Michigan is one of the tracks that I honestly don’t have a feeling for one way or the other.  Its a d-shaped oval…and it is what it is.   Its not one of my favorites (like Bristol and Martinsville and Vegas) and its not one of my least favorites (Pocono).  Now if Michigan wants to move up there on my list of track love…it needs to give Team Home Depot a win. (YES A WIN!)  I know that my boys (Team Home Depot) have moved up in the points thanks to back to back second places but there are still four races before the chase and I am still petrified that we will have a really bad race or two (queue that Bad Day song …you know the one from AI) and drop completely out. I may have some sort of ulcer by the time the Chase gets here.

• Stewart Haas racing is set to announce the driver of the #4 car (the second car and thus Tony’s new teammate for 2009) tomorrow.  The best unkept secret is that its going to be RYAN NEWMAN (current driver of the #12 Penske car).  I hope they tell us sponsors too…I have heard several different things including Burger King.
• Saturday will be Tony Stewart’s last run in the #20 Nationwide car for Joe Gibbs racing in the CarFax250. Not only that but Tony will be running a special paint scheme (something Tony doesn’t do very often) for GIVE KIDS THE WORLD Village!  Now it’s your turn to help:  Whether or not your are a NASCAR FAN: If you have a few spare dollars please click on the FIRST GIVING box on the right there (UNDER SPEED UPDATES)  and help GIVE KIDS THE WORLD (which sends families with critically ill children to a fun family resort in Florida- cost free to the families). By supporting GKTW you are helping create magical memories for families. And to answer your question, yes…I have donated…go ahead and check the list of donors..you will see my name- (twice actually because I forgot I had some extra dough this month).
• Will some one please tell me how a driver who has won eight races (Kyle Busch or as my friend and I refer to him: KyBu…not to be confused with brother KuBu) but hadn’t won one recently can be considered to be having a “slump?”  I mean come on, if you considered that a slump I don’t want to hear what you have to say about Tony being winless in the SprintCup series so far this year.
• Speaking of Tony- I like to read the pre-race articles that TonyStewart.com puts out before every race…mostly I admit- I scroll to the bottom to see what kind of luck we have at that particular track if any.  But I have to say that I LOVE the one that was written for MICHIGAN.  It’s all about the attitude in that first line:

“They’re unfocused.  They’ve lost their edge.  They’re not on the same page.  They’re already looking toward next year.

Whatever.” [source: TonyStewart.com]

Now that is attitude.