Welcome, gay NASCAR fans! What a week it was in racing, friends! It all seemed to fit together, somehow -- the end of the road (this year) with that terrific FOX broadcast team, one of those very un-NASCAR road races, and the end of the line for Winston Cup, all in one week!

Sorry to be late posting my update: I've been away. This week I watched the race from my very favorite position: FLORIDA! Dixie and I motored down to the gorgeous new Fernandina Beach home of our dear friends Janet Smith and Grammy Award-winner Sue Pie, and what a time we had! Thanks ladies -- y'all rock!

We saw lots of fellow NASCAR fans on the road; I'd say the #3 still dominates, followed by the #8. But the #24 has his fans on the highway, too.

The press going into last weekend was about how many drivers hate the road course events -- that was pretty much our vote in the beach house, also. It looks like Sonoma and Watkins Glen both sit in very pretty countryside, but it's hard to imagine watching a race over a 2-mile course that spread out, and with the hills and all, and keeping up with it. I reckon most folks just set up a picnic by the track and drink themselves silly while they watch the cars go by that one spot! But the fans all seemed to be having a good time, anyway, and I was at the beach, so anything suited me...

Robby Gordon got his career second Winston Cup victory on Sunday, but he also got a load of bitching from teammate Kevin Harvick and from Jeff Gordon, both of whom he passed heading to the yellow flag at lap 71 of 100. Jeff Gordon called Robby's pass "ridiculous." Robby said he didn't care what Jeff thought, and then Kevin took the extraordinary step of releasing a press statement Monday night in which he called Robby's comments "an embarrassment" and said Robby "should care what a four-time Winston Cup champion [Gordon] thinks about him." Robby, Kevin said, "has shown how he wants to race me. I promise I'm going to race him like he wants it from now on -- teammates or not." Woo! I'm keeping my eye on you fellows -- especially you, Kevin!!!

WINSTON STAMPED OUT

Of course, this week's biggest NASCAR news happened up in New York City (!), where they announced that Winston Cup racing ends in November, and the new season will be the NASCAR Nextel Cup. If you're like me, you may be wondering, "What is this Nextel?" Turns out they are the fifth largest wireless communication company and have 11 million subscribers. I don't know if they are even in the South, though.

Personally, I think this is a big mistake all around. Everyone knows these new phone companies come and go endlessly -- who's to say this Nextel phone company will have the same name or even be there next year? What's going to happen to the brand value of the Sunday race if its name changes every year or two? (Like the names of banks, cable companies and so forth?)

Plus, NASCAR and Winston go together like -- hell, like racing and smoking. They're both dangerous; as "lifestyle choices," they're both baffling to the uninitiated. Yet both are fun, and both have millions of fans. The freedom to make range of choices -- to sit within spitting distance of a racecar going 190, to puff on a cig, to be a man in a dress -- is really what America is all about, I think. Without that freedom, we are are the mercy of our society's dreadful "big nurse" impulse, in which preachy types will be, as my friend Daisy Chain likes to say, "mother-henning us to death!"

I feel that we should treat our beloved speedways like nature preserves: We should keep them like they are. The speedway isn't church, and it isn't Epcot. If you can't deal with smoking, drinking, whooping and tit-flashing, fine -- stay home, or go mall-walking. Winston's presence served to frighten off those who can't deal with rowdy fun. Without it, we'll have to try harder to keep Cup racing safe for the party dawgs among us.

SEE Y'ALL NEXT YEAR, FOX BUDS!

Y'all, we like to have bawled when the FOX team signed off at the end of the Sonoma race! Darryl Waltrip looked like a pitiful little boy at the end of vacation when he sadly acknowledged that it was "time to give it over to the other guys" and said the fact that the FOX team wouldn't be able to bring us the rest of the race for the Cup "makes me want to cry." Poor DW! It's even worse for all your fans, like me!

At this point in the season, for y'all newcomers, NBC takes over -- and their coverage in the past has been ultra-sucky. I certainly don't know any fans who prefer NBC's coverage to FOX's. (Why, one night at a Daytona Beach gay bar, a colorful tippler told me "they're going to take it away from NBC if they don't shape up!" Well, that was two years ago; I've never seen that drunk again; that bar is CLOSED; and NBC is still holding onto the last half of the season!)

Anyway, though, I'll give anybody another chance, so let's us hope NBC has changed its concept this year into something more like going to a party and less like a trip to the car repair shop.

GAYTONA.COM IN THE NEWS!

Welcome to all y'all new track pups sniffing around Gaytona.com after reading about us in the press! Christopher Tkaczyk included us in his cute article on gay NASCAR fans in The Advocate; then my favorite tabloid, The STAR, put me in a crazy story (called "Gaytona!") about Jeff Gordon's divorce and all "those" rumors. And on Sunday, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran a beautifully written and researched article about the site and yours truly on the cover of the sports section! Thanks to Michelle Hiskey for a super-fun story!

But let me tell you -- the STAR interview was a trip because I did it on the cell phone at Salon 500, where I was having my regular Thursday appointment! Alex, the reporter, tried his best to get me to say that now that Jeff Gordon's divorce is final, the gays are just flocking to him. Can you imagine? I told him I knew no such thing, and in fact I was getting mail from some fans saying kick Jeff off the team! Anyway, they gave the site a nice mention and attributed my semi-quote to "a prominent source in NASCAR's gay-fan community." Now you know, OK? Alex also said his questions about gay NASCAR fans kind of freaked out the NASCAR publicity guy, who later accidentally sent the STAR an e-mail he'd meant to send to some NASCAR executives -- said he didn't think there was anything to worry about with this tabloid story!

AT THE HALF...

NASCAR pals, our fantasy team is doing great as the season rolls through the halfway point. We've got six boys -- Matt, Jeffy, Jr., Mikey, Kurt and Kevin -- in the top ten points positions, with Tony and Mark lurking at 11th and 12th spots. Even with all his bad luck, Ryan is at 17th, and Jamie is bringing up the rear in 22nd place but roaring toward winning 'Rookie of the Year". Not bad at all! Go team!

Winston Cup's winningest driver is our boy Kurt with three races, followed by Ryan with two. Mikey, Matt, Jr., Jeff and Tony have one win apiece.

I agree with DW -- this is shaping up to be an incredible run for the Cup. Pack some extra vodka, honey, because it's going to be some wild times at the speedway!

Remember -- I'd love to get any pix and commentary from you lucky dawgs who are going down for the Daytona race!

See y'all at the racetrack!

PS -- HAPPY GAY PRIDE, EVERYBODY! Y'all party hard and play safe!