Hot Time in Circle City

Well, it's summer in Indiana, and that means heat. With a capital H.

As temperature-sensitive as the old place is, it ought to provide headaches galore for the NASCAR folks. The place has a mind of its own, and when it's hot, as it can get in May as well, it's downright nasty.

It means that the track will get a bit greasy, and that means loose. Loose at Indy means wall time, if you're not careful. It also means that the inside car is going to be a handful, for what two-wide racing there will be.

The Carl Edwards saga is nearing the finish line. Don't know where it will end up, but I do know this. When he announces, it will either tear the roof off RFR or disappear into the sunset with barely a whimper.

If he leaves to go to JGR, then Roush will have lost his most marketable driver, his biggest sponsor in Aflac and the No. 99 car, which will likely go away. He has to replace Crown Royal for Kenseth, and find another co-primary for the 17 and possibly the 16 of Greg Biffle.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been up and down the past six weeks, mostly down, and if he misses the Chase, it's gonna be a long 10-race finale. Larry Mac was getting all over Junebug today at practice, and he heard it in the Twittersphere, let me tell you.

Junior Nation is ugly when it's angry, which has been most of the time lately. Can't say as I blame them, but if it was easy, everyone could do it.

Time to prognosticate: Juan Montoya will win the Brickyard 400 this year to become the first 500/400 winner. He'll probably be the only one, ever, at this rate.

If he doesn't, my dark-horse pick is Kasey Kahne. Don't know why, but I think he's got the mojo going.

Join us at 12:30 p.m. Sunday on www.CoverItLive! for a chat/race-watch event with the ONMC!

Go to www.coveritlive.com and register as a user. It's free, by the way.

Once you get registered (you should do this now), click on events and look for the ONMC event.

Once you're there, get ready for the festivities!