Roush driver Jamie McMurray.

McMurray is in the final year of his contract with RFR, which must cut down from five to four cars at the end of this season. The organization would like to keep McMurray by moving him to the Yates side of the team but lacks the funding to offer him a contract.

“We still have that opportunity out there to keep Jamie, but we have to find something and right now he’s exploring his options,” Jones said. “We’d love him to be here. We’d love to be a three- or four-car team, but you have to find someone to pay for it.”

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Edwards passes Ambrose on last lap to win Montreal

MONTREAL (AP)—Carl Edwards was as shocked as anyone.

“I can’t believe I won the race,” Edwards said Sunday after making a stunning pass of Marcos Ambrose on the final turn of the Nationwide race at Montreal. “I just figured he’d take off and run away with it. I guess that goes to show you never give up.”

It was another lost opportunity at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for Ambrose, who has had a chance to win all three Nationwide races conducted on the street circuit since NASCAR began racing here in 2007.

The despair was real on a day that started in sunshine and turned to gloom.

“I just made a mistake at the end there and lost the race,” Ambrose said. “I feel pretty devastated.”

Carl Edwards hoists the winner… AP – Aug 30, 8:51 pm EDT Carl Edwards hoists the winner… AP – Aug 30, 8:51 pm EDT Carl Edwards (60) drives throu… AP – Aug 30, 8:42 pm EDT Drivers head through a corner … AP – Aug 30, 8:40 pm EDT Kyle Busch (18), Paul Menard (… AP – Aug 30, 8:26 pm EDT The starter waves the yellow f… AP – Aug 30, 8:23 pm EDT Marcos Ambrose, from Australia… AP – Aug 30, 8:21 pm EDT Marcos Ambrose, front, from Au… AP – Aug 30, 8:12 pm EDT Marcos Ambrose's crew work… AP – Aug 30, 8:10 pm EDT Carl Edwards passes Jacques Vi… AP – Aug 30, 8:08 pm EDT Patrick Carpentier (99) runs i… AP – Aug 30, 8:06 pm EDT Andrew Ranger, of Canada, race… AP – Aug 30, 8:05 pm EDT Carl Edwards, right, is presen… AP – Aug 30, 7:57 pm EDT Steve Wallace (66) gets sidewa… AP – Aug 30, 7:52 pm EDT Carl Edwards drives on the way… AP – Aug 30, 7:51 pm EDT Carl Edwards celebrates his vi… AP – Aug 30, 7:44 pm EDT Carl Edwards celebrates his vi… AP – Aug 30, 7:42 pm EDT Carl Edwards does a backflip a… AP – Aug 30, 7:40 pm EDT Carl Edwards does a flip from … AP – Aug 30, 7:36 pm EDT Carl Edwards leaps from his ca… AP – Aug 30, 7:33 pm EDT Carl Edwards drives through th… AP – Aug 30, 7:31 pm EDT YAHOO.Sports.article_carousel_last_index = 20; 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Edwards couldn’t believe what happened because Ambrose led 60 laps over the 14-turn, 2.7-mile course—including 31 in a row before the rain moved in for the second straight year.

Still, the hard-charging Tasmanian figured to be a lock since he grew up racing in the rain. But after overcoming restart after restart in the crash-filled event, Ambrose slipped up at the wrong time.

Edwards won a two-lap sprint to the finish on a track that was both wet and dry in spots from a light rain, making up more than a second on the final lap. Edwards began to close fast on Ambrose entering turn 10, a right-handed hairpin, and that gave Edwards renewed hope.

“I drove a little bit deeper than him and I caught him, and that surprised me,” Edwards said. “I didn’t think I’d catch him in that corner, but I had the benefit of watching his car. He was kind of out there flying. Once I got to him, we came off turn 10, he was spinning the tires, and I thought I might have him.”

Seconds later, Ambrose slid sideways after hitting the rumble strips in turn 14. Edwards slipped past and outraced him down the final straightaway.

“That was an amazing gift,” Edwards said. “Marcos just made that one mistake that gave me a chance to get by. The difference was the tires and the way the track was changing. As soon as it gets dry, there’s so much more grip, and there were places out there I saw that had a little more grip. Maybe I could just see better through my windshield.”

Ambrose survived three other restarts in the final 12 laps of the race, which was plagued by 11 cautions. The race went two extra laps and lasted 3 hours, 49 minutes, 19 seconds, the longest in Nationwide Series history. The Gateway 300 in 1997 lasted 3:48.25.

Ambrose was out to right what went wrong in the previous two Nationwide races at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. In 2007 he led 37 laps and was challenging for the win before he was spun out by Robby Gordon and finished seventh.

Last year in the rain, Ambrose led 27 laps but was caught speeding on pit road late in the race and Ron Fellows won the rain-shortened event, the first points race in NASCAR history to be run on rain tires.

It was the third win of the year and 23rd in his Nationwide career for Edwards, who moved within 192 points of series leader Kyle Busch.

Carl Edwards hoists the winner… AP – Aug 30, 8:51 pm EDT

NASCAR Canadian Tire Series star Andrew Ranger was third. Former Formula One star Jacques Villeneuve finished fourth on the track named for his father, and Brad Keselowski was fifth. Busch went from fourth to 10th on the final two laps.

Ambrose started from the pole, but everything changed when the rain moved in. The race was halted at the end of lap 61 so the teams could switch to rain tires, slap on windshield wipers, and hook up brake lights.

The race resumed on lap 64 with the street course damp but with no standing water like a year ago. Ambrose quickly cleared the second-place car of Ranger. Edwards then tangled with Ranger and Busch slipped past both for second, with Edwards and Ranger right behind.

Ambrose had a 2.8-second lead after the first time around, but the ninth caution of the race, for debris, erased that margin on the next lap.

Ambrose again assumed control when the race went green on lap 68, but several cars spun out before the 31 cars remaining in the race made a complete trip around. That brought out caution No. 10, six more than last year’s race and twice as many as 2007.

Ambrose easily drew clear on the restart on lap 71 and Ranger passed Busch for second. But Steven Wallace set up the two-lap dash to the finish when he made contact with Victor Gonzalez Jr. and slid sideways into a big pack of cars in the second turn to bring out the race-changing final caution.

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De Angelis fastest in practice before Indy GP

INDIANAPOLIS (AP)—San Marino’s Alex de Angelis has knocked Spain’s DaniPedrosa out of the top spot in the final warmup for the Indianapolis MotoGP.

De Angelis posted his fast lap, 1 minute, 40.446 seconds. Pedrosa was secondon the 2.621-mile road course at 1:40.489. Spain’s Jorge Lorenzo was third inthe 20-minute practice session at 1:40.717.

Pedrosa, fastest in the first two practice sessions this weekend and againin Saturday’s qualifying, appeared headed toward another top spot Sunday. But deAngelis just beat the mark after time expired in the session.

The lineup for Sunday afternoon’s race has Pedrosa starting from the pole.Lorenzo will start second and six-time world champ Valentino Rossi, of Italy,starts third.

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Lorenzo takes advantage of mistakes, wins at Indy

INDIANAPOLIS (AP)—Spain’s Jorge Lorenzo has won his first Indianapolis MotoGPtitle, beating San Marino’s Alex de Angelis by 9.435 seconds.

Lorenzo was among the fastest riders this weekend, but early mistakes by histwo top rivals made things much easier.

Pole winner Dani Pedrosa went too low through into a corner on the fourthlap Sunday, lost his balance and his bike and skidded across the track. TheSpaniard finished 10th.

Five laps later, Lorenzo’s teammate, Valentino Rossi of Italy, made asimilar error. He also went too low through a corner, lost his balance, slidingacross the track and into the grass. Rossi later parked in the pits. It’s thefirst time the six-time world champ did not finish a race since Valencia in2007.

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Raikkonen wins F1′s Belgian GP for 4th time (PA SportsTicker)

By PAUL LOGOTHETIS AP Auto Racing Writer

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium(AP)—Kimi Raikkonen held off Force India driver Giancarlo Fisichella to win Formula One’s Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday, the Ferrari driver’s fourth triumph at the high-speed track in the past five years.

The former world champion, who started sixth, immediately overtook pole sitter Fisichella after the safety car came in following accidents on the opening lap – including one involving overall F1 leader Jenson Button – and held for a 0.9-second victory.

“It’s a proper circuit, an old-style circuit,” said Raikkonen, who clinched Ferrari’s fifth win in seven races at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. “It’s just been good to me.”

Championship contender Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull, who had retired with engine failures in the last two races, finished third to gain on Button.

Button failed to finish in the points for the first time this season, and Rubens Barrichello moved within 16 points of his Brawn GP teammate after finishing seventh despite an oil leak with two laps to go. Barrichello’s car caught fire as he rolled into pit lane.

Button leads the drivers’ standings with 72 points, followed by Barrichello with 56 and Vettel with 53. Mark Webber of Red Bull, who finished ninth after a drive-through penalty, trails by 20.5 points.

“This championship is a little crazy to be honest,” Vettel said. “It’s up and down. (But) we’re still in reach.”

Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion, picked up his first win since last year’s Spanish GP in a season made unpredictable by rule changes. The Finn is the sixth straight different winner of an F1 race.

A day after earning the Indian team its first pole, Fisichella managed to secure the former Spyker team’s first points after 30 races.

“I’m a little bit sad for that because I was keeping (Kimi’s) pace and exactly same strategy race,” Fisichella said. “It’s great for second. But actually we could have won the race.”

Although rain didn’t complicate the start, several accidents on the opening lap did – including Button’s.

Fisichella held pole into the high-speed Eau Rouge corner as Raikkonen passed the slow starting Barrichello to the outside to sit behind Robert Kubica, who had cut inside, for third.

Several cars touched in the opening corner, with Barrichello and Jarno Trulli having to pit for repairs, but Trulli eventually retired after starting second.

Romain Grosjean of Renault then ran into Button, who went spinning into the wall at Les Combes. McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton and Jaime Alguersuari of Toro Rosso also exited at the same turn after the young Spanish driver hit the defending F1 champion and sent them both into the wall.

“I didn’t know what happened, but I got hit from behind,” Button said. “It didn’t matter anyway because we weren’t competitive here.”

FIA said that both accidents would be investigated.

Raikkonen passed Fisichella for the lead immediately after the safety car pitted as the two entered Kemmel Straight, and he held after the first round of pit stops when both pitted at same time.

Fernando Alonso, who was running third on a one-pit strategy, pitted after 24 laps in good shape but a problem removing his front left wheel – which had touched against Adrian Sutil in the opening corner – eventually forced him to retire.

Raikkonen and Fisichella both pitted with 13 laps to go, with the Ferrari nursing a 1-second advantage, but Raikkonen managed to pull out quicker and held to join Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and Jim Clark as the only drivers to triumph at Spa on at least four occasions.

Ferrari goes to the upcoming Italian GP – another high speed, low downforce circuit – with hopes of a win, while Fisichella continued to beat back questions of whether he would replace Luca Badoer, who finished last again for Ferrari, at Monza.

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F1 leader Button crashes out of Belgian GP (PA SportsTicker)

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, BELGIUM(AP) —Formula One leader Jenson Button crashed out of the Belgian Grand Prix and will finish out of the points for the first time this season.

The Brawn GP driver was hit from behind Sunday by Renault’s Romain Grosjean – starting his second career race – before spinning out into the wall.

McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton and Jaime Alguersuari of Toro Rosso also exited after colliding at the same bend on the opening lap.

Button held an 18-point lead over teammate Rubens Barrichello after 11 races, mostly from winning six of the first seven races.

Red Bull pair Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, two other Button rivals, remained in the 44-lap race.

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