Welcome, gay NASCAR fans! Chicago is one of my Absolut favorite towns, and the speedway there certainly served up some exciting action this weekend! Congratulations to the DeVine 91/2's Ryan Newman, who drove his #12 Dodge to a dominating victory. What a crazy season for Ryan -- he's flipped over; he's burst into flames; he's won three Winston Cup races -- and he's still only 16th in the points. How wacky! His three victories tie him with Kurt Busch for most wins this season -- nobody else has hit it more than once so far!

Going into the weekend, all eyes were on Kevin Harvick, who had won every Winston Cup race (two) run at this new track. Kevin ran well but gave out of gas with about three to go. Interestingly, he and Ryan had pitted on lap 198, but Ryan had the juice to go all the way and Kevin didn't. Don't bring it back on E again Kevin; and keep up the great racing because you're gonna win one soon!

Dale Jr. had a bad day -- he complained that his racecar was too loose, and later spun all by himself, slamming backwards into the wall in a wreck that finished his day and knocked him down to 3rd place in the points.

But that wreck was nothing compared to the blazing crash that erupted from the #18 car of Bobby Labonte. There was some wrecking going on at lap 215 and Bobby just barely got a piece of it -- but it was enough to send him backwards into the wall, setting off a roaring blaze. His car rolled down to the apron and he scampered out, but we were way scared! Y'all boys be careful, now!

Our darling Jamie McMurray really showed out early in the race -- one time he was in 2nd chasing the #20 car, another time the #24! Let others fret about whether this new speedway had developed its outside groove -- Jamie was out there swinging on it, thank you very much! And he finished in 8th, so that's cool.

The "Simulated Cat Fight of the Week" goes to Michael Waltrip and Jimmie Johnson -- Mikey got righteously testy when Jimmie raced past the 15 back to the line under caution, instead of following the "gentleman's agreement" about that. I've said plenty of bad things about NBC (and it's only their second race this season!) but I want to give them due props for setting up a post-race interview in which Mikey and Jimmie talked out their feelings about what had happened. The guys each got in a plug for their respective stores (NAPA and Lowe's), agreeing, after their spat, they'd keep shopping at both. Then the announcer said something about how nice it is that two men "can have a serious disagreement on the track and then go out shopping together" -- then Mikey and Jimmie strolled off, arms across shoulders, like best buds! Y'all it was so cute!

ELLIOT'S GROOVY SUMMER

Friday night on QVC's "For Race Fans Only," we enjoyed seeing Dan Hughes welcome the adorable Elliott Sadler. Woof! All sprawled out across a director's chair, that Elliott looked like the best kind of trouble, I'm telling you! And the #38 M&Ms car was all glorious in a trippy "Groovy Summer" paint scheme -- nice! And on Sunday, Elliott (who finished 9th, between Jamie and Jeremy!) slipped into a very bright tie-dye shirt for his post-race interview. Groovy summer, yeah baby! Made us want to head to the World's Most Famous Beach -- how about you?

SENATOR HITS THE TRACK!

It's great to see Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) sponsoring the "Bob Graham for President Ford F-150" of Jon Wood, who drove it to his first-ever win in NASCAR Craftsman Truck racing. Let's see some more Democrats sponsoring racecars! We've been saying all along that the race fans, the gays, the blacks, and all the other assorted rebel groups should unite to defeat Bush. It's great to see Sen. Graham working to get the word out at the speedways. As the prez or the VP candidate, he could really help the Democrats get Florida, which as we know, is already wired to go the other way.

(Personally, at this point, I am backing Howard Dean because he is the most unlike Bush. And I LIKE the part of him that people say is snappy or mean -- it's about time we had some Democrats who will stand and fight instead of crying in the corner with their dress up over their head, like Tom Daschle, or turning into a shocking scalawag, like Zell Miller!)

PRIME TIME JR.

The two-hour Dale Earnhardt tribute concert from the Daytona International Speedway could have used more stars like Sheryl Crow and less like Hootie and the Blowfish, but it was still a nice way to pass last Thursday night. Our favorite was Kenny Chesny, although he didn't sing "A Bottle of Wine and Two Dixie Cups." It was really outstanding when he got Jr. on stage for a verse of "Back Where I Come From." June Bug sounded pretty fine too!

Theresa Earnhardt announced the bands, most of whom she called "my friends," and she did a good job with it. But y'all, does anyone else find it unsettling that there was never any mention of Dale's eldest son, Jr.'s half-brother Kerry? I mean, we know he's not the phenom Jr. is, but he's still family, and anyone can see he looks more like Dale than Jr. does. So why not a little more love? Just a thought.

ALL ABOUT JAMIE!

In a recent Turner Sports Interactive interview, Lee Montgomery asked Jamie McMurray about whether he has time for "fun things" with girlfriend Cielo Garcia. "We don't get to do it a lot," Jamie said. "I'm not really a big 'go-out' person. Cielo likes going to a movie theater, and she likes to go eat dinner. On our off weekend, we go to do that. So, two movies in less than a week, I'm hoping I earned some brownie points with her."

Jamie was also asked whether, after his fresh-faced arrival on the Winston Cup scene last year, he was still "kind of wide-eyed" at it all. Jamie said he "never knew what stress was" until "I bought this house, and I thought I was going to be a contractor. I got grumpy. For two weeks, I was terrible to be around, just fighting with everybody. Cielo and my mom. Donnie, Glover kind of reminded me that I'm doing something I love and not to get upset about all this stuff. We're getting to do something that everybody would love to get to do. They reminded me of that. I just keep reminding myself of that. I have the best job in the world."

What a sweet attitude on this kid! Jamie, we love you and want to help you win! Where's my bottle of Sauza Hornitos, Cherrelle? I gotta help Jamie!

If y'all stopped by earlier in the week and my column was unfinished, I apologize. I had some computer problem; something about a bad kernel. (It's like a bad lieutenant, but higher ranking.)

Let's all get together for the New England 300 this Sunday! See y'all at the Track Bar!