As the season comes to a close less than 30 Cup cars have full time sponsorship in place. Auto manufacturers are posting losses and are expected to offer less direct support to teams in an effort to hold on to their money a little tighter. Budgets for advertising, marketing and promotions will look like they’ve been on a strict regimen of weight loss pills. Silly season isn’t looking very funny to me this year.

RB and I aren’t fans of Robby Gordon. He always seems to be involved in accidents and he always seems to be whining. Today Jamie had an outstanding car and could have had a chance to win or finish very well. Robby Gordon was a lap down and kept fighting to not go further back when he got loose sending Jamie into the wall. How I wish he’d move to another series of lose his sponsors or something, I just want him to go away.

This was Dale Jarrett’s last race, he’s now officially retired after 668 race starts. After today he will start one more time in the all star race in May at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. His first full time Cup ride was in 1987. Dale has 32 Cup victories. He has nothing but praise for his sponsor UPS, who I think has made some of the best Cup commercials out there. This week in Bristol a huge section of the grandstand held cards saying “Thanks Dale”.

Dale turned down a golf scholarship to race so it was only fitting that some of the gifts that he received included some golf equipment - a putter and 668 golf balls (one for each start he’s made). He also received a replica Revolutionary War rifle and a Bristol Club Diamond ring. Dale is beginning a new career announcing for ESPN.  he will announce during the show and Rusty will be working as an analyst for the pre-race show. Congratulations Dale, on a great career!

One of the cuter commercials that used to be shown, particularly during a race, were the Jeff Burton State Farm commercials. The commercials weren’t so much direct pitches for car insurance as they were a cute pr infomercial approach. In one commercial Jeff Burton tells his rep how many accidents he’s had. In another he is shown telling the children to buckle up even though they’re in a hurry, followed by an elderly woman going by. In the past weeks since the Nextel season began I’ve been checking out the commercials. I haven’t seen either of these since the season started. I wonder if perhaps they’re not sponsoring this year.

Seriously. Now I enjoyed ZZ Top’s music back in the day, and still do. But as I look at them on my big tv performing live at the California Speedway for the Nascar race they look like they need to call it a day. The drummer is the only one that doesn’t look absolutely ancient. Back in the day their beards made them look funky and unique. Now their beards jut look gray and aged. They opened with Gimme All Your Lovin. The singer’s voice is, well, old and weak. They’re not hitting their own notes and sound out of tune vocally. The guitar work isn’t awful but it sounds much slower than it used to. Now they’ve moved on to I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide and it’s just bad.

I spoke with my Dad today. He and my brother are going to the race in California tomorrow, if it stops raining. Qualifying for all races was rained out and he said there’s chance of rain tomorrow as well. There’d been no word on when the race would run if it was rained out tomorrow. I hope it stays nice enough to have it, not just for me to watch it but for my Dad and my brother to go to. Because qualifying was rained out they’re starting according to owner points.

I have been waiting for this past week, including today, since November. Today was the first official race of the season. The Daytona 500. For any racing fan who’s never been to the track you must go at least once. We went in 1999 when I was pregnant with my youngest. It’s absolutely amazing. Onward. We all wondered how the Toyotas would do. They did fine. Better than fine. Junior looked good early on but it wasn’t enough. We heard less from the other Hendrick Chevys than is usual and was grateful. The best race is one where I don’t have to hear about Jeff and Jimmy.  Just when my son was ready to celebrate a victory for Tony Stewart in his new Toyota, as I bet my middle youngest brother was as well, a pair of blue Penske Dodges got by and finished one two giving Ryan his first win in more than two years and Penske it’s first ever Daytona win. They should have had their first back in 1999 when we were there when Jeff did my Rusty dirty at the end but that’s a whole different story. I was disappointed I didn’t see more of Jamie, although he looked quite cute in the prerace show where they had video of him going up in a jet. I was happy to see Kurt come up from the back in the blue deuce and push his teammate to win. Another two laps and I think Kurt would’ve gone by and won it himself, which would have made me ecstatic. Next stop California Speedway, a Penske track. I’m so happy that racing season is finally here!

Nascar Angels is a show where they pick a deserving person each week who needs their car fixed. the mission of the show, now in its second season, is to help people, fix cars and promote car care awareness. The show is hosted by my favorite Nascar driver of all time Rusty Wallace, along with cohost Shannon Wiseman. It was recently announced that the Universal Technical Institute has signed on as a major sponsor of the TV show. UTI wants to include another focus, introducing viewers to careers in automotive technology.

Sometimes the commercials put out by Nascar, Nextel and various race team sponsors are the funniest commercials around. My current favorite Nascar commercial shows a balding man sitting on a bench on a windy day. Two men going by see him, and the first man mentions “comb over” to the other. The second man replies “no, roof flap”. Only someone that watches Nascar racing would probably get commercials like these.