Jeff Burton’s win at Bristol last weekend was awesome. I’m sorry that Tony Stewart was spun out by Kevin Harvick in those last laps but that was a cool ending. It just makes for great TV. Even though I was so pissed when Brian Vickers spun out Dale Jr. and Jimmie Johnson at Talladega in 2006 it was generally entertaining — things can still be entertaining even when they break your heart.

I think the overall theme for the day was how great it was to see David Gilliland and Aric Almirola finish in the top ten. I was so happy for them. Let’s hope that this helps Yates Racing in their search for permanent sponsors for both of their cars. And I can’t help but wonder why anyone wouldn’t want to sponsor a NASCAR race team. Especially drivers like Gilliland and Travis Kvapil. Your company would get to be a part of their story, for better or worse, but you’re still apart of it and people will remember that. Even if the guy finishes 30th each week he’s still out there and there’s always the possibility that he could win.

In other news…

– Guys, there is still time to enter the “Say Yes To A Winning Proposal Contest” and ladies — there’s still time to print this out and put it under your boyfriend’s nose. He’s got until March 31st to write out his profession of love for you (in 50 words or less). So get crackin’.

Looking to declare your love in a memorable way?

Thanks to Office Depot and Harlequin, one lucky couple will have a chance to do just that – and at speeds of more than 180 mph.

Harlequin, a leading publisher of women’s fiction worldwide, and Office Depot® (NYSE: ODP), the official office products partner of NASCAR, are offering one lucky couple the ultimate NASCAR wedding proposal or the chance to renew their vows with the “Say Yes To A Winning Proposal” national contest. Individuals can submit their proposals online, and the winning wordsmith will have his or her declaration of love featured on the back of Carl Edwards’s No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion during the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series All-Star Race in May and will win a VIP prize package worth more than $10,000.

From now until March 31, anyone can enter by submitting their proposal at www.GetYourHeartRacing.com in 50 words or less.

In addition to having their proposal highlighted on the back of Edwards’ car, the contest winner will also receive a diamond ring, customized stationery provided by the Office Depot Design, Print & Ship DepotTM and a trip for two to Sedona, Arizona.

I’m only posting this photo because professional hockey player Jeff Carter is friggin’ hot! Seriously.

Philadelphia Flyers center Jeff Carter (left) shows off his new Shell/Pennzoil jacket while Kevin Harvick displays his personalized #29 Philadelphia Flyers jersey. (Photo Credit: Richmond International Raceway)

Richmond International Raceway president Doug Fritz (left) looks on as NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick tastes a fresh-off-the-line Diet Coke at the Richmond Coca-Cola bottling facility. (Photo Credit: Richmond International Raceway)

Thanks Dale!

Dale Jarrett gets a ride around the track from father Ned before his final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start (Photo Credit: Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Carl Edwards admires a paper that was printed before he was penalized 100 points and knocked from the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point lead. (Photo Credit: CIA Stock Photo)

Carl Edwards follows through as he seeks a strike while bowling with media in Johnson City, Tenn. (Photo Credit: CIA Stock Photo)

Race winner Clint Bowyer awaits word on the conclusion of the race. It was eventually called due to inclement weather after 171 laps (Photo Credit: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

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What follows are audio interviews with A.J. Allmendinger and Brian Vickers of Red Bull Racing. They talk about about how they’re spending the off season and then preparing for the 2008 Cup season. Enjoy!

WARNING: Check your computer’s volume level before playing.

Bull Chat with A.J. Allmendinger:

Bull Chat with Brian Vickers:

Are you shocked? I’m not. There are worse things he could do.

And now I give you some things that you might want to know:

– If you’re a San Francisco Bay Area IndyCar fan you’ll be happy to know that Fior d’Italia Restaurant is giving $25 gift certificates to the first 40,000 fans that enter Infineon Raceway for the Motorola Indy 300, presented by Jackson Rancheria Casino & Hotel on Sunday, August 26. So make sure you get there early!

– NASCAR driver Ryan Newman will be a guest on the “Best Damn Sports Show Period” live from Lowe’s Motor Speedway on August 7th to announce the finalist for Kodak’s “Ink Ryan’s Ride” contest.

– Walk the track with Kurt & Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon and Ernie Irvan at Pocono Raceway on Saturday:

Kurt will join brother Kyle and four-time Cup champ Jeff Gordon in Saturday’s LAPS Walk with Ernie Irvan at Pocono Raceway. Irvan, Gordon and the Busch Brothers will unite with NASCAR fans, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) survivors, and the Pennsylvania Army National Guard for a walk on the racetrack to raise awareness and needed funding to conquer TBI in America. The LAPS Walk festivities will kick off at 2:15 with a Q&A session and presentation to the top fundraiser of a signed helmet to recognize his/her outstanding effort for TBI awareness and prevention. Following the Q&A session, all participants, including Irvan and Kurt & Eva, will move down to the track where they will be joined by members of the National Guard for the opening ceremonies and a walk on the racetrack. For more information, please visit www.lapswalk.org or call the Brain Injury Association at 800.772.4323.

– I find this quote from Jimmie Johnson to be very interesting indeed. It’s about the resetting of the points once the Chase kicks in for the final ten races of the season.

It certainly looks like I’ll be a big beneficiary of it (resetting the points) and with the way that it is, I’ll take that forgiveness the way the point system is structured right now and try to capitalize on it. But when you look at Jeff’s (Gordon) point situation and how strong he has been, deep down inside there is still a part of me that says, ‘Man, the guy’s had a great year and deserves to be the champion and have it re-racked with everybody on top of him again probably isn’t fair.’ But it’s the way it is. The Chase does a lot of positive things for our sport. I’m in a position where I could capitalize on a tough summer. So you deal with the situation, as it exists. Just falling back on the way racing has always been and the way we’ve all raced through the season and had every point add up to equal a champion, if Jeff doesn’t win the championship I’m sure he’ll have a lot of heartburn over it. And I think us racers, deep down inside, might not think that it’s exactly right. But it’s different racing today than it was years back.

– Greg Biffle will be running a special “Dog the Bounty Hunter” paint scheme on his No. 16 Ford Fusion at Pocono. Uhm, yea, I’ve got nothing.

– All I can say about this is that I hope either A.J. Allmendinger or Brian Vickers can make it into this race or else this visit will be kinda awkward and embarrassing. I got my fingers crossed for ‘em!

Two members of the New York Red Bulls, the MLS team that plays its home matches at Giants Stadium, will make the 90-mile journey from East Rutherford, N.J., to Pocono Raceway to absorb the sights and sounds of NASCAR racing.

Midfielder Joe Vide and midfielder/forward Clint Mathis will get a true taste of what stock-car racing is all about. They’ll hang out on the grid and in the pits, and the fleet-footed duo will meet Red Bull Racing’s two drivers for lunch Sunday morning.

This is my long overdue follow-up post to my initial comments about the Coca-Cola 600 last weekend. I am still so excited that Casey Mears has finally won his first Nextel Cup series race even though he’s apart of Hendrick “We Win Everything, Suckers!” Motorsports.

So there are couple things I must point out… first off, in this photo of Casey, in victory lane with his teammate Jimmie Johnson, he looks to be on the verge of tears. It’s gotta be one of THE best photos this year.

The photo below proves how much of an emotional win this was for the #25 National Guard/GMAC Chevrolet team; one guy (on the far right) is actually doing a cartwheel! A cartwheel people, I haven’t done one of those since I was in elementary school and I’m a girl. Anyway, it’s still cute… in a way.

It’s amazing to me what a difference one race can make. People make it seem like Casey Mears didn’t exist before this race. You can have all the potential in the world but until you deliver on it you’re not really anybody. I’m not saying I agree with this but I know that evidence speaks volumes and that’s what some people focus on.

I always knew that Casey had it in him; it was just a matter of time. The same goes for Clint Bowyer, J.J. Yeley and Martin Truex Jr. They need to figure out a winning recipe ASAP.

Ya know how some people can go so long without doing “it” that they feel like they’ve become a virgin again? Well I think that might be happening to my guy Dale Earnhardt Jr. I’m just sayin’. He hasn’t won a race in what feels like FOREVER (Actually it was last year at Richmond in May).

So besides the whole awesomeness that was Mears’ win at Charlotte I was very happy for Team Red Bull. They managed to pull out a top-5 finish after it seemed like everybody and Jesus was out to get them. I wouldn’t even want to drive my regular street car without power steering, but Brian Vickers managed to do it at over 180 mph.

It was crappy that AJ Allmendinger was taken out of the race so early in that crash with Jeff Gordon, but at least Brian was able to pull something together. This is great for Toyota. Vickers was able to lead more laps in that one race than all of the Toyota teams put together so far this season.

And now for the fun stuff, photos of hot dudes:

Actor Chris Evans races fellow “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” cast members in a race simulator at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. (Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images for NASCAR)

WWE star Jon Cena (left) meets with NASCAR Busch Series Director Joe Balash. (Photo Credit: David Griffin/NASCAR Scene)

I am invested in the success of Toyota’s NASCAR race teams.

Why you ask?

Well I own a Toyota (a cool and fun Toyota Matrix XR named “Trinity” my homage to the lead female character in “The Matrix” film franchise) and I like the company. So if Toyota isn’t a winner I’m not a winner! Well, sort-of. I don’t take it that seriously but you get my point.

My first car in high school was a 1970-something Toyota Corolla named Betsy (right) that every member of my family drove before it got handed down to me in the late 1990’s. I loved that car, it was old but it lasted for a long time. Toyota knows how to make great cars that last, that are reliable. But now they need to make some race cars that can win, heck, just qualifying would be nice.

While Dave Blaney is currently ranked 3rd (David Reutimann of Michael Waltrip Racing is in 4th) in the points standings for the Busch series — which is really awesome — his teammates at Bill Davis Racing and the other Toyota teams are seriously lagging.

As much as I was annoyed with Brian Vickers for stupidly spinning out Dale Earnhardt Jr. last year (I have a hard time letting things go, can’t ya tell?) at Talladega I’m starting to root for him again. Part of that is because I dig Red Bull (eventhough I’ve never drunk a Red Bull in my life, I appreciate great marketing) and of course Toyota in general.

I feel bad because AJ Allmendinger is completely new to this NASCAR thing and he’s not getting the opportunity to really prove himself, show us all what he can do. Jeremy Mayfield is back but you can hardly tell because he’s only been in 3 races so far this season. I’m looking forward to him racing — competitively — against his ex-Evernham teammates.

Then there’s Michael Waltrip. Only one race under his belt this year and the rest of his race teams are seriously struggling. Dale Jarrett is out of provisionals, so if he doesn’t qualify on time for Richmond he’s not going to be in a Nextel Cup race for the first time after 424 previous starts. Maybe there’s an early retirement ahead for Dale? He’s really good at analyzing the Busch races on ESPN.

In other news…

At least someone at Red Bull Racing is winning… Today they announced that 20-year-old mechanical engineering student Matthew Marchiando from the University of California-Davis won the first-ever Red Bull Velocity Lab internship. He’ll be spending his summer at the Red Bull Racing race shop in Mooresville, N.C. I post this because he’s local to me (Davis, Calif is an hour north of me in the San Francisco Bay Area). Marchiando’s internship application included a plan on how to perfect “how the front splitter limits front-end travel” on the Car of Tomorrow. Good luck Matthew!

Casey Mears was so totally robbed today. I know that it was an accident but he was in position to make a run for the win at Talladega, and finally winning his first NEXTEL Cup series race.

His Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson accidentally him out when Casey tried to come down Pit Road. Apparently there was some miscommunication between the teams regarding their pit strategies.

This was all very reminiscent of last year’s fall race at Talladega where then Hendrick driver Brian Vickers spun out Jimmie on the last lap for the win.

And then today, not long after that crash involving Mears and Johnson, Kyle Busch crashed out from a chain reaction accident that also involved Johnson.

All I have to say is with teammates like these who needs enemies?