Enjoy!

Scheduled to appear are Stewart Haas Racing owner/driver Tony Stewart and teammate Ryan Newman, and Truck Series 2008 Rookie of the Year Colin Braun, a native of sort-of nearby Ovalo, Texas. [Really? A NASCAR driver whose home town is "Oval-O." That's kinda funny.]

On the open wheel side, Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Scott Dixon, the 2008 IndyCar Series champ, and Dario Franchitti, the 2007 IndyCar Series champ, whose returned to the series after a lack of sponsorship kept him out of NASCAR. And of course, what would an IndyCar Series press event be without Danica Patrick? They’ll all appear live via satellite.

Troy Taylor, a Fort Worth native and former champion of TMS’s dirt track series, will also be on hand. The Texas World Dirt Track Championships will be held at the track this weekend.

So I’m sure you’re at work today, but pop in those headphones at about noon Central Time, and listen in here. It should be interesting.

Matt Kenseth crosses the finish line at the Auto Club speedway to win his second consecutive race of 2009.

Daytona 500 champion Matt Kenseth had the odds stacked against him going into Sunday’s Auto Club 500 at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana California. In the 50-year history of the Daytona 500, only three other drivers – Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough and Jeff Gordon – have managed to follow his Daytona win with a checkered flag the following race. After leading 84 laps, including the final 38, Kenseth added his name to the list.

Kenseth held off a late-race charge from Jeff Gordon, who was beat out of the pits by a quick stop by Kenseth’s crew during the last caution of the race on lap 216 of the 250 lap event.

“That last run, we made one little adjustment. I didn’t mind if he got out there on us, but when I started running him down, I was like, we got him, we got him,” Gordon said. “Then my car started getting tighter and tighter and tighter…I moved around, went to every groove I could possibly find, and the car just wouldn’t turn.”

It’s gotten harder for the Daytona 500 champ to win the next weekend’s race. The driver is scurried coast to coast on a whirlwind media tour that doesn’t leave much time to prepare for the next race. But the two-mile Auto Club Speedway is similar to many of the tracks that make up the bulk of the Sprint Cup schedule, and as of this year, will be a part of the season-ending Chase for the Sprint Cup playoffs. Kenseth said it was crucial to perform well.

“We had to come here and figure out how to beat the other 43 teams on speed and strategy and adjustments and all that stuff,” Kenseth said. “Really these are the races that make up the bulk of the schedule. Whether you run good or bad at these tracks has more of a determining fact on making the Chase or running for a championship.”

Rain brought the caution out multiple times Sunday, but the weather never completely stopped the race, as it did at this race last year, as well as a week ago at Daytona.

The win gives Roush Fenway Racing owner Jack Roush five consecutives wins at the California track’s February race. Despite the dominance, Roush said it will be difficult to keep it up.

“We’re hard pressed to figure out what to do to be more ready,” Roush said. “But my experience is that these things tend to average out. Man, I just hope when we have to give back all this success that I’m not here, I’m someplace else.”

Kyle Busch made headlines early in the weekend, having won both the Camping World Truck Series and Nationwide Series races at the track Saturday. His bid to become the first NASCAR driver to win a race in each of the three series during the same weekend was cut short with his third place finish on Sunday.

“The last one’s always the hardest to get,” Busch said of his attempt to win three races in a weekend. “They leave it the hardest to get because it’s on Sunday and it’s the biggest show.”

The NASCAR circuit travels to Las Vegas Motor Speedway next weekend for the Shelby 427 Sunday.

Matt Kenseth - Daytona 500 Champ

Matt Kenseth is a deserving Daytona 500 winner, even if the race did get rained shortened. He raced his way to the front of the pack, and made a last-lap pass for the lead before the caution, and the rain, came out. While there were 50-something laps to go, drivers knew the rain was coming and they had it all out on the line. It would have been nice to have seen the same action 50 laps later, but it wasn’t meant to be. After all, four rain shortened races in 51 Daytona 500s isn’t that bad.

With Jeff Gordon ending his winless streak in his duel race, and Kenseth ending his with the 500, expect more of the same from these drivers. Ever notice how when Gordon has had a bad year, he always seems to have a huge rebound the next season? And don’t think crew chief Steve Letarte isn’t on the hot seat to get Gordon multiple points race wins this year. They’ll do good things this year. As for Kenseth, that win was probably the biggest step to forging the bond between driver and new crew chief Drew Blickensderfer.

Knowing rain was on the way, it would have been interesting to see NASCAR pre-emptively shorten the race. With maybe 75 or so laps to go, tell the teams the race would go another 25 laps. Without knowing exactly when the rain would hit, officials would have run the risk of not timing it perfectly, and if they didn’t get it right, would have taken some heat for it. But if they could have pulled it off, it would have made for a more climatic finish.

No bones about it, Dale Jr. caused that wreck. Darrell Waltrip needs to stop pandering to the Junior Nation and making excuses for him. Sure, he was mad because he got held a lap, and he thought since he had a run, Vickers should have let him by. But ever since Tony Stewart put the block on Regan Smith that sent him below the yellow line last year at Talladega, forcing the guy behind you down the track seems to have become the acceptable defensive measure for a driver trying to maintain his position.

This week is California. Let’s hope we’ve got the rain taken care of last weekend. We definitely don’t want a repeat of last year’s weeper fiasco.

Hey folks. Welcome to Armchair Crew Chief, my new NASCAR blog. A little bit about myself: I’m a reporter and editor in Dallas. I’ve been an avid motorsports fan since high school, and I’m in my fifth year covering the sport in one way or another.

While it’s not the main thing paying the bills these days, I’d like it to. In the meantime, you can find me here, providing readers a unique perspective on the sport, both from what happens on the track and the side stories that make the sport so exciting. Feel free to comment: agree with me, disagree with me, tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about.

This site’s a work in progress, so I hope you’ll be patient and check in often. Thanks!