Why oh why were these words not echoing around in Dale Jr's brain on his way into the pits last weekend at Texas to get that missing lug nut? (And No! I didn't steal it...)  

Surely, with all the problems the 88 team has had on pit road this year Mr. Hendrick would be all over them to follow "Pitting 101" to the letter right?   Come on boys!  Get up on the wall and jump around, get that pit sign all the way up and out and make sure it isn't pink anymore!  Spotter call your driver in and count him down and Junior try LOOKING for your pit stall...you know, turn your head or something.

Alas, one can only hope this team will finally find some focus on the track and rise to the enormous expectations of Junior's rabid fans.  

Many, including our own DW, have pointed to Juniors endless list of business adventures interfering with his attention at the track.  Whiskey River, Hammerhead Entertainment, track ownership, his very own real estate company  http://www.dejrealty.com/Default.aspx   (!!!!!!)

And of course there is his newest product -- "The RightWay Spotter" -- A GPS that has Junior telling you where to go.    Now that's funny--because if your heading for the pits, your likely to never arrive.   

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/sports_nascar/2009/04/dale-jr-finally-tells-his-fans-where-to-go.html

Maybe this whole pitting problem is one giant advertisement for the new GPS and once Junior has it installed in his No. 88 machine he will never miss a pit stall, a left turn, or the way to Victory Lane and it will sell like hotcakes.  Well, we know Junior Nation will buy it -- especially if Junior threatens to hit you over the head with a hammer if you make a wrong turn -- and God knows I have already put it on my birthday wish list but maybe he will get a big bump in sales from his fellow competitors too.

Or perhaps this is all some sort of psychological backlash -- it has been well-documented that Junior sought and barely received any recognition from his famous father with far more impressive results.   Now that he has Mr. Hendrick as a caring father figure and the near irrational love of billions of adoring fans, maybe he is content with lapping up the praise and attention without having to perform. 

Maybe just maybe he is finally happy in a way that winning races would never give him-- if that is the case then more power to ya Junior.

I am still working on editing down some of the Miller Lite footage we shot last year -- it is futile to get out all of the embarrassing parts of me grinning like a goober -- but I have to make sure what I publish doesn't get the crew in trouble with the powers that be...

With Phoenix coming up in 2 weeks I thought I would steal a page from fellow blogger storkjrc and do a little "look back" to last fall when Kurt drove the Blue Deuce to a second-place finish -- the best they have performed in my presence.

Here is some footage from near the start of the race and the finish -- I thought you guys might like to see the numbers on the left side of the cars and stand along beside me and the crew on the pit wall...enjoy!

I will be in the garage again this time around at Phoenix and as always I am open to any questions or inside scoops you would like me to try to investigate, just leave them in the comments!  

So I have finally figured out YouTube (I know, I know, I have a techie hubby and there is no excuse!) and will follow in the footsteps of our very own Wrench Wizard in posting some videos--Miller Lite ultimately never used most of our video footage shot last year with the Brew Crew so I am going to post them here and hope the powers that be NASCAR won't come after me, they already know about all those stolen lugs! 

But to start with I thought you all might like a little top 14 drive-by to get your motors runnin' for the race this weekend.   This was shot in Phoenix last fall...and is my absolute favorite part of practice in the garages.  For the first practice on Saturdays, the cars are all fired at the same time and an official walks down the garage stalls starting with the driver first in points, points at them and they file out.   It is super cool and always gives me goosebumps.   Course you know me, I have to stake out the best spot to watch them file by...can't get much closer than this!   Enjoy!

PS.  I am going to be out this weekend so won't be around to do the Live Chat Blog for Martinsville...someone else feel free to pick it up!

It's time to go short track racin' at Bristol--who is around to chat?

Some things to keep in mind today...

• Who will need Kristen's Anger Management Course by the end of the race?
• Will Jr be able to come thru the field and finally get a good finish?
• Will the rain stay away?
• Will Jeff Gordon finally win one?
• Who will make the bonehead move of the race today?

Let's go racin' boys!

Hot off the presses!  Kurt is asking fans to submit names for his celebration lap at Atlanta...for those of you who missed it--He drove around the entire lap backwards!  After the race, Kurt had this to say about his unique lap...

"I was actually surprised at how tall the reverse gear was," he said.  "I maintained a lot of speed. The problem is that the caster is in reverse when you're heading that way. It was going to swap ends on me pretty quick.

"I just kept focus like Don Johnson would coming around the start/finish line, flipped a 180, did a little Miami Vice action. It was a real blast. Happy to do something like that today and create a statement. That could be the name for it, the Don Johnson?"

Here is the rest of story and how to submit your name, courtesy of TRPR.com:

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (March 11, 2009) - Miller Lite Dodge driver Kurt Busch says he has been "just blown away" by the attention he has received from his special celebratory "Victory Lap" after winning last Sunday's Kobalt 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

After dominating the race and picking up his first victory of the 2009 NASCAR season, Busch celebrated the win by stopping at the finish line, grabbing the checkered flag, throwing his Miller Lite Dodge Charger in reverse and backing around the entire track to show his appreciation to all the fans.

"It has been unbelievable - I've been just blown away by it all," Busch said of the response from his post-race antics after recording his 19th career NASCAR Sprint Cup victory.  "It's amazing to see the attention it (the celebration lap) has gotten.  We've done hundreds of media interviews since Sunday and every time it's inevitable that they'll get around to wanting to discuss our unusual victory lap.

"We were doing Eli's radio show on Tuesday night when we decided we were going to ask the fans to help us put an official name on our lap," Busch said of his appearance on "NASCAR LIVE," the MRN Radio program hosted by Eli Gold.  "Doug Rice and I were already talking about doing something special with it when I called in to 'Fast Talk' on PRN on Monday night.

"So we've decided to ask the fans to log on to our site (www.kurtbusch.com), follow the story to the link, click on it and give us your suggestions," said Busch.  "After discussing the situation with my staff, we've actually decided to make a nice little contest out of it.  We're urging the fans to participate and I can't wait to review their suggested names for the lap.

"We'll send the winner a nice gift basket and that one lucky fan will always have the bragging rights for naming the lap," said Busch.  "We'll announce the winning entry on Friday at Bristol (March 20)."