I’ve got two very cool things to share with you today. The first is that I have been selected to be the national NASCAR blogger for Examiner.com. They produce a print newspaper product in various major cities around the country and they’ve recently launched a brand, spankin’ new online product. I’m excited to be a part of it and I can’t wait to reach a new audience! Yay! You can check out my blog over there by clicking here.

Secondly, Mike Maruska who writes the cool NASCAR blog Trouble in Turn 2 has been posting a new series of interviews called “Know Your NASCAR Blogger”. He picked me this week and I was totally honored to answer his questions. Check out what I had to say!

It’s a well known fact that Jimmie Johnson has a friend in pop star Nick Lachey. The two buddies even created a charity golf tournament together. So it was no surprise that Lachey was in victory lane with Jimmie after he won the Subway Fresh Fit 500 in Phoenix a few weeks ago.

But for Johnson it was surprising to see his face on the t-shirt Lachey was wearing that day. The white shirt featured Jimmie’s high school yearbook photo. The shirts were made by Johnson’s wife, Chandra, for his birthday one year.

“I never thought I’d see the shirt again, and then Nick showed up with it again,” Johnson said. “That’s my senior photo. That’s going to haunt me for a long time.”

Nick calls it his lucky shirt and with Jimmie’s first win of the year coming on the same day he showed up at the track wearing it, he might be right.

I think Jimmie is right about this photo haunting him, ’cause I for one plan on keeping this sucker online forever. Although, as high school photos go it’s really not that bad.

(photo credit: ©Dorsey Patrick Photography, 2008)

Again I call for Fox Sports and ESPN/ABC (whenever they take over the coverage duties of NASCAR) to fill their pre-race coverage with profiles of the drivers instead of pointless 5-second interviews and shots of Darrell Waltrip dancing (I love you DW, but I could live without watching you dance).

And for the first of these semi-in-depth profile interviews they should head on over to Yates Racing and talk to Travis Kvapil and David Gilliland. Why? Because those guys have been quietly kicking some race day booty. Gilliland, currently ranked 18th in points, has finished the last three races in 15th place and led 2 laps of the Aaron’s 499 on Sunday. Kvapil, ranked respectfully 23rd in points, finished 6th at Talladega — his second top-ten finish of the year.

Kvapil’s No. 28 Ford Fusion still needs a full-time sponsor and if his 6th place finish at Talladega isn’t proof enough of his abilities then I really don’t know what to tell you. Maybe Northern Tool & Equipment will sign on for the rest of the year? Who knows, but somebody needs to snap this team (and the rest of Yates Racing) up ASAP, these guys are really going places.

Tony Stewart won the Nationwide Series race at Talladega on Saturday and I’m starting off with him because this photo is too adorable. Plus Tony has been the subject of a ton of talk and speculation about if he’s going to stay with Joe Gibbs Racing when his contract is up. I for one have no idea anything is possible. I think we should all forget about Silly Season, ’cause Silly Season is all year long these days.

About the race on Sunday: You know I’m not happy, so I’m not even going to pretend. As the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega began, I decided that Talladega couldn’t be my favorite race track. You would think that it would be since Dale Earnhardt Jr. has won there 5 times in his career so far, but that doesn’t seem to help.

The tension, apprehension and anxiety I feel watching it are so overwhelming I can’t stand it. I’m so afraid of something going wrong that it kind of takes the fun out of it for me. The anticipation of “The Big One” happening at any moment is so nerve-racking. Okay, I’m making it sound a little worse than it really is, but not by much. Don’t get me wrong I think the races at Talladega are awesome; they’re some of the best in the schedule. But it’s been two freaking years since Dale won a race and I can’t freaking take it anymore.

So Kyle Busch won the race and at the end I was basically begging for anyone to win the race but him. No such luck. I thought the crowd’s reaction as Kyle crossed the finish line was pretty telling. You could hear a pin drop it was so quiet. During the race when Dale Jr. surged to the front to lead the race for the first time the crowd was cheering like he had already won. People were standing, waving their hats like crazy. Kyle Busch ends up winning and you’d think everybody was waiting for the opening ceremony to start.

Oh and hey Fox Sports don’t think I didn’t notice that you cut to a commercial when there were only 4 laps left in the race. That’s 10 demerits!

AJ Allmendinger will be back in the No. 84 Red Bull Toyota Camry this weekend at Talladega, taking over for Mike Skinner who had the ride for the last 5 races. That’s good for him, I know having to sit out “for the good of the team” must have been a hard thing to do. But really, maybe the time off lit a fire under his butt and a serious urge to prove himself, we shall see. Oh and his car will have a new silver paint scheme which I think is a brilliant idea, it’ll make spotting him out of the crowd a lot easier for the fans and his spotter alike.

Allmendinger still faces the dreaded go-or-go-home qualifying situation, and this week it comes at a track where driver is at the mercy of machine.

“After seeing Mike drive the No. 84 car and seeing him struggle with some of the same problems I had been having,” Allmendinger said, “it was a little bit of a relief for me to realize that while I had plenty of room to improve as a driver, we also have a long way to go as a team. Collectively, we still need to get better.”

In other news…

– Travis Kvapil and his Yates Racing team have a sponsor for this weekend’s Aaron’s 499 at Talladega. Northern Tool + Equipment stepped up to sponsor the No. 28 Ford Fusion:

“I’m thrilled to have Northern Tool + Equipment as the sponsor of our No. 28 Ford Fusion for this weekend,” commented Kvapil. “This is a very exciting time for our Yates Racing organization because we’ve had some really great races to open the season with, and because of that, we’re able to showcase our strengths and the benefit that a sponsorship with our team will entail. I’m very flattered to represent Northern Tool + Equipment this weekend and I know that our team is going to do them proud on Sunday.”

So go on over to Northern Tool + Equipment’s website and buy a Go-Kart.

– Jon Wood will make his Sprint Cup debut at Talladega this weekend. I post this because it is an interesting thing, someone to look for this weekend to see how he does, but I’m also posting it ’cause he’s driving the No. 21 Honey Buns Ford Fusion and I just think that’s funny. (Nutty Bars are better in my humble opinion, but whatever)

I’m attending the Coca-Cola 600 race weekend at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in May and I couldn’t be happier about it.

The trip is big for me on a couple different levels. This will be my first non-West Coast NASCAR race and my first time to North Carolina period.

I can’t wait to tell you guys all about it!