Team owner Rick Hendrick says that NASCAR's "Car of Tomorrow" will add uncertainty to the 2007 season. (Photo: Getty Images/Rusty Jarrett) » More Photos

JUMBLED UP Car owner Rick Hendrick said Friday morning that he expects the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup season to be the least predictable in recent history. The addition of the Car of Tomorrow, which will be phased in for 16 races next year, plus the arrival of Toyota, new engines for the Chevrolet teams and a possible change in the format for the Chase for the Nextel Cup all add up to big changes ahead, Hendrick said. "I think next year will probably be the most … I don't know how to say it, other than next year is going to be an incredibly up and down year," said Hendrick. "There's going to be so many variables coming in. You've got the Car of Tomorrow, you've got the standard car, you've got new teams, trying to figure out this car with no testing. You're going to have to maintain your fleet, build a new fleet and merge 'em in. It's going to take more manpower at a time when more teams are starting up. It's going to put a lot of stress on everybody. Then we've got a new motor, too, so we have to deal with that. We've got two parallel motor systems, two parallel car systems that we have to integrate in. It's going to be a challenges for the guys (teams) that have been here. But for the new guys, it's really going to be a dogfight."

JUNIOR AILING Dale Earnhardt, Jr. said Friday morning that he's nursing a severe sore throat heading into the Texas race weekend. In a brief, and occasionally terse, press conference, Earnhardt clearly was under the weather. "I feel a lot better than I did yesterday, but I've got a real bad sore throat," Earnhardt said. Currently fourth in points, 84 behind leader Matt Kenseth, Earnhardt said he still feels like he has a shot at taking his first title this year. "I feel pretty good as far as our opportunity to win the championship," Earnhardt said. "We're sitting in a pretty decent spot. I'd like to be a little closer."

BUSCH PONDERING PLANS Kyle Busch is evaluating whether to run the entire NASCAR Busch Series schedule next year or just a partial program. "We are talking about that right now, whether or not to go full time or go 20 to 25 races," Busch said Friday morning at Texas Motor Speedway. "This year, all the flying back and forth was OK." Busch is currently seventh in Busch Series points and 10th in Nextel Cup points.

RAISING THE BAR After a season that has seen pronounced improvements in performance at Petty Enterprises, Robbie Loomis is looking to up the ante again in 2007. Loomis, who's in his first full season as PE's vice president of racing operations, likened the racing outfit to a baseball team. "We've got a lot of plans in place," Loomis said Friday at Texas Motor Speedway. "We can't do anything with hitting one home run. We've got to have a lot of singles first, make a few errors and just take small steps. We've come a long way this year, and we hope to continue the growth. I hope we can make big strides next year like we've made this season." High on Loomis's list of priorities is finding pit crewmembers. "We're still looking to add some personnel, especially in our pit crew area and engineering. We want to step it up. The cars are so equal now we really want to work hard on our pit crews performing on the top level. We've got some good guys in there with great hearts, and we just want to keep complimenting it. We're on a hard search for pit crew members right now."