When Dale Jr announced his new ride, my friend the Hendricks Motorsports fan, told me that Hendricks would rue the day they let Kyle Busch go to make room for Dale Jr. I laughed her off. I was definitely not quiet last season about hoping that Jr would sign with Joe Gibbs Racing, and admit slight disappointment that he didn’t. When Joe Gibbs Racing announced that they were picking up Kyle Busch I was skeptical. The kid’s got attitude (hey he is only 22- I can call him a kid)– not that my driver Tony Stewart doesn’t. As a matter of fact attitude is part of the reason I love Tony.

When I heard how strong the Toyotas were running at the Daytona testing, I started to get a little excited (Ok- a lot excited). Overall at Daytona, Tony ran sixth fastest and Kyle ran thirteenth fastest. Then they started testing at Las Vegas this week and Kyle was fifth fastest yesterday morning and the fastest in the afternoon with Tony right on his tail with second and third fastest (testing in both 20A and 20B). This morning Kyle is right up there at third fastest again. I am beginning to think that Kyle Busch was a wise investment afterall. What you have to remember is not only are Tony and Kyle dealing with the new COT cars…but they have changed from Chevy to Toyota.

This being said I really can’t wait for my NASCAR season to start. After watching parts of the Rolex 24 I am itching for my NASCAR fix. I cringed when I found out that my sister-in-law’s baby shower was the same day as the Bud Shootout at Daytona (that signals the beginning of NASCAR season to me). This is the year I am attending my first ever NASCAR race! GO TONY GO!