JEERS to get us started, for the opening of the broadcast. The predictable Hollywood sign, the famous stars on Hollywood Blvd, the palm trees, surfers, and girls in bikinis playing Frisbee on the beach. Have y’all ever been to Fontana?

JEERS to a “skiing accident” that broke four of Floyd’s ribs. What must that have looked like coming down the hill?

CHEERS to a baby still on the way. I was secretly hoping baby Sadler would show up first, so congrats again to Elliott and Amanda!

CHEERS to Styx. Anyone else think one of their guitar guys looks like a heavier Ward Burton? Okay, wait… is it too late to take back the CHEERS ? They had their time, it’s apparently past, and now they just look silly playing the keyboard backwards. And aside from that, what does this have to do with racing? I guess at least they’re not as old as the Stones.

CHEERS to just one more race broadcast full of Danica news before she heads back to open wheel racing. I’m reminded of the days of JZ when we’d all be so happy for baseball season to have begun.

CHEERS to a NASCAR weather guy that has now become a “storm scout”. Don’t you wonder, though, why parents don’t always consider how a first name will sound with a baby’s last name? Sure, he’s Rick Dickert, but don’t you want to call him Dick Dickert? And if they somehow manage to tie him to the gopher, might we end up with a Digger-Dickert spot each week?

JEERS to A Slice of Pizzi. Not sure what that was, but it was even more painful to watch than the pre-taped A-Team spot with DW and Hammond last week. I hope that was a one-time deal because I might rather watch a Digger cartoon. I'm sure Mr. Pizzi is a fine stage director, but comedian he's not.

CHEERS to the mini-documentary on the history of racing in California. What do all the tracks have in common? Failure. The only question is when Fontana will fold.

CHEERS to the 1948 Woody. I do believe the assistant has that (including the surfboard) in a Hot Wheels model.

CHEERS to Kevin Harvick who makes me want to buy my gas at Shell. And CHEERS to the best placement ever for a driver interview, just in time for every one of them to walk by and push, shove, strangle, and kick Happy as he was trying to carry on.

JEERS to a five minute commercial for DirecTV during the pre-race show.

CHEERS to Jamie Mac answering last week’s win with a pole in California, and to a nice little bit of TV time for Bono.

JEERS to a bad time for the director to fall asleep. What was that?

CHEERS to the nice piece on Jamie McMurray. “The main thing is, you keep getting up; you keep climbing; you keep striving; you never quit.” Those words are carrying me right now in a way you can't imagine.

CHEERS to Orange Juice with a kick. I wonder if Whiskey River uses it for their screwdrivers. And if they get it for free.

CHEERS to pictures of Elliott and Wyatt! He’s so tiny!! There’s no better news than new baby news!

CHEERS to DW wanting to meet Clint Eastwood. That makes me think that if anyone could top Batman in the command to start engines, it would be Clint. Someone needs to make that happen!

CHEERS to some “dad time” for Max Papis. With more and more kids at the track lately, it’s coming full circle.

CHEERS to a nice invocation even if a whole family couldn’t not talk through it. And CHEERS to Zippy standing with Joey like he used to stand with Tony.

CHEERS to Katherine McPhee, but didn’t she used to have brown hair? And didn’t she also used to know how to sing?

CHEERS to Kevin and DeLana’s driver suits that bleed seamlessly into one another as they stand so close together.

CHEERS to the Blue Angels. Only thing missing was the camera shot on Bobby Labonte.

JEERS to the command to start engines in two languages?! What the heck was THAT about? Do we have drivers in the field who don’t understand those four words in English?

CHEERS to the way Mike Joy says "Juan Pablo Montoya" because he says it fast enough that it sounds as though Juan Pablo is saying it himself.

CHEERS to "nose weight" being a good thing, according to Larry Mac. That means we ought to see the 00 moving up through the field quite soon, right?

CHEERS to Juan Pablo Montoya off with an early lead. Maybe this is the first time he understood the command to start engines.

JEERS to poor planning on seat color at California. I don’t know which tracks (but I think they are the Bruton tracks) have their seats random colors so even when they’re empty, on TV they blend in with the people. There’s no denying the large sections of red and yellow seats that are empty at California.

CHEERS to the Vortex Theory 2.0. Apparently it doesn’t just keep the rain off the track, now it actually clears away the clouds and brings about sunshine!!

CHEERS to the Aflac duck waving the checkered flag. Benny would have been tickled by that, I’m sure. Maybe he could have even tried to draw a circle around him.

CHEERS to Chad finally able to tell his driver he’s in the lead. That must have been driving him nuts last week.

CHEERS to Red Bull infiltrating the Target camp. I wonder if he brought beverages for the team.

JEERS to trouble for Martin Truex. I like how just as DW tells him to check the kill button, he does. Ironic because whenever Darrell tries to call drivers on the radio, they can never hear him. Now he says something in the booth, and apparently Truex can read his mind! One thing is for sure, the trouble for that NAPA Toyota doesn’t seem to be a sticky gas pedal.

JEERS to “You’ve got Hendrick cars running second, third, and eighth… and Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s running 24th.” One would think if HMS was serious, they’d take just one car from any of the other three garages, re-wrap it, and see what Junior could do with it.

CHEERS to NAPA sponsoring the race summary so at least they’re still on TV despite the early breakage of the NAPA 56. “My best year ever, we did the same thing… came here and blew up.” We like the positive spin there!

JEERS to a little “agricultural racing” and twenty pounds of sod stuck on Kasey’s splitter. Maybe to honor the Olympics, he wanted to pirouette and the best way to describe the right side of his splitter? Curling.

CHEERS to Adam on the #1 team that took flight like Superman!  Up on the car, but clearly trying to put as little weight on it as possible, flying off, and heading straight for the tire so it didn’t get away. I wonder if he ever saw the video of Kevin jumping over a car in a single bound.

JEERS to penalizing the team over that. Would he have lost control of the tire if it (and he) hadn’t been hit by the 29? Probably not.

CHEERS to a teaser for the new GoDaddy commercial. Arlene didn’t tell him he couldn’t take his shirt off! I wonder if she’s since begun telling him each time he leaves the house, “Oh, honey? Keep your clothes on today.”

JEERS to “Our DirecTV pit whip.” Is that the name of the spot, or a new title for Dr. Dick?

JEERS to a blown engine for JPM, and another statistic maintained… lead the first lap, no point in planning your victory interview.

CHEERS to Chad Knaus, but did Krista just say he was hanging his head over the edge? Sounds like he’s about to be sick!

JEERS to a bad blow up for Ryan Newman, but CHEERS to one of the most impressive smokers ever!

CHEERS to Sam Hornish in the lead, albeit under caution, but the idea that right now the entire field is at his mercy, and Gordon, both Busch brothers, Burton, JJ, and Mark Martin could all be taken out if the 77 gets twitchy.

CHEERS to PIR’s “wild ride” commercial. That was cool! I wonder, though, how many people “get it”. Mr. Toad rides again!

CHEERS to a nice post-blow interview for JPM. Gracious about things that just happen, but maybe someone could suggest to him that his ugly shades might be cursed.

CHEERS to the wiggly slide of the CAT car through the corners, only because Burton seems to have a handle on it. Loose is fast!

CHEERS to David Reutimann being the extra four tires that Jamie Mac needed to save his car. Sure, we like giving Jamie credit, but where would his car have been if not for the 00 to intercept him that way?

JEERS to a broken axle. How does that happen at this level of racing? And Larry makes it sound like it was driver error when the car was being dropped from the jack? I dunno about that.

JEERS to fuel strategy trying to be aligned with dark threatening clouds. And if rain is so close that teams are planning for a caution or red flag or even the calling of the race, where is the storm scout? Shouldn’t we be hearing from him, or is he paid only for ten minutes’ work in the prerace show?

CHEERS to hearing “AT&T – A better 3G network” during a Sprint Cup race.

CHEERS to someone reading my mind just now, and look who’s back! It’s Dick Dickert in his ill-fitting pants!

CHEERS to Krista (because she’s just too sweet for JEERS ) apparently practicing her mime routine when the booth threw it to her.  

JEERS to seeing the Bud commercial with guys bringing a round back in seven different ways, and feeling sadness now instead of amusement.

JEERS to Scott Speed being low on fuel and having to keep up with the pace car. Apparently the same rules don’t apply to him as to Greg Biffle in Kansas.

JEERS to some kinda ugly in the California sky. So much for “sunny Southern California.” Wow, look at the size of that water drop on the camera at the start!!

CHEERS to a shout-out for Rancho Cucamonga!

CHEERS to Tony Stewart who hasn't been spotted in the top 10 all day, suddenly making a run for the leaders.
 
CHEERS to the showing of RCR cars in the top five all day. Burton and Harvick jockeying back and forth, and I'm not sure I even have a preference, but it would sure be nice to see Richard Childress hugging someone in Victory Lane.

CHEERS to Reutimann being the good sport that he is, and not wrecking any of the guys that insist on running into the left side of his car. But what would we expect from him? “I love love.”

JEERS to a spinning Keselowski, but CHEERS to natural consequences. Keep smashing into the side of another car that way, and your own tire gets a tidy little cut in it.

CHEERS to the mental picture of Hammond in “his house slippers with the little bunnies on them.”

CHEERS to watching a battle for second, though I don’t know why they don’t hook up and try harder to catch the leader… like they are right now. Nice timing!

JEERS to hitting the wall. I wonder if NASCAR scooted it out to ensure JJ's win to make up for the broken track last week at Daytona. A speeding ticket for Harvick and a free green-pit for the 48 weren’t enough, apparently. Put THAT in your conspiracy pipe and smoke it!
 
CHEERS to two RCR cars battling for second, and three finishing in the top 10. Richard Childress might be BACK, baby! And if Happy has a good year this year, maybe he won't leave after all?
 
CHEERS to "on the edge of our seat" racing at California. Just as the Saturday race produced a fantastic finish, so did the Cup race. Even when it wasn't the outcome we were rooting for, it was exciting nonetheless. The hardest defeat to accept is one of driver error, but when Harvick leaves his home state with the points lead, we can't be too disappointed.

CHEERS to DW wearing his pink shirt, even if it’s a week late. I wonder when he’ll catch up to the rotation of color coordination in the booth.

CHEERS to the gracious post-race interview by Kevin Harvick. And CHEERS to Steve Byrnes, “You’re the points leader now!”

JEERS to calling it “that Chase window” when we’ve just finished the second race of the season.

CHEERS to three RCR cars in the top five points standing!
 
And finally,

CHEERS to a 33% win rate for Jimmie Johnson at his home track, and what better place for the 48 car to get his 48th win? While we'd expected a yawn-fest, the racing in Fontana was better than we remember in recent years, right down to the finish that had us rooting for an upset. I'm not sure what happened, but maybe the excitement in the race is directly proportionate to the emptiness of the stands? Either way,  the track produced two great finishes in two days. Hooray for Hollywood!

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