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Technically, the new rules would also ban drafting, as pairing up with another driver makes both cars go faster, thereby affecting the race. I know, but at least let NASCAR dream for a while .

Apart from not punishing Bowyer, I think NASCAR have actually done a reasonable job with this situation (and with the Mike Skeen's girlfriend incident). So, can you not let your team mate past to get a point for leading? Deliberately making contact with another car also comes under this heading. In the long run, I think NASCAR will find this rule very difficult to enforce. Team orders were banned for years in F1, but the subject was put back on the table when Felipe Massa had to let Fernando Alonso (his Ferrari team mate) past even though he only got the radio message "Fernando is faster than you". Team orders are now permitted, and all radio communications are monitored by F1. Someone on NASCAR.com just asked how this rule will affect the teams that turn-up and only do about five laps each week.

In all of yesterday's excitement, it's easy to forget that there's still a race tomorrow (Sunday). Joey Logano was fastest in yesterday's qualifying, with Brad Keselowski and JPM just behind him. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. just beat yesterday's "Lucky Dog" (), Jeff Gordon, and Jimmie Johnson qualified his own car this week to make it into the top ten. 1 Joey Logano 2 Brad Keselowski 3 Juan Pablo Montoya 4 Kasey Kahne 5 Ricky Stenhouse Jr 6 Jeff Gordon 7 Greg Biffle 8 Carl Edwards 9 Jimmie Johnson 10 Matt Kenseth 11 Paul Menard 12 Kyle Busch 13 AJ Allmendinger 14 Martin Truex Jr 15 Aric Almirola 16 Kurt Busch 17 Kevin Harvick 18 Dale Earnhardt Jr 19 David Ragan 20 Ryan Newman 21 Jeff Burton 22 Denny Hamlin 23 Danica Patrick 24 Clint Bowyer 25 Brian Vickers 26 Marcos Ambrose 27 Jamie McMurray 28 Cole Whitt 29 Mark Martin 30 J.J. Yeley 31 Casey Mears 32 Landon Cassill 33 David Reutimann 34 Josh Wise 35 David Gilliland 36 Justin Allgaier 37 Travis Kvapil 38 Michael McDowell 39 Timmy Hill 40 Reed Sorenson 41 Dave Blaney 42 Joe Nemechek 43 Tony Raines It's a shame that none of the drivers is called Jake, allowing me to make some sort of 'Blues Brothers' reference to Joliet Jake. Nonetheless, the GEICO 400 at Chicagoland Speedway, Joliet, IL starts at 2:00 PM ET on ESPN.

pirates

Garrett, I hope you don't suffer from triskaidekaphobia. With Gordon being made the 13th Chase driver on Friday the 13th, maybe 13 will be your new lucky number .

OK, so NASCAR.com now has the news too. See the article here: Gordon added to Chase as 13th driver

News has just been confirmed on USA Today's website - see the article here. Doesn't look like anyone's told NASCAR.com yet!

Welcome back CornDog/Justin . I'm also looking forward to seeing pictures of your car.

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Thanks Roth. I didn't even know the video existed, let alone that it was on YouTube. I wonder why John felt the need to do his intro while driving on the freeway? If cell phone use while driving is supposed to be as dangerous as drink-driving, surely recording a video to several cameras can't be that safe. I'm surprised that John didn't make some of the products (T-Shirts, photos etc.) available again for the release of this video. PS. I liked the driver who tried to pull in behind John when he was doing his piece to camera near the end. The guy drives in, realizes that they're filming, and reverses out quickly!

Granny Annie

Are you suggesting that the drivers use the Nuremberg Defense, ie. the "we were only following orders" defense that many Nazis adopted in the post-WWII war crimes trials? As far as I'm concerned, it's OK to let your team mate past or make it difficult for a rival to pass, but not to intentionally spin-out to affect a race outcome. BTW. Are there no houses available in the US at less than $100,000 a month?

We could give it a try. What happens when we report a post - does it just send you notification? BTW. You might want to make the report icon a little more obvious than dark gray on mid blue (it seems to be "forums/images/buttons/report-40b.png").

If Vickers was on the same team as Logano, then I'd say fair enough. After a few controversial races a few years back, team orders are now legal in F1, so a driver can be told to let his team mate past. You also get situations like last year's US Grand Prix where Felipe Massa outqualified his team mate, Fernando Alonso, and Ferrari chose to break the seal on Massa's gearbox to give him a grid penalty, promote Alonso one grid spot and put him on the clean side of the track. I'm not saying I'm happy about this happening, but it's within the rules. I can't see any of the F1 teams helping out a rival team (apart from Toro Rosso possibly helping Red Bull as they have the same owner). I get the feeling that this isn't over yet.

Occasionally we have to remind y'all about drivers who can turn the steering wheel in both directions . Also, F1 tends to be harsher but more consistent with its penalties.

Both New York Street and French Street were used for Chickasw and Capitol City. French Street backs onto the courthouse building, and New York Street is the roughly triangular street just north of that. My old map shows the north-eastern end of French street labeled as New Orleans Street, but I think it was a car park by the time Dukes was filmed. For completeness, the street of three and four story buildings used in 'Big Brothers, Duke', 'The Dukes in Hollywood' and 'Hazzard in Hollywood' was originally Tenement Street, but later renamed Hennesy Street. Finally there's Brownstone Street, which I think only appeared during the bicycle chase in 'The Dukes in Hollywood'. BTW. In the picture of Cathy, I think Dixie is parked outside the church (not visible to the left of the picture). It must be an early shot because it still has the "Dixie" decals on the doors. It's about the spot where C.J. Holmes presented it to Daisy.

I'm still getting used to oval racing, and some tracks are definitely more entertaining than others. To be fair, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is no longer on the NASCAR circuit, but Watkins Glen is no longer an F1 circuit. I'm guessing you also missed Sonoma, the other road course. Personally, I'd like a couple more road courses. Did you see Lewis Hamilton and Tony Stewart swap cars at Watkins Glen a couple of years ago? BTW. You're right about Scott Speed driving for Scuderia Toro Rosso. Max Papis drove in seven races for Footwork in 1995.

My bad Looks like he competes in the Camping World Truck Series and Nationwide Series of NASCAR, but hasn't raced in the Sprint Cup Series yet. I think JPM is the only ex-F1 driver who's regularly in Sprint at the moment, although Max Papis got a race a few weeks ago and Scott Speed races from time to time.

I think I've mentioned this before, but something similar happened in F1 back in 2008. Nelson Piquet Jr. deliberately crashed at the Singapore Grand Prix to bring out a safety car (similar to a caution) and help his team mate. The main difference is that nobody suspected anything until the end of the season when Piquet was dropped by the team and revealed what happened. Two of the team were given five year bans from the sport, and although these were subsequently overturned, they both agreed to leave the sport for a while. In addition, the team's main sponsored pulled out because they didn't want to associated with cheating. You can read the Wikipedia page about the controversy here. I can't find any punishment that was given to the team (Renault). I think it was decided that this was a scheme conconcted by the driver and two team members rather than being a team decision. They did get a suspended ban and were told they be kicked out of the sport if anything similar happened again. Piquet was given immunity for his evidence.

There's more info on the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race here. It's an annual charity event that's taken place since 1977. It used to have some association with the United States Grand Prix West (as the F1 race was known), and later with the IndyCar race. Here's Jenilee with the 1981 overall champion, Robert Hays ('Airplane' etc.). The later seasons of 'CHiPs' often used Long Beach as a filming location, and you can see the grand prix barriers in some episodes. Coincidentally, Olympic decathlon gold medalist Bruce Jenner, who replaced Erik Estrada in six episodes of 'CHiPs' during a contract dispute, won the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race in 1979. This year's winner was TopGear U.S. co-host Rutledge Wood. According to my old backlot map, the set is called "Jungle and Wooded Area", although the area just north is called "Doonevan Flats".

Getty Images again. Caption says: LONG BEACH,CA - MARCH 14: Actors Jenilee Harrison and John Schneider attend the Fifth Annual Toyota Pro/Celebrity Grand Prix on March 14, 1981 at the Long Beach Street Circuit in Long Beach, California. (Photo by Ron Galella/WireImage) I don't know Jenilee Harrison, but according to Wikipedia, she was "the replacement 'dumb blonde' roommate Cindy Snow on the hit sitcom Three's Company, between 1980 and 1982. She went on to play Jamie Ewing in Dallas from 1984 to 1986." As for your Rosco question, I'm not sure which episode/location that is - I'll look into it!

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If they find that Bowyer did something wrong, maybe NASCAR should set Mike Skeen's girlfriend on him .

The picture's from Getty Images. They list it as being from "Celebrity Challenge of the Sexes" (makes sense with the logo on Cathy's shirt), and date it as 22nd March, 1980. IMDb doesn't list the 1980 event, but I found the whole lineup on TCM.com. I also found and advert for the show (below) on pmsimon.com. There's a load more of the Getty pictures of Cathy, including a few more from the same event, here (you'll need to scroll down). There's hundreds of pictures of Tom here, and pictures of John here. There aren't many of Sorrell, but I like the one below (NB. unless you buy them, all Getty Images have the info panel on the right): 1974: Actors George C. Scott and Sorrell Booke in a scene from the movie 'Bank Shot' in 1974. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

There were debris cautions on laps 135, 267 and 343 (I still have my "lap-by-lap" window open!), although I don't remember seeing the debris on-screen this week. I'd forgotten about the alleged jump start at the end. In my defense, it was really late here .