McDowell, Papis transfer

Michael McDowell and Max Papis were the two highest finishing drivers from those outside the top 35 in points, which means they will race in the Daytona 500.

Our View McDowell finished 14th and Papis finished 15th, but all that matters is they have qualified for NASCAR's Super Bowl.

Most impressively, Papis held onto a transfer position by staying out on old tires. That could make him one of this season's favorite dark horses.

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Several NASCAR drivers highlight Rolex 24 entry list

Six active NASCAR drivers will add some stock car spice to this weekend's Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona DP roster. Max Papis will be in Chip Ganassi's No. 01 car, DEI teammates Juan Montoya and Jamie McMurray will also team up in the Ganassi No. 02, A.J. Allmendinger will run the No. 6 Michael Shanks entry, Paul Menard is in the No. 90 Porsche Coyote and Jimmie Johnson will team with Alex Gurney and Jimmy Vasser in Wayne Taylor's No. 99.

Our View While this has no direct correlation to NASCAR races at Daytona or even on the road courses—since the Daytona Prototypes are distinct from the stock cars—track time is always helpful.

Complete Daytona Prototype entry list
Complete Grand Touring entry list

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Keselowski / Papis will not exchange Christmas cards

It doesn't appear that Max Papis and Brad Keselowski will be exchanging Christmas cards this year after the No. 88 spun Papis' No. 01 late in the Montreal road race. For Papis' view, check out the tweets @MaxPapis.

Our View This budding rivalty is probably not going to be very impactful unless Papis gets a full-season ride next year.

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N'Wide: Ambrose on Montreal pole

Marcos Ambrose posted the fastest lap in qualification under wet conditions and will lead the field to green on Sunday.

Our View Ambrose led a contingent of road racers at the top of the grid including Ron Fellows in third, Boris Said in fourth and Jacques Villeneuve in sixth, but the surprise of the session had to be Carl Edwards. After crashing on the warm-up lap for the Gran Am race earlier today, he posted the second fastest time.

The qualification session was marred by rain, however, so some of the faster drivers in practice like Max Papis and Patrick Carpentier will have to come from the back of the pack. That won't hurt them, however, and fantasy owners should load up on road ringers.

Complete Results

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N'Wide: Papis leads Montreal's first practice

Road racing ace Max Papis led the first practice session at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve with a lap of 85.632 mph under mostly wet conditions.

Our View The list was headed by road racing specialists. Including Papis, Patrick Carpentier posted the third fastest lap, NASCAR Canada driver Andrew Ranger was fourth fastest and Michael McDowell was fifth.

Complete Results

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Action packed Michigan practice 2

Looks like television picked the wrong session to go dark: In the first practice, Jimmie Johnson spun either just in front of or off the nose of Tony Stewart and then Max Papis crashed with Dave Blaney, according to tweets from @NASCAR_Says and @NASCAR_TNT. And this is just practice.

Johnson and Stewart appear to have survived without damage.

Neither Papis nor Blaney returned to the track in that session.

Our View: Rain is in the forecast for later in the afternoon, and apparently there is a sense of desperation.

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Ragan, et. al. test at Infineon

David Ragan, Max Papis, David Reutimann and Joey Logano tested late models (not Cup cars) at Infineon Raceway on Wednesday, according to SceneDaily.com.

Our View: The testing ban does not apply because these are not Cup or Nationwide cars and they are considerably different in terms of handling. So why do it? According to Ragan, “Even if we drove a rental car out here it would help. I just needed to get back into the rhythm of turning left and right.”

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LifeLock 400 roster posted

The roster for the NASCAR Cup LifeLock 400 has been posted and only 44 drivers are listed. In addition to the regular cast of characters Tony Raines in the No. 37, Bill Elliott and Max Papis will attempt to make the show.

Our View: This is good news for most of the "go-or-go-home" drivers. Our best guess is that Raines will be the odd man out.

LifeLock 400 roster

Four go home from Dover

Four drivers failed to qualify at Dover for the Autism Speaks 400. They are Brad Keselowski, Max Papis, Derrike Cope and David Starr.

Our View: That's a bit of a shocker were Keselowski and Papis are concerned. This is the first race in 2009 that the No. 13 has failed to make.

Trucks: Dover's last five races

There is a long history of part time drivers finding success in the Camping World Truck Series at Dover. From last year's winner Scott Speed, to Tony Stewart who finished second in 2005, Cup and Nationwide drivers have used this race to get the rhythm of the week started.

Partly due to their success, Truck regulars have not dominated the top of the average finish grid. Only Ron Hornaday Jr. and Johnny Benson Jr. enter the weekend with at least three consecutive top-10s, which makes them best bets to highlight your roster. That also leaves the field wide open for the remaining spots—and given the strength of interlopers, this might be a good week to gamble on Max Papis.

Notably, this track has not been kind to Kyle Busch. He won there in 2005, but has slowly been sliding down the grid since until he bottomed out with a 27th-place finish last year. In the Cup series, he's also been hit or miss with a victory last spring, but two 40-something finishes in his last five starts.

Results, last five years

Driver	Avg Fin	2008	2007	2006	2005	2004
Scott Speed	1.00	1
Tony Stewart	2.00				2
Hank Parker Jr	3.00					3
Mark Martin	3.50		6	1
Ron Hornaday Jr	3.75	3	1	7	4
Mike Bliss	4.50		5	4
Dave Blaney	6.00					6
Ricky Craven	7.00				7
Andy Houston	7.00					7
Travis Kvapil	7.67	4	3			16
Colin Braun	8.00	8
Carl Edwards	8.00			2		14
A J Allmendinger	9.00		9
David Reutimann	9.00			5	5	17
Mike Skinner	10.00	7	7	22	10	4
Aaron Fike	10.00		10
Timothy Peters	10.00			14	6
Rick Crawford	10.60	9	23	8	11	2
David Starr	11.60	6	25	11	8	8
Terry Cook	12.00	13	8	16	3	20
Deborah Renshaw	12.00				12
Aric Almirola	12.00			12
Jon Wood	12.50	15				10
Stacy Compton	12.50	23	2
Kyle Busch	12.50	27	12	10	1
Bobby Hamilton Jr	13.00			13
Johnny Benson Jr	13.50	10	4	6	34
Willie Allen	14.00		14
Shane Sieg	14.50	14				15
Chad Chaffin	15.00	21			23	1
Ryan Matthews	15.00		15
Jack Sprague	15.40	2	28	9	29	9
Ted Musgrave Sr	15.60	11	20	18	17	12
Chad McCumbee	16.00	12	13	23
Justin Marks	16.00	16
Blake Bjorkland	16.00		16
Matt Crafton	16.80	5	26	15	9	29
Donny Lia	17.00	17
Tim Sauter	17.00		17
Bobby East	17.00			17
Ken Schrader	17.33		33		14	5
Dennis Setzer	17.60	18	19	20	13	18
Todd Bodine	17.75	29	11	3	28
Shelby Howard	19.00	19
Bobby Hamilton Sr	20.00				21	19
Todd Kluever	20.00				20
Andy Lally	22.00	22
Ken Weaver	22.00					22
Regan Smith	22.00				22
Brad Keselowski	22.50				15	30
Erik Darnell	22.67	25	18	25
Brendan Gaughan	22.75	20	36	19	16
Robert Huffman	23.00				35	11
Shane Hmiel	23.00					23
Chase Montgomery	23.00				18	28
Tracy Hines	23.00				25	21
Steve Park	23.33			21	36	13
Kevin Lepage	23.50			28	19
Landon Cassill	24.00	24
Shane Huffman	24.00		24
Erin Crocker	24.00			24
Jimmy Spencer Sr	24.00				24
Kevin Love	24.00					24
Jason White	26.00	30	22
Robert Pressley	26.00				26
Derrick Kelley	26.00					26
Marcos Ambrose	26.00			26
Scott Lynch	27.00		27
Rich Bickle	27.00				27
Kyle Krisiloff	27.00			27
Scott Lagasse Jr	27.33	26	21	35
Morgan Shepherd	29.00		29
Kerry Earnhardt	29.00			29
T J Bell	30.00		30
Bill Lester	30.00		35	30	30	25
J C Stout	31.00	31
Kraig Kinser	31.00		31	31
Kelly Sutton	31.33			36	31	27
Brandon Whitt	31.50				32	31
Brian Scott	32.00	32
Dana White	32.00		32
Jerry Hill	32.00					32
Joey Miller	32.00			32
Ryan Seaman	33.00	33
Wayne Edwards	33.00				33
Boston Reid	33.00			33
Lance Hooper	33.00					33
Larry Gunselman	34.00	34
Clint Bowyer	34.00		34
Phil Bonifield	34.00					34
Johnny Chapman	34.00			34
Nick Tucker	35.00	35
Mark McFarland	35.00					35
Butch Miller	36.00	36
Robert Richardson	37.00			37
Ryan Moore	38.00			38

Happy Hour stripes

Here is a partial list of the cars that received stripes in Darlington's Happy Hour:

In Happy Hour:

Sam Hornish Jr. scraped the wall and spun
David Stremme slammed the wall; into backup
Denny Hamlin got a light stripe
Max Papis striped his car
Greg Biffle striped his car
A.J. Allmendinger striped his car
Scott Speed got another stripe
Reed Sorenson changed an engine
Bobby Labonte striped his car
Marcos Ambrose big stripe (backup?)

Darlington entry list

The Darlington entry list has been posted and it features 46 cars.

Our View: Notable among the part time entries is Brad Keselowski—in the Hendrick No. 25 this week—and rookie Max Papis. Darlington is not usually kind to freshmen, but the new Car of Tomorrow (COT) is much more durable than the old version and Young Guns have been a better value than in the past.