Mammoth Blog

Call his act what you want. Old. Tired. Comical. But the bottom line for Brett Favre and the Vikings will be the bottom line. And it's looking pretty green right now.

On Tuesday morning, the Minnesota Vikings front page had a shocking, half-season ticket deal. Fans could buy one of two packages, one of which included the game against Green Bay. Maybe those type of plans are prevalent in the NBA, but not in this league, where most teams can get away with selling a season ticket to fans that include full-priced preseason games.

By noon, as the word that Favre was going to join the team got out, the half-season ticket advertising was still on the front of the Web site, but the link to the deal, not surprisingly, now led fans to a full-season package.

By 2:30 p.m. ET, the Vikings Web site changed to all Favre. The team was offering #4 jerseys in all sizes, posters and even Brett Favre jersey earrings. As for that half season ticket deal? It was history, as was a deal that offered those that bought season tickets $20 worth of free food and free parking to the season opener. Now the Vikings were saying that only season ticket packages were available and even those were "limited."

Source: Vikings.com

It's not like you could blame the team. They literally went from a team that obviously couldn't sell Adrian Peterson enough to a team that needed extra bandwidth and extra help from Ticketmaster.

And the secondary market was exploding. As of 2:30 p.m. ET, the average price for the Vikings-Packers game in Green Bay was $322 on StubHub

[EBAY 20.9578 0.1178 (+0.57%) ]. StubHub spokesman Sean Pate also said that today has turned into the highest grossing sales days for both Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings tickets in StubHub history. The Vikings home game against the Packers was averaging $182 per seat, up six times in terms of gross sales from yesterday's totals.

Laugh at Brett Favre. Call him whatever you want. But there has been no one in the history of sports who has generated more attention and more business around the few hours following his comebacks. source>>>

Last week in Berlin, the International Olympic Committee's executive board voted to recommend that golf be included in the 2016 Games; the full membership will vote in October. In July, in Caracas, the Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez denounced golf as "a bourgeois sport," and officials have taken steps to close two courses. The joys or miseries of playing the game aside, when it comes to assessing golf's underlying ethos, who is more persuasive, Chávez or the I.O.C.?
THE ARGUMENT

While it would be oversimplifying either to uncritically exalt or utterly damn the culture of golf, on balance Chávez has the stronger case. The golf community, like most others, is neither monolithic nor immutable, but the current customs and values of big-time professional golfers, those most likely to dominate Olympic play, seem remote from the Olympic ideal.

Here's how those golfers look from one international perspective, that of Bruce Selcraig, writing in The Irish Times during Ryder Cup week in 2006: "They drive the same luxury cars, have similar messy divorces, and whether they be from Denmark or Denver offer up the same golf clichés in a globalised TV-ready English that pleases their corporate sponsors."

American golfers are even more homogeneous and more conservative than their global colleagues, Selcraig asserts, citing a Sports Illustrated survey of 76 P.G.A. tour players: 91 percent endorsed the confirmation of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.; 88 percent supported the invasion of Iraq; and 0 percent had seen "Brokeback Mountain." Not science, perhaps, but not unrevealing.

As stated on an official Olympic Web site, "the goal of the Olympic Movement" -- it is a movement, not just a gateway to a Wheaties box -- "is to contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport practiced without discrimination ... with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play." The culture Selcraig describes is more redolent of a gated community than amiable international populism.

That culture was discreditably displayed in 2002, when the Masters Tournament was played at the Augusta National Golf Club, a private club without a single woman as a member. Lamentably, few male golf stars joined the ensuing protest. Tiger Woods was conspicuously willing to play at a sexually segregated club (and one that did not accept a black member until 1990). He had no particular duty to step up -- no honorable person can play at a segregated club -- but his inspiring personal history made his complacency especially sad. As of last month, when the Masters returned to Augusta, the club still had no women, a fact that should worry the golf-besotted I.O.C., which trumpets its determination "to enhance women's participation in sport at all levels."

Reactionary bastions like Augusta are not the whole story. Golf is also played on public courses -- there are 16,000 nationwide -- and some pros emerge from that modest terrain. New York City, for example, has 12 municipal courses. (Queens, with four, has the most. Manhattan has none, although I can envision a concrete course that begins with a tee at the Apollo and ends on a green near the stock exchange. It'll keep pedestrians alert.) Yet golfers appear to be a less diverse group, and a group less interested in diversity, than, say, soccer players or runners. As Chávez put it: "There are sports and there are sports. Do you mean to tell me this is a people's sport?" He answered his own question: "It is not."

Although not explicitly mentioned by Chávez or the I.O.C., golf entails questionable environmental ethics. Unesco warns of the lamentable consequences of building golf courses to attract international tourists: "An average golf course in a tropical country such as Thailand needs 1500 kg. of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides per year and uses as much water as 60,000 rural villagers." Some courses have become more frugal with water, and a team of British scientists argues in "The Biologist" that "many golf courses actively promote nature conservation and harbour some of our rarest plant and animal species." But it is hard to believe that the best-designed nature preserve includes 18 putting greens, or that even the most sophisticated golf course is better for the environment than no golf course at all. These considerations are putatively important to the Olympic Movement, which declares its intent "to encourage and support a responsible concern for environmental issues, to promote sustainable development in sport."

(While not strictly a matter of environmental ethics, as a kid playing pitch and putt in Charleston, S.C., I saw an alligator on the course -- they've got plenty down there -- adding excitement to an otherwise placid pursuit. If the I.O.C. does go with golf in 2016, I hope it will be a version that features large carnivores.)

Every big-time sport has its disheartening elements. College basketball, a game I love, is marred by periodic recruiting scandals; academic mischief; the strange behavior of the N.C.A.A., its governing body; and Rick Pitino's love life. Perhaps the only moments of grace and beauty and virtue in any game occur during actual play, and we should not look too closely at its broader culture and implicit ethics without expecting to be dismayed. But there are genuine differences between the ethos of one sport and another. It is hard to imagine the Duke of Wellington declaring, "The Battle of Waterloo was won in the corporate hospitality tents of the P.G.A. tour." source>>>

For the seventh week running, "The Essential Michael Jackson" (Epic/Sony Music Entertainment) tops the U.K. album chart, while for the second time this year, Black Eyed Peas are in a second stint atop the singles chart, this time with "I Gotta Feeling" (Interscope/Universal).

Yesterday's new data from the Official Charts Company showed Jackson still unassailable at No. 1, with Beyoncé's "I Am...Sasha Fierce" (Columbia) up 5-2. That's a new peak for the R&B superstar's album, which debuted at No. 10 last November and previously reached No. 3 in May. Black Eyed Peas' "The E.N.D. (The Energy Never Dies)" and Paolo Nutini's "Sunny Side Up" (Atlantic/Warner Music) were unmoved at Nos. 3 and 4.

Silvertone/Sony Music Entertainment's 20th anniversary reissue of the Stone Roses' self-titled debut album produced a No. 5 debut. The album first reached No. 19 in 1990, while a 2004 re-promotion took it back to No. 9. After an epic five-week run at No. 2, Florence and the Machine's "Lungs" (Universal Island) fell to No. 6.

"I Gotta Feeling" topped the U.K. singles chart two weeks ago and, after a week at No. 2, moves back to the summit ahead of last week's debut bestseller, "Never Leave You" (4th & Broadway/Universal Island) by Tinchy Stryder featuring Amelle Berrabah. Black Eyed Peas' last single "Boom Boom Pow" was No. 1 for a week in May and another in June; it's the first time a chart act has returned to the top spot with two different singles in the same year.

With "Never Leave You" down to No. 2, there were new entries at No. 3 for DJ-artist Calvin Harris' "Ready For The Weekend" (Columbia/Sony Music Entertainment) and at No. 4 for Peter Andre's "Behind Closed Doors" (Conehead). The English-born, Australian-raised pop singer, who had U.K. No. 1 singles with "Flava" and "I Feel You" in 1996 and "Mysterious Girl" in 2004, has had wall-to-wall tabloid coverage of late following his split from model Katie Price.

There were top ten climbs in the new chart for the Ian Carey Project's "Get Shaky" (All Around The World/Universal), up 10-9, and Little Boots' "Remedy" (Atlantic/Warner Music), up 14-10. Sean Kingston's "Fire Burning" (Beluga Heights/Epic/Sony Music Entertainment) climbed 17-14, Bloc Party's "One More Chance" (Wichita) came in at No. 15 and Jeremih's current U.S. hit "Birthday Sex" (Def Jam/Universal) at No. 17.

On Billboard's pan-European sales charts, "The Collection" by Michael Jackson tops European Top 100 Albums for a second week and Pitbull's "I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)" (Ultra/B1) leads Eurochart Hot 100 Singles for a fourth frame. source>>>

Jordin Sparks will be replacing Ciara on the second leg of "The Circus Starring Britney Spears" tour, reps at Jive Records, both Sparks and Ciara's label, has confirmed.

In a press release on Spears' official website, it was announced on Friday (Aug. 14th) that Sparks will be the opening act for the U.S. portion of the trek. The release also states opener Kristinia DeBarge will continue to perform on all dates while up-and-coming acts Girlicious and One Call will appear in select cities.

Although asked, Jive Records didn't give a reason for the switch.

Leg two of "Circus" kicks off August 20th in Hamilton, Ontario and ends on September 27th in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Here are the dates:

Aug 20: Hamilton, ON (Copps Coliseum)
Aug 21: Ottawa, ON (Scotiabank Place)
Aug 24: New York, NY (Madison Square Garden)
Aug 25: New York, NY (Madison Square Garden)
Aug 26: New York, NY (Madison Square Garden)
Aug 29: Boston, MA (TD Garden)
Aug 30: Philadelphia, PA (Wachovia Center)
Sept 1: Orlando, FL (Amway Arena)
Sept 2: Miami, FL (American Airlines Arena)
Sept 4: Atlanta, GA (Philips Arena)
Sept 5: Greensboro, NC (Greensboro Coliseum)
Sept 8: Detroit, MI (The Palace of Auburn Hills)
Sept 9: Chicago, IL (Allstate Arena)
Sept 11: Des Moines, IA (Wells Fargo Arena)
Sept 12: Grand Forks, ND (Alerus Center)
Sept 15: Tulsa, OK (BOK Center)
Sept 16: Houston, TX (Toyota Center)
Sept 18: Dallas, TX (American Airlines Center)
Sept 19: Bossier City, LA (CenturyTel Center)
Sept 21: El Paso, TX (Don Haskins Center)
Sept 23: Los Angeles, CA (STAPLES Center)
Sept 24: San Diego, CA (San Diego Sports Arena)
Sept 26: Las Vegas, NV (Mandalay Bay Events Center)
Sept 27: Las Vegas, NV (Mandalay Bay Events Center) source>>>

The self-proclaimed "hottest band in the land" is following the hottest trend in classic rock.

Like Journey ("Revelation") and Foreigner ("Can't Slow Down") before it, Kiss' new "Sonic Boom" is a three-disc set that mixes new songs and old material with video content at a low price -- in this case, $12. It will be available exclusively at Walmart properties starting on Oct. 6.

"Sonic Boom" includes a full new album, Kiss' first since "Psycho Circus" in 1999. In web site postings, bassist Gene Simmons describes the 11-track set, produced by singer-guitarist Paul Stanley at Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles, as "the best new record we've done since 'Destroyer.' It is 'Rock And Roll Over' meets 'Love Gun'...If you're a fan of our stuff from about 1977, you'll feel right at home." It's Kiss' first studio album with guitarist Tommy Thayer, and drummer Eric Singer's first since 1997's "Carnival of Souls: The Final Sessions."

Accompanying the new material will be a disc of Kiss greatest hits re-recorded by the original lineup and previously available in Japan, as well as a DVD filmed at a concert earlier this year in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The cover was designed by artist Michael Doret, whose previous Kiss credit is 1976's "Rock and Roll Over."

Kiss plans to tour extensively to promote "Sonic Boom," but only two dates have been announce so far: Sept. 25 at Detroit's Cobo Hall, where the group recorded its breakthrough "Kiss Alive!" album and portions of "Kiss Alive II;" and a Halloween show at the Voodoo Experience festival in New Orleans City Park.

The full track listing for "Sonic Boom" includes:

Sonic Boom:

"Modern Day Delilah"
"Russian Roulette"
"Never Enough"
"Yes I KNow (Nobody's Perfect)"
"Stand"
"Hot and Cold"
"All For The Glory"
"Danger Us"
"I'm An Animal"
"When Lightning Strikes"
"Say Yeah"

Kiss Klassics:

"Deuce"
"Detroit Rock City"
"Shout It Out Loud"
"Hotter Than Hell"
"Calling Dr. Love"
"Love Gun"
"I Was Made For Lovin' You"
"Heaven's On Fire"
"Lick It Up"
"I Love It Loud"
"Forever"
"Christine Sixteen"
"Do You Love Me"
"Black Diamond"
"Rock And Roll All Nite"

Kiss: Live in Buenos Aires (DVD):

"Deuce"
"Hotter Than Hell"
"C'mon And Love Me"
"Watchin' You"
"100,000 Years"
"Rock And Roll All Nite"
source>>>

Two years after returning to active duty from a five-year-hiatus, Squirrel Nut Zippers will release their first album in nine years -- and also their first live album -- with the Oct. 27 release of "Lost at Sea" on Southern Broadcasting/MRI.

Drummer Chris Phillips tells Billboard.com that the group decided to bring out a concert souvenir first because "it's been awhile since we've really been out in public, and I felt it was a great reintroduction for people who knew the band and knew the catalog. The band has grown and changed a lot, musically and is playing the catalog with a lot of command that we didn't used to have. So it felt like a live album was a great first step into re-launching the band...and a great segue into better things to come."

Phillips says the group had culled together performances from about a dozen shows it had recorded and was planning to release that until it "offhandedly listened" to a tape of a Dec. 4, 2008 show from the Southpaw in Brooklyn. "As soon as I heard it, it totally jumped off the page," he recalls. "We're a very spirited band and can be ragged sometimes, but as soon as I heard the recordings from this night I knew I had to roll with them and scrap everything else."

Phillips and his mates -- Jim "Jimbo" Mathus (vocals, guitar), Katharine Whalen (vocals, banjo, ukulele), Je Widenhouse (trumpet) and Stuart Cole (bass) -- are also eyeballing a new studio album, hopefully for 2010. The group has been gathering at Mathus' studio in Mississippi, and has "been recording a lot of new material, according to Phillips. He says the more than 20 songs recorded "are a little more representative of some of our heritage as Southern folks. There's a little more of a Southern roots approach to what we're doing. Katharine is writing material now, which is really exciting. And Jimbo spent so many years playing with Buddy Guy and the Fat Possum folks and soaking up that. So we're stretching it out a little bit."

Phillips won't predict exactly when the new music will see the light of day, however.

"A new studio record is definitely in the works -- or three," he says, "but I'm not feeling anxious to crank out something that isn't an accurate representation of what we want to broadcast. I think the wrong move would be just to crank something out because we feel pressure to fly our flag. We feel very patient to wait 'til the record is the right record.

"But I have a tremendous amount of faith in the band's future. It's great to be at this point. This is definitely a going concern."

The full track listing for "Lost at Sea" includes:

"Memphis Exorcism"
"Good Enough For Grandad"
"It Ain't You"
"Prince Nez"
"Put A Lid On It"
"Fat Cat Keeps Getting Fatter"
"Danny Diamond"
"Suits Are Picking Up The Bill"
"My Drag"
"Happens All The Time"
"Bad Businessman"
"Hell"
"Ghost Of Stephen Foster"
"You Are My Radio"
"Blue Angel"
"Do What"
"Missing Link Parade" source>>>

As predicted, Radiohead has offered a new song for download today (Aug. 17). "These Are My Twisted Words" is available from the band's official Web site as a free download.

"We've been recording for a while, and this was one of the first we finished. We're pretty proud of it," writes multi-instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood on the site. "There's other stuff in various states of completion, but this is one we've been practicing, and which we'll probably play at this summer's concerts. Hope you like it."

The band also indicated its acceptance of file-sharing by also offering a link to the torrent of the track listed by BitTorrent tracker Mininova.

There was, however, no full EP following speculation online about such a release. "These Are My Twisted Words" was leaked on to fan site At Ease's message board last week and then appeared on YouTube.

Radiohead does not have a long-term label deal at present, releasing its 2007 set "In Rainbows" via its own Web site on a pay-what-you-want basis for the MP3 and following that with a full release in January 2008 via XL Recordings in the U.K and ATO/Red in the U.S.

Radiohead is currently rehearsing for festival appearances including Leeds and Reading Festivals (Aug. 29 and 30) in the U.K.

On Aug. 5, it issued the digital track "Harry Patch (In Memory Of)," with proceeds going to the British Legion, the U.K. charity that supports the armed forces and its veterans. Harry Patch, who died aged 111 on July 25, was Britain's last surviving veteran of World War I. source>>>

Our nation was celebrating its bicentennial when Reba McEntire charted her first country single. That first single, "I Don't Want to Be a One Night Stand," didn't exactly ignite her career, but success came soon enough after a series of Top 10 records led to her first No. 1, "Can't Even Get the Blues," in 1982.

Now 33 years into her career, her new album, Keep On Loving You, arrives in stores Tuesday (Aug. 18). One of the tracks, "Consider Me Gone," was the highest-debuting single on last week's Billboard country songs chart. She co-produced the project with Tony Brown and Mark Bright.

In a recent interview with CMT Insider's Allison DeMarcus, McEntire talked about her new album and some of the good-natured creative differences she has with husband Narvel Blackstock, who is also her manager.

CMT: This is your first album for the Valory Music Co. You were with MCA Records for years. How has this new group of people affected your music?

Reba McEntire: I think it's affected me in a very positive way. They're very enthusiastic. Part of the team over at Valory has been with MCA before, so some of us have all worked together. We're familiar. They know my work ethic, I know theirs. So it's fun to get reunited and go at it again.

You have such a strong and loyal fan base. Do you feel any pressure when you go into the studio to really create something special for them?

I always go into the studio with that same formula: try to find the best songs possible and entertain them the best I can. I mean, that's the way I've always done it, and I probably will always do it that way. Thank God, the songwriters let me have some of their best songs. I love them. I'm really excited for the fans to get to hear this new album.

Martina McBride has told us before she has found it harder and harder to find subject matter and songs that she really hasn't sung about before. Do you find that to be troublesome as well?

You know, I never thought about that. ... When a song touches me in some form or fashion ... whether it's emotional, happy, sad, whatever ... when I sing it, hopefully it will touch you. And that's an example when I found the song, "She Thinks His Name Was John." I was over at Bluewater Music Company and they played me about 10 or 15. I took a few, and they said, "Hey, before you go, let us play you one song because we know there's probably nobody else that would sing it but you. And they played me "She Thinks His Name Was John." I said, "I want it." And I recorded it. At the time, I didn't know anyone affected with AIDS, the HIV virus, but I just knew if I could sing about it, hopefully, more people could talk about it and it would bring light to a very unfortunate situation and might help a lot of people. I'm open to any kind of situation in a song as long as it touches my heart.

You actually co-wrote one of the songs on the album, "She's Turning 50 Today." Is that your personal anthem?

I wrote that song, well I started it out when I just turned 50. I e-mailed [songwriter] Liz Hengber, and I said, "Liz, I've got an idea for a song," and I gave her the first two lines. I said, "See what you can do with it." So two years went by, and I had forgotten about it. And then when this album was coming up I said, "Hey, what did you ever do with that song?" She said, "OK, Tommy Lee James and I are gonna start working on it. She e-mailed it back to me, put it in MP3. And I listened to it and loved it. And when I got into the studio, Narvel and I talked about it. By the second verse, I wanted it a little more personal. And so I rewrote the second verse. It is a little bit of an anthem for me. Because when I left, after my divorce, when I left Oklahoma, I never looked back. It was the future. It was looking forward from then on.

You often do songs with some very serious subject matter, and yet you're so lighthearted and fun. Is that just kind of an avenue to get that side of you out?

That's my dark side. (laughs) Yeah, yeah, I think it is. I always like story songs, Dolly Parton, Tom T. Hall, Mel Tillis, Red Stegall, when they'd do their story songs. I was totally enthralled. They had my 100 percent attention. And so, to find a story song, I've got to record it. That's why "Fancy" is my favorite song.

All of your female fans love to see your CD covers and just what your look is going to be next. Do you try to pattern that after your music at the time or where you are in your life? How do you determine what that look is going to be?

After we get done with a photo shoot, Narvel always says, "You don't need to look at any of these pictures." Well, of course, I'm going to be like, "Why? Do they look that bad?" He said, "No, because you don't pick out the right ones." I said, "I pick out the pictures for the way I want to look." He said, "Yeah, but you don't look like that."

That's good and bad. Probably bad because that's the way I want to look and he said, "You look more like this." I said, "Oh, I don't like that one. I like this one over here." So we had like World War III over picking out the album cover and lots of arguments about it, but I'm very tickled with the one we did choose.

So did you win or did Narvel win?

I'm gonna say I did. He's gonna say he did. There'll be another argument there somewhere. source>>>

Jason Aldean's upcoming concert DVD, Wide Open Live & More, has been certified gold by the RIAA more than a week prior to its release date of Aug. 25. The certification acknowledges shipments of 50,000 units. Aldean recorded the DVD in March in Knoxville, Tenn. Selections include "She's Country," as well as his newest single, "Big Green Tractor." In related news, Aldean will appear on the E! late-night talk show, Chelsea Lately, on Monday (Aug. 17), as well as ABC's CMA Music Festival: Country's Night to Rock on Aug. 31. source>>>

A boxed set containing four CDs with 99 songs is coming from Dolly Parton on Oct. 27. The songs cover the years 1957 to 1993, beginning with "Puppy Love" and "Girl Left Alone" recorded for the Goldband label in 1957, when she was 11 years old. Dolly will also include seven previously unreleased tracks. Singles and album tracks represent her recorded work for Goldband, Mercury, Monument, RCA, 20th Century and Columbia. The package will also include a 60-page booklet with liner notes and previously unreleased photographs. source>>>

At least 114 people were arrested Saturday (Aug. 15) at Kenny Chesney's concert at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., near Boston. According to the Boston Globe, another 228 were taken into protective custody at the New England Country Music Festival. Most of the offenses involved underage drinking. The police crackdown stemmed from Chesney's concert there last year when two women were killed in an automobile accident after a day of tailgating on the parking lot. Neither of the victims had tickets to the concert. Chesney's shows at Gillette Stadium have sold out for five consecutive years. Saturday's concert also featured Sugarland, Montgomery Gentry and Miranda Lambert. More than 56,000 people attended the event. source>>>

Clint Bowyer and the Cheerios/Hamburger Helper team did just what they needed to do on Sunday at Michigan International Speedway, picking up an eighth-place finish in the CARFAX 400.

Bowyer's career-best finish at the two-mile speedway advanced him one position, to 14th, in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings. With three races remaining before the 12-team Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff field is set, the 30-year-old driver shaved 41 points off his deficit to 12th-place point-man Mark Martin, leaving Michigan just 58 points shy of Chase eligibility.

Bowyer's weekend started off strong as he posted the eighth-fastest time in Friday's opening practice session. The two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series winner followed that up by touring the two-mile oval in 39.006 seconds, at an average speed of 184.587 mph, later that afternoon in qualifying, placing him 23rd in the starting lineup for Sunday afternoon's race.

Bowyer recovered from his less-than-desired qualifying effort on Friday to record the ninth- and 10th-fastest times in Saturday's twin practice sessions.

The Emporia, Kan., native held his position for the opening six laps but, when light rain showers began to fall, NASCAR was forced to red-flag the event while track-drying efforts began. When the field returned to the racing surface 18 minutes later under the caution flag, crew chief Shane Wilson called Bowyer to pit road to take on four tires and fuel. The decision proved to be a good one when green-flag racing resumed and the No. 33 climbed from 30th to 11th in just 18 laps.

As the leaders began to come to pit road for green-flag pit stops at lap 40, Bowyer was able to stay on the track and gain five points when he was scored the race leader at lap 44. Once the two-time NSCS winner relinquished his position and the cycle of stops completed, he was scored 10th in the running order.

As the laps clicked off, Bowyer continued to hold his own, racing inside the top 10 until various strategies were employed on pit road when rain showers once again placed the field under caution at lap 145. Electing to take on four tires and fuel while others took just two, Bowyer lined up 19th for the lap-152 restart. As the rest of the field relinquished their positions for final service five laps later, Bowyer advanced to 10th position.

In the closing stages of the race, the driver of the Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet did what he could to improve his position, working his way around Richard Childress Racing teammate Kevin Harvick for ninth and Mark Martin for eighth in the final laps of the event.

Brian Vickers captured his first win of the 2009 season, beating Jeff Gordon to the checkered flag by 1.409 seconds. Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Carl Edwards and Sam Hornish, Jr. rounded out the top-five finishers.

Bowyer's RCR teammates Casey Mears, Harvick and Jeff Burton finished sixth, 12th and 18th, respectively.

Short-track action kicks in to high gear next weekend for the annual Sprint Cup Series showdown at the "World's Fastest Half Mile."

Flag-to-flag coverage of the Sharpie 500 from Bristol Motor Speedway will take the green flag Saturday, August 22 beginning at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on ESPN. The race will also be broadcast on the Performance Racing Network and Sirius XM Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the 24th points-paying races on the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series calendar will be televised live on ESPN2 Friday, August 21 beginning at 5:30 p.m. EDT and will also broadcast live on PRN and Sirius XM Satellite Radio.

CLINT BOWYER QUOTE

"We did exactly what we needed to do. We needed a top-10 finish and that's what we got. It was a good finish for us, point-wise. We're still very much alive in the chase to get into the Chase. If we can keep picking up finishes like this and capitalizing on some of the misfortunes of some of the others, we'll find ourselves in this thing come New Hampshire." source>>>

Stewart-Haas owner Tony Stewart has easily qualified his No. 14 Old Spice/Office Depot Chevrolet for the 2009 NASCAR Championship.

The team's second driver, Ryan Newman, still needs solid finishes in the next three races to join Stewart in the Championship run. Newman currently is ninth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings to make the 12-car field.

Newman will be spreading himself thin at Bristol Motor Speedway when he attempts to race in four different NASCAR series in the same week.

The timing of this event-filled weekend, with so much on the line, is not the best. The Sprint Cup race will be the fourth event in a long week for the driver of the 39 U.S. Army/Haas Automotive Chevrolet.

On Wednesday Newman will participate in NASCAR's Whelan Modified Tour which will make its Bristol debut. The race will be followed by NASCAR's Camping World Truck series where Newman will be behind the wheel of the No. 2 Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI) Pringles Chevrolet Silvarado.

Newman will drive the No. 5 Fastenal Chevrolet for JR Motorsports in the Nationwide Series Foodcity 250 on Friday night. He was originally scheduled to drive this car at Kansas on October 3 but JR Motorsports swapped the date with Scott Wimmer to allow Newman to race in all four events.

Ryan Newman fans and his owner Stewart will have to wait until the fourth race to see if Newman gets a strong finish in the Sprint Cup series Chase. Saturday night he will get back into his Stewart-Haas Chevrolet where he will need to finish strong to keep his Chase hopes alive. source>>>

One of the most popular and exciting races annually on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule is the night race at Bristol Motor Speedway, and ESPN will have live, flag-to-flag coverage in high definition as the stars and cars go for 500 laps on the half-mile track on Saturday, Aug. 22. The telecast is presented by Pennzoil and begins with NASCAR Countdown presented by Degree V12 at 6:30 p.m. ET. The race's green flag is at 7:43 p.m.

In addition, coverage of NASCAR Sprint Cup qualifying at Bristol will air Friday, Aug. 21, at 5:30 p.m. on ESPN2. source>>>

With just three races remaining before the Chase, NASCAR has its own version of "Trading Spaces."

Brian Vickers' stock is rapidly rising as the Team Red Bull driver provided the dominant storyline of the weekend at Michigan. He won the pole on Friday, nearly won the Nationwide Series race on Saturday, and came back on Sunday to prove he was "good to the last drop," winning the CARFAX 400, a fuel-mileage contest.

The win left Vickers closing in on the 12th and final Chase position, just 21 points behind Mark Martin. Vickers chopped a whopping 115 points off the deficit in one race.

While Vickers is hot, Kyle Busch is not.

After excelling early in the season in the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Truck Series, Busch is fading fast. He was 23rd on Sunday, dropping to 15th in the standings, and could very easily miss the Chase when the checkered flag drops at Richmond on Sept. 12.

More about Busch's decline later.

Vickers' emergence in the battle for the Chase is impressive, but it shouldn't surprise anyone who knows the driver's studious approach to racing. When it comes to pure intellect, Vickers may be the smartest driver in NASCAR. He was valedictorian of his high school class in Thomasville, N.C., and brings an engineer's approach to the race car.

Eavesdrop on his scanner frequency during a race and you'll find his communication with crew chief Ryan Pemberton to be calm, stoic and analytic -- quite the opposite of what one hears from Dale Earnhardt Jr., who sounds like a bad episode of MTV's The Real World.

If he had not decided to become a NASCAR Sprint Cup driver, Vickers could have easily worked for NASA. "I've always been fascinated with rocket science and it's something I've always wanted to be involved in," Vickers said. "The prospect of going into space is what has intrigued me the most. I always took engineering classes in school and understood that. There is something about exploring the unknown that has intrigued me."

Some might consider it a waste that Vickers' didn't put his intelligence to better use than driving in circles for a career. "There were people who wondered why I decided to drive race cars, but I had been racing cars for many years through high school, so that wasn't a big surprise to a lot of people," Vickers said. "It has helped some having an understanding of mechanics and how cars work and aerodynamics but I'm by no means an engineer. That is why the crew is there. It helps to relate to them and speak the language. I think it's a huge benefit."

Perhaps that's why Vickers knew just how much fuel to conserve in the closing stages of Sunday's race. He pitted for the last time with 51 laps to go and made the distance. When his former teammate, Jimmie Johnson, ran out of fuel with two laps to go, Vickers was far enough in front of another former teammate, Jeff Gordon, that he could have coasted to the checkered flag if he had to.

But even Vickers wasn't sure in the late stages whether the fuel strategy would work. "I've got to tell you, when you're coming to two laps to go, I'm still sweating bullets, no matter how much confidence you've got," Vickers said. "I don't know how hard [Jimmie Johnson] was pushing his car. I definitely had a little bit left -- I was trying to push him to use more fuel. I felt like I was comfortable where I was using my fuel."

The last time Vickers won a NASCAR Sprint Cup race, at Talladega in 2006, he had to virtually head for cover after he drove into the back of his then-Hendrick Motorsports teammate Johnson and Talladega favorite Earnhardt Jr., crashing both on the last lap.

His biggest concern today is that he still isn't sure if he is returning to Red Bull next season. "We have every intention of getting this done [quickly]," team general manager Jay Frye said. "Every intention has always been to redo this. We're working hard to get it done. We certainly don't want him to go anywhere."

If Vickers makes the Chase, he can certainly increase his leverage in contract negotiations. And on Sunday, he took a big step in that direction with his second career victory. source>>>