NOTEBOOK \ NASCAR

Blaney 35th: Hartford native Dave Blaney finished 35th at the Sylvania 300, four laps off the lead. Blaney qualified 10th.

Junior’s day: A week after being the major story as he tried and failed to make the field for the Chase, Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a relatively unnoticed, 16th-place day at New Hampshire. “We had a really good car at the beginning of the race, then we kind of outthought ourselves on the adjustments and the car just went away,” he said. “It got so loose I couldn’t hang on to it and I spun out. We got a lot better toward the end, but there was just too much track position to make up and not enough time. I am real proud of my guys ’cause no one on this team has given up at all.”

Kurt Busch struggles: Kurt Busch had one of those days that a driver would just as soon forget. After making a charge over the last two months just to get into the field for the Chase for the Championship, Busch started third Sunday and ran with the leaders in the early going. But Busch’s No. 2 Penske Racing Dodge slowed on lap 122 with what the team initially thought was a dropped cylinder. The rest of the race was a blur for the 2004 series champion, who wound up hanging on for a 25th-place finish that left him last in the Chase standings, 102 points behind co-leaders Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon with nine races remaining.

Sam’s choice: Sam Hornish Jr. came up short in his attempt to qualify for Sunday’s race, which would have been the three-time IndyCar champion’s Cup debut. Hornish is hoping to run several Cup events before the end of the season as a test to determine if he wants to make the jump to NASCAR full-time. But Roger Penske, who owns Hornish’s cars in both series, said the failure to race at New Hampshire is just a minor setback. “After [Hornish] practiced, he felt pretty good,” said Penske, who fielded Dodges for Busch and Ryan Newman on Sunday. “The discussion with him was ‘don’t overdrive it in qualifying’ and he probably didn’t realize he’s going to have to overdrive it to get in. That’s part of the learning curve.”

Associated Press