Seriously, where? I don’t know. I had like 4 days off from “work” and I’m not quite sure what I did with those days exactly. You really can never get enough sleep. I’m already dreading waking up tomorrow morning.

Anyway… I wanted to pass on some sort of racing-related stuff and something that has absolutely nothing to do with racing at all.

First — Take a minute and sign this petition to help save a dog named Buckshot. He’s being abused by his owners in South Carolina and he needs your help to get him out of the very sick and twisted household he lives in. I was alerted to Buckshot’s plight by Ryan Newman’s PR rep — Ryan and his wife Krissie are known for their involvement in helping rescue animals.

Second — I also manage the fan site JohnMayerFans.com and I have the awesome opportunity to help give away tickets to the Dave Barnes & Matt Wertz “Two Birds / One Stone” tour that’s going on right now. I’ve been meaning to write about how much I’m obsessed with Matt Wertz right now. I urge you to check out his CD “Twentythree Places” and the song “Everything’s Right.” His voice is awesome and if you love (or even just like) John Mayer you’re going to dig Matt and Dave.

Check out Dave’s music on his myspace page and then check out the tour dates, you could win two tickets to one of the upcoming shows!

Third — NASCAR unveiled the new NASCAR Nationwide Series logo. I just think that this series needs it’s own name, like the current Nextel Cup Series, has “cup” — Nationwide needs something like “bucket” … yea that’s it! The NASCAR Nationwide Bucket Series. That way you’d have something to differentiate the two series even if there’s no sponsor involved.

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Tonight’s race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway could have been so freaking cool had Ryan Newman been able to keep his car stable. It seriously broke my heart to see him spin out like that.

I would have preferred it if Clint Bowyer took the win tonight over Jeff Gordon but it wasn’t meant to be. Clint is still within striking distance and I hope to God that he can really make this Chase interesting. If Jeff wants his 5th Championship he’s going to have to fight for it.

Oh and just in case anyone wasn’t sure, the ESPN on ABC coverage still SUCKS! Why must they repeat things that someone else just said?? Or repeat the things that they themselves just said? I watched the race with my mom who is becoming a bit of a NASCAR fan by default and she was even getting irritated by the stupid questions and pointless repetition of obvious points.

I’m this close to creating a petition that would beg NASCAR to only allow DW, Larry Mac and Mike Joy to cover the Cup races from 2008 onward. And they can have Allen Bestwick and Wally Dallenbach anchor the show.

Sunday’s race at Talladega was everything you’d expect from a race at Talladega, three-wide side-by-side racing and of course the “big one” (for those of you not in the know, the “big one” is the big crash the wipes out a bunch of cars at once). The moment Dale Earnhardt Jr. took the lead I was so hopeful that he would be able to hold on to the lead and finally win one this season. And then his engine blew up which seemed to signal the beginning of the end for the DEI-RCR engines. I was in utter disbelief and I still am because that race was his, it was right there and then poof!

So at this point I’m sure any and every Dale Jr. fan is just counting down the days until he makes his debut with Hendrick Motorsports next year. All of the Hendrick cars did well at Talladega, except for Kyle Busch who’s crappy outlook on things before the race are — I’m sure of it — what helped lead to his involvement in the wreck that took him out.

Oddly enough I was actually happy with Jeff Gordon’s win, I’m usually more interested in seeing a fresh face win, but he made it interesting at the end between him and Jimmie Johnson. For that I am appreciative.

The thing I was most excited about was seeing Michael Waltrip on the pole and running up front. I miss that guy, he’s a great character and NASCAR needs guys like him. He keeps it fun and interesting. It looks like things are looking up for Michael Waltrip Racing and I look forward to seeing that team win a race.

I didn’t watch the race live because I was out checking out apartments for my upcoming move. I caught the entire race on Tivo and I am almost tempted to make this the standard for the rest of the races this season. Why? Because it’s so nice to be able to bypass all the lame commentary by the ESPN on ABC crew. I put being able to skip over Rusty Wallace’s comments above being able to skip commercials, and that’s seriously saying something, especially when I’m beginning to tire of the seeing the same Allstate girls ads over and over.

In other news…

I’m still on the hunt for sponsors for my 2008 NASCAR project and I sent a letter to American Airlines to see if they’d be interested. I got a phone call from them last week and I was told that they don’t sponsor “dangerous sports” because they don’t want to be associated with things where people can crash. I just thought that was kind of funny but at the same time it makes sense, I guess, to not want people to associate crashing with planes.

Ella is a little cutie, and I love her itty bitty sandals.

Jeff Gordon, driver of the #24 Dupont/Pepsi Chevrolet, holds his daughter Ella Sophia, as his wife Ingrid looks on, in victory lane after Gordon won the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series UAW-Ford 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 7, 2007 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Jeff Gordon (right) celebrates inside Victory Lane with daughter Ella (center) and team owner Rick Hendrick (left) after winning the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway on Oct. 7. (Hendrick Motorsports/Autostock)

Crew members of the #48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, driven by Jimmie Johnson, congratulate the crew members of the #24 Dupont/Pepsi Chevrolet, driven by teammate Jeff Gordon, after winning the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series UAW-Ford 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 7, 2007 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR)

All the hoopla and then in the end nothing really happened.

Jacques Villeneuve was the center of media attention after qualifying for Sunday’s UAW-Ford 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Villeneuve qualified 6th. (Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Crew Chief Tony Eury, Jr. talks to his driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr. before practice at Talladega Superspeedway. (Photo Credit: Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Kyle Busch is still mad that Dale Earnhardt Jr. wrecked him last weekend and I still don’t care. Dale Jr. didn’t do it on purpose, or because he had a beef with him. He had too much momentum and couldn’t stop. He said he was sorry. Move on! Jeez!

I mean seriously, there are seven more races left; all is not completely lost yet. I would like to make a book recommendation to young Kyle. He should read tennis pro James Blake’s book “Breaking Back: How I Lost Everything and Won Back My Life.” I’m this close to finishing it myself and it’s a great read for anyone, even if you’ve never watched a tennis match. James battled back to the top level of professional tennis after fracturing the vertebrae in his neck, his father’s death and living through the pain, disorientation and discomfort of zoster (or shingles as it’s sometimes called) that paralyzed half his face.

James learned to take one game at time, one match at time and I think Kyle needs to learn how to do that too. What’s in the past is in the past. Just leave it there! Go eat some M&Ms!

NASCAR driver Kyle Busch poses for a photo after the unveiling of the new 2008 #18 M&M’s Racing Toyota Camry at M&M’s World in Times Square October 3, 2007 in New York City. (Photo by Jonathan Fickies/Getty Images)

I just recieved this press release from Andretti Green Racing regarding Dario Franchitti:

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (Oct. 2, 2007) - Andretti Green Racing announced today it has released Dario Franchitti from his driver agreement.

The team’s agreement with Franchitti was set to expire later this year.

That’s it? That’s all ya got?? Whatever… He’s driving in the ARCA race at Talladega this weekend and it’s been said that he’ll be taking over the No. 40 from David Stremme next year. Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates has a press conference scheduled for tomorrow to announce their new driver.

Welcome to NASCAR Dario (and Ashley)!

I know that I should be writing something about the insanity that was the race at Kansas last weekend but I’m kinda not in the mood for it. That race perfectly illustrates one of the things that has always puzzled me about NASCAR. The rules and how NASCAR chooses to interpret them at any given time. It never seems to be the same all the time and I’m always confused. I don’t know why it isn’t cut and dry, like why didn’t they just call the race in the first place? And if they were so concerned with giving the fans and the drivers a complete race why not just move the race to Monday like they’ve done before? And then there’s the fact that Clint Bowyer should have been the winner of the race and not Greg Biffle. What was that about? At the end of the day NASCAR always has the last say and you can’t get around that, even when they’re wrong. It’s just stupid.

Ok, maybe I was in the mood to write about it after all.

Anyway… my real reason for writing today is because of this news item (if you can really call it that) about Alyssa Milano supposedly being done with dating athletes. On behalf of all of the single women out there that would love to date her sloppy seconds — Barry Zito in particular — I say thank you!

Oh and since I’m already off topic and on to baseball, I must share that I met Mike Piazza at the Virgin Megastore in San Francisco a few weeks ago. I was agog. I was shaking! Normally I don’t get that way about celebs for the most part. After all, they’re humans just like you and me, but this was Mike Piazza! He has always been one of my favorite baseball players (he wears my fave number 31 too) and so I felt like I couldn’t just leave without saying something to him. So I did and I was talking so fast he probably thought I was crazy. But that’s ok, it totally made my day.