I’m glad that Kasey Kahne won the Coca-Cola 600. It’s a great boost for him and his team and Gillett Evernham Motorsports (GEM — truly, truly outrageous!). I didn’t think it was going to happen since Tony Stewart had that commanding lead at the end, but his misfortune was Kasey’s good luck.
About the photo of Kasey to the left: I seriously challenge him to take a horrible picture! He’s not even trying for gosh sakes.
I have to give NASCAR kudos for all of the pre-race festivities involving the troops. I got all teary-eyed when the trumpeter played Taps and I got chills from the bagpipes playing “Amazing Grace.”
But here’s where I got irked during the pre-race show. During the Gas ‘N Go segment where Darrell Waltrip and Jeff Hammond answer quick fire questions asked by Chris Myers. They failed to include a question about the swapping of the deck chairs on the titanic that has been Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates.
Why oh why did they not talk about Jimmy Elledge’s firing, after he had been moved from Reed Sorenson’s team over to the crew chief position for Juan Pablo Montoya? That’s interesting. That’s something about which I’m actually curious to know DW’s opinion. What I’m not concerned with is the obvious fact that there’s no way that NBA star Yao Ming could fit into a race car.
Ya know, for a moment there when I heard about the crew chief swap at Gnassi and Juan Pablo’s frustrations that I actually felt for the guy, but then I read this exchange between him and Associated Press writer Jenna Fryer and I all of that went out the window:
Q: They call last weekend the biggest weekend in racing. Monaco, Indianapolis and the Coca-Cola 600 — of all three, which do you think is the biggest?
JPM: Um, the one I’m in.
Q: Do you mean the one you are in now (NASCAR), or the one you are in that particular year?
JPM: Both. I don’t know. As a show for the fans, the best one is this one. As far as tradition, the other ones have a lot of tradition. In Europe, the Monaco Grand Prix is a big deal. I think it’s such a big deal because it’s the only street course Formula One does. The other races you can actually see cars hitting walls and screwing up. I guess people like that.
Q: Which victory did you prefer, Monaco or Indy?
JPM: Don’t put me in that position.
Q: Why?
JPM: I am not going to answer that. You know what the answer is, so don’t ask it.
Q: I don’t know the answer. That’s why I asked the question.
JPM: Next question.
Q: I’ve got nothing else.
JPM: Good.
Why is this guy such a tool?? Okay, I actually do feel for him in terms of the crew chief situation and everything, but I still maintain that he’s got an icky, egotastic attitude.
Yao Ming (L) talks with Kyle Petty (R) prior to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 on May 25, 2008 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
Joey Logano addresses the media during a news conference to celebrate his 18th birthday. Logano will make his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut next week at Dover International Speedway. (Photo Credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Denny Hamlin, driver of the #20 Z-Line Designs Toyota (L), and Brad Keselowski, driver of the #88 NAVY Chevrolet, speak to the media in a press conference following the NASCAR Nationwide Series CARQUEST Auto Parts 300 on May 24, 2008 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
Travis Kvapil, driver of the #28 Lumber Liquidators Ford, sits in his car during qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 on May 22, 2008 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. (Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)
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I still don’t have the SPEED channel and therefore won’t be able to watch the NASCAR All-Star event. Yes, I know it’s shameful and sad but for as many reasons that I have to justify the cost of having the channel I really don’t want to pay all that extra dough to move up to the channel plan I would need just to get one extra channel. I say bring on a la carte pricing!
Anyway, as soon as I move I’ll be sure to get DirecTV and I can avoid using those price gougers at Comcast.
So, yeah no All-Star festivities for me this weekend but I did vote for the drivers I want to see in the All-Star race on Sunday night. The All-Star Fan Vote has been going on since April and you have until this Saturday at 7pm to submit your vote. You can do it online by going to NASCAR.com or by texting the word “NASCAR” to 7777 on your Sprint phone. I highly recommend voting for Travis Kvapil, David Gilliland, Kasey Kahne, Michael Waltrip or J.J. Yeley. Since these guys are amongst the drivers that don’t have a spot locked in, they’ll have to either race their way in from the Sprint Showdown or be voted in by the Fan Vote.
In other All-Star news…
– Dale Jarrett will be at Lowe’s Motor Speedway for the last All-Star race of his career. They’re making the occasion extra special by introducing Dale last during driver introductions and instead of sitting in the back of a Toyota Tundra, like the other drivers, to wave to the fans around the track he’ll be driving (finally!) the UPS Big Brown Truck. Sounds like it’ll be a really cool send off.
– The first ever NASCAR Day telethon is set for tomorrow at the Sam Bass Gallery in Concord, North Carolina. Various Sprint Cup drivers including Casey Mears and Brian Vickers will be on hand to field calls for donations. Call 1-888-MAY16TH (1-888-629-1684). SIRIUS Satellite Radio will be broadcasting from the telethon all day starting at 7 a.m. and SPEED will be cutting in and out throughout the day as well.
– On Sunday the rear panel for Carl Edwards’ No. 99 Office Depot Ford will carry a super cool message from the winner of the Harlequin & Office Depot “Say Yes to a Winning Proposal” contest. I’m soooo excited to find out who the lucky couple is and I hope someone produces some kick butt reaction photos of the soon-to-be bride. They’re unveiling the winning proposal tomorrow, so I’ll see what I can see, but be on the lookout for Carl’s car on Saturday.
– Tony Stewart and Greg Biffle spent some quality time together this week while helping to build a KaBOOM! playground (in one day!) for Elon Homes for Children in Charlotte. Think they talked about swapping rides next year??
Tony Stewart, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver of the #20 Home Depot Racing car & two-time Series Champion and Greg Biffle, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver of the #16 3M Racing car help build a build a racing-themed playground in just one day at Elon Homes for Children (Photo Credit: CIA for KaBOOM)
Jeff Gordon was on hand for the Monster Monument dedication ceremony at Dover International Speedway today. I bring this up to point out Jeff’s surprisingly muscular arms (who knew?) and to talk about the place of his birth.
Jeff was born in Vallejo, California which is situated about 20-something miles away from where I’m sitting right this very minute. As a native of the San Francisco Bay Area, I’m pretty sure Jeff is the greatest thing to ever come out of Vallejo in its entire history of existence (and if I’m wrong, I’m sure someone will point that out), unless you count Marine World, which I don’t. There isn’t much to do there, it’s just a city with houses and people and schools and what not.
But anyway the point is that the city of Vallejo has been going through some financial woes as of late and is on the brink of declaring bankruptcy. They’re in the hole about $16 million. You think he could write ‘em a check?
In other news…
The fabulous people at Nationwide — title sponsors of the NASCAR Nationwide Series — sent over a press release featuring the post-race interviews with the top-three drivers from the Diamond Hill Plywood 200 at Darlington Raceway on Friday. There was one exchange between Tony Stewart and Dave Rogers, his Nationwide Series crew chief, that was particularly funny (for audio go here):
The Joe Gibbs number 20 team is easily leading the Owners’ standings again after winning six of the year’s 12 races and they have done that with three different drivers, Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin. After last Friday night’s win, Tony was doing the post race interview when someone asked who chief Dave Rogers thought was the best driver among those three, would want in that car. Before Rogers could answer Tony jumped in:
Stewart:
How many races have you won this year?
“Six”
How many have I won?
“Four”
Well that’s easy to figure out. I thought you guys were smart. Obviously there are no math majors in the group. See, I am just keeping him from getting himself in a box. I don’t care those guys can come tell me they are better than me all day long. Just like AJ Foyt said, “all you got to do is check the record books big boy.”
It was a super sweet moment seeing the group of NASCAR moms standing the track telling their son’s to start their engines.
With that said though it sucks that Kurt and Kyle Busch’s mom had to take on the fans booing her son. It’s one thing to boo Kyle but not when his mom is being honored for Mother’s Day. That’s really lame.
Kurt (left) and Kyle (right) help their mother Gaye (center) off of the stage before the Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington Raceway (Photo Credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Brian and Ramona Vickers leave the stage before the Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington Raceway (Photo Credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Ryan Newman and his mother Diane take part in driver introductions before the Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington Raceway (Photo Credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Everytime I see Kasey’s mom, Tammy, I’m always in awe of the fact that she looks like she could be his sister and I don’t mean that in an Eddie Haskell kind of way either. She looks great.
Tammy Kahne and her son Kasey wave to the Darlington Raceway crowd before the Dodge Challenger 500 (Photo Credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Elliott Sadler follows his mother Bell off of the stage before the Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington Raceway (Photo Credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Reed and mother Becky Sorenson salute the crowd before the Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington Raceway (Photo Credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Tony Stewart and his mother, Pam Boas, wave to the Darlington Raceway crowd during driver introductions for the Dodge Challenger 500 (Photo Credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Dale Jr’s mom, Brenda, wins for best outfit, I would totally go out and buy this entire ensemble. And I’m not just saying that ’cause she’s the mother of my favorite driver. Seriously, it’s a great look. 
Dale Earnhardt Jr. follows his mother, Brenda Jackson, off of the stage before the Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington Raceway (Photo Credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Carol Mears follows her son Casey off of the stage before the Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington Raceway (Photo Credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Carol Bickford and her son, Jeff Gordon, waves at the crowd at Darlington Raceway, where Gordon has won seven NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races (Photo Credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)
The winner of the Wave the Green Flag contest, Betty Easley, received an all-expense-paid travel package to the Dodge Challenger 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Darlington Raceway over Mother’s Day weekend (Photo Credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Tony Stewart won the Nationwide Series race at Talladega on Saturday and I’m starting off with him because this photo is too adorable. Plus Tony has been the subject of a ton of talk and speculation about if he’s going to stay with Joe Gibbs Racing when his contract is up. I for one have no idea anything is possible. I think we should all forget about Silly Season, ’cause Silly Season is all year long these days.
About the race on Sunday: You know I’m not happy, so I’m not even going to pretend. As the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega began, I decided that Talladega couldn’t be my favorite race track. You would think that it would be since Dale Earnhardt Jr. has won there 5 times in his career so far, but that doesn’t seem to help.
The tension, apprehension and anxiety I feel watching it are so overwhelming I can’t stand it. I’m so afraid of something going wrong that it kind of takes the fun out of it for me. The anticipation of “The Big One” happening at any moment is so nerve-racking. Okay, I’m making it sound a little worse than it really is, but not by much. Don’t get me wrong I think the races at Talladega are awesome; they’re some of the best in the schedule. But it’s been two freaking years since Dale won a race and I can’t freaking take it anymore.
So Kyle Busch won the race and at the end I was basically begging for anyone to win the race but him. No such luck. I thought the crowd’s reaction as Kyle crossed the finish line was pretty telling. You could hear a pin drop it was so quiet. During the race when Dale Jr. surged to the front to lead the race for the first time the crowd was cheering like he had already won. People were standing, waving their hats like crazy. Kyle Busch ends up winning and you’d think everybody was waiting for the opening ceremony to start.
Oh and hey Fox Sports don’t think I didn’t notice that you cut to a commercial when there were only 4 laps left in the race. That’s 10 demerits!
My guilty pleasure is to take a look at the daily celebrity photo galleries from People.com and today (like everyday before it) there was a photo of David Beckham and his wife Victoria (aka Posh Spice of Spice Girls fame) leaving the popular Los Angeles restaurant Pink Taco. The soccer star hottie was there with the family to celebrate his wife’s birthday.
So here’s why I’m talking about this, in the photos two of the Beckham’s children, 9-year-old Brooklyn and 5-year-old Romeo, are holding what I think is a die cast car of Tony Stewart’s No. 20 Home Depot Chevy.
I hope this means they’re NASCAR fans, I think that’d be really cool. I’m just sayin’.
