And so begins the television coverage of NASCAR from the fine folks at TNT. I really wish NASCAR could just be on one channel. One. Uno. But what can ya do right?

So TNT excitedly announced their new RaceBuddy feature on NASCAR.com, I didn’t bother to check it out — at least not yet — but the image that kept jumping to mind every time they mentioned it during Sunday’s race was the doll My Buddy from the 80s. I keep singing the theme song to myself “My Buddy, My Buddy, My Buddy, My Buddy and Meeeeeee!” and then I followed it up with “Kid Sister, Kid Sister, Kid Sister, Kid Sister and Meeeeeeee!” Bonus points to you if you remember My Buddy and Kid Sister and triple quadruple points if you actually had one!

Brad Keselowski, how can you not be happy for this guy? He raced his butt off and got his first NASCAR Nationwide Series win ever and I couldn’t be more excited for him and the Navy team. You could see the genuine relief and happiness in his eyes after the race. It was just so cool that his mom and dad were there. Those are my absolutely favorite moments in sports in general. Getting to see the family that has been with these guys from the beginning and getting to see them sharing that moment when they have their first taste of success, that’s pretty awesome. It’s another one of the million reasons why I’m so anxious for the Olympics to start.

Furthermore, didn’t it suck that Dale Earnhardt Jr. wasn’t there to be with his team for their first win? He didn’t even get to see it live on TV. DirecTV had a blackout and so for the last ten laps he had a friend relay the information to him online. Crazy.

Ok, so the Cup race at Pocono. Speaking of Dale Jr. what was up with him during his post race interview? I know that he’s not a super talkative guy after the races in general but that was less that usual. I’m sure it had to do with the heat, and it seems like all of the guys were feeling the affects of it after the race, except for Jimmie Johson who said he was totally fine. Right.

Kasey Kahne won another race and that’s great for him. I’m still miffed about the lack of attention that the Yates Racing guys have received. I want them to get a friggin’ top 5 finish so bad just so the media will have to talk about them for longer than 10 seconds.

In other news…

– Speaking of Yates Racing, both of their drivers will be here in the Bay Area tomorrow for testing at Infineon. I will be there too, taking pictures of whatever I can see. Hopefully something will be going on while I’m there, I won’t be able to stay the whole day.

– David Ragan will be on an episode of “Lawrence of America” on the Travel Channel tomorrow (June 10th) at 11pm EST. Check your local listings. “It was fun filming the show with Lawrence last fall,” said Ragan. “I think he learned a lot and it will be a great way to hopefully introduce the sport to some new fans to the sport. We had a good time at the go-kart track, but next time we’ll go the big track and see how he does.”

– There’s still plenty of time to enter the contest for a free copy of the NASCAR Full Throttle Adrenaline DVD set.

– I don’t know what it is about Brian Vickers but every time I hear him speak I’m surprised by his southern accent. It’s like I forget that he has one every time I see him. It’s cute though, I like accents. There’s no big point to this, I’m just over sharing.

Brian Vickers finished second in the Pocono 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway, moving up two spots to 17th in driver standings (Photo Credit: Chris Trotman/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Mark Martin qualified third-fastest for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway, where he’s finished second six times. (Photo Credit: Chris Trotman/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Fellow Ford drivers, Jamie McMurray and David Gilliland, talk about their cars during a break in Saturday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice at Pocono Raceway (Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Elliott Sadler share a laugh in the garage during Friday’s practice at Pocono Raceway (Photo Credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)

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Today has been hectic for moi. I officially moved into my new apartment and I’m so tired I could… well… go to sleep.

As far as NASCAR goes, here’s what I know:

1.) Elliott Sadler is sticking with GEM
2.) Jeff Gordon is sticking with DuPont
3.) Every time I think of Elliott Sadler I can’t help but think of E.T. saying “Elllliiiiioooottt”

I’m off to put a bedskirt on. Oh! But one more thing, I was thinking about this the other night. So crew chief Jimmy Elledge was fired from Chip Ganassi Racing, but he’s married to Kelley Earnhardt Elledge who basically runs anything that her brother, Dale Earnhardt Jr., is doing, so do you think he’ll get a job over at JR Motorsports?

Here are some photos from the testing sessions at Pocono this week:

They’re installing my dish tomorrow! Yay!

Clint Bowyer waits to get in his car during NASCAR Sprint Cup Series testing at Pocono Raceway. (Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)

David Gilliland turned the fastest lap of the day on Tuesday (54.742 seconds) during NASCAR Sprint Cup Series testing at Pocono Raceway. (Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Marcos Ambrose helps his No. 47 crew by working on his tires on Wednesday during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series test at Pocono Raceway. (Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)

They’ve got great genes in that Labonte family.

Two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Terry Labonte tests the No. 45 Petty Enterprises Dodge during NASCAR Sprint Cup Series testing at Pocono Raceway on Wednesday (Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Dario Franchitti reviews data during NASCAR Sprint Cup Series testing at Pocono Raceway. (Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Martin Truex Jr. meets the media during NASCAR Sprint Cup Series testing at Pocono Raceway on Wednesday (Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)

I don’t know what is up with Jimmie’s hair but let’s just hope he’s “in between styles” right now.

Jimmie Johnson talks with the media during NASCAR Sprint Cup Series testing at Pocono Raceway. (Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)

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.

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.

This whole Red Sox-Yankees game rain delay situation is pissing me off even more now than it did on Saturday. Why? Because people are trying to make it seem like us race fans shouldn’t be mad because Fox Sports was “trying” to keep everybody happy. I don’t care, the situation was obvious and simple to resolve. And for the record this has nothing to do with liking or not liking baseball, so people should take that out of the equation. The game had been on a rain delay for 2 hours! They had 2 hours to move the game over to FX and continue coverage from there. Sorry Fox Sports, you’re not getting a mulligan from me on this one, you f’ed up and that’s the bottom line.

To add insult to injury Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn’t win the race, and while I’m happy for Hendrick Motorsports getting their first win of the season with Jimmie Johnson, it’s still lame. For me seeing Johnson win is one of the most boring things to watch. If anyone had any doubts that Jimmie would win a race this season they had to be on something because you knew it would happen it was just a matter of when and I’m sure it’ll happen again. I don’t dislike Jimmie at all. I think he’s a nice guy and a great driver (and I do love that Lowe’s commercial where he fixes everything in sight) but I personally don’t get excited when he or Jeff Gordon wins. They’ve done so much of it I want to see someone else and I’m not talking about just Dale Jr. If the guys from Yates Racing could pull something out that’d be total insanity and I’d love it. Or if Clint Bowyer and Casey Mears could make another appearance in Victory Lane I’d be ecstatic.

In other housekeeping news…

– There’s still time to enter the contest, I’m extending the deadline to this Friday the 18th, for the Daytona 500: 50 Years of the “Great American Race” 2-Disc DVD set. Enter the contest right now! The contest is over!

– I’ve added a NASCAR YouTube Videos page to the site for extra cool content from around the web.

– Also, if you haven’t done so yet or are new to this site take a second to fill out my visitor survey!

Ok, so I’m really excited about this. I was given a copy of the new 2-disc DVD set Daytona 500: 50 Years of the “Great American Race.”

I watched it last night and it gives you some really cool insight into the history, legacy and champions of the Daytona 500, NASCAR’s biggest and most significant race as we all know. The first disc is an interactive experience that allows you to watch this year’s Daytona 500 from the driver’s perspective. It’s pretty trippy to feel like you’re in the car with them. The featured drivers include Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and of course the race winner Ryan Newman. You get to hear the team radio communications and you also have the option of switching to the broadcast coverage as well.

The second disc gives you a round table discussion (or square table as Michael Waltrip put it) with past Daytona 500 winners like David Pearson, Junior Johnson and Mario Andretti to name a few. The conversation is great and full of little interesting anecdotes, plus great footage from the archives of the race’s history. Oh and I just want to say that it’s pretty uncanny how much IndyCar driver Marco Andretti looks like his grandfather Mario when he was in his twenties. But I digress. The second disc also features some interviews with drivers from today including Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick.

I highly recommend this DVD set to anyone that is a serious NASCAR fan. It’s a cool way to experience the race all over again. This DVD set is available for purchase online and you can also win a copy of the set from me! I was given an extra copy to give away to one of my awesome readers! Click here to enter the contest. The contest is over! Thanks!

The 50th running of the Daytona 500 is one of NASCAR®’s most unforgettable and highly-anticipated milestone events. Already the most prestigious race in motorsports, this landmark running is sure to be remembered and cherished by millions of race fans. On April 15, join A&E Home Video and NASCAR® Collections to celebrate the golden anniversary of “The Great American Race™” with DAYTONA 500: THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY, a highly-collectible 2-DVD set that puts fans in the driver’s seat like never before! Available just weeks after the 50th Daytona® 500 (February 17), this is THE official NASCAR® collectible of this historic race.

As part of DAYTONA® 500: THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY, the 2008 Daytona 500 will be presented in the ground-breaking “My Race” Interactive DVD format. This innovative user experience allows fans to choose the view of the race from six different driver perspectives plus the main broadcast feed, along with driver and announcer audio feeds — putting them right in the middle of the action. The second disc features the great stories and heroes that have defined the Daytona 500 through two exclusive NASCAR® programs: “A Sports Century” features a dynamic roundtable discussion of the moments and personalities that defined Daytona with a host and panel of NASCAR® experts including Richard Petty and Jeff Gordon, while “The Top 50 Daytona® 500 Moments” is the definitive telling of the story of NASCAR®’s Greatest single greatest event. Additional DVD extras include official NASCAR® PC wallpapers and time-lapse screensavers.

With a history of legend-defining and myth-making spectaculars, the Daytona® 500 winners circle has embraced NASCAR® heroes including: Richard Petty, Mario Andretti, Jeff Gordon, and Dale Earnhardt Senior and Junior. And DAYTONA® 500: THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY, an unprecedented and revolutionary DVD release, only adds to the legend of NASCAR®’s biggest race of the year.