Tommy Ellis, 1988 BGN Champ, was sentenced to prison for 18 months for tax evasion. 235 races, 22 wins, 108 top-tens, and a championship. Post-racing career: Car Wash Operator. If NASCAR is opposed to retirement programs (since drivers aren't employees), I wonder if they couldn't at least put together a pamphlet of how to invest wisely for retirement.

Wondering where ESPN's NASCAR Now show is this week? Pre-empted by Little League, of course. Just one more example of why SPEED is a better choice for your daily NASCAR news. Check out Race Hub with Steve Byrnes as the new host starting August 16th. Every Monday-Thursday at 7pm ET. And there's no Little League.

When I think of a fourth driver at RCR and who would best mesh with Burton, Harvick, and Bowyer, I don't ever think of Paul Menard. I wonder how many in Earnhardt nation look at this as a promising move that gets RCR up to four teams so they'll be ready for Junior to move after his HMS contract is up.

I have to admit to being unfamiliar with Kentucky Speedway, and was quite excited at the idea of a new track in the series. But then I saw it. Mile and a half oval? Really? Why was I thinking it was a short track?

It seems the Australian press has all but moved Marcos back home. He's not ruling it out, but says his heart is in NASCAR. I guess this is the downside to having guys come from other series - they sometimes decide to leave. It's not often that a driver who came up through the stock car ranks decides, "Yeah, I'm just gonna go back to ARCA." First Dario and now (maybe) Marcos? If he leaves, I wonder if it will affect how easily fans attach to the next foreign driver to come our way.

Okay, anyone can have a color changing car like Jeff Gordon used to have, where it changes depending on the angle from which you view it, but Jamie McMurray's color will be changing with the temperature under the hood! It's to illustrate how the scent of AXE Twist changes over time. That started me thinking, though... if it starts out smelling like citrus and changes to a woodsy smell, wouldn't everyone know how long ago you showered?

And if they can make a whole fragrance line to change that way, wouldn't it be smarter to change from citrus into a soap smell so that six hours into your day, you'd again smell like you just showered?
I'm still wondering what precipitated the departure of Jeff Dickerson from Kyle Busch's team, aren't you? Then again, maybe what we should wonder is what took him so long.

Seventeen races and counting without a Ford win this year.  I wonder who'll be the hero for Team Oval. (And you can vote in the pole in the right side bar -- see how close we come to a good prediction.)

Tony Stewart will have a "back to school" theme on his car this weekend from Office Depot. Among the items that will be on his car are listed, "a fun rendition of every parent's back-to-school shopping list, complete with pens, pencils, crayons, a laptop..." Okay, wait... a laptop? Every parent's back-to-school shopping list now includes a laptop?? Looks like I got out of the schooling business just in time!

An excerpt:

The Nationwide race this week is called the Bubba Burger 250. It doesn't seem too long ago when a name like that would have been forbidden by the governing body trying to distance themselves from all things redneck. And having never heard of Bubba Burgers, I did a little checking. They aren't a fast food place, as I expected. Turns out they're in your grocer's freezer. I wonder why Target carries them, and Walmart doesn't. I'd kind of expect the other way around on that one.

600 red balloons will be released to kick off the Coca-Cola 600 month of May at Charlotte Motor Speedway, so if you're in the area on Monday, look skyward around 1:30pm. I wonder if the fans that will be in attendance were pre-screened for latex allergy.