I struggled deciding who to pick for the winner this weekend at Dover International Speedway. But after some serious consideration, I have decided to go with Matt Kenseth for the win. He has had success here in the past including a win in the spring of 2006.

I know, I know...he hasn't done much this year. But here's my logic: It's beginning to be that time of year where a driver outside the top-12 really needs to put their foot into it. And I also took into consideration that he has been a driver in every Chase to the Championship. So there you have it. Let's see if I can break my losing streak this week. (0-for-13)

I'll also be watching:

-- There's a lot of hype with on Kasey Kahne's momentum. Let's see if he can come through with another victory.

-- Ryan Newman has also had great luck here with three wins.

-- Kyle Busch....need I say more?

Who are you picking to win?

Let's not forget to watch 18 year old Joey Logano this weekend. He is making his debut into the Nationwide series race tomorrow. All eyes will be on him. (well I think you all know who I will be watching)

I am actually going to have to tape the Nationwide race on my DVR. I am heading down to New Hampshire Motor Speedway to catch some motor cycle racing on the road course, a first for me. I may attempt flagging a corner but I'm not sure.

They race rain or shine so either way, I'm going. I will have camera in hand and will share some photos when I get back.

All for now...

Clint Bowyer

Um...OK, the picture has nothing to do with the blog entry today. When I opened nascarmedia, it was staring me in the face. Honest it was. It's a picture taken at testing in Pocono earlier this week. Here are the testing speeds if you're interested: Test 1, Test 2, Test 3.

I am doing the occassional clean up of my email and will share some of the quotes that I find interesting on some of the press releases.

Kevin Harvick on whether Dover is more like Bristol or Richmond:
"Dover is like a big Bristol. It is a place where you can lean on the banking a lot. You have to make your car turn and, as the race goes on, the track changes a lot as it takes rubber. You have to keep up with the race track as the rubber builds."

Kenseth on racing at Dover:
"Dover is probably my favorite track for a lot of different reasons. My first Cup race was there, plus we’ve won a couple times there in the Nationwide Series, then we got our first Cup win there last year, so we’ve had a lot of good times at Dover. The track is so fast and challenging. It’s unique because of the way you drive up out of the turns. The turns set a bit lower than the straightaways and you can feel it when you’re driving out there."

Clint Bowyer on running the COT last year at Dover:
"The car raced well. We were a top-three car last fall but got caught up in the incident with Denny (Hamlin) and Kyle Petty. Our car was fast in both races at Dover last year so, hopefully, we can back that up."

Darn you Denny… No repeats this year!

Kurt Busch on making The Chase:
"There’s plenty of time left (to make The Chase), so we’re not flipping out or getting all bent out of shape. We’ve only completed 12 races as of now, so that means we have another 14 races to go before it’s decided who makes it and who doesn’t. We’re smart enough to know that there is so much that can change between now and then."

HHHmmm Kurt, you are 21st in the point standings. I wouldn’t wait too much longer to make your big move.

Tony Stewart on the upcoming race at Eldora Speedway on June 4:
"It’s a lot of fun. The biggest part of the gratification for me is just seeing the guys that come up there and how much fun they have driving these dirt late models on a night where we get to race with guys we’re typically racing with every week. But we get to do something a little different, and that takes the edge off I think."

Here the NASCAR Newscast: Dover Preview:

All for now. I'll be back tomorrow with my pick for the race.

Congratulations to Kasey Kahne for getting a clear-cut victory. People who didn't think he deserved the win in the All-Star race, cannot think that this week. He had a great car and was at the front all night long.

I still have a hard time watching Kahne try to drink a Budweiser. It’s painful to watch and quite honestly, he needs some practice popping open those cans. It looked like he had a bit of trouble trying to open that first can of Bud. Practice Kasey, practice.

Talk about unpredictable. At various times throughout the last part of the race, I could have bet money on who would win. I also would have lost money though… Brian Vickers, Dale Earnardt Jr., Tony Stewart. In the end, all three had terrible luck.

Vickers had a tire fall off which sent him straight up to the wall. He hit the wall so hard, part of it broke. The caution was a bit longer for repairs to the wall. He had led 61 laps before that happened. His tire ended up crushing the hood of David Gilliland ruining his night as well.

Junior slapped the outside wall a few times. The first time he hit the wall, J.J. Yeley slammed into the back of him. I’m not sure what the heck Yeley was thinking. I think his spotter really messed up by not telling Yeley to move down the track to miss Junior. It sure looked like there was plenty of room for him to move down. Junior is lucky to have finished in fifth spot. He led a good portion of the race, possibly most laps led.

Those last three laps were simply incredible. Stewart blew a tire with three laps to go. Denny Hamlin tagged the outside wall with two laps to go, shredding his right front tire. Carl Edwards ran out of gas on the final lap. The flag man dropped the white flag, so he couldn’t even wave the flag for Kahne, who was leading. Here are the race results and the point standings.

I’ll just come out and say it. I’m not a fan of Denny Hamlin at all. I’m glad for his mishap yesterday in the Cup race.

Did you watch the Nationwide race? Did you see the interaction between Hamlin and Brad Keselowski on the track under caution?

During a caution lap, Hamlin turned right and drove his car up into the nose of Keselowski’s car damaging the nose of his car.

After that incident, Junior went up there and nudged Hamlin in the bumper to kind of let him know of his displeasure. (Junior owns the car that Keselowski drives)

Chaos broke out in the pits immediately after the race. It looked as though both crews for Keselowsi and Hamlin were all intertwined down there in the pits. Officials were there trying to break everything up. There were people everywhere. I was so mad watching Hamlin's interview after the Nationwide race on Saturday. Did any of you see that interview? He’s such a punk.

He basically said that Keselowski just doesn't have any Cup experience and doesn't know when to let guys go at times. He was upset that Keselowski cut him off during passes a bit too close. Guess what Hamlin? He's not racing in the Cup series. YOU are racing in his league. If you don't like it, don't race in Nationwide. It's pretty simple.

Wow. I had fully planned on updating and entry yesterday with my picks for the race but time just escaped me at work. Sorry. Here it is, what you've been waiting for... my pick for the race this week at Lowe's Motor Speedway. A guide for you to use in determining who not to pick. (I am afterall, 0-for-12 in my picks this year.)

I know, I know...the logical pick would be Kyle Busch, afterall he does have the pole, has been on fire and will take out the field to cross the finish line first but I am going with Jeff Gordon.

He won the fall race here last year and you know as well as I do, he will win a race this year. I just think it will be this one that kick starts his victories. He will be the man to beat. He has five wins here and luck is going to be on his side. Period. This victory here will be his 15th consecutive series with a win, I feel it in my bones.

Others I will be watching:

-- Ken Schrader in that fourth RCR car.

-- Clint Bowyer, of course. He's starting 39th so I will watch him hopefully move up through the field.

-- A.J. Allmendinger, I just want to see if he chest bumps his teammates prior to the start of the 600. It truly was entertaining to watch him do it the first time at the All-Star event and I think I have a desire to see that again.

-- Sam Hornish Jr., I think he did pretty well in the All-Star event so I will be watching where he is in the field I am sure.

Here's the lineup.

Who are you picking for the race winner?

NASCAR Newscast: Coca-Cola 600 Preview:

I was tooling around in nascarmedia and found this video with the preview of this weekend's race at Lowe's Motor Speedway. It actually kind of got me excited to watch it. Anyway, thought I would share. Let me know what you think.

Here's a few more stats to mention going into this weekend's race:

-- This is race 12 of 36.

-- There have been 98 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, two races per year since the track opened in 1960.

-- Estimated Pit Window: Every 50-55 laps, based on fuel mileage.

-- Jeff Gordon has five wins here. A win this weekend, or actually any weekend this season, will make it 15 consecutive years with at least one victory. The all-time record goes to Richard Petty with 18 consecutive wins.

-- Ken Schrader will attempt to qualify a fourth car for Richard Childress Racing. It's the No. 33 Camping World Chevrolet. How did this come about you might ask?

In the press release, Schrader says: “Actually, it just kind of happened. I was talking to Richard (Childress) about running a Nationwide Series race and he asked me about running the Coca-Cola 600 so I jumped at the chance, that’s for sure.” Go Schrader!

I'll be back with my picks tomorrow. I've got Friday off for the long weekend so I'll throw my picks out there a day early.

I'm still so disappointed in the All-Star race on Saturday night that I must vent a little here...

As a fan, I'd give up the option to be able to vote a driver into the All-Star event to go back to the way the race used to be run. There used to be much more excitement. Much more bumping and banging. Drivers used to actually get aggressive and excited going for the million in that 10-lap shootout.

I used to sit on the edge of my seat for the entire last 10 laps. It was pure excitement.

I'm not the only one that thinks this way. In this press release, Dale Earnhardt Jr. shares his thoughts:

"It's really a roulette wheel at the end in that pit stop, I feel like I wasted my time running those first three segments because it really didn't matter. I plea for Humpy to bring back the 40, 30, 10 laps because 10 laps, that will get things going. We need to bring it back because the races, they've been good, but they've never been as good as they were then."

Jeff Gordon's thoughts on a no-wreck event: "It’s unbelievable. I’m shocked. I’m absolutely shocked because I thought I was going to be the first caution in the first corner (laughs). I was completely sideways off Turn 2 for the first half of the first segment. I had my hands full. I thought for sure other guys would as well. So I’m pretty shocked there weren’t any cautions. I think that four 25-lap segments is a long way around this place, and you don’t have to be as aggressive to run 25 laps, so that might have contributed to it a little bit as well."

I was stunned when I read this next quote by Tony Stewart. Just stunned. It doesn't even sound like the Stewart I know.

Said Stewart:

"It’s nice that nobody had to crash tonight," Stewart said. "Normally, these things are wreck-fests. It’s nice to have one where nobody had to crash. You couldn’t run as close as you normally would, and that probably kept everybody from having problems."

I can't possibly disagree with him more. Is this an case of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" or something? This just doesn't sound like him. Now that Stewart's contract is up for for discussion, he's all the sudden going to be a "good boy?"

This race is for the fans. And yeah, and a million dollars. Maybe I'm wrong, but I can't imagine that owners go into that race saying, "Now Stewart, try not to scratch the car." I want you to race hard, but really tread lightly when racing against others, paint jobs are expensive."

I think they should drive like they're racing for a million bucks. Period.

Here are the unofficial results from yesterday's Camping World East race at Iowa Speedway.

The drivers that I have been watching finished: Austin Dillon - 2nd, Steve Park - 5th, Ricky Carmichael - 7th

Carmichael had issues all day long, so pulling of a 7th place finish is really good. According to the press release, Carmichael started in 36th position and three laps into the race he got involved in a wreck and had to stop for tires.

Said Carmichael: "When we got turned around on lap three it flat spotted our best tires. From that point on, it was an uphill battle all day."

The DEI Development Drivers, Trevor Bayne, Jeffrey Earnhardt and Jesus Hernandez, all had strong finishes. Fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.

"We really wanted to have a good run today," said Earnhardt, grandson of legendary NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt. "It’s really cool to know that all three teams ran like they’re capable of. Now we can go to South Boston with our confidence up."

The next Camping World East race is May 31 at South Boston (Va.) Speedway for the Strutmasters.com 150.

I wasn't all that impressed with the racing last night. There was no bumping and banging or anything like that, which is what I expect at a non-points race. I think the three hours or so of pre-race festivities was much more exciting.

Congratulations to Kasy Kahne for winning the million bucks and bragging rights. I hope they didn't keep him in victory lane too long. With all the Budweiser he was drinking, I bet he would have started slurring his words in no time. He just doesn't fit the image I have in my head of a Budweiser beer drinker to me...

Here are a few other random thoughts about yesterday's festivities at Lowe's Motor Speedway:

-- The burnout competition was definitely entertaining. Greg Biffle was the only driver to go out there and follow the "rules." He was also the winner so congrats to him for winning the $10,000, which he is putting towards the Greg Biffle Foundation. The foundation donates money to no-kill animal shelters.

I loved how Jimmie Johnson just went out there and did his own thing. He was doing multiple donuts, going in the wrong direction and blowing out cones. He really didn't follow any rules and it was just fun to watch. It was not what I would have expected from him which is probably why I thought he was so funny.

When Kevin Harvick finished, he stuck the nose of his car right up against the wall and roasted the tires.

Kyle Busch didn't mind the boos from the crowd. When he finished, he climbed out of his car in the middle of all the smoke and stood up on the door of the car and took a bow to the crowd, which he is becoming famous for.

-- I could listen to Kenny Wallace talk all day long. His laugh is contagious.

-- During driver introductions, I could have done without the drums. I don't think it added any WOW factor to that part of the show.

-- What on earth was AJ Allmendinger thinking? During driver introductions, most drivers shook their team’s hands or patted the guys on the back. What did Allmendinger do? He chest bumped each of his teammates. To make matters worse, he is so short that he had to almost get a running start to launch himself up to reach the chests of his teammates. It was definitely entertaining.

-- I loved seeing Dale Jarrett drive the UPS truck around the track. I mean really, how much has everyone been wanting to see that?! I have had this deep desire to see it since the very first commercial...

-- And I don't care who you are, you had to have tears in your eyes when you saw Jarrett wipe his own tears away after the National Anthem was sung.

-- That Gray Ghost paint scheme on Dale Earnhardt Jr's. car was HOT.

-- Poor Kyle Busch finally had some bad luck due to engine failure. Lucky for him no points were involved.

-- The best racing last night was between Matt Kenseth and Junior in the third feature. Great side by side racing.

-- Humpy Wheeler was wrong in his prediction last night. He had picked Carl Edwards to win it. So Humpy is now 11 out of 18. Maybe next year Humpy.

What did you think of the day's events?

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