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NASCAR has placed drivers Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Casey Mears on probation for six races for their postrace actions Saturday at Phoenix.

Contact between the two drivers' cars sent Earnhardt's car into the wall in the closing laps. Earnhardt spun Mears' car on the cool-down lap after the race. Mears charged by other cars and rammed the back of Earnhardt's car with his car as they headed toward pit road.

No other penalties were issued to the two drivers.

CHICKEN DANCE: PETA vs. NASCAR fans. It's a showdown of more than a bunch of capital letters. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals want to prevent the crowd at Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway from joining the "Guinness Book of World Records."

Talladega is planning on breaking the world record for the most people to do the chicken dance at the same time. PETA doesn't have an issue with that. The problem for PETA, though, is that the attempt is being sponsored by fast-food restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken, a nemesis of PETA.

PETA President Ingrid Newkirk wrote Guinness officials urging them not to recognize the record-breaking attempt at Talladega.

"In the past, Guinness has rightly stated that it will 'not accept records based on the killing or harming of animals,' " Newkirk writes. "I urge you to go a step further and refuse to accept any records from companies that have refused to adopt even modest humane reforms that would reduce the needless suffering of animals killed for their fast-food restaurants."

A Guinness spokeswoman wrote in an e-mail to Scenedaily.com that "recognizing a mass participation record for most people dancing is completely separate to any issue of animal cruelty."

A spokeswoman for Talladega, Kristi King, said in a statement that "we have every intention of moving forward with this quest for a new Guinness World record at Talladega Superspeedway this weekend."

CLIMBING HIGHER: Tony Stewart is off to one of his best starts. Stewart, who left Joe Gibbs Racing after last year to form Stewart-Haas Racing, is fourth in the Sprint Cup standings, with 1,138 points after eight races.

He's never been this high in the standings at this point in a season -- his previous best was fifth at this point in 2002 and 2006. Only once has he had more points after eight races. He had 1,141 in 2006.

"I don't think any of us would have predicted we would be in the top five in points," Stewart said after his runner-up finish Saturday night at Phoenix. "It's amazing to think that with a new team we can go out and have this kind of a start to the year."

KEY MILESTONES: Jeff Gordon's 82 career Cup victories put him one behind Cale Yarborough for fifth on the all-time list and two behind Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip. While Gordon should pass both at some point, it will be more difficult to climb to No. 2. David Pearson sits there with 105 career wins.

That isn't a concern to Gordon.

"I don't think that number (105 career wins) is attainable," Gordon said. "I don't want to sound negative. I mean, anything is possible and we might go on an incredible streak here that I didn't see coming. Or anyone else.

"But where I'm at in my career and the way things have been working in my career, it's about winning the championship."

RELIABLE: Jeff Burton says the reliability of Richard Childress Racing cars is no accident. Childress is very involved when a problem occurs.

"One of Richard's mandates is to not break, and he works diligently to make sure that everything we're doing is reliable," Burton said. "It starts with him. He's really very much in tune with what's going on from the reliability point. When you break something you're going to be sitting in front of him and I think that has a lot to do with it."

PIT STOPS: Virginia International Raceway will be the site of the Grand-Am Rolex Series' Bosch Engineering 250. The race at the Alton, Va., track is scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $35 and can be purchased at www.virclub.com. ... Matt Kenseth, Ryan Newman, Brian Vickers and Reed Sorenson are testing Goodyear tires this week at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Rain limited track time Monday and Tuesday. Sorenson said the teams will test part of today.

Contact Dustin Long at 373-7062 or dustin.long@news-record.com