Welcome, gay NASCAR fans! Tony Stewart must have heard some of my grumbling that he was being a boring champion, because he racked up his second win of the year Saturday night, dominating under the lights at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Congratulations, Tony! It was another big night for the DeVine 91/2 -- our little fantasy team grabbed seven of the top 10 spots (1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10). We've also got seven guys in the top 10 points: This week Tony Stewart grabbed 7th from Bobby Labonte, while brother Terry Labonte took 9th from Kurt Busch.

Night races on TV are one of my favorite excuses to get Our Crowd together, and Saturday night we sure did it up mighty fine with an evening of booze, racing, food, racing and booze! It's so much fun to see those racecars getting all sparky, and the flashbulbs in the stands glittered like 140,000 diamonds! It was really something.

The preacher Saturday night was Father Dale Grubba, and he said a nice prayer. Delivering the National Anthem was the fabulous Monica! (Monica is probably best-known for her terrific duet with Brandy, "The Boy Is Mine." Brandy is best-known as the star of "Moesha," which was such a funny, funny show until it got all serious and preachy. Then, just like an alien spaceship swooping down to rescue the worthy, Kim (Countess Vaughn) and her mama Nickie (Mo'nique) spun off safely to "The Parkers," on UPN on Mondays @ 8, which has been one of the funniest shows on TV for several years. It makes me laugh so hard -- check it out!)

Carmen Electra gave the start command (first to a special #3 tribute car, see below) and then, with the help of some UAW-GM honchos, to the field. The last time I saw her, she was a "Simpsons" character who participated in an elaborate scheme to make Homer think he was sentenced to death!

Going into the weekend, much of the press concentrated on the "plight" of the #17 -- could points leader Kenseth, who had lost 38 percent of his lead in the last two weeks, catch aholt of things again? Could someone else possibly wrest the top spot, and the coveted final Winston Cup Cup, away from Matt? Matt's lead was 259, with six races to go. But in 1991, Alan Kulwicki trailed Bill Elliott by 278 points with six to go -- and Alan won the championship. Matt's 8th place finish helped quiet those doubters, though.

You have to ask yourself what Kurt Busch is going through these days. It's almost like his good luck turned bad after the incident at The Sharpie in Bristol, when a hail of boos greeted his victory at his sponsor's title race. This week, Kurt brought out the first caution with a bad, smoky spin. He saved it masterfully, but but later had a flat at a bad place, had to drive around to pit, got blocked from going in the pits, had to drive around some more, and finally boinked into the wall and tore the car up. Boy, did he look mad! Poor Kurt.

Elliott Sadler is not on our fantasy team, but I love him because he's hot in that Southern big-boy countrytime kind of way! Elliott has been having the worst luck, what with flipping out at Talladega and frying out at Kansas. This week, it took a significant part of the armed forces to take Elliott out. First Mike Skinner in the Army car got into Elliott -- the M&Ms #38 survived -- and then the National Guard car of Todd Bodine finished him off.

WHAT WERE THE ODDS OF THIS?

Saturday night, there was an emotional moment when Richard Childress drove an old Earnhardt #3 Monte Carlo around the track before the start. All the fans were on their feet, flashbulbs popping, as the #3 raced around, leading the field.

But get this -- before that, the show was opened by 3 Doors Down, who did their hit "When I'm Gone" while the TV showed images of current and former NASCAR stars. Dale Earnhardt was featured prominently, of course. Then, right during it, our local NBC station flashed up the numbers for that night's Cash 3 drawing. And do you know what they were? 3-3-3. I am not lying, and I was not drunk that early in the race! We like to have fell out! Go on www.galottery.com if you don't believe me!

OUR FANS ARE BETTER BEHAVED!

You know, NASCAR fans sometimes get clocked as crazy, fight-having people with no class. Well honey, I never saw anything at the NASCAR track that topped all that carrying-on Saturday during the Yankees-Red Sox game! Fans fighting so bad they had to close down the beer sales, and all that fighting on the field, I mean, really! I'm glad I follow a high-class kind of sport -- how about you?

Thanks for visiting this week, and thanks to everyone who's been writing in. We're looking forward to the Atlanta races weekend after this one. Meanwhile, let's all get together on Sunday for the Martinsville 500! See y'all at the Track Bar!