TEAM RENSI ON THE ROPES?

Bobby Hamilton Jr. is suggesting that Saturday's Kroger 250 Nascar Nationwide Series race at Memphis Motorsports Park may be the final outing of the year for Team Ransi Motorsports if the organization is not able to secure sponsorship for the remaining three races of the year.  The team is currently eighteenth in the car owner standings.

MERGE, MERGE, MERGE

The Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Journal is reporting word of a pair of mergers in teh Nascar arena that could have far-reaching ramifications in the Sprint Cup Series next season.  Should General Motors' widely-reported buyout of Chrysler go through, a cloud of uncertainty would be cast over the Dodge factory-supported teams currently in the sport.  And in at least one case, there may be a Dodge transition to Cheverolet coming with speculation that if the rumored partnership between Dale Earnhardt, Incorporated and Petty Enterprises were to go through, the new combine would run Cheverolets.

CHARTING THE "CHASE"

Jimmie Johnson, leading the Chase for the Sprint Cup, is 202 points ahead of the pace he set a year ago en route to his second consecutive championship.  In 2007 after six races in the title series, Johnson trailed teammate Jeff Gordon by fifty-three points.  This year, he's 149 ahead of second-place Greg Biffle with four races remaining.

There have been four different winners in this year's "Chase," the lowest total through six races in the five-year history of the title format.  Johnson and Biffle have two wins apiece, with Jeff Burton and Tony Stewart also victorious.

Title contenders dominated last year's Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway with seven of them finishing in the top ten including Johnson and Carl Edwards, who places first and second, respectively.

A "Chase" driver has won three of the four Atlanta races run under the current championship format:  Johnson in 2004 and 2007, Edwards in 2005.  Stewart (2006) is the only non-title contender to win in Atlanta over the last four years.