Happy Thursday everyone! It’s a great day for me because tomorrow I’m flying to Las Vegas for the Blog World & New Media Expo. I had a great time last year and I’m looking forward to sitting in on the sports blogging sessions. The big news this year, at least for me, is that Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park will be a keynote speaker along with Tim Ferriss, writer of the book “The 4-Hour Work Week.” I know I’m going to get a lot out of this weekend. Vegas baby, Vegas! 
In other news…
– This morning I got to interview Kyle Petty! He was made available to me because he has been busy promoting Prostate Cancer Awareness Week and the STAY ON TRACK for Better Prostate Health prostate cancer awareness program sponsored by the Prostate Cancer Education Council and sanofi-aventis. I plan on posting the first part our discussion today. Check back later on today or subscribe to my RSS feed to read it as soon as it goes online.
– Are you interested in winning free gas? Well check out this awesome promotion from Shell-Pennzoil:
Shell is bringing new meaning to the “No. 29.” Through September 28, the company will highlight the No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil car and offer customers the chance to win free Shell gasoline through the “Shell $2,900 Every Day Giveaway” promotion. At participating stations, customers will receive a scratch-and-match game card with any fuel purchase.
Building off the stop gunky build-up theme, consumers need to scratch off the gunk on the valves to see what they have won. Plus, the game cards will feature online codes for more chances to win Shell fuel every 29 minutes and thousands of other prizes, including No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil merchandise autographed by Kevin Harvick and a limited edition 105th Anniversary Harley-Davidson(r) Motorcycle, XL Sportster 1200C. Consumers may also write in for a free game card. And in Maryland, New Jersey and Virginia only, Shell customers will have the chance to participate in the “Get a Free Race Cup” promotion while supplies last. There will be three different racing cups to collect.
– There’s still time to enter to win one of five Kevin Harvick autographed “Americans for a Gunk-Free Nation” hats! The contest ends on September 30th, 2008. Enter today!
– I love Martha Stewart and I have for pretty much all of my life. She’s the reason I had the confidence to make my sister’s three-tier wedding cake ten years ago. Anywho, yesterday she devoted a show to bloggers and blogging, and now she’s running a little contest where she’ll pick some blogs to feature on her site, The Martha Blog. Of course I put myself in the running. Go check it out!
– Ok, so get this, remember when I told you that fate finally threw me a bone and got me close to Dale Earnhardt Jr. well there’s a photo to go with it. I came across it when I was checking out the NASCAR blog over at AOL’s FanHouse. So take a look below and you’ll see that I’m right there on the left-hand side looking pissed off almost straight at the camera. I really wasn’t, but it was insanely hot and that’s my “it’s seriously freaking hot and I’m serious about that” face.
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Last week the top 12 drivers in The Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship were in New York City for Chase Media Day. For the drivers it meant making television appearances and conducting a bunch of interviews with various media outlets.
All twelve drivers appeared on The David Letterman Show to run down Dave’s “Top Ten List”, or in this case, a top-twelve list:
Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson hung out on The Early Show with host Harry Smith:
Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards went on Tony Stewart’s show on Sirius Satellite Radio and they addressed their “rivalry.” There’s a clip of them discussing exactly that over on Tony’s page at Sirius.com. Look for the section on the right-hand side with the “Sounds of the Show” heading.
And now for the photos, I’d like to point out Dale Earnhardt Jr. and how much I loved his sweater/button-up combo. That’s a very good look for him. In fact all of the guys looked really good, kudos to them and anyone that helped them pick out their outfits. (more…)
Like Amy over at Amy’s Bad Groove I’m trying out Pay The Fan for the first time this weekend. You have until tomorrow before the green flag drops for the NASCAR Sprint Cup New Hampshire race to get in on the Chase for the PTF Cup. PTF offers you a chance to win real money from participating in a fantasy racing league. You pick Sprint Cup drivers each week and accumulate points based on how your guys finish. If you win the PTF Cup you’ll get $150,000!
It’s funny because Amy decided to save her fave driver, Tony Stewart, for later on and I did the exact same thing in saving Dale Earnhardt Jr. I figure I’ll pick him for a track where I know he does well, say Talladega.
So check it out right now and join!
In other news…
– There’s still time to enter to win one of five Kevin Harvick autographed “Americans for a Gunk-Free Nation” hats! The contest ends on September 30th, 2008. Enter today!
The following is more from my interview with ESPN NASCAR analyst Dale Jarrett, after this there are a couple more posts to come — all good stuff.
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Me: Do you think that NASCAR could get bigger in terms of media coverage? It’s huge in its own right, but it still doesn’t quite get the respect, I think, that the NFL does and the NBA. Do you think it could get bigger and that the coverage could expand?
Jarrett: It could expand and it has expanded a lot, but what everyone would need to understand is how different our sport is because we don’t really have home teams. That’s the thing that separates our sport from getting more media coverage is that we don’t have that home team in Los Angeles or New York. The teams are based primarily around the Charlotte/Mooresville area. (more…)
So now we finally know who the top 12 drivers are to make it into The Chase for the Championship this year. I’m glad The Chase to The Chase is over and I can now chew my fingernails down to the nub hoping and praying that something horrible doesn’t happen to my favorite drivers, which is basically everyone except Kyle Busch. hehe. I’m kidding!
The 2008 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup field poses with the Sprint Cup trophy after the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond International Raceway. The drivers are (Back row L-R) Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Burton (Front row L-R) Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer and Kyle Busch. (Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)
The 2008 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers celebrate their Chase berths after the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond International Speedway. (Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)
On to driver introductions. This year the Auto Club Speedway rolled out the red carpet, literally. Basically from the pit road wall to the back stage area there was a long red carpet roped off for the drivers to walk. It was a cool idea and it was nice because it allowed for drivers to be cheered or booed twice before they made it to their racecars.
After all of that I headed down pit road and saw Michelle Gilliland standing next to her husband’s car. I totally interrupted her conversation with someone else and I’m totally sorry about that, but I had to introduce myself and I was afraid I wouldn’t get another chance to do so that day. I hadn’t talked to her since I interviewed her over the phone back in March. She was just as nice and gracious as she was then. We chatted for a bit and then I headed back down pit road trying to figure out where I was going to stand for the national anthem.
It’s always annoying ’cause I don’t want to be in anyone’s way, or be super obvious. It’s one of those moments in life where you just want to be there but you don’t want to be noticed, I guess that’s what I’m trying to say. I dunno. I got as far as Tony Stewart’s car and spied Krissie Newman chatting with him. I also caught sight of Casey Mears being very sweet with his very pregnant girlfriend Trisha Grablander. I watched Dale Earnhardt Jr. give an interview and I ended up standing behind Jeff Gordon’s pit crew with some other reporters and PR people.
I watched the first couple of laps of the race from behind Denny Hamlin’s pits. It had a good view of the start/finish line. I also got to watch ESPN’s Dave Burns give a report and then listen to him as he talked to the kid that has to hold up the mini TV screen for him during the race. It helps the pit reporters so that they can see what’s going on on the track while they run around the pits. This kid that was with Burns seemed to be new ’cause he was telling him to just stick with him at all times. That must be an interesting job. You have to stay with the guy; he doesn’t say where he’s going you just have to follow.
I watched the race from the press box but when there were ten laps left I made sure I was back in the pits in position to get to victory lane. Apparently so were everybody else and their mother. The minute pit road was open everyone raced across to get into position for Jimmie Johnson’s arrival. I was slow and there was no way I was getting close to middle of it all but I did come away with some great shots of Jimmie entering victory lane. He actually drove in at the wrong angle and had to back up, turn and drive in again.
There was no point in standing behind all of those people, looking at nothing so I went back into the garage and headed to the conference room for the press conference with the top three finishers. I caught Denny Hamlin and Greg Biffle but there wasn’t much to ask it seemed and not a lot to say about the race. It was a pretty boring race wasn’t it?
I headed back home to my sister’s place where she, my brother-in-law, my three nephews and their cousin had all stayed up to wish me a happy birthday. This had to be one of the most memorable birthday weekends I’ve ever had.
The No. 24 team listens to the national anthem before the start of the Pepsi 500 at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. on Sunday, August 31, 2008 (photo credit: The Fast and the Fabulous)
Jamie McMurray waits with his girlfriend, Christy Furtrell, for the start of the Pepsi 500 on pit road at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. on Sunday, August 31, 2008 (photo credit: The Fast and the Fabulous)
Jimmie Johnson enters victory lane after winning the Pepsi 500 at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. on Sunday, August 31, 2008 (photo credit: The Fast and the Fabulous)
