Sometimes I think the only reason I write blog entries is to use the subject lines I come up with. Often I come up with the headline before I think of the actual content. hehe.

Anyway, this is the story of Saturday at Infineon Raceway during the NASCAR Toyota/Save Mart 350 weekend.

So the big thing for me was watching the Camping World Series West race in which David Gilliland, Boris Said and Joey Logano were participants. I’ve never witnessed a Camping World Series race before (East or West) so it was a new thing for me.

I found a choice spot behind the pits next to the start/finish line. For a good portion of the race I was sitting indian-style on the second wall beneath the grandstands. It was the best place to watch the race from because I was directly in front of one of the Sprint Vision screens. I didn’t miss a thing. When the action wasn’t in front of me it was on the screen. (more…)

If you’ve heard of NASCAR driver Boris Said then there’s no doubt you’ve heard of No Fear. You should know that they’ve got a cool new contest going on right now that’ll allow you win some seriously cool prizes, like VIP status at at MotoX event or a Hawaiian surf getaway. During the Earn Some Cred promotion you’ll have the opportunity to instantly win those prizes and earn points to receive sweet No Fear gear.

In honor of all of that the awesome people at No Fear Energy have given me a No Fear Earn Some Cred prize pack (valued at $100) to give away to one of my lucky/supercool/awesome readers.

Simply drop your name into the hat (fill out the form) and you’ll be entered to win the following:

Two (2) – No Fear Hoodies
Two (2) – No Fear T-shirts (one of each style)
One (1) – No Fear Bloodshot Hat
One (1) – 12-pack of the new No Fear Bloodshot Energy Drink
One (1) – Lamb of God’s latest CD “Wrath” released on Feb. 24
One (1) – Sticky Bumps Surf Wax

My contest ends March 30th, so enter now before you forget! This contest is now over. Thank you!

Some of my thoughts on the latest NASCAR happenings and whatnot:

– Mark Martin is going over to Hendrick Motorsports next year to take over Casey Mears’ old ride in the No. 5. Now, I like Mark Martin, I really do and I was sad when he wasn’t able to edge out Kevin Harvick for that Daytona 500 win last year. I can’t help but wonder when he’s really going to retire. I mean he was supposed to be gone by now, off spending more time with his family and specifically with his son Matt and his racing aspirations. Now he’s locked in for two more years, hoping to get that Championship that’s eluded him. At a certain point you have to hang it up and live with what you’ve made.

— NFL star Randy Moss bought half of a NASCAR truck team. I could give a flying fig about this piece of news. For one, he’s only been to one NASCAR race in his entire life and it was this weekend at Daytona. So a man who has never been to a race buys a team? I don’t get it. I know that you can love the sport without attending a race in person but it doesn’t feel authentic enough to me, especially when you’re going to invest your hard earned money into it. I never really liked him as a football player, so that’s another reason this news is irrelevant to me. However, NASCAR is a tough business and I hope, if he’s really serious about it, that he’ll be successful.

– What is up with the media asking Kyle Busch every week how he feels about getting booed? Do we really expect his answer to change? They’ve also been asking all of the other drivers how they feel about it and really once they’ve answered that question the first time I really don’t need any follow-up. Even if you’re the most self-confident person in the world it would suck to get booed. It just would. That being said it’s not going to change the way you live your life or how much you want to win.

– The thing that frosts my cookies the most about the coverage of these races is when a commentator will say something like “but he’s so talented, people will see that” in defense of Kyle and as a reason for people to stop booing him. The problem with that is that people don’t boo people based on talent. They boo or cheer for them based on personality. Have you seen a commercial with Kyle in it lately? Exactly. Although I’m sure if he wins the Championship he’ll have them, but his likeability factor is loooooow.

– Just heard Boris Said say on today’s episode of NASCAR Now that he thinks Kyle Busch could break Jeff Gordon’s record of winning 13 races in one season, after all he’s already won 6 this year. Boris, what are you doing??? Don’t put that out there! Eww.

– I often wonder if Jeff Gordon gets tired of answering questions about how he feels about Dale Earnhardt Jr. I mean, after all Jeff has his own issues to worry about right now. To his credit though, Jeff answers those questions without exasperation or irritation. He definitely knows how to handle himself in front of the media. He could probably teach a class on it.

This is just cool.

The helmet Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 88 National Guard/AMP Energy Chevrolet, wore during Saturday’s race at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. He started in third place and finished eighth. (Courtesy Hendrick Motorsports)

The final laps of the Toyota/Save Mart 350 were literally killing me. I haven’t been that engaged in a race in quite some time. The fact that David Gilliland was running up front, realistically in contention for the win was seriously blowing my mind. In the end though he didn’t come up with the win but I feel like 2nd place is just as good.

I Tivo’d the race while I was at the track and I just watched it today. David’s smile in his post race interview was priceless. He was so happy and rightly so. He proved that he could contend with the likes of Jeff Gordon and come out on top.

On Sunday during the post-race press conference with the media his happiness still shone through, albeit subdued. I’m not one for chopping up quotes so here are some of my favorite parts from the Q&A with the media.

David on what he thought when he saw Jeff behind him in his rearview mirror:

GILLILAND: It’s not a comfortable feeling, I’ll tell you that. I grew up coming here, and so I wasn’t really surprised about having him back there for sure.

GORDON: You didn’t have anything to worry about, trust me.

GILLILAND: Our car was pretty good. On the restart before the last one, I got away from Jeff a little bit going up the hill, and so that made me a little more comfortable on the second one. But it was super slick the last lap as far as challenging for the lead. It was everything I could do just to stay on the racetrack. It was wild back there. It was incredible.

GORDON: You were up there.

GILLILAND: Yeah, up there; back there. (Laughter).

David responds to a reporter asking him if he feels his team is making progress towards becoming really competitive at the “bread and butter tracks:”

GILLILAND: Absolutely. That’s why we go to the racetrack each week. We’re working hard at it. It’s not easy, I’ll tell you that. It’s a challenge each and every week, but definitely, I mean, you know, I feel like we definitely made an improvement on the mile and a half stuff. Our short track stuff has been much better than it was last year. Richmond we had the best car we had and were in the Top 10 and got involved in an accident.

Had a bit of bad luck, but definitely I feel like our performance has improved 90 percent from what it was last year. Our cars are much better and you talk to people and they say, you know, you’re just learning, experience, but you don’t really learn anything driving a car that shouldn’t even be on the racetrack.

So I’m having to relearn a lot of things this year and running up in the front with guys like Jeff Gordon, you know, you’ve got to earn that respect and that goes a long ways.

It’s just a steady process that we are chipping away at.

Jeff Gordon speaks with the press after the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway

David Gilliland speaks with the press after the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway

Crew chief Chad Knaus walks the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet through inspection at Infineon Raceway

Clint Bowyer sits on pit road before the start of the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway

Boris Said takes a call at Infineon Raceway before the start of the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway

Rear Tire Carrier and Car Chief Ron Malec steers the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet through inspection

A few weeks ago I was given a copy of a new NASCAR DVD set entitled “Full Throttle Adrenaline Volumes 1 & 2″ to check out. I have to say that it’s a really cool and interesting set.

The first disc is hosted by Fox Sports pit road reporter Steve Byrnes who takes you through a bunch of classic race finishes and crashes. There were moments that I hadn’t seen before like the time when Michael Waltrip had a truly gnarly crash into the side of a wall that basically peeled his car a part like a banana. It also shows the moment when Michael proposed to his wife Buffy in victory lane. There’s commentary from drivers like Ricky Craven and Kurt Busch recounting their super close finish at Darlington back in 2003.

The second disc is my favorite. It features interviews with various crew chiefs, owners and drivers like Dale Earnhardt Jr., Casey Mears, Ryan Newman and Boris Said. They talk a little bit about their lives away from the track. You get to see Ryan’s classic car collection and Boris’ adorable blond & curly haired son. I think seeing a driver out of their element is a great way to get perspective on what they’re like as just regular dudes.

The discs also have extras like a trip to the NASCAR Research and Development Center in Charlotte and an in depth look at Elliott Sadler’s crazy crash at Talladega in 2003.

I was given three extra copies of this awesome DVD set to giveaway. Enter the contest today! The contest ends on July 4, 2008.

The most fun he’s had with his clothes on. Yeah, that’s what Carl Edwards said after the Corona Mexico 200, a Nationwide Series race, in Mexico City on Sunday.

After seeing Carl without his shirt on during the pre-race show I had to take a few minutes to digest that comment. Honestly I’d never thought about him in that context before, ya know the whole no clothes and having fun kind of thing and now that I have it’s kind of jarring. In a good way, I think, I guess I just wasn’t expecting him to say that.

His body is ridiculous. Just ridiculous. David Ragan didn’t look bad shirtless either.

I was seriously disappointed that Scott Pruett couldn’t pull out the win yet again, and that Kyle Busch of all people had to be the one to ruin it for him this time. But whatever, he did all he could. My heart also went out to Boris Said who was spun out by Marcos Ambrose late in the race. Boris was pissed and rightly so, it’s hard to watch someone you’re pulling for leave the race for something that was totally out of their control.

I don’t know if anyone watched the race but didn’t it seem like everyone calling the race had the hardest time saying Colin Braun’s name? Sometimes they’d pronounce his last name as “Brown” and then other times I’d hear people say it like “Brawn” so which the heck is it?