Was it me, or did Denny Hamlin seem like a slightly petulant child after tonights race? OK, so Brad Keselowski was racing you hard, and maybe he wasn't giving you the room you thought you deserved. But to claim when you get out of your NATIONWIDE car (flanked by NASCAR officials by the way)  that the problem was "I think it is just him racing in the Nationwide series not having any Cup experience learning how to let guys go at times" is a bit silly. 

Denny...Brad IS a Nationwide driver. Not a Cup driver.

And then to keep digging, Denny went on to say "There were several places in the race that I had him cleared....except for maybe two inches...instead he hangs on my right rear bumper quarter, and then goes into the corner right at my door, and that #### drivers off, especially gusy that know patience a little bit better than that."

Isn't that called RACING? And you are claiming that you are the prime example of patience?????

And then to admit on national TV "He picked my back wheels up in one and two, then came up beside me...so I retaliated..you know, you throw a rock and I'm gonna throw a concrete block back, so you are gonna have to deal with it."

Tsk tsk. Denny, you do NOT admit you retaliated under yellow on national TV. Not if you want to keep the money you just won and the points that car has earned so far this year.

As Brad's team owner said "There ain't no excuse for that".  Dale Junior just seemed dumbfounded as to what had happened at the end of the race. I don't think he was the only one.

Now, I have no idea who threw the first punch post race. Maybe a Navy SEAL who was on hand to cheer the 88 team on wasn't happy with Denny's "retaliation" and decided to sneak over and try to take out the 20 team one by one (SEALS are good at that.....). It has been a while since we had a good fight in the pits (I think the 9 and 20 teams were the last ones to toss punches at each other a few years back), however there is no excuse for two teams to be exchanging fists, regardless of what happened on the track. If the 88 crew tossed the first punch, then shame on them, especially considering the fact that 1: they represent the Navy and 2: it is Memorial Day weekend and considering the meaning of the weekend they should act with more respect of who they represent. My guess is that Junior will be having a talk with them at some point tonight about that lapse in judgement. He all three of his cars in the top 10, and instead of focusing on celebrating that feat, he now has to straighten out a melee in the pits.

Just another reminder that no matter how mature these young men think they are...they are still young men, and from time to time, they act like it.

I am absolutely amazed at the boneheadedness of Kevin Lepage in the Nationwide race at Talladega Saturday. There have been a lot of stupid moves of late, including some by my own driver, Tony Stewart. However, Kevin Lepage took the cake yesterday.

Last time I checked, it didn't take a brain surgeon to know the cars at Dega go around the track in excess of 190-200 mph. That means they aren't going to just creep up on you...they are going to catch you and run you down. So what kevin was thinking when he moved up into the path of the pack after exiting pit road...already several laps down mind you...is beyond me.

The fact that no one was seriously injured is amazing, especially when you see the fact that Carl Edwards not only hit the back of Lepages car, but went airborne in the process.

The fact that Lepage has blamed everyone but himself and his spotter for the incident is boggling.

The race was slowed by eight cautions for 27 laps, including a 12-car accident that brought a red flag stoppage of 25 minutes.

The accident happened when Kevin Lepage pitted for a loose wheel under green and blended back onto the track right ahead of the field as the pack headed into the first turn. He wasn't at the same speed, and the cars couldn't avoid running over him.

Carl Edwards was the first to his Lepage, with contact that lifted Edward's car off the track.

"In my mind it just looks like somebody just pulled up right in front of the field," Edwards said as he watched the replay. "I'm driving around, minding my own business, and good afternoon. I'm just glad I didn't get hurt there."

But Lepage was adamant he did nothing wrong, and said he followed NASCAR's rules for returning to the track when he blended back in. He also fiercely defended his spotter, wife Donna.

"As I was leaving pit road, the spotter says 'Pack coming' and I stayed down until I got in Turn 1. The first half a dozen cars or so passed me, and the next thing you know I got rear-ended," Lepage said. "Everybody is mad at me for pulling up onto the race track, but you go to the driver meeting and they say stay low until you get to turn 1 and then pull up on the race track.

"My spotter has been spotting for me for a number of years and I think she did a great job. There's 40 other guys out there trying to spot these things, and if they couldn't see me coming out of the pits, then maybe they need to get new spotters."

Maybe THEY need to get new spotters? Maybe you need to get a new line of work, Kevin. Your spotter/wife told you the pack was coming. Just because 6 cars came around you didn't mean the other 35 were single file behind them, thus leaving you the entire bottom part of the track to come up on a turn before you were told you could by NASCAR in the drivers' meeting.

I am pretty sure all the cars had more than one mirror in them this weekend. As a matter of fact, most drivers are specific in where they want mirrors placed in the car because they know they have to rely on them more at the plate tracks than anything else. Did Kevin not check any of them before pulling up above the yellow line? I am thinking not. Otherwise, he would have seen they were three wide in the turn, not single file high. If he was just going by what his spotter/wife told him, maybe he should take a lesson from Mark Martin, who has said he doesn't rely on his spotter to tell him what to do. "He can tell me I am clear, but it is my decision if I want to move or not."  Carl Edwards said just last week “Spotters are great, but in the end, it’s still your job to drive the race car.”

In 2005, the Wall Street Journal did an article on spotters and their role in race day. "Nascar says spotters are just one of many safety devices, and ultimately they don't have the same control over the race, or accept the same risk, as the driver. "The spotters are not put there to help drive the cars," says Robin Pemberton, Nascar's vice president of competition. "They're another set of eyes.""

I think what makes this whole thing the most appalling to me is the fact that Lepage refused to take any blame for the crash. Even if you don't think it is your fault, you have to know when to mea culpa to save face. To not only deny blame, but to blame the other spotters and drivers for not seeing you in time to move out of your way when you were just entering the track and they were up to full speed in a pack is just ignorant and indicates to me that maybe Mr. Lepage should take a long look at the replay and pay better attention to the rules NASCAR lays out in his next drivers' meeting.  His lack of common sense yesterday could have been disasterous for some drivers. He is lucky no one was hurt. If someone had been, I would be calling for him to be parked. As it is, I think he needs to take a hard look at what happened yesterday and maybe grovel a little the next time he sees a member of the media....and anyone whose car ended up in a heap due to his move yesterday.

Oh, and while I am throwing Kevin under the bus, I'll ask him to pick Larry Gunselman up on the way. Thanks to Larry apparently dozing off on lap 11 of yesterdays race, Dario Franchitti finds himself in a cast with a fractured ankle after what should have been a simple spin.  All I can think of in that incident was Steve Park in Darlington back in 2001, when his steering wheel came off and Larry Foyt t-boned him. And bless his heart, we all know what happened to Steve. Now, thanks to Larry's lack of attention, Dario is out of his ride for today, and who knows when he'll be able to get back behind the wheel.

Talladega is no place for anything short of perfection. If you can't focus on what you need to do to finish the race in one piece, then maybe you don't need to be there in the first place.

John Darby (center in Yellow) tests the Sunoco tanks for water in Atlanta.

The mystery as to what made Denny Hamlin think he could re-start soundly with the rest of the pack towards the end of todays race may have been solved...and the answer is not pretty. Apparently NASCAR inspectors have found water in the gas tank of the 11. And the 22. And possibly the 16.

Now, any fan knows, the gas tank is not a place you want to find water. Certainly not half a TANK of water. That is apparently what was found in the 22. No wonder it blew up.

So, the question is, how did the water get there. According to Jayski, the Sunoco tanks were tested and found to just have gasoline in them. Which leads me to believe....the water had to come from someplace else. But where? And was this a random water dumping, or was it targeted? And if it was targeted, why? And by whom?

It baffles me that anyone in this day and age would stoop so low as to tampering with another teams stuff. It was proven early this year that trying to put something in a place where it doesn't belong (remember the stuff that was found in the engine manifold of the 55 in February? Did we ever find out what THAt was???) is uncool in the NASCAR world.  Puting water in a tank of fuel, and then sending a car out to race with half a tank of high octane gasoline and half a tank of H2O is just wrong...and highly dangerous, as was proven in Hamlin's case. If it was intentional, the stunt not only ruined the days of the 11, 22, and possibly 16....but the 1, the 5, the 31, and any other car that was caught up in that messy restart where the 11 just could not go.

Having watched the re-fueling process at races in person many times, I can't imagine how water could be dumped into the gas can without being seen. The crew membrs haul the gas cans in carts to the Sunoco pumps after every pit stop, stand with the cans, and then hand them over to the Sunoco guys for topping off. Once they are topped off, they are handed back to the pit crew member, who then trucks them backc to the pit stall, where they stand ready to be used again. So how....HOW....can water end up in the gas tank?

According to NASCAR Scene,  Cup Series Director John Darby said that no water was found in the Sunoco pumps following the race. Darby said all of the Sunoco documentation from the weekend shows no water in the tanks.

"The teams did give me a sample from each of those cars that has a little bit of water in it, but again water always settles to the bottom," said Darby . "What you don't know is when the water got introduced, was it two weeks ago, was it a week ago ...

"What we're pretty confident of is the dump cans they were using today, because they're all stored in their tractor trailers and locked up all weekend, and all the fuel that we've taken, including just doing a chemical test on the [Sunoco] tanks over there, show no condensation."

"All day we had been getting water in our fuel," Hamlin said. "The water displaces fuel, and so we weren't getting the full potential of fuel. We took it apart again [after the race] and pulled some gas out of [the] fuel cell and again we get water."


"Because of the difference in the individual teams that have shown us water in it," said Darby, "That's the reason we're trying to backtrack to figure out where it came from. ... Our focus is more on trying to understand where the water came from."  Darby dismissed talk of sabotage of select teams.
 

This is a mystery I will be anxious to hear the resolution of. And if it was done on purpose, I can't wait to find out who it was, and why they did it. Because there is nothing out there that I can think of that would be worthy of such a stupid prank.

Is anyone else absolutely baffled by Carl Edwards threat to HIT his teammate on Sunday? Not only to hit him...but to hit him after interrupting a television interview that was being conducted between Kenseth and Speed TV by pushing kenseth away from the interview to confront him. And then, instead of walking away from what was already an embarrassing situation, he turned and threatened to pop kenseth in the kisser...also caught on TV.

Shocking? Just a bit. unheard of? Not for Edwards.

It was only a year ago at Michigan when Edwards imposed his muscular self in victory lane after Dale Junior won a Busch race in a face off with Edwards that Carl too exception to. Edwards, who had no place being in victory lane in the first place unless he was coming to congratulate Junior, not only came in to the celebration, he started poking Junior in the chest, and actually grabbed him by the uniform.

Carl really needs to take a step back and look at what is happening. Everyone knows how muscular he is, and what good shape he is in. He's been portrayed as the "good old boy" from the midwest, with the goofy smile and "gee golly" attitude.

But getting pissed and threatening to punch not one but TWO drivers is stepping out of line.

In a teleconference today, Edwards tried to apologize.

"The atmosphere at Roush Fenway Racing is tough. It is really important that I let everyone know what happened after the race. First of all, I was wrong to show my anger and put on an aggressive display towards Matt kenseth. I want to apologize to my fans, to Matt, to Roush. What i did was wrong. I read an article by Jenna Fryer this morning, and she was exactly right. We don't have a good team atmosphere at Roush. What happened Sunday was not just a one day incident. As a team we need to work better together. I have won three races this year, and when I win, I have people calling me, they just arent the right people. I have Jimmie Johnson calling me, but not my teammates. but I admit, I am just as guilty as they are. I feel bad about what I did. I think we have gotten off what is important lately, and I know for me personally, I want to get back on track."

Maybe we have gotten spoiled by thinking teammates are supposed to get along. Jimmie-Jeff-Casey BFF feeling permeats at HMS. Truex and Junior have been great pals for years, with Truex actually renting a room from Junior when he was driving for his Busch Championships. Back when Michael Waltrip and Steve Park drove for DEI, they all seemed to get along just fine with Junior....better even, apparently, than Junior did with his own cousin some days.

But strife isn't all that uncommon in NASCAR. Look at Rusty Wallace and Jeremy Mayfield.  Or Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman. (wait, I see a trend...) Dale Senior and Mike Skinner weren't best buds when both ran for RCR.

That said, it is usual to see teammates threatening to do physical harm to each other out of the car. And to do so on national television is not only embarrasing to the person initiating the conflict, but to the team he represents.

On Inside Nextel Cup Monday night, Fellow Roush Fenway driver (and Newlywed) Greg Biffle made it clear he was not impressed by his teammate or his actions.  Biff pretty much threw Carl under the bus, saying it was Carl who started the problem by door slamming Matt and then pushing him into the wall, and if he wants to dish it out he has to be able to take it when Matt taps him to move him out of the way. He then said "I think the true colors are coming out....It doesn't look good for all the fans wearing the Carl Edwards 99 shirts...maybe they need to second guess...you know?"

Sounds like Greg has no love for Carl.

Even Kenny Schrader said "They need to sit down and get over...Carl didn't handle that right at all".

Not that I have ever claimed to be a fan of Carls, but I have lost a whole lot of respect for him this week. If you have a beef with a teammate, don't air your dirty laundry for the NASCAR world to see. Take it behind closed doors and hash it out. Showing there is strife in your ranks, especially when you belong to one of the most recognizable teams in NASCAR, is not only unprofessional, it is just plain uncool.

Ii am not so hypocritical to think that these guys are perfect and don't have their issues between each other. I say a little strife can be good. But it was the way it was handled...both confrontationis were handled...that I see as unprofessional. And uncalled for. At this rate, Carl is going to gie Tony Stewart a run for the "Bad boy of NASCAR" title...and no amount of Opie-esque smiles and "yes ma'am" and :no sirs" can forgive threatening to punch a man on national teleision.

You have talent as a driver. Don't let your anger overshadow what you can do on the track.

I just have to say, I am so impressed by the men and women who make up this sport we all love. I was lucky enough to spend a lot of the weekend in the infield at Richmond International Raceway this weekend. No need to explain why, but I did want to explain a few of the encounters I had....

 First off, I was walking through the infield bright and early Saturday morning when I came across the Wood Brothers Len Wood. As I approached him, he looked up and me and smiled and asked how I was doing this morning? I said "I'm good, thank you Mr. Wood. How are you?" and he replied "Just fine. Just fine".  What other sport can you find where you are just walking along first thing in the morning and come across a team owner...and legend in the sport, and HE greets YOU, a complete stranger, and asks how you are doing this morning?

On Friday,  I spent a good 20 minutes talking with Buzzie Reutimann. Again, he didn't know me from adam, and I, in a complete blonde moment, thought he was a hauler driver. When I started talking to him, I asked if he was the hauler driver for the 99 team and he chuckled and said no. He then chatted with me for the next 10 minutes before he let on who he was. When I then apologized for not recognizing him, he winked at me and said no problem. He then kept talking to me for another 10 minutes until after David qualified and then headed off to see his son. Later in the day, I passed him again and he said hello and smiled. I said hi back and we kept on our various ways.

Finally, last night pre race, I was running around on pit road snapping pics of various drivers. I was trying to get a picture of Kenny Wallace as he was showing off his ride to some folks. He had a big grin on his face and he was showing off something inside the car.  Kim Wallace, who was standing right infront of me and whose shoulder I was trying to quietly snap the pictures over,  turned and saw me and stepped out of my way so I could get a better picture. I told her she didn't need to move I was fine, and she said "Don't worry...he likes the pictures". I said she was the wife and I could wok around her and she said "You see I am back here out of the way for a reason.." and she laughed. We then stood and talked about how he was looking over the 88 like a kid in a candy store, and she said he was so excited to be in it. I then said it would be nice if he could get it next year, and she said that Travis Kvapil had been signed earlier in the day. I then commented it seems Kenny always filled in good cars, but never got one himself, and she said "I know. But this is better than the situation he was in, and he's happy just getting to drive, so we're going to be fine."

 What other sport can you have these kinds of conversations with people in the middle of everything? An owner, a dad, and a wife. Not one of them knew me from Adam, and yet all took the time out to talk with me.

How awesome is this sport?

Every time there is a NASCAR show that pops up in TV that is supposed to appeal to "the masses", you wonder how sappy and sugary they are going to make it look in order to grab the attention of the non-fans who might be watching. If you caught ABC's Gillette Young Guns competitioin (make that farce) earlier this year, you know that ABC is not above selling the NASCAR soul in order to try and get ratings.

The last weekly NASCAr show that I really enjoyed was NASCAR Drivers 360...heck if I can even remember what channel that was on now. (I have it on tape I think somewhere). That was where you had the chance to follow the week in the lives of drivers like Kenny and Rusty Wallace, Junior, Mark Martin (remember him buying the plane on TV...Arlene clearly in charge of the check book?), Jeremy Mayfield, Kasey Kahne, and Jamie McMurray.

So, what is the difference between that show and this one? According to one of the producers, who was on Sirius this morning...this one doesn't get driver or PR approval before being aired. The drivers get no say on how they are portrayed in this show. ABC and ESPN have used something like 52 cameras following various drivers since Atlanta to capture the interviews for this show. It is told from three perspectives....the drivers, the press, and the fans. You don't have a narrator. The fans, including a sage little fan of about 7 or 8, wearing a 99 hat and 24 shirt, talk about how drivers like Johnny Sauter seem to always crash other drivers. The fans talk about the sound of the cars as they come by...a man compares the feeling as being second only to an orgasm, where as our little 99/24 fan says it sounds like a herd of lions. 

Juan Pablo is shown flying in his jet to the airport and not even knowing what race he is going to be in, using his GPS to get to the track, and then havingt to be scolded by AMS security that if he doesn't hang his access pass in the window, he'l have to walk in. Sure enough, as soon as he gets into the drivers lot, the pass is placed on the front seat of the car, not the window. 

Mark Martin talks about how devistated he was when he lost the 500 by milliseconds, knowing that it was the chance of a lifetime that passed him by.

Johnny Sauter is shown thowing profanity laced complaints to Booty Barker about his car...his cooling box craps out early in the race, his drink hose falls out. he then talks about his father who raced his entire life and never got the chance that Johnny has now, giving up his family life in exchange for trying to win a race. "Next thing you know you spent 35 years of your life racing, and, you know....was it worth it?"

Montoya's wife, Connie, is shown in their motor home with their son and daughter, with a Fan Scan in one ear, the computer on trackpass, and the TV tuned to the race, rooting for a top 5 finish for her husband. She says she knows that there is risk involved in her husband's career choice, but "you can't think about it".

This show is entertaining, informative, educational, and not super sweet and gooey. Worth staying up until 10 on a Wednesday to watch. Hopefully they will keep this same format for the remainder of the show. Fans don't need gooey and sweet...they want reality...and not the kind you find in "Big Brother" or "Survivor".

Just when you get the impression Robby Gordon has put his bad attitude and crazy driving behind him, he forgets he's almost 40 and acts like he's 4 again.

Robby...WHAT WERE YOU THNKING?!?!?!

Yes, you got hosed by NASCAR. No one was going to argue that. You should have been in 2nd...(not first because to me it looks like you pushed Ambrose out of the way as the yellow flag flew), not 13th, where you were finally able to get your car turned around. (Although, precident was set for taking the place where you were able to rejoin back in the 89 all star race when Rusty Wallace turned DW and DW, who was leading at the time, was put back into 18th, which is where he rejoined the race).

All that aside, NASCAR made the bad call. But it is their sandbox, and arguing mid race isn't the way to play their game.

Two wrongs don't make a right, and Robby's response was totally out of line.

Was there any question that when Robby was behind the 59 on that last restart that he would retaliate against Marcos and spin him out of the way? He was told by NASCAR that he did not "maintain speed at a cautious pace under the yellow", which is why they were telling him to go back to where he re-joined the field. Robby didn't agree with what NASCAR was telling him, and he pitched a hissy fit, deciding he was smarter than NASCAR and ignoring multiple calls to him by NASCAR and his own crew chief to get in line in 13th. He stayed put in 2nd, and as soon as the flag flew, so did Robby, tossing Ambrose to the side with a bump and taking off, proving he was the fastest car on the track. The only problem with that move was, NASCAR stopped scoring him as soon as the flag flew because he ignored their orders. So bumping Marcos half way into tomorrow to get the lead was a worthless endeavor. Not only did he make himself out to be an ####, he stole a hard eared top 2 finish from the Aussie.

Does that make it three wrongs? Either way, they still don't make a right.

If Robby had taken the high ground, he would be the wronged driver with all the support behind him and not behind NASCAR. If he had waited until after the race and headed to the NASCAR hauler to ask them to explain in fine detail why they had moved him to the back, then he would have been the wronged driver, fan support would have been on his side, and NASCAR would be the big bad guy.

Instead, Robby looks like a petulnat child, and all the hard work he has done to improve his image and behave like the team owner he is was wiped away.

The irony is, Kevin Harvick, who was just as guilty of turning the 41 to get past to his position, ended up taking the trophy because of Robbys bad decisionmaking. If Robby hadn't made such a stir about his situation, maybe more folks would have realised that what Happy did wasn't any better than what he was pitching a fit over Smoke doing to HIM last weekend.

Marcos was the class act of the night, refusing to say anything bad about the man who took him out of the chance for the win, saying he promised himself when he got to NASCAR that he was so apprciative of the chance he would never complain about anything while he was there.

I give Robby a little credit for admitting today he did the wrong thing and he didn't argue a bit when he was told to take a seat on the pit box. But the damage is done, and NASCAR pulling his license for todays race is likely going to be just the tip of the iceberg for Mr. Gordon as far as penalties are concerned.

Just makes you want to think twice before making that impulsive decision in anger, doesn't it?

Why are fans of NASCAR so afraid of all things foreign? We head to Montreal today, where English is a second language to Francais, where the track makes you turn left AND right, and you would think we were going to hell. The Busch series drivers took the track for the first time north of the border in the first of four practices, and I am hearing fans calling in to radio shows that seem to think by heading to Canada we are betraying all that is to be loved about the sport.

Reutimann gets racy at Villeneuve

I don't get it? Since when were we afraid of Canadians? Don't we play the Canadian anthem at Michigan every year? Don't we embrace Ron Fellows when he comes to take the track in Sonoma and Watkins Glen?

Don't they make some of the best beer out there? (Brador anyone?)

I have a good friend who is in training to join the RCMP...the mounties (Dudley Do Right beware....Mark is in your mirror...LOL). Last time I checked, Mark loved NASCAR as much, if not mroe, than I do. I hear fans from all over Canada call into the radio shows almost on a daily basis to talk racing. Some guy called in yesterday saying he was driving from Saskatchewan to Montreal for the race...the equivalent of a fan from Montana driving to Watkins Glen or Pocono.

I've heard some fans say going to Mexico earlier this year and Canda now just aren't American.

Actually..yeah, they are. Mexico is in Central America, and Canada is a part of the same continent we are. Technically, they are all Americans. They just aren't in the USA.

Back in the 90's, you might remember NASCAR headed west....way west. As in Japan. Dale Earnhardt led the contingent of drivers that included Rusty Wallace, Jeff Gordon, and Dale Junior, and they all raced in the rain in Japan. No one put a gun to their heads, and actually, from what I have heard, they all enjoyed the trip.

If it was good enough for the Intimidator, why can't it be good enough for the fans?

We have foreign drivers. Juan Pablo Montoya has been showing he is worthy of the ride he is in this year. Ron Fellows has been cross pollenating into NASCAR for nearly a decade, and wishes he could spend more time in our sport. There has been discussion of Sebastian Bourdais coming to NASCAR. Why can they race here, but we can't go race in their country?

Toyota joined the series this year in Cup and Busch, and you would have thought we let Satan himself on the track. Those "Yodies just aint 'Merican and we don't want 'em here".  Just where are those Monte Carlos and Fusions made folks? (look north and south of the border).

To me, Baseball is considered to be the #1 AMERICAN sport, (as American as mom's apple pie, right?), and yet there are players from everywhere, and the little league world series is truly that...WORLD. The NFL plays overseas in pre-season every year....and until recently, there was the NFL-Europe. The NBA has players from even more places....and a bunch of Americans go over to Europe in the off season to play over there just to keep in shape. Why is it, NASCAR is so centrist when all other sports are so much more open minded?

I'm a relatively new fan...one of those that has been called a Yuppie transient fan...except I have stuck around for nearly 4 years, with many more in my future...I go to races in person....I study the history of the sport....and I really don't give a damned where they race so long as they race. I have been to Mexico and Canada and Europe, and can say from first hand experience, they aren't scary folks. They can be just as excited about stock car racing as we can be...if we educated them about the sport. We have F-1 fans here in America, and F-1 comes over here to race once a year, although they seem to think they are too good for us, and we seem to take that as an insult...so why aren't we snobs for saying we are too good to go elsewhere?

It's a big bad world out there folks, and our sport is growing by leaps and bounds.  While I have no desire to lose races at our "classic" tracks...such as Bristol and Darlington and Richmond and Martinsville...I do think we can take away a race from Cali or Texas or New Hampshire or Michigan and reach out to broader venues.

The true test of popularity will be in how full the seats are this weekend at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. If we fill the seats like we do in Mexico, I say leave the race be. Spread the wealth. Share the excitement and enjoyment. Why be greedy when we can spread the love around?

Oh, what an awesome day to be a Smoke fan! Not only back to back wins, but another chance to climb the fence at Indy. I was absolutely rolling when he was chasing down Harvick and called out on the radio "Here, kitty, kitty, kitty...Come get you some of this." I continued laughing, and was pretty sure we had a W heading our way, when they cut to his in car and there he was, cruising along at 200 mph, driving with his knees as he took a sip of water on the front stretch.

Driving with his KNEES at 200 MPH!!!!!!! I'm afraid to do it at 50! 

The final stamp on his great day was his "####" call on live TV, which you know will get him in trouble with NASCAR, but you also know he doesn't care.

What I think is #### is NASCAR calling Harvick to the hauler to answer for a tap that is done by drivers after almost every race..where a driver comes up besides the winner and gives his door a donut as a thumbs up. OK, sure, I'm sure Happy wasn't exactly feeling touchy feely towards one of his best friends after the beating they gave each other on the closing laps, but it wasn't like he put Smoke into the wall. It certainly wasn't worth the lecture I'm sure he got after the race. Jeeze...lighten up boys.

On a final note...god bless the men who designed the safer barriers and fuel cells we see every week. Jimmie Johnson is one lucky man tonight. Not only did he hit the wall at close to 190...he burst into flames. yet, he was able to get the car down off the track and into the grass..flames licking at his bumper and the sides of the car...and climb out of the car and get away from the torched carcass with a wave and little bodily harm other than having the breath knocked out of him. Some old fans might complain about the fact that safety features have taken the rough and tumble out of the sport a lot of folks love, however I don't think we need a driver to be maimed or worse just so we can say the sport is the same as it used to be 40 years ago when the only safety features a driver had was a leather helmet and a 2x4 in the door. The combination of the HANS device and the SAFER barries, both items mandated tracks and drivers after the death of Dale Earnhardt, likely saved Jimmie's life today.

Thank heavens, so we can talk about the Kitty and knee driving instead of something much worse.

My head is spinning about this whole DEI-Ginn merger. It's not that i don't see the merits of it...truly, I do. however, if you look at the problems that are rising out of the ashes that was once Ginn racing, you have to wonder if there won't be a spike in the stock prices of Excedrin by the end of the week.

The Pros:

TEI is getting Mark Martin, a 7 post shaker, and the 15 in the top 35 for the first time since Michael Waltrip left the ride in 2005.

The Cons:

Three drivers that had jobs one week ago are now basically unemployed, including Regan Smith, who was shown the bed of roses of getting his own full time ride in the 14 only to actually lay down on the thorns when that car was folded into the 15 team.

The 21 team, which won't officially get into the top 35 until next week when the 13 falls out of the top 35 due to not running this week, has a driver issue. the Wood brothers brought Bill Elliott into the mix to get the car into the top 35...once he did that, he was allegedly going to be sent back to pasture and Kenny Schrader was going to be allowed to get back into the car. Kenny asked the Woods last week if there was a chance he might get in the seat anytime soon and was told no, so he made a deal with his old team, BAM racing, to get back behind the wheel of the 49 car to help them out. Now, one week into that deal, he has the probable chance to get his own seat back. So now what? Is Bill trapped in the car when he really wants to go back to the relaxing life of a very part time driver? Can Kenny get out of the deal he made with Beth Anne?

The Garagemahal, which just 7 years ago was the darling of all NASCAR garages, will soon be an empty relic. What to do with the showplace that Dale Earnhardt himself designed and built once the four DEI teams take up residence in the 180,000 sqft Ginn garage. Turn it into a museum? Sell it to someone else? Mothball it?

So many questions created by a mid-season merger between a team slowly losing it's place in the higher eschelon of the sport and a team owned by a fan who thought he could manage a race team. Only time will tell if this is the shot in the arm DEI needed to get back on it's feet....or if this will just be another notch in it's casket.

One thing looks for sure...it looks like DEI is now off the list of places Kyle Bush is going to go...because now there is no room at the inn with both Mark Martin and Aric Almarola on hand to fill slots that are open in 2008...even if Mark only continues with his part time schedule, I can't see Almirola going part time all of next year too. He left JGR because the opportunity was there for him to move up at Ginn. The search for the next driver of the 8 car might have been solved with the signature on the paperwork today.

I had the pleasure of calling in late to work this morning...all for the sake of charity. Not just the fact that going into work late is charitable for me (any time out of the office is a treat), but what i did to be late supported a charity i have become a huge fan of since I became a NASCAR fan four years ago: the Victory Junction Gang Camp.

The Chik Fil A Kyle Petty Charity Ride came through Virginia today, and it was close enough to me for the first time that I decided to go check it out for myself. I arrived at the Sheetz gas station in Boyce, VA just after 8:30 this morning, and found the parking lot already packed with fans hoping to do the same thing I was. I ended up parking off on the side in the grass, and trekked over to the convenience store and grabbed a healthy breakfast of Diet Dr. pepper and a nutrigrain bar. As I walked around, i noted I was the only one dressed for "city" work...my blouse and skirt seemed a bit more formal than much of the racing gear everyone around me was wearing.

I was jealous.

When the bikers arrived, I had the pleasure to cross paths with the King, Kyle, Pattie, and Montgomery Lee Petty, Harry Gant (still as handsom as ever), Burney Lamar and his beautiful wife Nikki Taylor, Steve Park (what a charmer!), and Herschel Walker. I bought a baseball cap supporting the ride and had everyone sign it....now I just need to figure out how to preserve the signatures!

There were at least 250 motorcycles and as many fans on hand...which was probably as many people as that Sheetz station saw in a normal week. The parking lot was packed, there were cars parked in the grass off the roads on either side of the gas station, and fans and riders milled around together in harmony.

All for the sake of a bunch of children who have found their lives interrupted by illness.

There is a lot that I love about NASCAR, but what fans and riders alike do for this camp, started out of the tragedy of the Petty family. One man handed pattie Petty a trading card that was easily a decade old, and had a picture of Pattie, Kyle, Montgomery Lee and Austin on it. "I remember that picture!" Pattie said as she looked at the card. "Adam refused to be in it because we were wearing those shirts and he hated that shirt!" The irony of the family portrait minus Adam was not lost on those who were nearby, but Pattie smiled at the memory. She showed it to Montgomery Lee (whom she called Gummie) and the younger Petty let out a laugh. "Oh lord, look at Austin!" she chuckled. There was no sadness in the memory, just laughs. The charity ride began long before Adam was killed, but it continues to help raise money for his legacy. The Victory Junction Gang Camp was his dream. His parents took their greif and made it into a reality. That reality brought a couple of hundred strangers together at a gas station at the intersection of two country roads, and for just under an hour, they mingled and mixed, fans and drivers, and enjoyed the opportunity to be out on a sunny Tuesday morning sharing their love of a sport, a family, and a cause.

Well, here I am an official Fox Sports Blogger. Pretty heady stuff, or so it would seem. We'll see how that pans out.

It is Wednesday night, and there is nothing on TV remotely related to NASCAR (or anything else for that matter). What to do to fill the time? Hop on line and chat it up with some of the racing pals I have made in my four years of being a fan. Yes, only four. A relative neophyte in the history of NASCAR fandom, however with a little research and a true love of the sport, I have become a well educated fan. It helps that I have made some friends who have loved the sport longer than I have been alive.

The topic du jour seems to be trying to wrap our minds around the idea that Kasey Kahne might be the next pitchman for Budweiser.

Is Kasey even old enough to drink Budweiser?

I am a fan of the driver, not the car, not the number, not the sponsor. I have more than one favorite driver, and have proven in the last 16 months that I will follow them, regardless of team, car number, or manufacturer. I don't really care so much that Kasey is being considered for the Bud pitchman, but I have a really hard time envisioning that as a good pairing. Elliott Sadler pitching Bud I can see. Scott Riggs pitching beer I can envision. Kasey Kahne has a hard time holding a bottle of Vitaminwater without having his hand shake like a leaf. Anyone who has ever opened a shaken beer knows, it isn't a pretty sight, nor does it do anything for the taste of the beer. (Just watch the guys in victory lane after a race if you don't know what a can of beer does when agitated then opened). I think flavored water is the perfect level of beverage for Kahne right now. B

So, what to do about Bud? First off, I really don't know if they are actually going to leave DEI. The main confusion right now is that Dale Junior has a personal services contract with Budweiser for another year, so no matter what happens, he will be connected to them for the first year of his contract with Hendrick Motorsports. Now, Bud actually has a long history with HMS, so it isn't totally out of the question that the sponsor might follow the driver to his new ride (a decade before the National Guard sponsored the 25, Bud was on the hood). HOWEVER, the rumor is that Junior is looking to change his image and broaden his sponsors sell ability to below 21. A kid can't walk into a Wal Mart to buy a red 8 car and have Budweiser on the hood. The car has "Dale Jr" written in script instead. Someone under the age of 21 can't buy a souvenir at a track-side hauler if it has Bud on it. Not to say that kids don't wear Budweiser gear, but they aren't Bud's target audience. Dale Junior has huge earning potential for whoever comes on board to sponsor him. Sure, Bud is all he has ever had on the hood of his Cup car, but most drivers go through a handful of sponsors over the course of their career (even Jeff Gordon has had sponsors other than DuPont on his hood over the years).

Sponsor loyalty is something new in NASCAR. Used to be, when a driver left a team, he left the sponsor and no one thought anything more about it. Dale Sr. left Wrangler. Darrell Waltrip left Mountain Dew. The world didn't stop spinning, and the fans didn't stop rooting. When Michael Waltrip left DEI 18 months ago and NAPA left to go with him, there was a big uproar. How could a sponsor that had been with a team for so long possibly go and follow a driver? Where was the team loyalty? This year, UPS followed Dale Jarrett to Michael's new team, leaving a long relationship with Robert Yates Racing. In 2001, Lowes switched from Richard Childress Racing to HMS, leaving Mike Skinner for Jimmie Johnson. Budweiser leaving DEI to follow the driver who has made them MILLIONS of dollars in the nine years he has been in the sport would not be that much of a shock.

If Evranham Motorsports is a true contender for their sponsorship, Ray needs to seriously consider which driver would best serve the sponsor. Kasey, his pre-teen looks and shaky hands, not so good. Elliott Sadler drinking a Bud while munching on bologna burgers and playing with his hunting dogs might be a much better way to go. C

One thing I do know: if Bud stays with DEI and they hire Kyle Bush to replace Junior, there will be a lot of fans who have said they will STOP drinking Bud. And that won't benefit anyone, will it? M