I don’t care.

I don’t care that four crew chiefs were suspended for cheating this week. And you wanna know why I don’t care? Because it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t do anything to their teams. Yes it sets them back in points and money, but they’ll find replacement chiefs and the team will still compete on Sunday.

The race is what matters and if NASCAR really wants to punish people for cheating they shouldn’t allow them to compete. It’s ridiculous.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. accidentally curses on national television (this was a couple years back if my memory serves me) and he’s docked points but a bunch of people cheat on purpose and they’re docked points too. It doesn’t match up in my eyes.

Kasey Kahne and Matt Kenseth are hot, big name drivers right now, but I think we could live without them in the Daytona 500 this year if that’s what it takes to get teams to realize that you can’t get away with this type of behavior anymore.

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I realized something tonight while I was trying to get to sleep. I figured out one of the reasons why I’m a Dale Earnhardt Jr. fan.

I didn’t become a true NASCAR fan until the year of Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s death. His death was incredibly tragic and because of that fact it called attention to the sport of racing. A while after the accident occurred MTV aired the documentary “True Life: I’m a Race Car Driver” that featured Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

There were a lot of things that I learned by watching the documentary, just about the sport in general, the different driver personalities, but the most intriguing thing was to see the relationship between Dale Earnhardt and his son.

I think because of the fractured relationship I have with my own father, I have this obsession with watching the wonderful relationship other people have with their fathers. I think it is the sweetest thing in the world to see a father who truly cares about and believes in his children. I saw all of that in Dale Earnhardt.

And so after his death I wanted to watch Dale Jr. and see how he would respond to losing his father that he obviously respected and loved deeply.

Over the past 6 years (I still can’t believe it’s been that long) I’ve seen a young man grow, learn and mature. I will always be a fan of his because from all outward appearances he has grown into the man that I’m sure his father had always hoped he would be.

I have to let you in on something that severely hurts my heart every time I think about it. Maybe by writing about it it won’t hurt as much.

I could have gone to the NASCAR Preseason Thunder testing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway earlier this week, but for reasons I won’t go into here I wasn’t able to attend.

This makes me severely depressed. I mean, what could be better than spending three days in Vegas with Dale Earnhardt Jr.?, I mean, with all those NASCAR drivers and their teams? Right, yeah, that’s what I meant.

But I’m moving on and I’m looking forward to the season ahead. There are a bunch of new faces to watch this year, for example, Ricky Carmichael and A.J. Allmendinger.

Ricky comes from the world of motocross and A. J. is from Champ Car. Carmichael is only 27 but yet his name is synonymous with motocross (and local Morgan Hill company Fox Racing). He won’t be in the Nextel Cup series anytime soon though, he’ll work his way up from the bottom, starting with super-late-model and Arca races. Which I think is the totally right way to go. I don’t like the idea of people being able to just jump into Nextel Cup races straight outta the gate.

That’s like a famous pro football player switching to baseball and being the starting picture for a major league team. Ridiculous. They should go down to some minor league team, learn and prove themselves.

But apparently Allmendinger is good enough to roll right on into Cup racing. He’ll be apart of Team Red Bull in a Toyota Camry ride.

In other news…

Oh how I wish I had DirecTV right now. DirecTV is launching a new premium service called HotPass that will allow you to watch ONLY your favorite driver during a NASCAR race.

Each channel has its own announcers dedicated to that driver, real-time stats and six different cameras. At any given time, two of those angles are shown — along with the network feed — on a triple-split screen.

NASCAR’s entire 37-race season costs $99 for DirecTV subscribers. And starting in 2008, everything will be available in high definition.

”It’s the home-team channel for your driver,” said Chris Long, the executive producer for HotPass. ”You’re going to hear driver audio. You’ll have the ability to listen (to the team), or you can listen to the announcers.”

The access is amazing, but I wonder how much longer it’ll be before we’re watching our fave drivers 24/7, while their showering or eating dinner. Read more about this by clicking here.

Jimmie Johnson poses with two young fans on Jimmie Johnson Day in San Diego on Wednesday, January 31, 2007 at the San Diego Hall of Champions. (Photo Credit: Kent Horner/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Kyle Busch, left, talks with Dale Earnhardt Jr., right, during NASCAR Preseason Thunder testing. (Photo Credit: Lisa Blumenfeld/Getty Images for NASCAR)

AJ Allmendinger takes a break during NASCAR Preseason Thunder testing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. (Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Dale Jarrett talks with the media during NASCAR Preseason Thunder at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. (Photo Credit: Lisa Blumenfeld/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Go Colts!

Even though the first race of the NASCAR season is still 37 days away — the prestigious Daytona 500 — racing has begun. Sort of.

Officially titled NASCAR Jackson Hewitt Preseason Thunder at Daytona, teams began testing their cars for the upcoming season. Teams that were in odd-number positions in the car owner standings as of July 12, 2006 tested this week. The even-numbered teams will test next week.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was the fastest car in practice on Tuesday but of course that was overshadowed by the so-called drama between him and his step-mother Teresa Earnhardt.

Teresa was originally quoted as saying this to the Wall Street Journal. Junior then said this at a press conference on Monday. To which Ricky Rudd gave his two cents on Tuesday (he was asked for his opinion, so it’s not like he just busted out with it).

I just hope that this all blows over, Junior renews his deal with DEI and we can all get back to racing and trying to win!

In other news…

– Greg Biffle got engaged over the holidays to his kick-ass girlfriend Nicole Lunders. She’s the woman who got so pissed with Kurt Busch, after he put Biffle’s car into the wall at Texas last year, that she stormed over to Busch’s pit box and chewed out his fiancée Eva Bryan. That was the coolest thing I had seen at a race in a very long time.

– This year’s NASCAR Day has been set for May 18th.

Fans interested in participating in NASCAR Day can purchase a pin, sign up his or her company and even purchase NASCAR Day apparel by going to www.nascar.com/foundation. NASCAR fans, corporations, schools and organizations across the country are encouraged to donate $5 and all participants receive a collectible 2007 NASCAR Day lapel pin for their donation.

Kasey Kahne signs autographs for fans during NASCAR Jackson Hewitt Preseason Thunder at Daytona International Speedway. (All Photos Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Merry Christmas Eve!

I had intended on posting an entry about great Christmas gifts for those racing fans on your list this year, but of course I was sidetracked by other things (work). I’m in La La Land (aka Los Angeles) and finally have some time to sit down and knock out at least half of the list.

1.) “Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby” DVD — This movie is an instant classic. Will Ferrell is hilarious as Ricky Bobby, a cocky NASCAR driver who gets knocked down a few pegs by newcomer, French race-car driver Jean Girard (played brilliantly by Sacha Baron Cohen of “Borat” fame). It’s a fun movie, full of jokes that poke fun at NASCAR. There are tons of memorable quotes, but my personal fave comes from Ricky Bobby himself “Hi. I’m Ricky Bobby. If you don’t chew Big Red, then f%&! you.” The movie also includes cameos from Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jamie McMurray, and Darrell Waltrip amongst many others.

2.) “Cars” DVD — I’ll be honest with you. I haven’t actually seen this movie yet. I know, I know, where have I been? I know this movie is good, I mean duh it’s from Pixar. Has there been a bad Pixar movie yet? Plus I’ve heard from very good sources (my three nephews) that this movie is a winner and that’s good enough for me.

3.) Calendars — I have to have calendars, and in different sizes. I have a small one for work and then a big one at home. Since Dale Earnhardt Jr. is my driver of choice, his calendars are the only way to go. But you can find them for pretty much any driver you happen to love. Some new things I’ve found this year is a calendar that honors women in motor sports. It’s called the 2007 Women in the Winner’s Circle and proceeds will go to charity. For those Dale Jr. lovers out there, there is a cool new calendar that shows his life “Off the Track.”

4.) “Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Inside the Rise of a NASCAR Superstar” Book — Love photos? Love photos of Dale Earnhardt Jr.? Well then look no further, this is the book for you! I have personally checked this book out for myself and it’s great. There are awesome photos of Junior in and out of his #8 Chevrolet.

That’s all for now, I’ll post more great racing related items you should own later.

Here are a few things that you may have already heard but I’ve just been slow to write about:

– Jeff Gordon and his new wife Ingrid announced last week that they’re expecting their first child in July. This comes as no surprise to me because she’s been looking preggers ever since they first got together. It was only a matter of time before it was real. I kid, I kid. I wish them all the best. (photo credit: AP Photo/Mike McCarn)

– Rumors are swirling that Dale Jr. might wanna hightail it out of DEI in light of recent comments made by Teresa Earnhardt. Teresa told the Wall Street Journal that Junior needed to decide “whether he wants to be a NASCAR driver or whether he wants to be a public personality.”

All I can say is this: Can we please just let the guy win a championship before we speculate about him leaving DEI?? Puhleese!! I mean, ok, so he has a rocky relationship with Teresa, but he’s just gotten back with Tony Eury Jr. as his Crew Chief in 2006 and they’re finally working on winning again. His confidence is up, leave him alone! Alone I tell you! I’m sure Kyle Busch would rather have all of the media’s attention right now, why doesn’t someone go do a story about him.

– Since we’re on the subject of Dale Jr., and since he’s where most of my traffic comes from, you have to check out his latest business endeavor. It’s called InfieldParking.com, a MySpace-like website for racing fans. It’s in a pre-launch beta phase, which means they don’t have all the bugs and features figured out, but they want your input so sign up. Once you do be sure to add me as your friend.