Treading Water in Carolina

Under the circumstances, things could have gone worse for the People's Pitstop on Saturday night. They could have gone better, too.

The Internet's favorite fantasy NASCAR team scored only 213 points during the Chase race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Our season total of 8,169 leaves us in fourth place in the 9beersfantasysportstavern league. We are now just over 100 points away from the current leader, Dale Jr Amp National Guard 88. In other words, it's still anybody's race.

Here's how our team's weekend went.

Carl Edwards: Started 3rd, finished 3rd, 1 lap led and 99 fantasy points. Edwards maintained his spot at the top of the point standings, but he probably lost his spot on Kyle Busch's Christmas card list.

Mark Martin: Started 13th, finished 37th (47 laps behind the leaders) and 18 fantasy points. To the growing list of "phrases you never want associated with your fantasy NASCAR driver," you may add "broken wheel hub."

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Started 15th, finished 19th (1 lap behind the leaders) and 54 fantasy points. Of course, having your driver's name next to the words "frustrate" and "disappoint" in a NASCAR.com story headline is no picnic, either.

Regan Smith: Started 21st, finished 22nd (2 laps behind the leaders) and 42 fantasy points. Smith might have known he had a better car than the results showed, but someone must have forgotten to tell his car that.

Next up for the NASCAR drivers is the fall race at Talladega Superspeedway. Qualifying is scheduled for Saturday, so our lineup polls for the People's Pitstop will close Friday night. Please feel free to get your votes in early. NASCAR has penalties for a lot of things, but voting early in a lineup poll isn't one of them.

We'll be back with the fantasy football results.