For what feels like the fifty billionth time, but really it’s only been four, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has won the the NASCAR NMPA Chex® Most Popular Driver award today at the NASCAR Myers Brothers Award Luncheon in New York City. (photo credit: Chris Trotman/Getty Images for NASCAR)
All I can say is doesn’t that trophy look like they’re playing Ring Around the Rosie? Instead of giving him some big bronze trophy that’ll take up space, why not just make a box of cereal with his photo on it? It could be a special commemorative box they can hawk in supermarkets all over the country. I’d buy it, which isn’t really saying much, but still.
It should be noted that Bay Area native Jeff Gordon came in second in the voting, followed by Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, Michael Waltrip, Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth, 2006 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and Elliott Sadler.
In local news… Tickets go on sale tomorrow (Friday, December 1st) for the 2007 Big O Tires Racing Season at Infineon Raceway. Get online and buy tickets early for the NASCAR, NHRA, AMA, and IRL race weekends.
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A note to the ladies: Dale Earnhardt Jr. is growing a goatee again. Yes, say it with me, “hotness.” hehe. Apparently he hasn’t renewed his deal with the Gillette Young Guns campaign so he is free to not shave again. (photo credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)
In other Junior news he told reporters this week that he wrote his own speech for the Championship Awards Ceremony this Friday.
“[The banquet is] such a high-pressure deal,” Earnhardt said. “You’re trying to represent your own team and company. I chose to write my own speech and found out that I’m only one of a few. I thought everybody wrote their own speeches.
“So I’m a little nervous now that I’m going to represent everybody well with my speech and that everybody’s acknowledged. It’ll be fun to get up there; it’ll be nice when it’s over. Nobody really likes to get up on stage to talk to that many people, but we’ll get through it.”
The thing that I find odd is that the other drivers are having people write their speeches for them. It boggles my mind. How hard is it to write something that basically just says thank you to your team, your team owner, your wife and/or mom, your family and the fans? You’re not the President, jeez.
And now for some photos from the day’s festivities in New York:
The top 10 drivers in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series pose for a photo in Times Square. (Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)
After the debacle that was Talladega last month, I was quite upset, as you can read in my post entitled ‘are you serious?? c’mon!’. I was beyond mad when Brian Vickers spun out his own teammate, Jimmie Johnson, and the leader of the race, Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the last lap of the race.
But apparently I wasn’t as mad as some other Dale Jr. fans. Actually I was but it wasn’t caught on tape. WARNING: This video contains some strong language, so don’t play it when your kids or your boss are around.
But here’s the kicker, this video found it’s way to Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin… They laughed about it during a press conference before the race at Homestead. Apparently Jimmie Johnson hadn’t seen it yet, but Junior said he’d send it to him. Enjoy Jimmie!
So Jimmie Johnson is the 2006 NEXTEL Cup Champion. Congratulations to him and his team. I’m honestly happy for him and overall I’m happy for Dale Jr. too. He finished fifth in the points and had an awesome year considering he didn’t even make the chase last year. So I think there’s more good stuff to come for the #8 team, his Championship is just around the corner.
And lets not forget about Denny Hamlin. I think it’s pretty amazing that in his rookie year he ends up in third place overall.
All of the racing is over but we’ve still got the awards ceremony and dinner in New York to look forward to in the coming weeks. It’s one of my favorite things to watch. You get to see everyone all dolled up in their tuxes and evening gowns. I really think they don’t show enough of everyone walking down the red carpet before the festivities begin. I want to see the dresses, the shoes, the hair, etc. They never spend enough time just showing everybody.
This is the first photo I looked at from this Sunday’s race and I just thought it was cute.
Chandra Johnson, wife of driver Jimmie Johnson, reacts as her husband thanks her during a news conference at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Fla. Sunday Nov. 19, 2006. Johnson won the Nextel Championship trophy. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)
This is a big weekend for NASCAR fans. This Sunday’s race at Homestead-Miami is the last race of the 2006 season and it will decide who will win the NEXTEL Cup Championship.
Jimmie Johnson leads the Chase and has to finish 12 or better to clinch the title, but at the same time there are 4 other drivers that are still mathematically eligible to win the Cup.
I really, really want Dale Earnhardt Jr. to win, this should come as no surprise, and he still has a slim chance of at making it happen. I’m not saying that I want Johnson’s car to run into some problems, but I am. 
I will say this though, I do agree with Matt Kenseth when he compared Johnson’s team to the Indianapolis Colts. They’ve both come so close to winning the championship in the past but always seem to get in their own way and can’t seem to close the deal. And for that reason I won’t be completely irked if the Lowe’s team comes out on top this year.
Since this is the last race of the season I should probably be sad, but I’m not. NASCAR isn’t like football or baseball when you have to wait for months and months for the season to begin again, so long that you forget who got traded where. With NASCAR it’s basically two months and we’re back in the game again.
Sunday also marks Juan Pablo Montoya’s first ride in a Cup car. I can’t remember which race it was earlier this year but they interviewed JP during a pre-race show and asked him how he liked NASCAR so far. He said that he found pit road to be a bit scary, with the crew members jumping out in front of his car as he made his stop. I was sooo glad a real racer said that, because those Formula 1, Indy Car peeps have it easy. They’re already in place for their stops, they don’t have to run and carry big, heavy tires.
But then again, it’s still dangerous, check out this F1 pit stop:
When Dale Earnhardt Jr. spun out at the end of the race last Sunday at Martinsville I was very disappointed. Worst of all, I had no one to blame except Junior himself. In a post-race interview he took responsibility for his mistake. Noble, but irritating. I don’t want to see him mess up; there is a Championship at stake after all. I’m just being honest, which isn’t to say that I don’t get that he’s a human being, he’s not Superman.
Anytime anything happens to Dale Jr., good or bad, the media always turn to his large fan base. They’ll usually say something along the lines of something like this from the NASCAR SceneDaily Blog:
Which bugs me too… Why? Because I’d much rather have a favorite driver that only 5 people liked instead of 5 million. Plus I like Junior because he seems like a good guy, someone you’d… uhm… I’m not going into this. Anytime anyone tries to explain why they like someone they’ve never met it starts to sound really … weird.
So, moving on… Going into the race at Atlanta this weekend, Junior has had one win and eight top ten finishes out of the last 14 races there, so he’s got a good chance of having an excellent finish.
