Make or break time for Chase drivers

Happy Nevada Day to all you race fans. If you are planning to attend the Nevada Day parade this morning, come by the announcing station at Fourth and Carson Streets and say hello. I'll be announcing the parade with my partner, Lyon County Commissioner Larry McPherson.

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Rattlesnake Raceway in Fallon is hosting its annual charity race next Saturday, Nov. 7. Titled the Kris Kringle race, it will include IMCA Modifieds, Bombers, Pro Stocks, Hobby Stocks, Gen-X, Rat Mods, and 360 Outlaw sprint cars. Action starts at noon.

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Heading into Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Talladega, it's make or break time for a number of the Chase competitors. Jimmie Johnson has to have at least one bad race to give anybody else a chance, and Talladega is the most likely place for him to do so.

The infamous "big one," which almost always seems to happen at some point in the race, doesn't much care who you are or where you are running. Remember the spring race finish at Talladega, with Carl Edwards ricocheting off the catch fence and sprinting to the finish line on foot? So Johnson, crew chief Chad Knaus, and the team's spotter all have to be hyper-alert to avoid getting caught up in somebody else's accident.

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NASCAR has a statistic called the driver rating, and so far this season Johnson tops all drivers with a 114.9 rating for 2009, although his career rating is only 84.1, he is 11th best of all Cup drivers.

The rating is a combination of a driver's wins, poles, top-five and top-10 finishes, laps led, average finish, average running position, green flag passes, and for all I know his astrological sign and mother's maiden name. It's interesting that the driver ratings for the 2009 season don't necessarily reflect a driver's position in the point standings. Third place Jeff Gordon (102.3), ninth place Denny Hamlin (101.9) and fourth place Tony Stewart (101.4) all rate higher than second place Mark Martin, who has a 100.6 rating. The rest of the Chase drivers range from Kurt Busch's rating of 99.9 to Ryan Newman's 83.0.

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Some interesting Talladega facts:

Of this year's Chase drivers, only two have won more than once at Talladega.

Jeff Gordon has six wins in 33 tries and Mark Martin has won twice in 43 attempts.

Three Chasers have won once each: Tony Stewart (21 races), Jimmie Johnson (15), and Brian Vickers (10).

Martin is the only Chase driver with more than one Talladega pole (he has two). Johnson, Gordon, and Montoya have one apiece.

Gordon has the most top five finishes (13), with Martin second (10) and Stewart third (9). Martin heads up the top ten finish list with 22, followed by Gordon with 16 and Stewart tied with Kurt Busch at 12.

Gordon has the most DNFs at eight, followed by Johnson and Martin with six each.

The fastest race ever at Talladega ran caution-free, and was won by Mark Martin at an average speed of 188.354 miles per hour.

Gordon won the race from the highest starting position (36th) in 2000, and also won from the pole in 2007.

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A.J. Allmendinger's arrest for alleged drunken driving last Thursday was disappointing. Following on the heels of Michael Waltrip's citation for failure to yield (and a .06 on the breathalyzer), Allmendinger's violation puts NASCAR's reputation for squeaky-clean competitors in question.

Allmendinger failed a field sobriety test, but his blood alcohol level still isn't known. At least he had the good grace to own up to his crime and apologize, and NASCAR reacted by placing him on probation for the rest of the year. It is true that NASCAR competitors don't have the perceived drug, alcohol, and criminal behavior problems of other major professional sports, and I for one don't want to see that changed. Fortunately, nobody was hurt in Allmendinger's incident, unlike the triple fatality caused by Busch driver Robby Moroso a number of years ago. As I said at the time of Moroso's accident, these are among the best drivers in the world. If they can't handle drinking and driving, what makes you think that YOU can?