A note to the ladies: Dale Earnhardt Jr. is growing a goatee again. Yes, say it with me, “hotness.” hehe. Apparently he hasn’t renewed his deal with the Gillette Young Guns campaign so he is free to not shave again. (photo credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)

In other Junior news he told reporters this week that he wrote his own speech for the Championship Awards Ceremony this Friday.

“[The banquet is] such a high-pressure deal,” Earnhardt said. “You’re trying to represent your own team and company. I chose to write my own speech and found out that I’m only one of a few. I thought everybody wrote their own speeches.

“So I’m a little nervous now that I’m going to represent everybody well with my speech and that everybody’s acknowledged. It’ll be fun to get up there; it’ll be nice when it’s over. Nobody really likes to get up on stage to talk to that many people, but we’ll get through it.”

The thing that I find odd is that the other drivers are having people write their speeches for them. It boggles my mind. How hard is it to write something that basically just says thank you to your team, your team owner, your wife and/or mom, your family and the fans? You’re not the President, jeez.

And now for some photos from the day’s festivities in New York:




Jimmie Johnson poses with a young NASCAR fan in Times Square on Wednesday. (Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)



The top 10 drivers in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series pose for a photo in Times Square. (Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)