Saturday Night's All Right For Fighting

Brad Keselowski has been chastised by the boys in the hauler.

Denny Hamlin is mad and loaded for bear.

And Saturday, viewers of the Nationwide Series race will get to see if these two will turn what might otherwise have been a foregone conclusion of a championship into the most entertaining spectacle of the weekend.

NASCAR marketers could not have scripted a better sendoff to the season.

If Hamlin backs up his talk (and his tweets), he'll move the feud from Twitter to the track as he's "first to the pay window" to collect on the debt that Keselowski owes him for those Phoenix dustups. Besides, as Hamlin told reporters "Let me tell you something, the one thing he ain't got is more talent than me."

Whether that boast is true or not remains to be seen. But one thing Keselowski isn't is running scared. After all Denny's mouthing off during the week, Keselowski arguably has a score to settle of his own. And no matter what kind of scolding Brian France and co. put on Keselowski behind closed doors, something tells me Brad isn't gonna sit there and let Denny retaliate all over his bumper.

So let's get ready to rumble - because at Homestead, the fight moves from Twitter to the track. And if either driver's day ends with a wreck, there just might be a Saturday night fight in the pits.

Oh yeah, this is gonna be good.

Earlier Start Times Mean An Old Sunday Routine

When I first started watching Winston Cup races, my Sunday routine went something like this:

Mad dash home from church - maybe picking up some food on the way - then a quick change into comfy clothes before scarfing down Sunday dinner in the kitchen or (depending on how much I socialized after church) in front of the TV. All because racing started early, and if you dilly-dallied at church you might miss a few laps.

Well, after NASCAR's announcement today, it looks like I'll be getting back into my old Sunday habit.

As part of the sport's "back to basics" approach, Sprint Cup races in 2010 will have earlier and consistent start times each Sunday. The race start times for NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races in the eastern and central regions will begin at 1:00pm ET, west coast events will begin at 3:00pm ET, and night races will begin at 7:30pm ET. (The one exception is NASCAR’s longest night race, the Coca-Cola 600, which will have the same 5:45 p.m. ET start time.)

Following the invocation and national anthem, the green flag will drop at approximately 15 – 20 minutes past the hour after each stated race event start time.

"NASCAR fans have been asking for earlier and more consistent start times, and we are making this change for our fans, beginning with the Daytona 500 next February," said NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France.

“We are revisiting our sport’s tradition of earlier green flags, and the added consistency will make it easier for fans to know exactly when the races are being televised," explained France. "Additionally, the new start times will help track operators get fans in and out of the track earlier in the evening. Many fans heading home from the race earlier will be able to eliminate the costs of an extra travel day.”

In making the decision for earlier, more uniform start times, NASCAR consulted its Fan Council, comprised of 12,000 avid fans who serve as a sounding board on important topics. Half of NASCAR avid fans said they are often unclear about what time NASCAR races actually start. When given the chance to choose a start time, more than two-thirds of avid NASCAR fans preferred early Sunday afternoon.

I'm not sure how this will affect the pre-race shows on each network or, for that matter, the fantastic and worth-watching Race Day show on Speed TV.

All that is still to be decided I suppose. But one thing's for sure - I'm gonna have to start attending the early service.

CNBC Analyzes the NASCAR Biz

With the economic downturn hitting the sport like a ton of bricks and the plight of American auto makers impacting its manufacturing support, NASCAR is in the midst of a financial firestorm that will take some retrenching to weather.

And tomorrow night, the folks at CNBC will premiere an original show which analyzes the sport's changing business landscape.

"Inside Track: Refueling the Business of NASCAR" premieres at 9 p.m. Thursday on CNBC. Emmy-winning sports business reporter Darren Rovell takes viewers inside NASCAR for an unprecedented look at the once seemingly unstoppable sport. Today, the recession and the imploding car manufacturing business have hit NASCAR and its sponsor companies especially hard. As part of the show, Rovell meets with Brian France, goes with Tony Stewart inside his garage, and reveals how NASCAR plans to survive today's economic storm.

Check out a preview here.

Perfect Timing for a Chevrolet Victory

Mark Martin may have taken the checkered flag, but Chevrolet was the biggest winner at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday.

On the heels of GM's announcement that it plans to cut support for all levels of NASCAR, a win by Chevrolet couldn't have been better timed--or better placed. MIS is about an hour's drive from the headquarters of the Big Three, and the victory by Martin and his #5 Chevy Impala was a sorely needed bright spot on the dim landscape of American auto manufacturing.

Nobody knows how badly the General Motors re-organization will affect Sprint Cup racing, at least not yet. All we know for certain is that GM is eliminating funding for NASCAR's Camping World Trucks and Nationwide series completely. More details about GM's plans for Cup racing will likely be released this week.

Before Sunday's race, NASCAR Chairman Brian France made an unscheduled appearance in the MIS media center, saying that he's confident GM will be involved in NASCAR for many years to come, but he also intimated that NASCAR would consider opening its arms to more foreign makers.

The sport we love is changing, along with our nation and the once-great face of American manufacturing. It's too early to tell what the garage will look like in 2010 and what it will take for NASCAR to weather this storm.

But thanks to Martin, there's at least one headline in which the folks at Chevrolet can take some pride. Their engine beat out the rest of the pack ... and all in their own backyard.