Due to the Writers Guild strike in Hollywood Rusty Wallace will not be able to continue his NASCAR race coverage duties… Hold on, someone is handing me a note.

You mean he actually writes that stuff himself? Huh? Oh, he just says whatever comes to mind? Damn. Oh well, I must correct myself, it looks like Rusty will still be on air this weekend. Grr… I won’t get to watch new episodes of “House” but I have to watch Rusty Wallace repeat things that other people just said?? What kind of world are we living in? I mean really.

In other news…

– I’m on my way to Las Vegas for the Blog World & New Media Expo. There’s heavy fog in the San Francisco Bay Area so my flight is late, that still can’t dampen my spirit. I’m sooo excited to be spending three nights in Vegas, and hopefully meeting other cool bloggers.

– I was sent an email alerting me to a video about a guy that races cars in his spare time. It was sent to me by the nice folks at IntoTheBox.tv — they cover the wacky real estate market in New York — check it out below or click this link. My first and lasting thought about this video was “Wow, he’s hot… hmm, is he single? I don’t see a ring!” hehe.

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Now it’s just getting ridiculous. All of the things that can go wrong for Dale Jr. do go wrong for him it seems lately. Sunday I went to the Bridge School Benefit in Mountain View, Calif. John Mayer was performing so I had to skip watching the race live and rely on Tivo to catch the action of the race at Atlanta for me. I left the show immediately following Mayer’s performance to make sure I had enough time to zip through my recording of the race. Tivo makes it so tempting to skip everything and just get to the end but I wanted to make sure I caught all the accidents & incidents as they happened.

I was so excited, I mean there were only 3 laps left and he was this freaking close to winning it and then the wheel falls off?? Ugh. So lame. And poor Martin Truex Jr. getting caught behind Denny Hamlin and his watered down gas issue. This season is really starting to bug me. And if that’s not enough I tried to watch the Busch race on Saturday and I had to be subjected to Rusty Wallace. Why can’t they let Allen Bestwick do the Busch races??

Ya know I seriously contemplated creating a petition to get Rusty off the air, but I don’t know… is that mean?

Maybe it should be an all encompassing make NASCAR toss out their deal with ESPN petition?

Anywhoo… In other news…

– Next week I travel to my favorite place Las Vegas for the Blog World & New Media Expo. I am beyond excited. Is anyone else planning on attending? Any of my fellow sports bloggers?? Anyone? Anyone?

You be the judge, is this Kasey Kahne or Carl Edwards? The caption I have says it’s Kasey, but the uniform says Office Depot — which leads me to believe it’s Carl… What do you think?

Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the #8 Budweiser Chevrolet, stands in the garage, during practice for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Pepboys Auto 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on October 27, 2007 in Hampton, Georgia. (Photo by Marc Serota/Getty Images)

I have never been this frustrated with caution flags. Martinsville was un-real. I hated the way it ended. I was really hoping that Ryan Newman would be able to pass up Jimmie Johnson, but again a win for him was thwarted by the Hendrick powerhouse and those friggin’ cautions.

I could say how disappointed I was to know that engine problems are what screwed Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the millionth time, but really what’s the point? I don’t think I’ve ever looked forward to the end of a NASCAR season as much as I have this one. I just want to get to Daytona (in person!) and see Dale in his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy and let the winning begin! I’m so done with this season it’s crazy. I say that but at the same time I hold out the hope that he’ll still win a race before this year is over.

Is it just me or did they make the pre-race show shorter?? I’m not sure ’cause I only caught the last 10 minutes, which — thankfully — only consisted of the national anthem and the call to start the engines.

I was excited to read that Rusty Wallace was getting the axe but apparently it’s not actually going to happen. I started thinking about my fantasy race coverage crew. It goes like this, Allen Bestwick and Wally Dallenbach would do the pre-race stuff. The pre-race show would feature actual semi-in-depth interviews that were taped during the week before the race. Ya know kinda like how they do with the NFL. Darrell Waltrip, Larry McReynolds and Mike Joy would call the race (as they do now on FOX) and the pit reporters would be Dave Burns, Steve Byrnes, Dick Berggren and Matt Yocum. Ah, if only! What do you think? Good? No good?

Mike Skinner, driver of the #5 Toyota Tundra Toyota, kisses his wife, Angela after winning the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Kroger 200 at Martinsville Speedway on October 20, 2007 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Clint Bowyer, driver of the #07 Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet, watches during qualifying for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway on October 19, 2007 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

Clint Bowyer, driver of the #07 Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet, drives in the garage area, during practice for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway on October 19, 2007 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

Denny Hamlin is all smiles during qualifying for the Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway (Photo Credit: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

Jeff Gordon, driver of the #24 DuPont Chevrolet, walks in the garage area, during practice for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway on October 19, 2007 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

Sunday’s race at Talladega was everything you’d expect from a race at Talladega, three-wide side-by-side racing and of course the “big one” (for those of you not in the know, the “big one” is the big crash the wipes out a bunch of cars at once). The moment Dale Earnhardt Jr. took the lead I was so hopeful that he would be able to hold on to the lead and finally win one this season. And then his engine blew up which seemed to signal the beginning of the end for the DEI-RCR engines. I was in utter disbelief and I still am because that race was his, it was right there and then poof!

So at this point I’m sure any and every Dale Jr. fan is just counting down the days until he makes his debut with Hendrick Motorsports next year. All of the Hendrick cars did well at Talladega, except for Kyle Busch who’s crappy outlook on things before the race are — I’m sure of it — what helped lead to his involvement in the wreck that took him out.

Oddly enough I was actually happy with Jeff Gordon’s win, I’m usually more interested in seeing a fresh face win, but he made it interesting at the end between him and Jimmie Johnson. For that I am appreciative.

The thing I was most excited about was seeing Michael Waltrip on the pole and running up front. I miss that guy, he’s a great character and NASCAR needs guys like him. He keeps it fun and interesting. It looks like things are looking up for Michael Waltrip Racing and I look forward to seeing that team win a race.

I didn’t watch the race live because I was out checking out apartments for my upcoming move. I caught the entire race on Tivo and I am almost tempted to make this the standard for the rest of the races this season. Why? Because it’s so nice to be able to bypass all the lame commentary by the ESPN on ABC crew. I put being able to skip over Rusty Wallace’s comments above being able to skip commercials, and that’s seriously saying something, especially when I’m beginning to tire of the seeing the same Allstate girls ads over and over.

In other news…

I’m still on the hunt for sponsors for my 2008 NASCAR project and I sent a letter to American Airlines to see if they’d be interested. I got a phone call from them last week and I was told that they don’t sponsor “dangerous sports” because they don’t want to be associated with things where people can crash. I just thought that was kind of funny but at the same time it makes sense, I guess, to not want people to associate crashing with planes.

Ella is a little cutie, and I love her itty bitty sandals.

Jeff Gordon, driver of the #24 Dupont/Pepsi Chevrolet, holds his daughter Ella Sophia, as his wife Ingrid looks on, in victory lane after Gordon won the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series UAW-Ford 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 7, 2007 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Jeff Gordon (right) celebrates inside Victory Lane with daughter Ella (center) and team owner Rick Hendrick (left) after winning the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway on Oct. 7. (Hendrick Motorsports/Autostock)

Crew members of the #48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, driven by Jimmie Johnson, congratulate the crew members of the #24 Dupont/Pepsi Chevrolet, driven by teammate Jeff Gordon, after winning the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series UAW-Ford 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 7, 2007 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR)

All the hoopla and then in the end nothing really happened.

Jacques Villeneuve was the center of media attention after qualifying for Sunday’s UAW-Ford 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Villeneuve qualified 6th. (Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Crew Chief Tony Eury, Jr. talks to his driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr. before practice at Talladega Superspeedway. (Photo Credit: Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Anger is such a great motivator, so good that it has spurred me on to write this post this morning instead of waiting until later in the day. So Fast and Fabulous fans, you have a certain day job to thank for this wonderful Monday morning race rehash.

I was happy to see Carl Edwards win yesterday, but not nearly as happy as I would have been had Dale Earnhardt Jr. been able to take it away from him. Oh well, there’s always next week. It still amazes me that Carl can do those flips so well, it’s not like he’s a 5 foot gymnast. He’s like 6 feet tallk and built. *sigh* Uhm… where was I? Oh yea, so Carl won and that was cool, yet another not-exactly-expected win for this year’s Chase.

Please tell me I’m not the only won that’s tired of the ABC/ESPN race coverage? Seriously? Please! I don’t know what it is, but they just don’t compare to the Fox crew. The commenting is just so herky-jerky and lame. I’m not digging it all. I’m sure Rusty Wallace is a very nice person, but I can’t take it. I just can’t take it! Oh look — I’m not the only one! Oh and what was up with that montage of Dale Jr. fans talking about how they’d follow him wherever? I think we can file that in the “duh” file, ya know that’s why they’re his fans, because they LIKE HIM! gah!

Last night when I was trying to go to bed I was thinking about reasons why it may be hard for people to understand the appeal of NASCAR. I think it has something to do with the fact that in other sports like football, baseball or basketball it’s easy to see the emotions on the players’ faces and in their physical demeanor. In NASCAR we can’t see anything, the drivers are enclosed in their cars so it’s not until they get out of their car at the end do we really know how much it all meant to them or everything they were trying to do to win. You can hear it over the radio but still, when you’re watching on TV you don’t always get that.

One of the biggest reasons why I love football is of course for the physicality of it all. I love seeing a guy get knocked or catch a sweet touchdown pass. In NASCAR it’s just isn’t as obvious, but of course that doesn’t mean that it’s not there, you just have to look for it. And that’s what I’m always looking for. I want to see the emotion, the importance of it all. Before the race the drivers are always the saying the same thing but it’s not until they’re in the heat of the battle that the claws come out. Which is why I was excited to see Kyle Petty (one of the coolest “good guys” if there ever was one) get pissed and try to smack Denny Hamlin around after Denny wrecked him. That was good to see. I need to know that you still want it, that you really do care about all this, and that even though your team is kinda lame you’re still striving to stay in this game. I know that that’s a given that they race because they love it and want to be the best but I like to be reminded.

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend.

I gotta thank everyone that has left comments and/or emailed me regarding my last post about my plans for next year. I really appreciate it. It’s very encouraging to me and it lets me know that I’m on the right path with this. It’s my favorite thing to think about these days. I relish the thought of getting to be at the track every week and possibly getting to meet all the people that read my blog. Wouldn’t that be cool?

Ah, ok, so enough of that — for now — I have to talk about Bristol and how boring the race was. I’m not afraid to admit that I did in fact fall asleep during this race. I woke up in time to find out that Carl Edwards had won and that Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 5th. It sucks that we can’t enjoy that 5th place finish more because of this whole Chase stuff.

More than anything I want that guy in the Chase but it won’t be the end of the world if he doesn’t make it. I want that guy to win a friggin’ race. Gah! I am happy that Clint Bowyer looks to be set for the Chase and I really want him to succeed — and win a race too! Those two guys are so due for one it’s ridiculous.

I think someone needs to sit down with the folks at ESPN and talk to them about their race coverage. It’s getting to the point now where I don’t even want to watch the pre-race show. I mute them! They’re killin’ me! Too much stuff is repeated. I couldn’t believe they actually had analysis on Junior’s motives for not wanting people to talk smack about his step-mother. Could it just be that he’s a nice guy? And that people calling her names isn’t going to change anything?

I usually long for Darrell Waltrip after Fox’s NASCAR coverage is over, but I’m going through some serious DW withdrawal right now. There’s nobody like him and Rusty Wallace makes me roll my eyes like fifty-million times throughout the race. Maybe he’s just trying to hard, I dunno.

And now for some photo fun:

A sky diver holds an American flag as he descends into Bristol Motor Speedway prior to the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Sharpie 500 on August 25, 2007 in Bristol, Tennessee. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

Do you think Jack is happy??

(Photo by John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson (left) and Casey Mears (right) talk out on pit road prior to the start of the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Aug. 25. (Hendrick Motorsports/Autostock)

Finally a sponsor that matches the driver…

Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 5 Hot Shot Chevrolet, out on pit road during NASCAR Busch Series driver introductions at Bristol Motor Speedway on Aug. 24. (Hendrick Motorsports/Autostock)