Well, IndyCar sort of ended two weeks ago (still have Australia on the calendar at the end of Oct.)… and AMA Superbikes will end their season next week at Laguna Seca (go get your tix now!! www.laguna-seca.com), but this weekend it was the Grand Am Sports Car series bidding adieu to 2008. Taking the wins in Utah were Rafa Matos, Ian James & John Pew in the Prototype class and Kelly Collins & Paul Edwards in the GT class (to hear Kelly’s celebratory interview with us Sunday night, click here (apx. 1 hour into the show) – man doesn’t know his wines, does he!). And, let’s give a little shoutout to Bill Auberlen for winning the KONI Challenge race as well. Even bigger kudos to the championship clinchers: Ganassi’s Scott Pruett & Memo Rojas in Prototypes and the Collins-Edwards duo in GT. Have fun at the banquet in Vegas tonight (Monday) boys and girls!!!

Here is an interesting story that explains just HOW the Ganassi team won the championship… their crewmembers were SERIOUS ironmen to get it all done – definitely worth a read: Ganassi Ironmen

Grand Am’s parent company, NASCAR, was at it in both Dover and Vegas this weekend. In Vegas, Mike Skinner took the Truck win, but with points leader Johnny Benson crashing out and finishing 27th, the points are now the tightest they have ever been in the series’ history after 19 rounds… and no Chase needed there. Get this… Ron Hornaday has completely erased his 119-point deficit from a couple of weeks ago to only be one little digit behind Benson in the championship run! That’s HUGE! And, with his 3rd place finish this weekend, Matt Crafton is still in the hunt as well. To hear Matt talk about how he got back in contention (and to hear about his superstitions), hit this link.

In the Busch series (remember, I am one who refuses to call it the N-wide series as that just doesn’t flow off the tongue as easy), Kyle Busch won… but in the Sprint Cup race, he finished last and is now all the way back to 12th in the points… remember just 2 weeks ago, he was WAY ahead in 1st. Again, I’m STILL not 100% sold on this fabricated ‘Chase’ thing… I like the idea of having a playoff which definitely does bring about more attention to the sport, but it just sucks to completely erase the wide margin of points when someone has earned those points the hard way. In the older points systems, there would be NO WAY for Kyle to fall back as far as 12th in the hunt with two terrible races… somehow, he should be rewarded for the stellar year he has had so far… right? Well, there are just too many of you out there who don’t like the guy, so I’m sure you won’t vote with me on that one, will ya… now, if it were Earnhardt or Gordon in the same scenario, would you agree??

Back to the race, the man who won all that Sprint money was again Mr. Greg Biffle, his second in so many weeks… can you say momentum? And yeah, yeah… this is how playoffs are supposed to be done… you peak at the right time of the year and you just may end up with all the riches… that part I do get.

According to drivers each and every weekend, there is still a major tire concern in NASCAR… yes, there will be a couple of tests in Indy (gee, great) including the smaller of the two today, but the main issue of poor construction and lack of technology still exists. The most recent failure? Try Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hey Earnhardt nation, did you get to read his comments after Dover? Click on our friend’s site here and read ‘em and weap… Goodyear, er, BAD-year… WHERE are your smarts… just freakin’ fix the mess you have had for years!

NHRA was down in Dallas where finally – FINALLY – the Schumacher era has ended! Hey, the man is clearly amazing in the Top Fuel cockpit and does deserve this championship to add to the many he already has, but I do like to see a variety of winners, not to mention how I love seeing the underdog win! So good on JR Todd… he nipped Tony Schu on the start line in the final round and kept that margin of victory all the way to 1000 feet. This was serious business, folks… JR has had only five measly round wins this year yet in Texas he went on to beat the most dominant man in the class… he ended Tony’s record breaking 7 consecutive race win streak and 61 consecutive round wins. Big… HUGE! You’ve got to listen to JR’s interview with us just as his celebration was getting underway – JR Todd on Diamond Watches, Drugs & Ray Charles). Other winners were Tim Wilkerson in Funny Car (regained the points lead w/his win), Greg Stanfield in Pro Stock and Chris Rivas in the motorcycles.

Some interesting news and notes on the weekend… and some answers to your email questions to me throughout the week: CrashG@SpeedFreaks.TV

Keep emailing me your thoughts and questions as I kinda dig answering them for ya…

…NASCAR looks to be facing another racial discrimination suit after yet another former official has filed a complaint… if this actually goes to a suit like the first one did, consider both to settle out of court as NASCAR really needs them to just go away (they have already sort of declared a ‘guilty’ plea by firing two of the officials named in the first (Mauricia Grant) suit this week… just my opinion, but that’s what it states to me)

…Bernstein Funny Car driver Tommy Johnson Jr. may switch to Top Fuel for the 2009 season, possibly with His Highness’ team… or possibly as a 2nd Top Fuel teammate sitch with Brandon Bernstein… verdict is yet to be read on this one

…This weekend’s winner JR Todd is also in the running for the Top Fuel seat with Alan Johnson and the Sheik, and is the more likely candidate

…No, Tony Kanaan is not second guessing his re-signing with Andretti Green… he may be second guessing his season this year, but that IndyCar team will get back on track and be a threat moving forward much as they have been in the past

…John Andretti is not only making plans to run the 2009 Indy 500, but also to compete in some NHRA drag races as well… add that to his NASCAR repertoire and he will be a busy man next year

…Scott Speed’s move was finally solidified this weekend like we’ve been telling you, but AJ’s switch is now in doubt (former F1 pilot and soon to be ARCA champ Scott Speed is replacing AJ Allmendinger in the Red Bull #84 Cup Car)… AJ was slated to fit into the vacated #41 Ganassi car, but is now considering other options according to some of my friends… doubtful that IndyCar is one of those options, but stranger things have happened

…Ben Spies should be seen riding in MotoGP next year for Suzuki, which would leave Mat Mladin easily at the head of the class next year in whatever Superbike series ends up running successfully in the States (have I ever mentioned to you that I hate splits!)

…The Carmichael-Ward-Duhamel 2-wheel legend Sports Car team may have some stumbling blocks now that Ricky Carmichael has tested a Daytona Prototype with fellow 2-wheel champ Scott Russell… but hey, at least it all appears to be staying in the motorcycle family… stay tuned!

For some of our Sunday night’s tidbits into NHRA’s drug testing shocker and NASCAR’s lawsuits, click here for our audio with Rob Geiger and Captain Thunder.

And FYI into our new found friends:

Rob Geiger’s site: www.go2geiger.com

Thunder’s site: www.captainthunderracing.com

Gotta run and stock up my fridge now that I’m home for a week-ish and starving my ass off!

CrashG@SpeedFreaks.TV