Blair, my boss actually told me about this on Monday. His father-in-law is close friends with the sheriff of Catawba County. The story that the press has not told is he was on his own private road. N.C. state Highway 150 goes east and west from I-77 to Linclonton. It travels across Lake Norman and through Sherills Ford where Michael lives. The truck actually ended up on his own property. This dosen't matter any accident on any road should be reported. The deputy dispatched by a resident was concerned due to the fact he found blood at the scene. Deputy traveled to Michael's gates and attempted to raise him with no answer. Later that day he was reached and ticketed for failure to report an accident and leaving the scene of an accident. Cut and scratched him up pretty good. Worst cut was on one finger. Michael's Story-"We left the track in Nashville after the Bush race and flew home to Statesville Airfield. (north of Sherills Ford about 30 miles) It was about 1:30 a.m. when I left the airplane. I got real sleepy driving home. I drifted off just before my turn, when I realized I was going to miss my turn I misjudged and didn't slow down enough before turning and rolled the damn thing. I was so mad at myself I just got out and walked to the house. I was on my own property and didn't think a thing about it." Now according to the press he was drunk and all kinda crap. This is what is disenchanting me with the whole thing. THE GROUPIES. Now NASCAR has not had 51 drivers convicted of felony's like in NFL. Here is my take: Michael has taken on too much. New teams, new company, new sponsors, 20 million facility, and trying to be a competitive driver. I couldn't do it. He is going to have to make the choice Driver or Owner. If you didn't watch the Bush race the 99 Aaron's Dream Machine finished 2and. Toyota has developed a 7 Bar machine that all of the Waltrip cars have supposedly have visited at TRC in California. This machine takes a full dress car, remove the wheels and tests the chassis components dynamically. A program simulating the race at TMS for example is loaded and the 7 Bar tilts and vibrates the suspension components just like it was on the track. Pretty cool huh. You can watch the components and all movements are monitored and loaded in a computer for evaluation. They think this will help. Also TRC says they haven't found the horsepower in the Toyota engine at the Cup level to be a factor. There you are up to speed. Now the RCR cars are all in all good. 29, 31 and o7. Kevin Harvick be the man. Uncle Gearhead

Gearhead Factoid for tomorrow "Asphalt was developed for traveling back and forth to the Dirt Track"