Hello Angels,

We’re down to the final two races of the season, well, really one now that the final Southern 500 is over.  Jimmie Johnson won the race under the lights for his fourth victory in five races and eighth victory overall.  Kurt Busch overcame myriads of trouble to finish sixth and retain his overall NEXTEL Cup Championship point lead, but only by 18 points over Johnson. Jeff Gordon, who finished third after a pit-road mistake is only three points behind Johnson, while Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Mark Martin may have eliminated themselves falling behind 72 and 82 points respectively.

As for you Angels, we too are embattled in a points race.  Last week Dylan made a move for the Charlie’s Angels’ Fantasy League Segment III championship and is now just 63 points behind Mr. X.  Jill and Thin Man are neck and neck for third place, while Julie, Bosley, Kris and I are all within striking distance for the fifth spot. Sabrina, Kelly and Madison, you three are also neck and neck for ninth place. The only Angels who aren’t in a points race are the UnNamed One and Corwin, who both joined us late in the Segment.

That said; let’s see how we did this week after the running of the 35th race, and last Mountain Dew Southern 500.

It has been a while since I’ve awarded the BONEHEAD Award, and honestly I didn’t think that I’d get another chance to award it this year.  But, Kelly, you gave me an opportunity, and I’m taking full advantage of it.

It’s been all over NASCAR.com that Ward Burton was let go by HAAS Motorsports this week and would not be racing, not only in the Southern 500, but the truck race on Friday as well.  But with this information readily at hand, you changed your driver to Burton this week and have earned yourself, what I hope is, the final BONEHEAD Award for the season.  Congratulations, err, my condolences. 

Your remaining four drivers didn’t do that badly though. Tony Stewart finished 17th, while Earnhardt finished 11th. Your Texas Heartthrob finished ninth with Jamie McMurray being your top driver with his fourth place finish. Your four-driver average finish is 8.2. 

UnNamed One, your drivers basically imploded on you this week. Dale Jarrett who was doing well until the last three races finished 37th after hitting the wall hard and wrecking his Ford Taurus. Greg Biffle and Elliott Sadler finished 24th and 23rd respectively while Matt Kenseth finished 20th. Your best driver this week is Ricky Rudd, who was only able to muster a 16th place finish after an incident with Sterlin Marlin on lap 301. Your average finish is what I would categorize as a very disappointing 24 even.

Dylan, while you’re embroiled in a race for the lead, this week’s performance probably solidified your fate of a second place finish for Segment III. Jarrett’s crash and subsequent 37th place finish, along with Kevin Harvick’s 32nd place finish definitely hurt your aspirations this week. Saving you from total destruction though, and still giving you a glimmer of hope next week is the fact that Earnhardt finished 11th, while Kasey Kahne and Jamie McMurray finished fifth and fourth respectively. Those three drivers saved your average finish and brought it up to a not so bad 17.8. 

Kris and Bosley, you both teamed up to be tied for ninth place this week.

Bosley, I’ll start with you because you had Mike Wallace on your team and was the worst driver of our entire driver picks this week. He finished 38th after only completing 181 laps. Sadler finished 23rd with Earnhardt finishing 12 spots ahead in 11th place. Your best drivers are Busch and Kahne, who finished sixth and fifth respectively.

Kris, Ryan Newman’s blown engine and 34th place finish hurt your team this week. Helping you to tie Bosley this week is the fact that you have Sadler and Earnhardt on your team as well. Joe Nemachek finished eighth, while Carl Edwards was your top driver with his seventh place finish.

Your average finish this week Bosley and Kris is 16.6.

Corwin, your worst driver this week is Casey Mears found Darlington’s raceway too tough to tame and finished three laps down in 26th. Sadler and Kenseth finished 23rd and 20th respectively, while Nemachek finished eighth. Your best driver this week is Mark Martin and his second-place finish. Your average finish is 16 even.

Sabrina, Scott Riggs is your worst driver with his 25th place finish.  Your Italian Stallion, Stewart, had to make an unscheduled pit stop after his car stopped handling properly. He finished 17th. Robby Gordon finished 15th after leading the race at one point. Your best two drivers are McMurray’s fourth place finish and Johnson’s win. Your average finish this week is 12.4.

Jill, with the exception of one, your drivers had an outstanding day. Keeping you from an outstanding average finish is Kevin Harvick and his 32nd place finish. Nemachek finished eighth, Kahne finished fifth, Jeff Gordon finished third and your best driver this week is Johnson and his win. You still earned a top-10 average finish of 9.8.

Thin Man, Mears is your worst driver with his 26th place finish. Earnhardt finished 11th, while Edwards finished seventh; Jeff Gordon finished third; and Johnson got the win. Your average finish is 9.6.

Madison, you picked the right week to rebound because of Kelly’s BONEHEAD Award, and the fact that your drivers did better than Sabrina’s, I believe that you will come out this week with a firm hold on ninth place overall for Segment III. You did this even with Mear’s 26th place finish. This is because Earnhardt finished 11th and Edwards finished seventh. Of course having Johnson’s win and Martin’s second place finish added to your record didn’t hurt you either.  Your average finish is 9.4.

Julie, all of your drivers finished 15th or better. In that 15th spot is Robby Gordon. Earnhardt finished four spots ahead in 11th, while Labonte overcame spinning early in the race to finish ninth. Edwards challenged for the lead with Johnson, but a late pit-stop change to his car caused handling problems and he fell from second to seventh place when the checkered flag was waved. Your top driver is Jeff Gordon who finished third. Your average finish is 9 even.

Mr. X, you fell just short of having all of your drivers finish in the top-10 this week with Earnhardt’s 11th place finish. Nemachek finished eighth, Edwards seventh and McMurray fourth. Your top driver today is Johnson and his win. You have another real low average finish of 6.2, but it’s still not good enough for this week’s Top Angel Award.

What is good enough for this week’s CHARLIE’S ANGELS’ TOP ANGEL AWARD is my extremely low average finish after all five of my drivers finished eighth or better. Nemachek is that driver in the eighth finishing spot with Edwards finishing just in front of him in seventh. Kahne finished fifth, while Jeff Gordon finished third. My top driver this week is Johnson and his win. My TAA winning average finish is an amazingly low (if I do say so myself) 4.8.  Congratulate me.  Ok, just kidding, you should worship me…  J

Gloating aside, seven our teams did very well this week with seven top-10 average finishes and five teams had top-20 average finishes.  Congratulations Angels.

Next week’s Ford 400 is the final race of NASCAR’s inaugural NEXTEL Cup season. The race at Homestead-Miami Speedway is promising to be a nail biter. 

Make sure you check out this week’s standings on the RPM.ESPN Stockcar Challenge Web site and see where you stack up against the other Angels.

Good luck next week Angels,