From what I can tell from Jayski, the Burnout Competition will be held tomorrow night before the qualifying event for the All-Star Race at Lowe's Motor Speedway. It will be televised live as part of the pre-race coverage.

Of the five drivers entered, who do you think will be the best? Will it be...

Clint Bowyer:

Kyle Busch:

Jimmie Johnson:

(and yes, that IS Jimmie Johnson somewhere in there)

Greg Biffle:

Kevin Harvick:

Personally, I think Harvick will be the man to beat. Although, of all the pictures I have posted above, I think Bowyer's burnout is the best. But then again, the competition isn't called Bump Draft's posted burnout pictures competition, now is it?

Who do you think will win the title and the $10,000 prize to donate to the charity of their choice?

As for the All-Star Race, I think Rowdy may be the man to beat. I hate picking him but he IS the best at moving people out of his way and with a million bucks on the line, he should be fun to watch. Who do you think will take home the million?

Here's the schedule of events.

I'm cleaning out my email and have a bunch of press releases in my inbox. So I figured while I was going through them I would share some of the quotes as they pertain to the All-Star race this weekend.

Tony Stewart on whether or not the All-Star race is still needed with other tracks wanting Sprint Cup races and NASCAR being in new markets:

“I don’t think we need to add another point race to replace the All-Star Race. I think it’s nice to dedicate a weekend to the race fans. We put on a race for them where we’re not worried about points. We’re all hanging it out every lap, instead of three-quarters of the way through the season, where some guys are hanging it out while others are points racing. It’s good to have one evening where we all just get up on the wheel and put on a good show for the fans.”

For once, I agree with Stewart. These events are fun events. It's a great time to hang with friends, grab a nice frosty beverage and enjoy watching the bumping and banging.

Clint Bowyer on racing without any consequences:

“You’ll do some pretty crazy things for a million bucks. Some wild things have happened at Lowe’s Motor Speedway because of that. Hopefully, the Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet will be out front and we won’t have to worry about wrecking any body. If that’s the case, all I’ll have to worry about is them wrecking me.”

I'll be watching Bowyer for sure!

Dale Earnhardt Jr. on driving the "Gray Ghost":

"I had a lot of input into this paint scheme. Over my career I would like to pay respect to the heritage of this sport. Buddy Baker is someone I respect tremendously, and I loved that car he ran in the 1980 Daytona 500. When we were thinking of ideas for the all-star race, I asked for something like this car. The biggest difference is that NASCAR doesn't let us run chrome numbers anymore, but believe me, I asked."

Here's some audio information of the event being held this weekend.

All for now...

I'm curious about something... On my ride into work this morning I got to thinking. Yes, that alone is a very scary thought. But I was wondering where all of you go to get your racing news.

What websites do you find the most reliable? Do you google search your favorite driver to find out recent information? Do you use NASCAR.com or Jayski?

I get press releases delivered to my email which makes my life a bit easier. I'm not all that fond of the setup at nascar.com. I think there's just too much to look at. My brain can't handle all that's being thrown my way on that page. I do like jayski.com. Jayski updates information so quickly and I like that.

How about local racing here in Maine? Do you care about it? If you don't, why don't you? Afterall, racing is racing.

Where do you go to find out what happened at Oxford Plains, Beech Ridge, or Wiscasset on any given weekend?

I don't think there's all that much information on local racing, if any, printed in Maine newspapers. Maybe a brief here and there and possibly a rundown of a race. So what do you do? Where do you go?

Steve Park said it's like being home when he's here at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He said there's a lot of inexperience with the youth in the Camping World East Series today. He does ask his spotter to keep him informed of who he is racing around on the track and what their experience level is because he just doesn't know.

Park was asked what his goal was. His answer: "to win races." He said there is nothing on the horizon right now for the Modified Tour.

Austin Dillon also came in to chat with us in the media center. First, I have to say that he looks much too young to be driving a race car. When asked how he felt about the pressure to drive the number 3 car, he said he didn't have any. He said you have to look at it as fun. His grandfather (Richard Childress) tells him to just have fun and to stay in the gas coming off the corners.

Ricky Carmichael and Austin Dillon

Ricky Carmichael came into the media center to chat with all of us. I think I was a bit awe struck when I first saw him. He says the transition to racing is going really good. He's happy with how things are shaking out so far. It's been fun for him. He really likes the sport.

The competetive nature in car racing is the same as it is in motocross. He says however, driving a car requires more mental concentration than driving motorcycles.

There's yet another reason for me to like Ricky Carmichael...he's life-long friends with Clint Bowyer. Their family's are really close. When asked if he has visited Clint Bowyer's track at his house, he said he hasn't. Then he said that he jokes around with Bowyer and calls him "Hollywood" because he's always so busy.

He said he will never turn his back on motocross. He is still contracted with Suzuki for this year and next year. "It's the sport that made me who I am and I will never turn my back on it." He said although he is done racing, he will however, be competing in the X games. He talked about the step up competition which he said doesn't require much practice. He said Schrader was giving him a hard time about the step up competition he was in this year but then said that Schrader's just as crazy as he is.

Jerry Gappens, Executive Vice President & General Manager of New Hampshire Motor Speedway, came in and spoke about what changes will be coming our way.

He said that now that the snow is out of the way, he can take a much clearer look at what needs to be done around the facility. He said when he came to Loudon in November, NHMS reminded him of what Bristol Motor Speedway looked like 12 years ago, when Bruton Smith bought the track. Gappens sees this track as being the Lowe's Motor Speedway of New England.

One change you will see by the June race is electronic directional signs at the front entrance. There will be banners on the back side of the grandstands, for possible advertising. There will be 10 transportation vehicles to give campers and fans rides to and from the camping areas and parking lots to the grandstands.

He says the road racing is not in jeopardy. He would not speculate at what the road racing would look like in 3-5 years, but said it was here first so it's an important part of NHMS. Another change in the future could be possibly flipping the front stretch and back stretch. He mentioned that a couple times today.

He said there are still tickets available for the June race but isn't too worried about them being filled. With the economy as it is today, people are making last minute decisions to purchase tickets and make the decision to attend the race.

As for lights at the racetrack...the agreement that was written 18 years ago, prevents that. It is something that may be revisited. He thinks that in the not so distant future that most tracks will be required by NASCAR to have lights in place.

I am blogging from down here at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. I came down to check out the Camping World East practice.

I was getting ready to go on a rant about Ricky Carmichael and how I didn't think his heart was in car racing. The list that I received via email on who was going to be here did not include Carmichael.

When I went to sign in, a guy was walking away from the sign in place and got into a rental car. I said to the person standing there..."Was that Carmichael?" The guy turned around and said what? I said that was either him or a damn good look alike.

It was him. Perfect. I will have some pictures of him a bit later on. (hopefully) Right now, there are only 3 of us in the media center. My pals Shawn Courchesne, Travis Barrett and myself.

It's real quiet right now in here, not much going on. I'll be back in a little while...

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there!

First my thoughts on the Nationwide race:

-- Congrats to Tony Stewart on his win.

-- What on earth happened with Mark Martin? I think someone made a really bad mistake to allow Martin to run out of gas with only like 3 laps to go. That little mishap caused a lot of wrecks.

-- There can't possibly be a bigger cry baby than Kyle Busch, period. Did you catch his interview after the race?

Sprint Cup:

-- Uugh, Kyle Busch won. Congrats to Racefan for picking the winner.

-- I am now 0-for-11. I think I will need to rename my entries where I throw my picks out there, "Who not to pick."

-- At the beginning of the night I wanted to try to keep track of all the drivers that scraped the wall. About the time they said 7 people had hit the wall and I could only account for four of them, I gave up. There sure were a lot of cautions. By the end of the race, I don't believe there was one driver who didn't kiss the wall.

-- What was the deal with Direct TV's issue with Fox last night. There was a message on the television screen that said something along the lines of... Please don't call us, we are having technical difficulties and are working on it.

YEAH RIGHT! Seriously, we called. And when they asked what the message said, Becky (our spokeswoman) said it says not to call but I did anyway. She asked them when we could expect it to be fixed. They said "within the hour."

Everyone ran to the kitchen and turned on MRN to listen to it. We missed seeing the Tony Stewart crash with Elliott Sadler but the channel was fixed immediately after that crash.

-- Clint Bowyer had a terrible night but still pulled off a 15th place finish.

-- What terrible luck for Greg Biffle who's car blew up. He really had the car to beat for a while there. I would have liked seeing him in victory lane again.

I'm never eating M&M's again. Period. End of story.

Ahhhh.....Darlington. I love this track (aka Lady in Black). My true Mainer accent shines bright when I say the name of this track -- pronounced DAHLINGTON, the track too tough to tame.

Storytime -- When I say it, it reminds me of a time I was visiting my friend down in North Carolina and a bunch of people were trying to "teach" me the proper way to say the word car and other various words with the letter R. I couldn't get it. I just cannot make myself pronounce that R the way they wanted me to.

We were drinking so of course we all were busting a gut laughing about it. It was like a game to them. We finally had to give up because I couldn't stop laughing. -- The end.

Back to Darlington. My pick this week is going to be Jeff Gordon. He's won here seven times. Seems like a logical pick. But as you know, I have typically jinxed my pick each week. I am 0-for-10. Actually, maybe people should start reading this blog to decide who NOT to pick.

How much do you love Dale Earnhardt Jr.? I got a a press conference transcript in my email and laughed when I read:

HAVE YOU AND KYLE BUSCH TALKED SINCE RICHMOND?
“No, we haven’t. We probably will. It ain’t no big deal. There ain’t no big rush.”

Well I for one, "ain't" jumping on the Kyle Busch band wagon anytime soon. Gotta love Junior. He's such a fantastic public speaker.

And one more thing... I'm not going to mention any names but I did receive a big, and I mean BIG bag of M&M's delivered to my desk at work yesterday. Very funny...Very funny!

I went on a shopping mission. What I wanted was a batch of NASCAR pens. I was going to buy some when I went down to North Carolina on vacation but my trip got canceled and I finally got around to seeking some out.

My excursions went something like this:

I went to Wal-Mart. I remember that at one point in time, I saw NASCAR stuff there. Walked around the place once and finally asked an associate. The answer was that they had no NASCAR anything.

Off to Staples. Why I thought I could get NASCAR pens at Staples is beyond me, but I went anyway. No luck.

My next stop, Office Depot. Surely they would have something NASCAR, they are, afterall, Carl Edwards' main sponsor. I walk up and as I near the door I see a life-size cut out of Carl Edwards staring at me. I start to smile and think that I have come to the right place. I walked in and directly over to the pens, scanned them all. No NASCAR.

I walked up to an employee and asked her if she had any NASCAR pens. She said that she didn't think so. I then asked her if she had anything in the store with the NASCAR logo. All the sudden my mission was to find anything that had the logo on it. She called the store manager on her little ear piece and the answer was that they had nothing.

I said "you guys are the main sponsor of Carl Edwards, right?"
She said, "yes." Although right now, I am thinking that she didn't know that the dude in the cutout was Edwards.
I said "why would you have a NASCAR driver greeting me as I walked in if you have nothing in the store that has the NASCAR logo on it?"
She said, "I don't know." Then told me that she thought there might be a place out in Scarborough that sells items. Great. I felt like asking her if I could buy the cardboard cutout of Edwards. He's not a bad driver. I like him.

I went next door to Toys R Us. I started walking around and grabbed the first man that I found that worked there. I asked him the same question that I had asked everyone else. "Do you have any NASCAR pens?" He said no. I said, "do you have anything NASCAR?" Initially he said no but then remembered that he had match box NASCAR cars. Fine.

We walk over there and there are two cars to choose from, Kasey Kahne and Jeff Gordon. That was it for match box cars. So I grabbed the Jeff Gordon one. I took my little find to the register. The woman checking me out said, "Are you a Jeff Gordon fan?" I said, "No, actually I really dislike him but it's for someone else who I think likes him." I paid and I left.

All the shopping got me hungry so I mozied over to Burger King. I went through the drive thru. I got up to the window to pay and for yucks I asked her if she had anything NASCAR. She said no. I said how about a cup or something. The answer was still the same.

I have no idea why I told you all of this other than to say that it's not easy to just run out and grab something NASCAR here in Maine. Yes, I could have ordered some pens online but I wanted to just run out and grab some.

Where are all the hot spots in Maine that you can buy NASCAR paraphernailia?

I think all the drama between Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. took away some of the spotlight that my man Clint Bowyer deserves for his second Sprint Cup win. He was in the right place at the right time. So, I guess, I may owe Kyle Busch a big THANK YOU because if he hadn't gotten tangled up with Junior, Bowyer may not have won...

Just look at him folks, doesn't he look awesome in victory lane?! Seriously.

I was all smiles on Sunday knowing he took the checkered flag. Hell, what am I saying, I had sweet dreams of Bowyer dancing in my head when I went to bed Saturday night. Just awesome!

Saturday night I went go karting. Yes, I stepped away from the night racing on television and got out there and got in a go kart. A few of us (eight to be exact) went out to Victory Lane Indoor Karting in Portland. It's a big warehouse with a track in the middle of it. It was a bit cold in there so if you go, bring a sweatshirt.

I drove kart #32. If they had had a #07, I would have driven that one. My cart felt real fast. I was sliding sideways around the corners like I was on ice - it was super fun. It was like driving on ice through the corners; you could get the kart sideways without spinning it. A great place to take the kids. As a matter of fact, they had a league of kids racing and the youngest one was 8 years old.

Okay, okay...I'm glad you all had fun with the M&M comments yesterday. Anyone who is waiting for me to buy them M&M's, don't hold your breath. I'd be more inclined to ship you some delicious Juicy Fruit or a bottle of Jack Daniels. I think, however, there may be a policy here at the Portland Press Herald on sending and receiving alcohol.

All for now...

On Friday night, Steve Wallace got into Kyle Busch in the Nationwide race. After the race Busch went over and exchanged words with Wallace, being a big cry baby about the confrontation on the track. Wallace said it best in his post-race interview, "He's just a little girl about it."

Busch was carrying on about how he didn't care about wrecking equipment and the points didn't matter. Real nice. It just reiterates what I already believe, he's reckless.

On Saturday night during the Sprint race, Kyle Busch got into Dale Earnhardt Jr., wrecking him. He claimed it was just good hard racing. Hhhmmm... Maybe in Busch's mind it's just good hard racing when he is the one to cause a wreck. He also probably realized that Junior Nation wanted to snap his little body in half for wrecking Junior.

If you ask me, there is no difference between what happened Friday night and what happened Saturday night other than on Friday, Wallace didn't wreck Busch. Wallace was just racing hard for position and got into the back of him. A mishap is a mishap. Wasn't it just good hard racing just like Busch was doing with Junior?

If Junior Nation wants to point fingers, they should also point them at Denny Hamlin. After all, he deliberately stayed on the track to bring out the caution. Priceless.

First things, first: Happy Birthday Kyle Busch. He's a Taurus, just like me! Now that I think of it, maybe that's why I'm not all that fond of him (possible similar traits).

May = Night racing. The next three races are all on Saturday nights. I have to admit though that I have a hard time staying awake for the entire race when it's at night. But I do enjoy watching racing under the lights.

Here goes nothing ... As of the completion of the race at Talladega, I am 0-for-10 in picking a winner. Let's see if I can break this losing streak.

Drum roll please ... I am going with Tony Stewart. He has three wins here and last year got a ninth and a second place finish. Seems like a logical pick. Another to watch would be Jimmie Johnson who has won the last two races here.

This is an impound race, which of course means they can't touch the cars after qualifying. There have been 23 races where the driver has won from starting on the pole position. So go Tony go!

Who's your pick for the race tomorrow night?

Earlier this week racefan shared a picture with me that was taken at Talladega. I want to share it. Thank you racefan!

Picture taken by racefan