Can Reutimann keep rolling?

RACE DAY AT HOMESTEAD

Sunday, Nov. 16, 2008

• Qualifying results | How they'll line up Sunday
• Belts tighten | Troubles mount as NASCAR season ends
• Opinion | Getting students up to speed among academy's aims
• Cautiously optimistic | Pole winner hopes Friday's run a sign of things to come in 2009

A little more to consider while waiting for the season's final NASCAR race to start at Homestead-Miami Speedway:

THREE THINGS TO WATCH

1. Jimmie Johnson was fastest in Saturday's first practice and fourth in the final session. But he starts 30th after a poor qualifying run on Friday. That puts him in at least some peril of finding the kind of trouble that could cost him the championship.

2. David Reutimann and Scott Speed are interesting front-row starters. Speed was also fast in practice Saturday, but Reutimann would seem to be the safer bet if you're looking for one of the fast qualifiers to make a mark in the race.

3. Keep that remote control handy. ABC has allotted itself until 8 p.m. to show the end of the race and ensuing celebrations. If nothing odd happens, the network (and fans) should be OK. But if nothing odd had happened, Phoenix wouldn't have been a fiasco.

OBSERVATIONS

How few will do now?

NASCAR's new reality is this: For years now, teams have been hiring as many people as they could possibly afford to hire and then found work for them to do. Right now, though, teams are figure out how few they can have and still get their work done, and just how much of that work is actually necessary.

Ah, New York. If you can afford it there ...

How "festive" do you think the men and women who're losing their jobs with race teams will feel when they turn on their televisions and see NASCAR swells in their black-tie finery at the Sprint Cup awards ceremony?

The NASCAR "rate" for a room for one night in New York City's Waldorf-Astoria hotel is more than some of those who'll lose their jobs would make in a week at the jobs they just lost.

JUST THE FACTS

What: Ford 400.

Where: Homestead-Miami Speedway, Homestead, Fla.

Track type: 1.5 mile oval with variable banking (18 to 20 degrees).

Race distance: 267 laps (400.5 miles).

When: 3:45 p.m. Sunday.

Weather: Clear and around 70 when the race begins.

TV: ABC.

Radio: Motor Racing Network.

OBSERVER PICKS

DAVID POOLE

It won't be enough to win him a championship, but Carl Edwards will go down fighting and become Cup's leading race-winner with his ninth victory.

Winner: Carl Edwards.

JIM UTTER

He has a penchant for winning the season finale and there's no better way to cap a surprisingly strong run in the Chase this season.

Winner: Greg Biffle.

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