Hello! Today has been insane let me tell ya, but the one awesome thing has been writing up this final post of my interview with Kyle Petty. Again, this interview was done last week during Kyle’s promotion of Prostate Cancer Awareness Week.

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Me: In regards to Prostate Cancer Awareness, a lot of the readers of my website are women, what’s the most important thing that they can do for their husband or father to help them to go out there and see a doctor about this?

Petty: When had our STAY ON TRACK for Better Prostate Health booth set up at Michigan I was surprised at the amount of women who came through and would bring their husbands, or would say “My father had prostate cancer, it runs in our family and I’m trying to get my brothers to go and I really appreciate you guys speaking up on it.”

I think prostate cancer for so many people and especially guys, guys just are afraid to go be checked. And just like I said before, as my father uses the example of putting together a pit crew for his prostate cancer, I think so many guys will baby their car, change the oil, do everything they can with their car and their lawnmower, and their fishing boat or whatever it may be but they disregard their body. (more…)

So this the last post in the series dedicated to my interview with Dale Jarrett. It’s my last but probably my favorite because I got to ask him about that awesome Valentine’s Day of 1993 when he won his first Daytona 500 by beating Dale Earnhardt. Ned Jarrett, Dale’s father and a former two-time NASCAR champion, was the racing analyst on duty that day and coached his son home to victory.

It’s one of my all-time favorite NASCAR moments and if you don’t remember check out the video below and then read Dale’s response to my question. So sweet! (more…)

Normally a ticket promotion wouldn’t get my attention, but this latest one from Texas Motor Speedway made me do a double take:

Beginning at 9:03 a.m. CT Saturday (August 16), Texas Motor Speedway will kick off a special promotion for the upcoming Dickies 500 in which fans purchasing four prime front stretch tickets for the Nov. 2 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race will receive a free “Dale & The Duke” collectible diecast stock car featuring American icons Dale Earnhardt and John Wayne.

Okay, so the diecast isn’t the thing that grabbed my attention it was the photos from the announcement of the promotion. The youngest daughter of Dale Earnhardt, and the only child of Teresa Earnhardt, was on hand for the unveiling of the “Dale & The Duke” car. Seeing Taylor Earnhardt’s name made me stop dead in my tracks. I can’t remember seeing a photo or hearing anything about her at all since last year when Dale Earnhardt Jr. asked for people to stop badmouthing his step-mother to protect his half-sister from having to hear those things about her mom.

I have to admit, I am intrigued and I’d like to know more about her, especially since you never hear boo about what she’s been up to since her father’s death. Not that we should know what’s going on in her life, I’m just curious like that. Actually to be totally honest I don’t want to know who she’s dating and all of that. I’m more curious about how she’s handled her father’s death and what her relationship is like with her siblings.

Yes, I’m nosey, deal with it.

(Left to right) President and CEO of Motorsports Authentics Mark Dyer, Hollywood star Buck Taylor, John Wayne’s daughter Marisa Wayne Ditteaux, Dale Earnhardt’s daughter Taylor Earnhardt and Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage took part in the unveiling of the “Dale and the Duke” program. (Photo Credit: Getty Images)

Meant to continue the legacies of both men, the “Dale and The Duke” program paired these legends together for the first time ever as part of the Legends Series that recently saw country music great Johnny Cash grace the hood of Earnhardt’s famous No. 3 Chevrolet. (Photo Credit: Getty Images)

My favorite saying is “shut up!” It’s the thing I say when someone says or does something that amazes, stupefies or shocks me. It’s interesting, I’m saying, “shut up” when what I really want is for that person to continue and tell me more. Anyway, I was muttering “shut up!!!” to myself all day long as I came across various bits of news.

Let’s review:

– There’s a report out that Teresa Earnhardt has been courting potential investors for Dale Earnhardt Inc. I knew this would throw Dale Earnhardt fans into a tizzy. From a financial standpoint I can understand why the would do this, but at the same time it’s kind of irritating because she wouldn’t give Dale Earnhardt Jr. half of his father’s company. DEI president Max Siegel is saying that they don’t have plans to sell the company at this time. Mmmhmmm.

– The Navy is ending its sponsorship of JR Motorsports’ No. 88 Nationwide series car at the end of this year. Really? Wow. I’m surprised about this one just because they’ve been with them from the beginning and Dale Jr. has been super supportive of the military community. It’s interesting, but then again I’m kind of glad they’re not sponsoring a car anymore, only because I don’t think that our military should be sponsoring racecars. I mean, aren’t there other more important things they could be doing with that money? I’m just saying.

– So I just read that Tony Stewart is set to announce (tomorrow) his plans to leave Joe Gibbs Racing and start his own team, taking over at Haas-CNC Racing. I guess this isn’t surprising, since people have been talking about it for a while now. It would be nice if one of these so-called rumors would actually not come true for once.

– Okay, so here’s the best piece of news today. Actor Brendan Fraser will be on hand for the Lifelock.com 400 at Chicagoland this weekend. He’ll be there to promote his upcoming movie The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (they’re really wringing the life out of that franchise, aren’t they?). Ryan Newman’s No. 12 Kodak Dodge Charger will carry a special paint scheme for the movie and Fraser will also serve as Grand Marshal for the race. He’ll be signing autographs, along with Ryan, at the No. 12 souvenir trailer at 1:30 p.m. CT. on Saturday.

Uhm, okay, I have sort of a small, tiny, wee crush on Mr. Fraser and I’m so disgustingly excited at the prospect of seeing him in person. Dare I ask a question at the press conference on Saturday? I’m not sure of what I should ask, it needs to be clever and smart and fabulous. If you can think of something let me know!

I must admit that I fell asleep watching the Best Buy 400 Benefiting Student Clubs for Autism Speaks. I accidentally took two Tylenol PMs instead of the regular Tylenol. Woopsie!

Anywhoo… I know I didn’t miss much. I was awake to see Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s chance at a win evaporate and that pretty much took the wind out of my sails. I woke up at the end managed to make out Kyle Bush’s figure in the winner’s circle. I rolled over and went back to sleep again.

So here’s something I’ve been thinking about, when I saw Kyle’s Combos paint scheme I was reminded of the conversation I had with Washington Post writer and author Liz Clarke. She felt that the constant changing of a guys paint scheme made it harder for people to care about the driver. I think she’s so right on and putting my feelings about Kyle aside I actually feel bad for him that he doesn’t have a consistent “brand” or “look” each weekend.

It’s annoying for his fans (all two of them) that they don’t have a particular color scheme to look for on the track. It’s frustrating. They need to pick a sponsor and stick with ‘em, M&M’s and that’s it! Or Hot Shot could sponsor him again, I think it’d be hilarious but so totally perfect for his persona.

Another reason this whole musical chairs o’ sponsors is bothersome to me is that there’s a guy like Travis Kvapil out there with all the talent in the world and some great runs to prove it and he’s got nothing on his car, while Kyle has been hawking a different product almost every week. Travis finished 11th on Sunday. Uhm, hello sponsors!?!!!

In other news…

– I’m proud to report that my older sister sat down and watched DALE: The Movie. This is huge because for the longest time my sister has been flabbergasted over my love for NASCAR. She loves me and supports me in everything that I’ve done but to her this whole NASCAR thing has been perplexing, although it’s not out of the ordinary for me. My sister and I have always been very different in terms of our interests. She was a star athlete in high school and college, while I was just an awesome spectator. She was the homecoming queen and I was not. She’s into R&B and hip hop and I’m into alternative and indie rock music.

Anyway, my point is that my sister watched the movie about Dale Earnhardt and now has a much better understanding of and appreciation for racing. It made my day to hear that she wanted to understand what I have been putting so much of my energy into for sometime now. So thank you, Mika! I love you.

Denny Hamlin celebrates his second victory and fifth top-10 finish in seven races at Dover International Speedway. (Photo Credit: Nick Laham/Getty Images)

A 10-car crash brought out the first caution of the Best Buy 400 Benefiting Student Clubs for Autism Speaks NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Dover International Speedway. The race red-flagged for 16 minutes and 13 seconds to clean up the track. (Photo Credit: Nick Laham/Getty Images)

:: This is part four in a series of four posts (to see all of the posts on one page, click here) ::

Me: I know you have that history with Dale Earnhardt, and I know covering his death must have been horrible. I know in the book you wrote that his death changed you in a lot of ways, so how did it change you exactly? And how did it change the way you cover the sport? Did it change the way you cover the sport?

Liz: Oh, that’s hard. Let me first say, I’m certainly I’m not remotely unique. I think I speak for honestly millions of people when I say his death changed me and affected me. I don’t at all pretend to say my loss or my grief was any greater than other fans or certainly his own crew and own family. But, ya know, there was no personality quite like him and the circumstance, just the notion that he could have been killed was impossible to accept. To your question itself, I just was inconsolably sad and it wasn’t just when I went to the race track that I felt the loss. I just felt like the most charismatic, complex, fun, entertaining person had been taken away. Whether I covered a race and he spoke to me or not or he made some joke aside, or if I just saw him from across the garage, I mean, everybody watched that black car, everybody watched him when he got in the car.  Ya know and he made you feel differently about yourself, he really did and I think every driver would tell you that. I mean he’d aggravate you or compliment you. I think sometimes when he ran you really hard that was his way of complimenting you.

There was one time they had built the track in Dallas, that awful first year of that race, and I was working for the Dallas Morning News and I was taking one of our metro columnists for a walk around the garage. He had never been to a race and I was trying to explain, ya know here’s the order that they park the cars and here’s what this means, be really careful ‘cause they’ll come in with their engines off and you won’t hear ‘em, ya know a lot of basics when you’re sort of showing somebody around. Earnhardt came around the corner in the car; he was in a practice session so they were in and out and in and out. And he whipped his car, hand to God, about two inches from my foot. Swung it right toward me, the guy next to me almost fainted. And I said, “Oh, he’s just saying hello.” And he was grinning and that was totally him. I’m not sure I talked to Dale that day but that’s the kind of stuff he would do. He’d do stuff like that to Schrader, Mark Martin. It was just his little way. It’s an aside, but the notion that he was gone; it was just a hole of blackness. This profound hole, it was like the sun was gone. It was just something so integral to way you saw the world was gone. I still feel that way, I still feel that way. I know Rusty Wallace feels that way, we’ve talked about it. It’s not something people talk about in racing too much. But I don’t think seven years has lessened it at all.

Me: Why do you think NASCAR was so slow, I guess is the word, to put in those mandatory safety features until after Dale Earnhardt’s death, especially the HANS device, especially after all of those incidents?

Liz: That’s really a shameful chapter in NASCAR’s history, and of course it’s easy to say in hindsight. From the day NASCAR started it was very clear that drivers were independent contractors. And what NASCAR meant by that is if you’re hurt we don’t owe you disability. You don’t work for us; you’re your own boss.  And you can come play in our sport but we’re not responsible for you, we have no liability for you and it was a really smart posture to take. And they really, I think for business reasons, wanted to hold on to that as long as they could. Therefore, ya know, with every rule you make about how you stay safe, if something goes wrong with that then you’re technically liable. I mean, on the HANS device I can sort of empathize with NASCAR’s choice to not make that mandatory because there were several drivers who felt very, very strongly that it would keep them from being able to get out of a burning car. And the prospect of being trapped in a burning car understandably is the worst scenario for a race car driver and the fuel cell solved a lot of that. But still drivers would say flat out if it’s a choice of breaking my neck and burning up I want to break my neck. There were drivers who didn’t want to do it and made clear they wouldn’t want to do it. Earnhardt would have been chief among them. He wouldn’t even wear a closed face helmet, again not because he was being a tough guy, but he really thought peripheral vision was his best safety device. And he felt a closed-face helmet limited his peripheral vision. So he had very personal, very strongly felt views about his safety and that that’s what kept him safe. A lot of drivers felt the HANS device was not a deal they wanted.

There’s also a tradition in all forms of racing that every fatal accident is a freak accident. That there’s nothing to be learned from it in terms of the race car or the track or the rules of the sport, whether that’s racing back to the caution. It doesn’t really warrant further study because it was a freak deal; it’s not going to happen again. It was only because this part on the car failed, or the weird convergence of events, it’s just a way of rationalizing it away and therefore no drivers or driver’s family really have to wonder “is this safe?” It’s sort of a way of coping and a way of doing business and those were really entrenched that you don’t make wholesale changes after one guy dies and then another guy dies and then Earnhardt was the fourth in 11 months, I’m pretty sure.

Me: So do you think the whole idea of a drivers association, kind of like the NBA has and the NFL has, could ever happen in NASCAR?

Liz: I don’t think it will ever happen in NASCAR and I regret that. I think there’s a lot of use for the drivers on certain occasions speaking as one, having a representative. And they’ll tell you that that happens now that it’s ad hoc. They go in and speak to Mike Helton and Robin on matters of concern and I know that does happen. But I just like level playing fields and in NASCAR for all the bravery the drivers have, they’re not represented in the decision making, to me, to the extent they should be. I would love to see a drivers association with somebody like Jeff Burton be the head of it for the first couple years. He’s just so well spoken and reasoned and really smart about what’s in NASCAR’s interest, what’s in the driver’s interest, he’s not emotional. And I know there are other guys, I mean, Mark Martin would be perfect for that. It’s really only rarely have drivers sought that. It’s been a long time, it’s been seven years since I’ve even heard it discussed.