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A Ford engine hasn’t reached Victory Lane in the Sprint Cup level since the fall race at Talladega, a span of 18 events.

Though Ford drivers Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle are in the top 10 in points heading into Sunday’s race at Michigan, there remains plenty of work to do.

Owner Jack Roush says the new FR9 engine the drivers will use this weekend is “marginally better” than the previous motor Ford drivers used and the onus is on teams to start coming through.

Roush hopes to turn things around this weekend at a track where his cars have won 11 Cup races, tied for the most all-time at the two-mile track.

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It’s been almost a year since NASCAR opened its ears in two town-hall style meeting between top executives and the competitors. The sport was in trouble <emdash /> the economy had wreaked havoc on everyone’s bottom line, and nobody was all that thrilled with the competition <emdash /> and NASCAR was willing to listen to ideas.

There was initial concern that those May 26 meetings were nothing more lip service. Looking back, they were actually a major turning point for the industry because actual changes have followed.

NASCAR switched to the popular double-file restart format two weeks after the town-hall meeting, and plans to eliminate the wing that so offended race fans began taking shape. When NASCAR received considerable backlash over the watered-down October race at Talladega, the “boys, have at it” policy was born.

Fans displeasure with never knowing what time a race was going to begin was fixed by the consistent start times policy that went into effect this season, and the decision was made to put the entire Chase for the Sprint Cup championship on ESPN to streamline yet another aspect.

Struggling at this time last year with the fallout from Jeremy Mayfield’s failed drug test and the confusion many drivers claimed they had over NASCAR’s toughened new policy, a list of banned substances was created and made available to teams at the start of this season.

NASCAR chairman Brian France and his top management team spent the offseason individually meeting with every race team to discuss the tract they were taking in a bid to stop the bleeding. For a series that had forever been run like a dictatorship, this open attitude was a refreshing change.

And if there was any doubt that NASCAR was willing to do whatever was needed to save the show, it responded to the many customers left dissatisfied when the first race of the year, the exhibition Budweiser Shootout, ended under caution. Entered into competition just four days before the season-opening Daytona 500, the new policy of three attempts at a green-white-checkered flag ending has radically improved the racing this year.

So here they are, a year later, coming off one of the most celebratory weeks in NASCAR history.

The glitzy $195 million Hall of Fame opened this month amid a tremendous amount of anticipation. NASCAR celebrated all of last week with numerous Hall of Fame events, then moved to the race track for Saturday night’s annual All-Star race.

The racing, like it has been for most of the year, was much improved. Granted, the field had to first figure out how to catch four-time defending series champion Jimmie Johnson, but ever since the wing was replaced by the traditional spoiler in March, ol’ Double J hasn’t seemed so invincible anymore.

The “have at it” policy, designed to allow drivers to self-police on the track while also encouraging more emotion, again gave NASCAR a juicy storyline when teammates Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch raced each other hard for a shot at the win. When that aggressiveness led to a race-ending crash for Busch, he threatened to kill Hamlin over his team radio (lovely to see you again, “old” Kyle!).

By the time team owner Joe Gibbs had diffused the situation with a closed-door meeting, it was already Sunday and attention had shifted into the inaugural Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Nobody knew what to expect out of the ceremony that honored founder Bill France Sr., his son, Bill Jr., seven-time champions Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt, and pioneer Junior Johnson.

What those in attendance were treated to was a walk down memory lane that reminded everyone just how special NASCAR really is. It was a celebration of both the past and the present, and a rare opportunity for the entire industry to step back and look at everything that’s going well right now.

“It made me proud to be part of the, proud to be a driver,” said three-time champion Darrell Waltrip. “It makes me even prouder just to be part of the community, the NASCAR community. We have come so far, and done so much.”

Now, if only NASCAR could figure out how to get Dale Earnhardt Jr. to win again!

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Harvick said Friday at Talladega Superspeedway that he’s had “many, many, many” conversations with team owner Richard Childress about staying with Richard Childress Racing when his contract expires after this season.

Harvick

 He did not elaborate when asked if he’s had conversations with other owners, such as Chevrolet owner Tony Stewart, with whom he reportedly was linked last season.

But Harvick made it clear he’s burnt no bridges with RCR, where he has driven in the Sprint Cup Series since replacing the late Dale Earnhardt in 2001.

He also made it clear that, because he uses Chevrolet with his Nationwide and Truck Series organization, he doesn’t plan to switch manufacturers.

“Richard Childress and myself, we’ve got a great relationship,” said Harvick, who is fourth in points after missing the Chase last season. “We’ve been talking about a lot of things for several months. It’s not anything different than we normally do at this time. The cars are running well. Everybody is communicating well.

“I don’t know what else to say other than Richard and I have had many, many, many conversations over the last several months. What that means? Right now I’m driving the No. 29 car.”

Regardless of where Harvick goes, he’ll have a new sponsor in 2011. Shell/Pennzoil announced earlier in the week it is moving to Kurt Busch in the No. 22 car at Penske Racing next year.

Brad Keselowski will move into Busch’s ride in the No. 2 at Penske, with Miller Lite remaining the sponsor.

“I don’t have any ill will toward anybody or anything like that,” Harvick said. “I don’t particularly agree with the way the whole situation was handled. . . . There’s sponsors that come and go. This particular situation there were a lot of business-to-business decisions that took place.”

Penske, which is losing Mobil One as a sponsor after this season, made a deal with Shell/Pennzoil that includes its three IndyCar teams and dealerships.

Sources close to the situation said RCR has had discussions with Budweiser, which is shopping for a new driver because its contract with Kasey Kahne expires after this season.

On Thursday, Harvick took issue on Twitter with stories involving sources on his future. Asked to clarify his future, he said: “If you’re going to quote a source, quote their name. If they’re too chicken to give their name, don’t put their name in the paper. Anonymous sources are crap.”

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 “Did you guys hear about the fight we got into?” he asked reporters on Friday. “Man, we just got into a heck of a fight.”

 He was referring to Jeff Gordon – his teammate at Hendrick Motorsports, friend, part-owner of his No. 48 Chevy and, most recently, major rival after beating and banging each other at Texas Motor Speedway last week.

 “I caught him good with the right hook,” Johnson joked.

 While the rivalry between the two four-time champions hasn’t come to a garage brawl, it has intensified in recent weeks as Gordon has displayed a new aggressiveness fueled by better performance from his team.

 “When I’ve got a race car that’s as strong as these cars have been this year,” Gordon said, “I have to get everything I can out of it that I can. I’m going to be more aggressive when we have those opportunities.”

 His next opportunity is today at noon in the Aaron’s 499 Sprint Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway, a venue where Gordon is the winningest active driver with seven wins.

 But Gordon isn’t sure aggressiveness is such a good thing at Talladega.

 “All that aggressiveness that I’ve had over the last several weeks, I need to completely change gears for here and go back to being really, really patient,” he said.

 The new, more aggressive Gordon hasn’t just been reflected with Johnson. At Martinsville he wrecked Matt Kenseth on the last lap to keep him from winning after Kenseth bumped him.

 But it’s his rivalry with Johnson that gets more attention, even though both drivers say it is a healthy rivalry.

 “Ours is a healthy respect because we’re teammates,” Gordon said. “We have a mediator in (team owner) Rick Hendrick when things go too far. We know that we have to be careful crossing that line.”

 Johnson agrees.

 “We push each other really hard and ask a lot and we’re both greedy in ways and have probably put each other in positions on the race track that he hasn’t liked and I haven’t liked,” he said.

 But they always smooth things over.

 “Unfortunately from our standpoint this stuff comes to a head and it’s on national television and everybody asks questions and then we’ve got to come back and patch it up,” Johnson said.

 But he said he understands where Gordon is coming from.

 “You have to stand up for yourself regardless of the situation,” Johnson said. “There comes a point that if you don’t stand up for yourself, people are just going to continue to push you around, teammate or not.”

 Johnson will start from the pole in today’s race after qualifying was canceled on Saturday because of the severe storms that moved through the state. Gordon starts fifth. Starting positions have been determined by the series points standings.

 The bad weather also forced a postponement of the Aaron’s 312 Nationwide Series race until this afternoon. NASCAR officials decided to try to get in the Nationwide race after the Cup race to avoid having a second consecutive week of racing on Monday.

 The Nationwide race is scheduled to start at about 4:30 p.m., depending on when the Cup race ends. NASCAR officials are hopeful the race can conclude before daylight ends. Talladega does not have lights on the track so night racing is not a possibility.

 Fans who have tickets to either race can attend both races today. Those with tickets to the Cup race will have priority for reserved seats. Those with Nationwide tickets should check with track officials for available seats.

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“Yeah, well, obviously we were tight on fuel,” Harvick said.

“We were able to save enough gas to get where we needed to be for all the green-white-checkers. Once we kind of got past that window, it was just all about timing, and the timing worked out exactly how we wanted it to work. We knew coming in the tri-oval we needed to be second, and I moved to the left, and that was it.”

Richard Childress Racing and Harvick lost their sponsorship with Shell, as they decided to go with Penske Racing in 2011. Harvick has no hard feelings; he knows that it is just part of the business.

“I don’t have any ill will toward anybody in particular,” Harvick said. “I don’t particularly agree with the way the whole situation was handled, but this particular situation, I’m the driver and it’s not anything new to the sport. There are sponsors that come and go, and things change.

“In this particular situation there was a lot of business-to-business that took place. It’s not anything new, and being an owner, you understand that there are a lot of decisions that take place. Other than that, it is what it is and you roll on.”

For Richard Childress Racing, Sunday’s win was the team’s first since October 2008.

Childress said he believes Sunday’s win will help when it comes to finding a new sponsor. “This is a great win for Kevin and myself,” he said. “You know, we’ve had good cars. You know, I think we won the Daytona 500 or 499 or whatever it was, and the 510, we just didn’t win the Daytona 520. We’ve been right there, had a good shot at California, and we got the cars running good. I really feel good about everything the 29 [Harvick] team has got going right now. We want to win that championship.”

Harvick’s last win was in 2007 when he won the Daytona 500. Sunday was Harvick’s first win at Talladega Superspeedway.

This season, Harvick had five top 10 finishes coming into Sunday’s race. Harvick almost won the Daytona 500 earlier in the season, but a green-white-checker rule cost him the victory. On Sunday that rule helped Harvick.

“Yeah, I remember Gil [Martin] being down in the dumps and telling Mike Helton, ‘that rule sucks,’” Harvick said.

“Mike patted him on the back, and he said, ‘it will all come full circle.’ Today it’s all worked itself out, and we were able to finish it off.”

Sunday’s race had Talladega Superspeedway records with 88 lead changes and 29 different leaders. Harvick said were many factors contributed to record numbers.

“I think it is a combination of a lot of things,” he said.

“I think a lot of effort went into the spoiler, restrictor plate size and making sure that the racing was what it needed to be. I think that they are all contributing factors in some way.”

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NASCAR canceled all Saturday track activity at Talladega Superspeedway because of threats of extended periods of severe weather.

Track officials said the decision was made on advice from the Talladega County Emergency Management Agency and the National Weather Service, which said Talladega County was one of the areas in Alabama facing a high risk of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes on Saturday.

“Fans are strongly encouraged to take necessary precautions to ensure their safety, especially those guests camping on speedway property,” track officials said.

The Nationwide Series race scheduled for Saturday will now be held Sunday following the Sprint Cup Series race. It’s the second consecutive weekend that NASCAR will attempt a doubleheader.

Rain last weekend in Texas washed out both Cup and Nationwide events, and they were run back-to-back on Monday. Drivers who competed in both series totaled 801 miles of racing.

There are 10 drivers scheduled to run both of Sunday’s races, which are scheduled to total 811.30 miles barring any additional “overtime” laps.

Qualifying for Talladega’s Cup race was canceled, and the field for Sunday’s race will be set by owner points. Four-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson will lead Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle to the green flag.

With the new schedule set, officials turned their attention to safety.

Fans camping on the sprawling speedway grounds were encouraged to dismantle their tents and seek more stable shelter. Most drivers and crew chiefs are also on property in their private motorhomes located just aside the garage. Security was going motorhome-to-motorhome to advise competitors of areas inside the track where they could seek shelter.

At least one driver, Denny Hamlin, left the property. Hamlin posted on his Twitter page he was headed back to Charlotte, N.C., to catch Game 3 in the NBA playoff series between the Bobcats and Orlando Magic.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., still on the clock as he and Jamie McMurray helped Daytona International Speedway announce a repaving project set to begin in July, said he didn’t know what he’d do during the storms — particularly if there’s a tornado.

“I was gonna ask for advice about the best plan,” Earnhardt said. “I ain’t got my plan together yet. I’ll look up in the sky a lot, I reckon.”

All tickets for either race will be honored Sunday, with seat priority given to those with tickets to the Cup race. Fans with tickets to the Nationwide event will be directed to the nearest open seat.

The Sprint Cup race will begin at 1 p.m. Eastern, as scheduled, and the Nationwide Series race will follow.

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That four-year stretch netted Earnhardt seven victories at NASCAR’s two fastest tracks, and gave him a confidence and air of invincibility.

It’s been over five years, though, since Earnhardt last won a plate race. And though he’s still considered a contender every time he climbs into his car, he’s rarely called the favorite anymore.

Then came the season-opening Daytona 500, when for at least two laps, the old Earnhardt was back. He steamrolled his way from 10th to second with a series of jaw-dropping moves, falling just short of running down winner Jamie McMurray.

“At the end of that race, I just made enough of the right decisions,” Earnhardt said Friday. “If I’d made a couple more — maybe I made a few wrong decisions that cost me the win — and maybe if I had done things just a little differently, we’d be holding the trophy at the end of that race.”

Earnhardt understands why his Daytona drive received so much attention because just like his ardent fan base, he too saw a flash of how things used to be for NASCAR’s most popular driver.

“I did,” he nodded, “I did.”

So he’s not surprised at the growing anticipation from a victory-starved Junior Nation that is desperately hoping Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway is going to be another display of, to borrow from Earnhardt’s personal vocabulary, “awesomeness.”

Earnhardt, fresh off an eighth-place finish in Monday’s rain-rescheduled race at Texas, is tempering the expectations. Performance is as much about skill as it is the quality of race car, and Earnhardt said the current rules package leaves him at the mercy of his No. 88 Chevrolet.

“It’s no disrespect to the cars that I’ve drove in the past, but even people close to me have said I need to be more aggressive,” Earnhardt said of the mantra born out of the Daytona 500 finish.

“You can’t be aggressive when you’re going backward. You can’t be aggressive when you’re trying to sitting there trying to hang on. When the car’s good, I can do that, and I’m willing to do that. I get fired up and see opportunities and see the win standing there in front of me, and I can get aggressive. Every driver is that way when they smell that opportunity.”

But when the car is only mediocre?

“Beating on everybody ain’t going to do nothing but make you a bunch of enemies. So you’ve just go to ride it out,” he said. “When you’re playing offense all day long? It’s easy to look cool and drive on the edge and get everybody up on their feet. But when you’re just hanging on and trying not to wreck and stay out of everybody’s way, it’s difficult to be aggressive and wild and flashy or whatever.”

Of course, he’d prefer to run 500 miles at full speed with his eye only on the checkered flag. He can’t do that, though, during what’s considered to be one of the most critical season’s of his career.

Earnhardt must rebound from last year’s embarrassing campaign, when he finished 25th in the final standings at the same time his Hendrick Motorsports teammates swept the top three spots. He was winless, had just five top-10s and went into the offseason as the top priority for team owner Rick Hendrick.

Now eight races into this year, he’s already grabbed three top-10 finishes and is seventh in the standings.

Still, his winless streak has stretched to 65 races, dating back to Michigan in June 2008. He badly needs a win, but isn’t circling Sunday at Talladega, where he’s a five-time Cup winner, as a must-win race.

“I am anxious to win wherever we can win,” he said. “I don’t really put more emphasis over Daytona or Talladega or any other track. Wherever we can pick up a win, it will be just as celebrated and appreciated as any other race.”

But winning isn’t going to be the primary goal this Sunday or any other race. The big picture right now is making the Chase, and Earnhardt is focused on what he’s got to do to be one of the 12 drivers eligible to race for the Sprint Cup title at the end of the season.

“I’ve just really been trying to race every lap and every track with the mindset of trying to gain as many points each week as we can to add to the total and give ourselves that chance to finish in the Chase,” he said. “The race itself is going to be a real hard one to win, but I feel like we can be up there in the mix and if we don’t win, we can at least get a finish that helps us in the points.”

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 Track and NASCAR officials considered the possibility of announcing a postponement of Saturday’s activities Friday because of the severe weather forecast. Officials held one morning and two afternoon meetings with National Weather Service representatives to discuss the situation.

Saturday’s forecast includes an 80 percent chance of precipitation along with strong storms and wind. There is the potential, according to the NWS, of “a major tornado outbreak across Central Alabama.”

Saturday’s track schedule includes qualifying for Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 Sprint Cup race and the Aaron’s 312 Nationwide Series race. A crowd of more than 40,000 is expected at the track for Saturday’s race, but many more are camping in the speedway vicinity with plans to attend Sunday’s Sprint Cup race. More than 100,000 people could be impacted by potential weather problems.

“We’ll be closely monitoring everything tomorrow,” said Grant Lynch, Talladega Superspeedway chairman. “We’ll be on high alert watching the weather as it moves up from the south. It’s going to be a hit-and-miss situation.”

NASCAR official Jim Hunter said if the Nationwide race is postponed by weather Saturday it would be rescheduled as part of a doubleheader Sunday or on Monday.

Lynch said weather officials told him there is the possibility of one to five inches of rain falling in the track vicinity Saturday. But there also is the possibility of sunshine, he said, and the severe weather could bypass the track.

Hundreds of Alabama state troopers and many emergency services personnel and vehicles will be on speedway property during the weekend.

“The decision was made somewhat easier for us because a huge percentage of our crowd is already here,” Lynch said. “They’re going to be here whether we run this race or not. We will tell them to take precautions and secure everything at their campsites that could blow around. They have to take the necessary precautions that they deem reasonable.”

There are no shelters of significant size in the speedway area.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including “NASCAR: The Definitive History of America’s Sport” and “Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told”. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

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 Track officials were meeting with National Weather Service personnel Friday morning to analyze the forecast. The weather service has issued a “special weather statement” for central Alabama, predicting severe thunderstorms Saturday and Saturday night in central Alabama. There is an 80 percent possibility of precipitation Saturday.

The likelihood of extreme weather is of particular note in the speedway vicinity because thousands of fans are gathering in the area’s campgrounds for the NASCAR weekend. Many plan to camp out in tents and similar structures which obviously could be impacted by strong storm conditions.

Saturday’s scheduled track activities include the Aaron’s 312 Nationwide Series race and qualifying for Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 Sprint Cup event.

Sunday’s forecast calls for only a 20 percent chance of rain.

Speedway officials are expected to issue a statement about the weather forecast Friday.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including “NASCAR: The Definitive History of America’s Sport” and “Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told”. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

The NASCAR Hall of Fame Grand Opening is set for May 11, 2010. Outdoor Opening Ceremonies are May 11th from 9 to 10 am ET free of charge, open to the public. Outdoor festivities including driver appearances and concerts May 11th from 10 am until 8 pm ET open to the public, free of charge. Tickets to enter the NASCAR Hall of Fame are on sale now at www.NASCARHall.com or by calling 877-231-2010. The countdown to the NASCAR Hall of Fame is on! Visit www.NASCARHall.com/50days for daily updates about the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

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