I have a new contest to share with you and this time you have the opportunity to win an actual piece of a NASCAR race. For the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway back on April 26th of this year Jeff Gordon’s No. 24 DuPont/Pepsi Throwback Challenger Chevrolet sported Darrell Waltrip’s championship winning 1983 yellow Pepsi Challenger paint scheme. The retro paint scheme celebrated Pepsi Throwback, limited time only products inspired by the ’60s and ’70s that are sweetened with natural sugar in a retro-look package.
Jeff didn’t win the race, he got caught up in one of the infamous Talladega “big one” crashes, but in this particular instance that’s sort of a good thing for you because I get to giveaway to one lucky Fast and Fabulous reader actual pieces of Jeff’s car from that very race. This is the part where you say “ooooooh!”
I suggest checking out the Pepsi Throwback site for very cool retro wallpapers, photos and videos to “Throwback” your blog or Twitter page.
The Talladega Pepsi Throwback prize package includes the following:
- Lug nut from the tires of the #24 car used during the race
- Throwback t-shirt featuring both Darrell Waltrip’s #11 Pepsi Challenger and Jeff Gordon’s #24 Pepsi Challenger
- 2′x 2′ framed metal pieces of Jeff Gordon’s #24 DuPont/Pepsi Throwback Challenger, which crashed in spectacular fashion on Lap 7 of the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway on April 26th.
- Pepsi Throwback drinks
Enter Now! Contest ends on Friday June 19, 2009
So that was quite a memorable Memorial Day weekend. Early Sunday morning I caught the very end of the Monaco Grand Prix, the winner of which was Jenson Button. After hearing his name I couldn’t help but think of the movie “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and how much I’ve always wanted to go to Monaco. Then I started thinking about how cool it would be to travel around the world to cover Formula 1 racing. I think that’s the one aspect of Formula 1 racing I like the best. I know men drool over the cars and all that but it just seems really boring to me. The cars are ginormous and the field always seems to be spread out. NASCAR just offers more… action. Anway, one thing I can say about Jenson is that his 
XO – Valli
That was the goal right? 
That subject line has absolutely nothing to do with this post but it’s been running through my head for the past 5 days so I had to use it. Thanks a lot 
Congratulations to Jeff Gordon for winning the Samsung 500 last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway! 
Ya know, like actual racing with passing and everything. 
– Clint Bowyer will appear on the March 24th episode of NBC’s “The Biggest Loser.” Isn’t it interesting that the guy that is sponsored by Hamburger Helper is guest starring on a non-reality-reality weight-loss game show? I don’t remember HH being billed as the healthiest thing you could make for dinner. 
– Tony Stewart will be meeting fans and signing autographs as a part of the 5th Annual “Mark Martin Fan Appreciation Days” event in Batesville, Arkansas on Thursday, April 9th from 3 to 5pm CST. For more information go to 
Racing and all that is all good but here’s what I really want to talk about: Dale Earnhart Jr.’s ex-girlfriend is on the current season of America’s Next Top Model. Her name is Kortnie, she’s 24 and 
I hovered outside the drivers meeting room to get photos. While doing that I spotted Cody, the PR guy for Kyle Busch. I introduced myself to him not to ask him if I could interview Kyle, but to ask him if he knew that he had fans. Now you’re probably wondering how a PR guy can have his own set of fans but it’s totally possible. Anytime you see Kyle on TV walking through the garage to things like driver intros or to his appearances Cody is always by his side. Plus he’s a young guy who happens to be pretty good looking. So it’s understandable that there would be people out there, people who asked me to ask him if he has a Twitter page. Cody said that he didn’t know that he had fans and that he doesn’t have an account with Twitter (at least as of Sunday). 
– Kasey Kahne kinda looks like the actor Robert Pattinson, who played the Edward character in the movie “Twilight.” They’re not dead ringers, but c’mon there are some similarities. 
The Brian Vickers/Dale Earnhardt Jr. incident has been and will continue to be well documented by others so I’m not even going to get into it. Well I will say this; I don’t think that Dale intended to spin Brian out. I think it was an accident and I’m not just saying that because I like Dale. I actually like both of them. I just don’t think Dale would do that knowing there’s an entire field of cars behind him that could be involved. He’s always been pretty honest about his on-track exploits so whatevah. 
Upon hearing the news that David Gilliland might be the odd man out at Yates Racing I became deeply pissed off. 
I finally sat down and watched the NASCAR Sprint Cup Awards ceremony and I have come up with a list of all of the things that I want in an awards ceremony broadcast. Here’s the list in no particular order:
Congratulations to Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 Lowe’s team for winning their third consecutive Sprint Cup Championship. 
Yesterday I finally finished watching 
There’s been a lot of press leading up to today regarding wait times and long lines for voting. Here’s a tip for you, move to the suburbs in the San Francisco Bay Area. I went to my polling place, which is right behind my apartment building, and there was no line and the only thing that took a long time was remembering how I wanted to vote on all of the propositions.
I was watching the practice sessions at Texas Motor Speedway today and ESPN put up a segment dedicated to the creation and evolution of their Draft Track technology. While I have the deepest respect for the people who made this stuff possible, if I’m being honest I have to say that it’s not that useful. I’m sorry.
So there went yet another qualifying session called off due to rain. This is so crazy. I guess at this point in the season it’s not such a big deal, at least to me, because it puts the top 12 drivers in the Chase up front and right next to each other at the start of the race. I think that makes the race more interesting at least for the first few laps.
I refuse to accept this Chase as it stands right now. No, no, no! This is lame people! Jimmie Johnson can’t walk away with the Championship. The other guys within mathematical distance of the lead need to step it up and make something happen. I was delighted to see Greg Biffle and Jeff Burton with positive and upbeat attitudes about the coming races. I hope they battle and fight and snatch the Sprint Cup out of Jimmie’s hands. 
Waking up this morning and realizing that there will be no NASCAR on today is a little disconcerting. I hardly know what to do with myself. It’s kind of like that commercial about quitting smoking where it shows people not knowing how to do regular things, like put their clothes on or get in their car, ’cause they haven’t had a cigarette. I’m having trouble watching football without thinking the flag on the play means there’s debris on the field. 
First, in regards to the race at Kansas this past weekend, I have to talk about 
On to driver introductions. This year the Auto Club Speedway rolled out the red carpet, literally. Basically from the pit road wall to the back stage area there was a long red carpet roped off for the drivers to walk. It was a cool idea and it was nice because it allowed for drivers to be cheered or booed twice before they made it to their racecars.
Today’s race sucked. I’m happy for Carl Edwards and his team for beating Kyle Busch, of course. I think that goes without saying, but it was still kinda lame. Maybe I’m being too picky and hard to please but I just want someone to win who hasn’t won this year, or if that’s not possible then someone who’s only won once so far. 
The following is the second (and final) part of my interview with 
– Kurt and Eva Busch bought a horse. A show horse named C.J. to be exact: 
So the only question I have after watching the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard this weekend is this: If you know that the Brickyard is notorious for being really hard on tires and you have a new car that puts more weight on the right side tires why wouldn’t you schedule a testing session there?? 
The difference between the crowd gathered for the Nationwide Series drivers meeting and the one assembled for the Sprint Cup Series was like night and day. Friday it was me standing with the security guards but on Saturday I had to contend with a big crowd, a fence and those damn TV crews. 
Some of my thoughts on the latest NASCAR happenings and whatnot:
news. For one, he’s only been to one NASCAR race in his entire life and it was this weekend at Daytona. So a man who has never been to a race buys a team? I don’t get it. I know that you can love the sport without attending a race in person but it doesn’t feel authentic enough to me, especially when you’re going to invest your hard earned money into it. I never really liked him as a football player, so that’s another reason this news is irrelevant to me. However, NASCAR is a tough business and I hope, if he’s really serious about it, that he’ll be successful.
ESPN Inside Access: Jeff Gordon allows you to view specific races from Jeff’s career. The races have been shortened to the most important parts which make them easier to digest. You’ve gotta watch the 1990 USAC Midgets race that Jeff won sporting the sweetest “Uncle Jesse” haircut. Actually for the entirety of the early ’90s Jeff and his then crew chief Ray Evernham caught the John Stamos circa Full House hairstyle fever. 
The final laps of the Toyota/Save Mart 350 were literally killing me. I haven’t been that engaged in a race in quite some time. The fact that David Gilliland was running up front, realistically in contention for the win was seriously blowing my mind. In the end though he didn’t come up with the win but I feel like 2nd place is just as good. 
The NASCAR experience started on Thursday. I was driving through the city I live in — Concord, California — with a friend of mine on our way to get Starbucks. There were haulers for Juan Pablo Montoya’s team at a Holiday Inn down one street and haulers for Michael Waltrip at the Crown Plaza Hotel down another. It’s really not that interesting but it gave me that extra kick of excitement about this weekend. NASCAR really was coming! 
As the NASCAR race weekend in Sonoma draws closer I’m getting more and more excited. It helps that on Tuesday Cup drivers David Ragan, Travis Kvapil, J.J. Yeley and Sam Hornish Jr. (along with Nationwide Series driver Marcos Ambrose) will be rolling into town to test at Infineon. The testing session (from 8:30am to 4:30pm) is open to the public, free of charge and yeah, I’m so there. Did I even need to say that? 
— Clint Bowyer spoke with the media here in the Bay Area today in anticipation of the Toyota/Save Mart 350. When asked if, in this sport, it was important for fans to have someone to dislike Clint had this to say: 
Well that didn’t take very long at all. 
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. 
It was a super sweet moment seeing the group of NASCAR moms standing the track telling their son’s to start their engines.
– Kurt Busch is set it unveil the new Kurt Busch Superdome at the Victory Junction Gang Camp on Tuesday, May 20th at 2 p.m.:
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. 
VIP race packages exclusively available to JR Nation Crew members include reserved parking in the JR Nation VIP tailgating area, a ticket for the Aaron’s 499 in the JR Nation seating section, a four pack of collectable AMP Energy drinks, a Talladega Superspeedway/AMP Energy lanyard and a $45 Visa gift card. 
There was a poll last year that showed that 29% of NASCAR drivers thought that Athena Barber (Clint Bowyer’s girlfriend at the time) was hotter then their own girlfriend or wife. I think as soon as those guys take a look at Ingrid Vandebosch’s (Jeff Gordon’s wife) photos in the latest Sport Illustrated swimsuit issue they’ll be singing another tune. Her body is ridiculous, especially when you take into consideration that this woman gave birth not that long ago. For 
Calendars make excellent Christmas gifts. For years my mom would buy me a new Ansel Adams wall calendar, but now it’s Dale Earnhardt Jr. At work I have a big one for the wall and then a desk version.
If you’d rather have Jeff Gordon in your pocket they’ve got one for him too, along with other drivers like Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson.
The 2007 Cup season is finally over. Jimmie Johnson is the Championship winner for the second year in a row and I’m just OK about it. Obviously it’s a great thing for him and his team. Hendrick Motorsports had a wonderful year. Three out of four of their drivers made it into the Chase and two of those drivers finished first and second. So instead of being so incredibly excited for Jimmie I’m happy for Rick Hendrick. He’s built an organization that is a force to be reckoned with, there’s no way around that.
First, I want to say that I still have one pair of tickets to the NASCAR Sharp AQUOS 500 at California Speedway, courtesy of Kodak, available to giveaway. 
The thing that was killing me throughout the telecast of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard was ESPN’s constant repetition of the same clips showing Dale Jarrett and Jeff Gordon talking about kissing the bricks. Those are three words that I never, ever want to hear again thanks to ESPN. They managed to wear out those words so much that they’ve lost their flavor, like a wad of a gum that’s been chewed too long. Is there anyone that doubts the fact that it was in fact Dale Jarrett’s crew chief (at the time) Todd Parrott who came up with the idea to press their lips to those dirty, grimy bricks? UGH! I’m so over it. There’s only one way to ruin the prestige, legacy and honor of an event and that’s to talk about it ad nauseam.
In an upcoming issue of US Weekly Ingrid Vandebosch announces that she and Jeff Gordon are expecting a baby girl in July.
– Jeff Gordon and his new wife Ingrid announced last week that they’re expecting their first child in July. This comes as no surprise to me because she’s been looking preggers ever since they first got together. It was only a matter of time before it was real. I kid, I kid. I wish them all the best. (photo credit: AP Photo/Mike McCarn)
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