What a difference a week makes. From last week's quiet comes an active weekend in the world of the sports below the radar. We'll start with a playoff system more convoluted than NASCAR's Chase, only with much less people caring about it.

Golf: The PGA Tour kickstarted the FedEx Cup playoffs this week with the Barclays. Despite a lot of good players on the leaderboard, it was Steve Stricker who came home with the victory, his first in six years. Stricker now leads the FedEx Cup points, with top finishers K.J. Choi and Rory Sabbatini close behind. Despite skipping the event, Tiger Woods remains 4th in the standings.

IRL: A late collision with teammate Marco Andretti cost Dario Franchitti big time. Despite leading 62 of 80 laps at Sonoma, Franchitti fell back to third in the closing laps. Enter Scott Dixon, who took advantage to win the Motorola Indy 300, and more importantly, to take over the points lead. Dixon leads Franchitti by just four points, but has to be considered the favorite given the soap opera that is AGR.

F1: Ferrari dominated the Turkish Grand Prix, with Felipe Massa winning for the second straight year, and Kimi Raikkonen finishing 2nd. Fernando Alonso was third, and thanks to Lewis Hamilton's 5th, improved to just five points back of Hamilton. There are five races left in the F1 season.

Champ Car: Sebastien Bourdais cruised to another win, this time the Grand Prix of Belgium at Circuit Zolder. Bourdais's fourth straight Champ Car title looks almost certain now.

Track and Field: The World Championships continue. CF had kept you up to date on Tyson Gay and the dangers of steeplechasing. Lots of other action has occurred, but it mostly involves names neither you nor I have heard of.

Horse Racing: Street Sense found his way back into the winners' circle, winning the Travers Stakes. Enjoy the Triple Crown stars (Street Sense, Curlin, Hard Spun, Rags to Riches) while you can, as they will all surely be retired about 5 minutes after the Breeders' Cup.

And that was the weekend that was.