WOO HOOOOOOO!!!!! Good morning Gabbers, Gawkers and others. Welcome to your NASCAR update. We're a 3rd of the way into the season and lots has happened. I promise not to keep you long. So I'll get right into it.

DALE EARNHARDT JR DAY

        Yep. Dale Jr finally won his self a race. After Hendrick moved Heaven, Earth and the dwellers of 2 garages he finally got Jr a win. Sorry for the sarcasm folks if you're a Jr fan. It is a mystery to me why it took so long for that win when HMS equipment is the best in the garage area. Tony Stewart won with it. In fact he got a championship in that stuff. He buys it for himself and his team mate Ryan Newman at SHR. Between Tony and Ryan they have 3 wins this year. James Finch knows it too. He buys it for his team Phoenix Racing so Kurt Busch can wreck it every week. When Mark Martin first came to HMS for his 3 year stint he almost got a championship with what Jr deemed undrivable. 

         So I agree with Tony Stewart. It's not a national holiday because Jr won a race. Yes, Tony did say that in the media center after the race at Michigan. I can almost see a fixed championship this year. Was amazing that NASCAR didn't have one of those phantom debris cautions they're famous for at the end of the race to spice things up. Tony my most handsome Knight of the Mobile 1 would've swiped that win from Jr had that caution flown.

GOODYEAR IS GOOD?

         Tony Stewart as you may not know has had his issues with Goodyear. He was very outspoken about how bad Goodyear was. So much so that after a race one time he voiced so much venom to the camera that he got a personal sit down with the Goodyear reps. Goodyear did do some stuff that needed calling out though. When the new car was first introduced at select races there was a race. A bad race. The Indianapolis Pit Crew Challenge 500 was my name for it. The surface of the Indianapolis track is diamond ground. Extremely abrasive. It's that way to provide grip for the Indycars which are less than half the weight of a stock car. The tires wore so quickly for the race that for safety reasons NASCAR mandated that every 10 laps would be a caution for new tires. Jimmie Johnson won that race. BAD BAD BAD day as far as racing goes.

Now during the same media interview that Tony bah humbugged Jr's win, he praised Goodyear. He said that everyone in the garage area should walk up to any Goodyear rep and say thank you. Seems that at Michigan the speeds were so great during practice (220 mph) that the left side tires were blistering. So Goodyear went back to their warehouse and brought some 6 year old tires to the track. Yes, I said 6 year old tires.

All worked out well. Only a couple tire issues during the race and that was because some of the guys decided to scuff a few sets of tires. Scuffing is when they run a set of tires for a few laps then change them out and save them for a race. Scuffing changes the tire. It becomes harder. It's just one more thing the guys do to have choices on the track. New or scuffs and how much air pressure? For here or to go?

ERIC MCCLURE RETURNS

         Eric is the driver who wrecked in the Nationwide race at Talladega on May 5th. He said his breaks failed and that's why he hit the wall going so fast. He spent 2 nights in the hospital for internal bruising. So this weekend he's back in his ride and will be participating at Sonoma. Glad to see he's ok.

NO MORE FRAT DADDY

         Last year 3 investment companies bought major shares in Go Daddy. com from owner and founder Bob Parsons. The new owners say it's time to graduate from college and leave the frathouse behind. In that light Bob has hired Deutch New York to do their more business like ads for TV. 

         So what does Danica have to say? "I'm kind of excited to see what they come up with, and creativity is all about thinking new. With Nationwide, Coke, Tissot and William Rast, we definitely have all the partners that do much more safer things. As a company grows, you tend to find yourself accommodating to the masses more as opposed to be polarizing." She goes on to say that she's ready for the change and that she's turned down some of the Go Daddy stuff before. She'd like to do more funny stuff. Danica says" People want to see something new and fresh."

KURT BUSCH VS THE MEDIA VS HIS INNER DEMONS

         Kurt is no stranger to controversy. He's a mouthy punk with loads of driving talent. Most of the time I ignore him. Lately though he's been in some hot water. I lost the bet on when things were going to start melting down for him. I thought it would be July but Kurt had other plans. 

         Kurt was mad about spinning near the end of Darlington and got a bit radical when leaving his pit stall after repairs and almost hit the gasman of Ryan Newman in the next pit stall. This led to a confrontation after the race with the officials holding Kurt back and everyone else holding the gasman back. Probation and fines were handed out to the crew chiefs, Kurt and the gasman.

         Then after the Dover Nationwide race Kurt got into it with reporter Bob Packrass. During the ESPN interview which Bob was present for Kurt said he couldn't race Justin Allgaier as hard as he'd liked to because of probation. Bob asked him if probation made him feel hamstrung. This set Kurt off. He told Bob it kept him from beating the shit out of him. Kurt followed with if you really wanted to talk about racing than you'd ask me about how we got our program turned around to get this win. If you really wanted to talk about racing you'd asked me about the 1-2-3 finish of Joe Gibbs Racing. So that got Kurt on probation for the end of the year and suspended for a week.

        So James Finch told him, "You race on the weekend, you make good money and you look in the back of the shop and a guy works all year for what you make in one weekend but he seems happy. So I don't know why you're not happy and if you're not happy then you need to get happy. Because that's life." James went on to say that he would keep Kurt as his driver and they would look for a sponsor going forward together. 

         Last week was Kurt's 1st race back after suspension and he came in 3rd so that means off to the media tent for mandatory interviews. I was watching Twitter and all the journalists were counting his steps and seconds till he answered his first question. It was pathetic but whatever gets your boat to float. When Kurt got into the media tent an MRN radio commentator said on air that Kurt blew off his interview with them. Kurt walked out the back to cool off and Marty Smith with camera guy in tow of course chases after him. You know the game...Dog pile on the rabbit. So of course that exchange didn't go well but NASCAR didn't deem it violation of his parole. Of course Marty was crying about it on a video like he was really hurt. I say BS. He got almost what he wanted. But Kurt did finish his mandated media obligation with " It's great to be back in the car". THE END.

We all know the reporters and journalists smell blood in the water and Kurt is going to have to swim for his life. He really needs to find some quick defusing comments to throw out there when questions aren't going his way. Like Mark Martin....Well, that's racing......This Valvoline Cummins Ford was real fast today. I'm really sorry for the guys that we wrecked......I'm still having fun.

SONOMA

         This week is a road coarse in California. Sanoma. Wine country and racing. I'm expecting Jeff Gordon to get that monkey off his back. Not The Gabs own Johnny Monkey but a bad luck kind. He's been plagued with engine failures and flat tires and such. I picked Jeff along with that awesome Aussie, Marcos Ambrose, Clint Bowyer and Brian Vickers who will be driving in the #55 for Mark Martin. Mark is taking a vacation. I'm now #1 in the Yahoo fantasy league point standings and 2nd in my work place fantasy league. Kicking ass. Yes I am.

JUST MIND BLOWING

         I got an e-mail from Twitter with a tweet from somebody named JustMindBlowing. Funny stuff. Not sure if it's a group of people of one person but I thought I'd share some of his tweets with all of you and maybe you can have a giggle too.

Why do they lock gas station bathrooms? Are they afraid someone is going to clean them?

Regular heart beat ^------^------^ When I almost drop my phone : --^--^--^--^--^

What doesn't kill you makes you smaller ~ Mario

B.U.F.F.E.T. Stands for big ugly fat fucks eat together

If a tomato is a fruit then ketchup is technically a smoothie

When you're stressed, you eat ice cream, cake, chocolate & sweets. Why? Because stressed spelled backwards is dessert

How do you know Asians robbed your house? Your cats gone, your homeworks done and they're still backing out of your driveway.

Chuck Norris was born May 6, 1945. The Nazis surrendered on May 7, 1945. Coincidence? I think not.

B I T C H = Beautiful Individual That Creates Hell.

Nicki Minaj : Pink Hair, Katy Perry : Blue Hair, Rihanna : Red Hair & Lady GaGa : Green Hair.....THE FU^KING POWER RANGERS ARE BACK!

ANOTHER THOUGHT

Some of us are irked that Rush is still not in the RnRHoF. Did you know that every month this year there is a Rush day? Why yes there is. This month it was 6- 21-12. Next month it will be 7-21-12. Month after 8-21-12.THERE'S ONE EVERY MONTH THIS YEAR!!!!! IT'S THE YEAR OF 21-12's........Oh yeah. Can you hear the opening riffs of Working Man? I can.......

Thank you all for stopping in. Hope you enjoyed the update and random stuff. Seems I'll be here every Sunday now just for the summer. Will be looking forward to bringing you the NASCAR news and other unrelated thoughts every week. Have an awesome day..........