While I was browsing photos from the testing sessions at Lowe’s Motor Speedway on Monday and Tuesday I noticed something I’d never noticed before!

Jimmie Johnson kind of looks like Chris Daughtry of the band Daughtry. You’ll remember that Chris was on American Idol and has since sold a butt load of CDs with his band; I highly recommend the song “Breakdown.”

Anywho, I’ve put the guys’ photos together and now you can be the judge. For me it’s the eyes, they both have that it-looks-like-he’s-wearing-eye-liner-but-he’s-not thing going on, and the stubble and the thick eyebrows.

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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.

My guilty pleasure is to take a look at the daily celebrity photo galleries from People.com and today (like everyday before it) there was a photo of David Beckham and his wife Victoria (aka Posh Spice of Spice Girls fame) leaving the popular Los Angeles restaurant Pink Taco. The soccer star hottie was there with the family to celebrate his wife’s birthday.

So here’s why I’m talking about this, in the photos two of the Beckham’s children, 9-year-old Brooklyn and 5-year-old Romeo, are holding what I think is a die cast car of Tony Stewart’s No. 20 Home Depot Chevy.

I hope this means they’re NASCAR fans, I think that’d be really cool. I’m just sayin’.

Here in Northern California it’s finally warm enough for me to not wear a jacket the entire day, and that’s saying something. So in honor of the first true day of spring, and the fact that I’d rather be outside right now, I’m keeping things light with photos from this week.

Tony Stewart was at Motor City Hotel & Casino in Detroit on April 9 promoting the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series LifeLock 400 at Michigan International Speedway. Detroit native Kid Rock also dropped by which helped promote the event. (Photo Credit: Dave Frechette for Michigan International Speedway)

I can’t help but think of that one “I Love Lucy” episode when I look at this photo.

Carl Edwards’ fitness program was put to the test on Wednesday at Infineon Raceway as the driver of the No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion combined with two young Bay Area children in a Mini-Triathlon. (Photo Credit: Chucke Walkden)

The trio first rode mountain bikes through a half-mile course on the hillsides behind the raceway. (Photo Credit: Chucke Walkden)

They then took part in a half-mile run around a portion of the world-famous road course, which included the legendary hairpin at Turn 11. (Photo Credit: Chucke Walkden)

Kasey Kahne sits on the pit wall prior to qualifying for the Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. Kahne will start fifth in Saturday night’s race. (Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)

It sucks that he’s replacing Jeremy Mayfield, but it’s cool that he’s back in the field again.

Johnny Sauter, who replaced Jeremy Mayfield in the No. 70 Chevrolet earlier in the week, waits to practice for the Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. Sauter grabbed the final qualifying position among drivers not already locked into the race. (Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)

For all of the Auto Club Speedway’s attempts at making itself Hollywood east it didn’t really come through at their race last week. Ok, so they had Tom Cruise, but that’s one dude and people don’t like him anymore since he jumped on Oprah’s couch. Las Vegas Motor Speedway had Carrot Top! You read that right, the one and only Carrot Top was on hand for the UAW-Dodge 400. He just sort of popped up at driver introductions. I was disappointed he was wearing a jacket. I wanted to see his scarily bulging biceps.

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous host Robin Leach was there to announce the drivers. I caught a glimpse of country singer Blake Shelton leaving the drivers meeting before the race. He is so freaking gorgeous. JC Chasez of N’SYNC fame also made an appearance at the race. He hung out with the drivers before introductions and then at Kurt Busch’s car during the national anthem.

JC Chasez of N’SYNC waits to have his photo taken at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, March 2, 2008. (Photo Credit: The Fast and the Fabulous)

Ok. So here’s the deal. I went down to La La Land (aka Los Angeles) Saturday morning. I would have left earlier like on Thursday but I had long standing plans with friends that I wasn’t willing to break. Luckily because of the rain I really hadn’t missed anything by the time I arrived at the Auto Club Speedway on Sunday morning. Qualifying had been cancelled and practice was minimal. So the story was the rain. When would it stop? Would it stop? When would they start the race? Could they get both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup races done the same day?

I have to say that watching a rain delay on TV is a lot less painful than it is to witness first hand. When you’re at home you get to watch all of the pit reporters go around interviewing the drivers. When you’re there in person it’s a totally different story. Watching those jet engine dryers go around and around the track was as boring as you’d expect watching dryers go around a track would be. I went through the garage a couple times but because of the rain and the wind and the cold it wasn’t very much fun. Trying to hold on to my umbrella and keep my camera dry was kind of annoying.

Anyway, besides all of that I had a good time at the track for the short time I was there. I left at around 4 to get back to my sister’s house to watch the Oscars with the family. Although if I had known the Oscars were going to be that lame I wouldn’t have left. When I was driving out of the track I heard about the Casey Mears crash, and watched on the big Sprint Vision screen as Casey was pulled out of his mashed up car.

I’m getting ahead of myself. When it was still raining earlier in the day, before the jet dryers were out on the track, I walked down pit road. Some of the crew for David Gilliland’s team were in their pit area cleaning nuts. I stopped and talked to them and it was really cool. I’ll post more about that later.

At driver introductions I got a close-up look at the Auto Club Speedway Umbrella Girls, basically a bunch of models that carry umbrellas. Anyway, I felt bad for them because they had to wear tiny little shorts with no leggings or stockings or anything. You could see the goose bumps on their legs. Crazy. Speaking of crazy, ok, ok, not really crazy, just weird, ZZ Top performed before introductions out on the grass in front of the start/finish line. When they were done they were scuttled off stage like they were the President surrounded by cops and security.

Anyway, back to the drivers. There was a girl and some dude, he might have been her boyfriend but couldn’t tell for sure, standing next to me who was seriously freaking out when Dale Earnhardt Jr. came into view. He was hard to spot at first. He had on a black hoodie over his race suit with the hood up and sunglasses on. He stopped to do some interviews before running up the stairs and under the tent of the stage — hidden again. The girl yelled, pleaded with him to come out again so she could take a picture but he didn’t budge.

On the other hand there was Carl Edwards. He has to be one of the most charismatic guys in NASCAR right now. Maybe he was just having a good day (or he knew he was going to eventually win the race the next day) but he’s the one that interacted with fans the most, at least from my vantage point that is. He walked up on to the platform, and then walked to the end of the stage closest to where I was standing and proceeded to wink and smile at anyone that made eye contact with him. So yea, I have like a smallish crush on him now.

In other news…

– Check out my photos from Sunday at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. (slideshow)

Actor Tom Cruise, with his son Connor, enjoys the Auto Club 500 on Monday, February 25th, 2008 from the pit box of defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson (Photo Credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)