I wanted to share the following sneak preview with you. The infamous Coca-Cola “brand managers” have returned to the race track, unleashing their latest attempt to sabotage Coke Zero and the NASCAR® drivers who promote the brand’s REAL Coke taste and zero calories. After humorously failing in previous commercials to solicit help from the drivers in keeping Coke Zero from taking the checkered flag and further encroaching on Coca-Cola’s turf, the brand managers have switched tactics by offering to “help out” this time. They go on to suggest that the drivers, including the likes of Tony Stewart, Jeff Burton, Greg Biffle and Denny Hamlin, “use the one part of the car that no one has bothered to use for sponsorship yet” – the windshield – to make a bold statement for the Coke Zero brand. The brand managers elicit a wide range of reactions as they pitch their idea to members of the Coca-Cola Racing Family and drape a giant Coke Zero sticker over the windshield of their cars, covering it almost entirely. The ads were loosely scripted, allowing for plenty of give-and-take between the drivers and the improv actors portraying the brand managers. Two 60-second versions of the Coke Zero “Cover Up” spot will debut during the TNT race broadcast of the Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola on July 4th at 7:30 p.m. but you and your readers are invited to see it today along with behind-the-scenes footage from the making of the shoot. Visit http://tinyurl.com/cokezerocoverup.

I've never done this, and I picked a heck of a year to start. It has been an edge of your seat off season if you are a junkie for NASCAR news like me. I'd like to think I'm an up to date kinda guy when it comes to NASCAR. If a NASCAR question comes up at he office, I'm the guy they ask (not very regularly, and usually it's a joke like,"Which way do they turn again?"). Hope they don't ask too many for a few months as I get used to new drivers in new cars with new sponsors.

I guess the easiest prediction would be to say that the Jimmie Johnson Juggernaut will continue to roll. What's to say he can't go on winning as long as the combination of him and Chad keep at it? I used to give the majority of the credit to Chad for Jimmie's success, but I'm beginning to believe in the chemistry thing a bit more. The unspoken words between the two are worth a thousand spoken. The ability to be best friends/family and professional business partners is something very few can pull off. Sorta like a mullet. You know; business in the front, party in the back. Jimmy and Chad have that. Maybe even better than Tony and Zippy or Jeff and Ray had it.

Along that same line, I believe that Jr. will have another mediocre year. He'll win a few and make the chase, but I don't believe he'll progress in his quest to win a Cup championship. His relationship with Tony Jr. is just not what it needs to be. I can't describe it to you, but I hear it in there voices when they talk on the radio, and so can Mr. Hendrick. We'll see how many times he has to step in on their conversations this year before he decides this has got to change. It's not going to be easy, and the wailing and gnashing of teeth by the Jr. Nation will be huge. But I believe after a few sleepless nights, he'll wake up one morning and smell the proverbial coffee. They'll be a nice niche for Tony Jr. somewhere else in HMS.

I about wrote the season off as a test session for Tony's new team until the announcement of Darien Grubb as his crew chief. I can only hope that their level of chemistry is somewhere in the rang of the three mentioned above. If they can get near that level of communication, I believe there's a chance for Tony to get into the chase. We know that Darien has seen these HMS cars before, and Tony has the raw talent. Lets hope that the last peice falls into place.

I was listening to Sirius NASCAR Radio (which I do all the time now) This morning, and they asked people to call in and act like a Secret Santa. What would you get your favorite driver for Christmas. So I called in and added my two cents. I thought I'd blog about it now.....

My gift to my favorite driver wouldn't actually go to my favorite driver per say. My gift would be whatever secret setup book Chad Knaus has that makes that Jimmy Johnson Chevy fly magically appear under the Christmas tree of Darien Grubb. I'm sure this little book of tricks is hidden away somewhere, even from Mr. Hendricks. He's got some plausible deniability on these secrets, and likes it that way. Tony and Rick are good friends, but Rick isn't in it to give away wins. Open books only open so far in some cases. I'd like to think they'll open all the way, especially given the fact that the testing ban could hurt Stewart-Haas Racing more than most. New team times new chassis divided by no testing just doesn't add up to me (I'm real bad at math).

Anyway, I'd like to add that I love Sirius NASCAR radio. I've had satellite radio since XM first came on the air. I've always liked it, but I love it now. I love Dave Moody's show. Before listening to his show, I could have gone a few weeks without satellite. Now if it broke, I'd go buy another that day so I could hear his show that afternoon. I call in as Dave from Dover every once in awhile. One day I might try to get a shamelss plug for my web page.

Move that soap box over here.......

I've heard a lot of griping on the NASCAR channel of my satellite radio about the last 30 or so minutes of the race being switched to another network. I myself consider this a minor inconvenience, as I had to make sure it was on the right channel when I turned on the TV anyway. If you have a TV that just automatically tunes to the race, drop me a line with the make and model. Otherwise, you had to do the same thing you did when you turned on the TV in the first place to watch the end of the race. Big deal; quit your wining. If you missed the end of the race because you weren't paying enough attention to notice, you weren't really watching the race anyway. NASCAR's ratings aren't going up either. A trend that they TV people are probably watching when they make their decision to cut to another channel. I'm sure they used the situation to make as much money per second as they possibly could. Don't think that's going to change under the new administration. No redistributing of the wealth is coming from that.

If I had to place the blame on anything making the race so long that the network had to consider switching networks, I would blame the tow truck drivers that cleared the two cars that had joined together in what appeared to be some sort of mating ritual. I watched some guy from the safety crew with a fire extinguisher stand in front of the exhaust pipe which was on fire for a good 30 seconds before he decided that the thing in his hand could possibly help with the situation, and finally put out the flames. Then a 20 minute red flag to clear a few cars off the track? If that had happened in NYC, they wouldn't have had to throw the caution. A crew would have cleared that before they picked up the pace car on the next time around. What are they trying to do out there? Hook up to the front car and pull it one way, the back car the other way, and drag them off the track. The cars are wrecked! No ones gonna say, "Man, this car is in remarkably good shape after that other car landed on top of it." It's gonna need a lot of new sheet metal no matter what. Grab on to whatever piece of the cage is closest to the tow truck, and haul it outa there. I can deal with a 60 minute caution to fix the safer barrier or to attend to someone medically, but for a wrecked race car? A truck with a push bumper could have plowed them off the track in seconds. a little bit of speedy dry, and we're racing on the same channel we started on.

The Dover race was the best in recent memory. The weather was perfect all weekend which left rubber on the track for the cup cars to play with. Tony didn't waist much time climbing through the field behind Montoya, but couldn't seem to get around him. On the first long run, he was able to out drive most of his competitors as the handling of the cars went away. Some people might say his car was better on long runs, I wish that had been the case. With the big Red car behind him, it was time to follow the ATT car around for awhile. Just like before with Juan Pablo, he was able to pass every car Jeff Burton was passing, but not able to get around the 31. He was stuck in an average 11th position. I'm sure it was frustrating to be able to pass all those cars, but not pass the only one he needed to. The car was doomed to finish 11th. His last challenge was Michael Walthrip. Again able to keep up with the 55, but not able to pass him. The NAPA car did run good, and I'm not a big MW fan. Mike finished 10th, and Tony finished 11th. Never a threat for the lead (even Mikey led a lap!). That might seem like a good run for the chase, but Jeff Gordon averaged a top 5 in the chase last year and finished 2nd.

The black hat villain (Kyle Bush if you just started watching NASCAR yesterday) blew up and the crowd went wild. The white hat hero (Jr.) blew a tire and the crowd cried out. The Roush cars ganged up on Jimmy and treated him like a high school chess player. They pretty much gave him a weggie and took his lunch money, all in half a lap. And last, Robbie Gordon didn't disappoint by taking out Jamie McMurry in what would have probably been a top 5 car. All in all and epic story of agony, defeat, and an 11th place finish.

Always a fan of the VA boys in NASCAR, I'll post this info sent to me from ATT about Jeff's support for the Olymipc games.

AT&T is celebrating Team USA as it prepares for the 2008 Olympics Games in Beijing by introducing a new paint scheme for Richard Childress Racing’s No. 31 AT&T Chevrolet, the racecar driven by NASCAR Cup Series veteran Jeff Burton!

Last Thursday (6/5/08), Jeff Burton circled Pocono Raceway in the new paint scheme, which features the AT&T USA five-ring logo and images of U.S. Olympic Team hopefuls gymnast Nastia Liukin and swimmer Michael Phelps.

Click Here for images of the event and the new No. 31 paint scheme.

AT&T is proud to continue its support for NASCAR and Team USA. Burton, Liukin, and Phelps are all doing amazing things this year, and we look forward to their future successes!

Also, Team USA enthusiasts who want to stay connected to their favorite U.S. athletes such as Liukin and Phelps should be sure to check out AT&T blue room to enjoy webcasts of events and exclusive interviews with AT&T U.S. Olympic Team hopefuls. Both Liukin and Phelps are featured in AT&T Tips and Training program episodes, which provide fans access to sport-specific training tips from select U.S. Olympic Team hopefuls.

I watched my first Dover race from the stands this year, and 17 laps was all it took for it to go bad. From our seats in the middle of turn of 3 and 4, 16 rows up, we could see all of the track with the exception of a short section right in front of us, as it was hard to see over the wall. We had pretty good seats for lap 17, though. We saw Elliott Sadler come out of turn 2 sideways after contact with David Gilliland. Dover being the “Self Cleaning Track”, Elliot didn’t stay up against the outside wall. Another quirk of the Monster Mile is it gets narrow coming out of the turns. These two factors gave Tony not much of a chance to avoid Sadler in the first place. He came out of turn two where the normally fast line has you drift up towards the wall. As the 19 car started to slide down to the inside, I imagined Tony staying high and cruising around and continuing the race. That dream did not materialize. “Go low” is what I heard on my Fan View Scanner. Tony’s spotter didn’t have the view we had. We could see right down the back stretch, and the spotter had to look over the garage area to see what was happening. And go low is what Tony did; right into the side of the Best Buy car.

We had a full and fun weekend, even with the race ending very early. We did TrackSide Live on Friday, watched part of the Nationwide Race from the pits on Saturday, and had good seats for Sunday’s race. We met some new friends who were more than just a little hospitable, letting us park and hang out with them at their RV. We enjoyed watching Joey Legano race, and bought the first of probably many of his souvenirs. He looks like he could make the Joe Gibbs racing stable even more powerful than it is now. No pressure, Joey.

As I watched the Nationwide race last night, I didn't once again fall for the drama that the announcers try to build in to the race. "The top 12 cars don't have the fuel to go the distance", they'd say. "By our calculator, they're short 4 laps." Well, your calculators suck. Not only did they finish the race (and they almost always do), but the winner did 14 burnouts and 22 victory laps (I'm exaggerating, of course).

The teams know that if they run out of fuel, they ain't gonna finish in the top 25 or so, and they'll come and get fuel. Please leave the drama to the teams, drivers, the track, the weather, or whatever real life quandaries that actually might have some effect on the race conclusion. I don't mind your opinion, after all it's part of you're job (and worth a lot more than mine), but I'd rather you state it and move on. Put your calculators away up in the booth. If you were that good, you'd be on a pit box.

That said, Kyle Bush continues to show his talent as a driver. He also had a crew chief that somehow knew those old tires could hold off a charging Denny Hamlin. I'm sure that kind of tire strategy might end up in tonight's race.