This week, That’s Racin’ begins its look back at the top stories of the NASCAR season. Today, David Poole reviews the stories he ranks sixth through 10th. Next week, we’ll look at the year’s five biggest stories.

10. Spin(out) the Bottle

As silly as it might have seemed, the issue centering on a blue plastic prop bottle of PowerAde raises some significant issues about sponsorship conflicts in NASCAR.

For much of the first half of the season, drivers with deals that conflicted with the Coca-Cola product’s bottle being on their cars find ways to get rid of the PowerAde bottle after climbing from their cars.

When Jimmie Johnson uses a sign for his sponsor, Lowe’s, to obscure the bottle in Victory Lane at Pocono, Pa., NASCAR puts its commercial foot down and fines the team $10,000. The next week at Indianapolis, Jeff Gordon does his celebrating on the track instead of Victory Lane where the bottle was, and NASCAR is steamed again.

The real issue is whether NASCAR should be able to sign a deal with a sponsor and then require drivers and teams, who get no part of the money from that deal, to adhere to agreements NASCAR had made.

The answer, as it turned out, is yes.

9. The Fortunate Son

Dale Earnhardt Jr. suffers burns in a fiery crash July 18 during practice for an American Le Mans Series race.

Even though the burns hamper Earnhardt Jr.’s Nextel Cup driving for several weeks, his team and substitute drivers keep him in the top 10 to qualify for the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

The incident again raises questions about the wisdom of allowing Nextel Cup stars to race in extracurricular events.

NASCAR chief operating officer george pyne, left, basketball hall of famer Magic Johnson, center, NASCAR co-chairman of the executive steering committee for diversity, and Access Marketing's Greg Calhoun appear at a news conference. In 2004, NASCAR tried to make its sport more culturally diverse.

Given his popularity in NASCAR, however, had Earnhardt Jr. been severely injured, or worse, this story would have ranked much higher on this list.

8. You’ve Got to be &%*$&(#@ Kidding!

Earnhardt Jr. uses a four-letter word in Victory Lane at Talladega, Ala., after winning a Chase race.

NASCAR penalized two Busch Series drivers earlier in the year for using the word in broadcast interviews. So it applies the same penalty to Earnhardt Jr., fining him $10,000 and docking him 25 points.

Instead of being applauded for consistency, however, NASCAR is ripped for taking points from a Chase driver. National talk-radio shows, many of which spent hours and hours ripping the NFL and CBS for the Janet Jackson “nipple-gate” incident in the Super Bowl, jump all over the story.

NASCAR holds its collective breath, hoping the point penalty won’t be the difference between having Earnhardt Jr., the sport’s most popular driver, win or lose the championship. Ultimately, it does not.

7. Vive la Difference

Signs of progress and rumbles of controversy mark the year’s efforts to make NASCAR a more ethnically and culturally diverse sport.

A NASCAR-backed diversity program puts four African Americans and one woman into weekly racing series cars and a number of minority crew members onto Truck Series teams.

Joe Gibbs Racing also starts a development program in conjunction with former NFL great Reggie White, and basketball legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson agrees to serve as a diversity consultant for NASCAR.

At the same time, a group calling itself the National Association for Minority Race Fans kicks up dust, saying NASCAR isn’t doing what it could to make its events a safe environment for fans who aren’t white males.

6. The Talladega Mob Rules — Green-White-Checkered finish it Is

After fans litter Talladega Superspeedway with debris when the Aaron’s 499 is allowed to end under caution, NASCAR elects to bring the green-white-checkered policy being used in the Truck Series to Nextel Cup and Busch.

Races in all three series now will make one effort to run two laps to a green-flag finish, extending some races beyond scheduled distances.

At Indianapolis, Mark Martin has a flat tire in “overtime” that could have cost him a shot at making the Chase. In the finale at Homestead, Fla., Dale Jarrett runs out of fuel in the extended laps and loses a top-five finish.

At least the fans are happy.