For a time, the sun was shining, the birds were singing and all was right with the world. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was leading a race. Reall? For 41 laps he led at Kansas, and things were going just great. Then, the clouds came out and the birds flocked off as the boys in the pits failed to secure all the lug nuts on a stop. The only good news was that Carl Edwards got a speeding penalty at about the same time. The lads got to battle for the Lucky Dog, something the Duckman eventually picked up to rebound for a tenth-place finish. As for Junior, he fell into a black hole the rest of the day before the car finally, mercifully, died.

So much for the positive signs of qualifying, where Junior started sitting beside pole-sitter Mark Martin. Hard to believe, I know! Then there was boy wonder Brad Keselowski in the next row beside Jamie McMurray. Starting in the fourth row was Joe Nemechek. Talk about screwing up your plans to start and park. Still, in the end, only Martin managed a top ten.

Tony Stewart was there at the end, claiming his fourth win of the season as Jeff Gordon loomed in his rear view. Martin extended his lead over Jimmie Johnson to 18 points with Juan Pablo Montoya 51 away. Stewart has 67 points to make up. Ten of the Chasers finished up front, with only Ryan Newman and Brian Vickers finishing outside the top 20. Vickers, now 250 points out, is pretty much west bound and down.

Two weeks ago, the first day of autumn, saw the temperatures in these parts rise to over 90. You would have thought it was California, except with a real race track. Today, we have a heck of a time pumping it above 35. Soon, we'll be out flooding the yard to provide a place for folks to skate or to simulate the conditions found between Turns 1 and 2 at Kansas.

For a moment I thought we were back in Dover when I saw Joey Logano go for a spin all by his lonesome. This time, nobody hit him or sent him barrel rolling down the track. He probably should have come in for winter tires at this point.

Less than ten minutes later, Paul Menard went for his own spin in the same place, but unfortunately he got in the way of Bobby Labonte, Michael Waltrip and David Regan. Even Logano managed to pick up some front-end damage. If you ever wondered what driving conditions might be like during a Canadian winter, you saw that early on Sunday. I mean, if we had a turn like that around here, we would be spreading salt and sending out the sanding trucks to provide some grip.

All in all, it was a rather entertaining race. Heck, I didn't even mind Rusty Wallace this week, so that has to tell you something. Lots of lead changes, lots of racing on the track and lots of strategy. Next Sunday we have California. Well, you can't have everything.

His daddy is a three-time Formula One champ, but Nelson Piquet Jr's F-1 career is as dead as Michael Waltrip's championship hopes. After getting the boot from his open-wheel ride this year, Piquet claimed he was ordered by his team to wreck on purpose last year at Singapore in a bid to support a teammate's hopes for victory. Just a couple of weeks ago, the team boss got a lifetime ban, an engineer got tossed for five years and the team parked for two.

So, the guy is a hero, right? Well, one witness claimed that Piquet himself was the one who came up with the idea in the first place. All I know is if such a plan came to light in NASCAR, somebody would be packing wrenches in an orifice not designed for such a thing. Oh, we hear the 24-year-old could be driving one of Jeff Hammond's trucks at Rockingham later this month. Just keep it off the walls.

Talking about open wheelers, we also hear that Danica Patrick could wind up driving a very limited ARCA and Nationwide schedule for Earnhardt Jr.'s outfit next season. Dear God, I just hope it doesn't mean we'll wind up seeing Junior in a GoDaddy.com commercial getting stopped by some good ol' boy who immediately starts peeling off his shirt. Let's just say I wouldn't find such a thing very titillating at all.

In fact, I would rather watch a race from California, which is what is on tap this Sunday. The dud among NASCAR tracks returns about a month later than in the past, a place where Jimmie Johnson was victorious 13 months ago. At least somebody will be looking forward to this one.