Now I realize this is superficial, fangirlish, and a little on the obsessive side but I like to have fun when I write. These are also based solely on my own opinion. If you don’t like it, well honestly, I don’t care.

12. Kurt Busch – Now I don’t know how anyone can find this face attractive. I mean his ears stick out, his cheeks look make him look like a little packrat. Ever seen him when its raining? Then he’s a drowned packrat.

11. Denny Hamlin – Only two words can describe this picture: deranged psychopath. Sexy. Or not. Sometimes, he has this element of ugly cuteness but then others he looks like…well this:

10. Mark Martin – Ok, so he’s one of the greatest drivers of all time. Definitely one of my faves. I adore him but let’s face it, pointy nose, wrinkly skin, and that icky 50 year old 6 pack he’s got. It’s just kinda gross.

9. Brian Vickers – The dude looks like a leprechaun. Pointy ears, goofy grin and all. He’s sweet and soft spoken but the guy’s attractiveness level has just plummeted since his Garnier days in 2006. Can we please have Gillette Brian back? Kthnx.

8. Carl Edwards – I’m so going to get shanked for this but I don’t care. My blog, my opinions. I just don’t find this man all that good looking! He honestly looks like he could use some braces. And I say that with the greatest respect. I’ll give him this. He has very pretty eyes.

7. Jeff Gordon – Pretty eyes, nice facial features and looks downright sexy when he poses for Halston ads but he has NO LIPS. Just look!

6. Juan Pablo Montoya – Cute, short, angry little Hispanic man. Need I say more?

5. Kasey Kahne – He’s so precious and sweet, like a little China doll! Sometimes I wonder what a guy that’s so pretty is doing driving race cars! He could be a Backstreet Boy or a model.

4. Ryan Newman – Sure he’s a little chubby and one of his nicknames is No-Neck Newman, but he’s got the sweetest little smile! And his eyes dance when he laughs. He has a great personality and sense of humor. What’s not to love?

3. Greg Biffle – He may not be the most photogenic guy on the circuit, but he sure is good looking. With pretty, sparkling blue-grey eyes and a killer smile, the few photos of him that come out looking good are so worth it.

And could we lay aside the braces jokes for a few moments?

2. Jimmie Johnson – Except for a brief period of time where he grew out his beard and then proceeded to let several children all under the age of 10 shave his head, this man is one of the sexiest men I’ve ever seen. He really could use a brow wax though. Just sayin’.

Of course he cracks me up with his antics. I think if he hadn’t pissed me off in 2006 when he won the Daytona 500, I’d probably be a big fan.

1. Tony Stewart – Sexiest man in the Chase. And as you can see, it isn’t just looks I am going by here. A great personality also helps. I don’t care if he’s chubby, I kinda like them on the chubby side. Tony has chocolate brown eyes that could melt the polar ice caps and is basically one of the funniest men ever. Even if he is inclined to grab men’s behinds.

When 50 year old Mark Martin announced he would run full time in 2009 with Hendrick Motorsports, I expected a come back of sorts. Never did I imagine it would be this way. With four wins so far this season, Martin leads all active drivers with in wins. Come the chase, should he remain top 12, he will have 40 bonus points to Kyle Busch’s 30 and current points leader Tony Stewart’s 20.

Martin dominated the LifeLock.com 400, leading 195 out of 267 laps, a track record. With just two laps to go on the final restart, Martin raced to the finish and took the victory just .415 seconds ahead of teammate Jeff Gordon.

“That was fun!” Martin said during his post race interview. "That's what life's all about right there. These guys deserved to win. We could have parked the car [Friday] with an hour left in practice. I knew it was awesome.”

Martin was followed by Gordon in second, Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart, and Denny Hamlin. The unexpected victory bumped Martin up two spots, putting him back in the chase, though he is in 11th currently. Kasey Kahne moved up four spots with his surprising 3rd place finish to 8th place. Gordon gained about five points on Stewart who still leads the Cup series points.

Well since I have many blogs to write, I thought instead of writing six, I’d reduce it down to just four and put a recap of all the races into one post.

Before I get started, I want to send out my condolences to the Benson family. NASCAR Camping World Truck series driver Johnny Benson was involved in a fiery crash while driving a supermodified on Saturday night. He was pulled from the wreckage “awake and alert” and taken to a local area hospital where he was listed in ”serious but stable” condition. He was upgraded to “fair” on Monday and is reported to have a few broken ribs but expected to make a full recovery.

Camping World Trucks- Michigan

Race winner Colin Braun only led 24 laps in the 100 lap truck race at Michigan. He was able to snatch the lead away from Kyle Busch who made a mistake heading in to turn 2. Busch lost his momentum and was never able to quite catch Braun again.

"It was cool to beat Kyle, and it was also cool to beat Toyota here," Braun said.

Highlights: Rookie and polesitter Brian Ickler finished third in only his fifth start in the series.

Top five: Braun, Busch, Ickler, Crafton, Skinner

Nationwide Series- Kentucky

One year ago a barely legal 18 year old won his first Nationwide race at Kentucky in only his third start. As Joey Logano headed into this weekend, his hopes were to celebrate the anniversary in style by becoming the first repeat winner in the series. He got his wish.

While Kyle Busch led the most laps at 162 out of 200, his car became too tight at the end and he was unable to hold off his teammate, Logano. Logano came back in spite of a pit road speeding penalty on lap 71 to win the the race and become the first repeat winner at the speedway.

"It's really cool," Logano said. "This place is one of my favorite race tracks. It's one of those places that just suits you. To win two-for-two here, that's really cool for me and the whole team. I guess that's the first time anyone's ever done that here, so it's pretty neat. We've got two poles, two wins -- perfect record here, so that's pretty cool."

Highlights included 27 pit road speeding penalties, most of them on exit. Rookies Gaughan and Allgaier finished 4th and 5th respectively.

Top five: Logano, Busch, Keselowski, Gaughan, Allgaier

Sprint Cup Series- Michigan

Michigan is infamously boring and well known for always turning into a fuel mileage race. Jimmie Johnson dominated much of the 200 lap feature, leading 146 laps. On the last lap, race leader Jimmie Johnson ran out of gas, handing the lead over to Greg Biffle. Biffle ran out of gas also on the backstretch and Mark martin inherited the lead. He ran out of fuel coming off of turn 4 but it was enough for him to coast to the win.

When Jimmie ran out [approaching the stripe to start the final lap], I said, 'I want to run hard! It's three-quarters of a lap. What can happen? I can surely make it.' And we ran out coming off of [Turn 4]. I can't believe we won this thing."

Highlights: um…

Top five: Martin, J. Gordon, Hamlin, Edwards, Biffle

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that our recent race winners aren’t the ones you’d normally expect to see running up front and winning? Sure, we expect to see Jimmie Johnson challenging for the lead at Darlington but did we really expect to see him challenging Mark Martin for the lead? I know I really didn’t expect that!

I think its pretty refreshing, actually, to see guys like Newman and Martin up there. Here are two guys that no one expected to be running so well in their first year at a new team. Then you have your surprising Daytona 500 champion, Matt Kenseth.

It’s also been fun to watch the rookies this year. Brad Keselowski won his first race in only five starts in Sprint Cup. That maybe be our biggest surprise yet but then again, maybe his talent was grossly underestimated. He had a fantastic 7th place finish at Darlington, a track not well known for being kind to rookies. Joey Logano finished 9th at both Talladega and Darlington.

How about Kurt Busch? I don’t think he’s run this well in years and now he’s sitting behind Tony Stewart and points leader Jeff Gordon in third place.

I honestly expected this to be another season where I’d sit back and expect one of three winners to be in Victory Lane but so far, Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch have only won a combined total of 4 races out of the 11 we’ve run this season.

This is how NASCAR should be! This is fun and exciting and its become less of the Kyle/Jimmie/Carl show this year. There are cars and drivers out there that a year ago weren’t competitive at all and you see them now running top ten, top five, and really contending for wins.

So here’s to an exciting 2009 season and hopefully victories for some other “little guys”.

Talk about déjà vu. I sure hope that this will be a recurring theme in the months to come. It seems surreal to me, I am not sure why. I woke up this morning wondering if Mark Martin really won that race or if it was only a dream.

It wasn’t in dominating fashion that he won. It was definitely different from Phoenix where he led several times. Martin took the lead, by default, on lap 322 when he, along with six others, stayed out after a caution. Martin led the next 42 laps and won the race but what shocked me the most was how he almost effortlessly held off a charging Jimmie Johnson.

Johnson seemed to have a very strong car on the restart and caught Martin several times going into the corners but he could never quite make the pass. It was pretty amazing to watch the action. Most definitely one of the best races I have seen in a long time.

I just love to watch Martin race. He is a clean, good racer. He knows when he has a good car and drives it hard, just like he did on Saturday night. Watching him hold off a much younger man who was running him down hard was just amazing. Its wonderful to see him back on top and driving the way I knew he could all along. This is the first time since 1999 that Mark Martin has had a season with more than one race win. However, people tend to forget just how close he’s come several times to that very elusive win that he finally claimed this year at Phoenix. I could bring up the one that should have been his but I won’t…

At any rate, I don’t think you can argue with the fact that Mark Martin is one of the best there is. He has a total of 92 wins across all three of NASCAR’s top series, 37 of those wins have come in Cup, 7 in the Camping World Series, and 48 in Nationwide. He jumped from 15th to 11th in the standings and he has got a real shot to make the Chase this year, even contend for the Cup Championship. He had a rough start to the season but the win at Phoenix shot him up from 18th to 13th in the points standings. He dropped back a bit after that but he is back in the hunt now and I believe that he’s going to stay there and I really do believe he will make it to the Chase this season.

It was so cool to watch some old school style racing on Saturday night at the Southern 500. I have loved every minute of watching Mark race and I hope we’ll see many more wins from him this season!

Tony Stewart may have been one of those guys the media feared but tonight, he handled his runner up finish to veteran Mark Martin with class and style.

“The last three weeks have been amazing- its been so much fun. We’ve been in contention,” Stewart said after the race during a media interview. “There’s no shame in losing to a guy like Mark Martin tonight. I mean, I don’t think there is anybody that’s not a Mark Martin fan.”

Kind of makes you wonder though if there is shame in losing to anyone else? Tony goes on to say:

“It was an awesome night for our organization and an awesome night for Mark and I’m really happy for him.”

Stewart seems to have matured a lot, especially when it comes to dealing with the media. He gracefully handled things tonight which probably earned him a lot more respect from fans. Either way it is easy to see that not only has Tony grown and matured but he holds only the highest respect for Mark Martin.

After a 97 race winless streak, Mark “The Kid” Martin proves he still has plenty of race left in his treads.

At the tender age of 50. Mark Martin became the second oldest active driver to win at NASCAR’s top series. In nearly two years racing at DEI in the 8 car for a partial season in 2008  and he couldn’t quite get it done though he ran very well and I won’t even bring up the 2007 Daytona 500. It has only taken Mark 8 races under the banner of Hendrick Motorsports to win in that number 5 car. And he did it in style.

Mark led 157 of 312 laps, including the first one in the Subway Fresh Fit 500 on Saturday night. He also became only the third driver in NASCAR history to win from the pole at Phoenix International Raceway. Jeff Gordon did it first in the Spring race in 2007 followed by HMS teammate, Jimmie Johnson in the Fall race of 2008. Add yet another Hendrick driver to the winning from the pole list with Mark Martin.

Mark Martin’s last points win came in 2005 at Kansas. He’s been in the hunt for that elusive win ever since and has come very close several times but always came up short.

Mark- You are a total class act and earned a well deserved win tonight. Congrats from MM Nation!

Its a known fact that NASCAR commentators, fans, and media tend to focus on “certain” drivers that may or may not be good but they cause a lot of drama and talk. Now I’m pretty certain I don’t need to mention any names- we’re all pretty aware of those drivers I’m talking about.

You know the ones I mean too. The ones that are handsome, have famous last names, talk a lot of crap about a certain tire company, and cause a lot of talk when they take out other drivers *you know the ones with the famous last names*.

But what about those guys that finish well all the time, contend for championships, and don’t cause all the drama? What about guys that consistently finish in the top 10 and 5 and are all around drama free guys. But nobody wants to hear about those guys?

Well I’ve compiled a list here of the top 5 drivers that I think are the most underrated NASCAR Cup Series drivers.

5. Clint Bowyer

2007- 3rd in points
2008- 5th in points
46 career top 10’s
17 career top 5’s
2 career wins
15.8 average finish

In his short career in NASCAR, this driver from Emporia, Kansas has achieved a nice looking resume. On top of his cup stats, he currently stands as the defending Nationwide Series Champion. Look out for him in 2009, it could well his breakout year.

4. Jeff Burton

1993- ROTY
1997- 4th in points
1998- 5th in points
1999- 5th in points
2000- 3rd in points
2006- Victory at Dover in September was first victory since October 2001 at Phoenix. The Dover win vaulted Burton to the top of the Chase standings, a position he held for four weeks
212 career top 10’s
117 career top 5’s
21 career wins
15.9 average finish

Jeff’s come back year in 2006 was one for the books. He broke a nearly 5 year winless streak with a dominating win at Dover and finally found himself in the Chase for the Cup and back in contention for the championship. He’s never won one, but have no doubt that he will break the curse and go on to win at least one, maybe more, in his career.

3. Greg Biffle

2005- 2nd in points
2008- 3rd in points
79 career top 10’s
48 career top 5’s
14 career wins
17.1 average finish

Something that bugs me and undoubtedly many others is the way Greg is always referred to as a “dark horse”. Why is that? The media likes to pretend guys like Biffle are worse drivers than they actually are but this guy won the first two races of the Chase and went on to be a serious contender for the championship, finishing 3rd overall in the standings. Watch out for this guy- he will be a dark horse no more this 2009 season.

2. Mark Martin

Mark Martin
1989- 3rd in points
1990- 2nd in points
1993- 3rd in points
1994- 2nd in points
1995- 4th in points
1996- 5th in points
1997- 3rd in points
1998- 2nd in points
1999- 3rd in points
2002- 2nd in points
2004- 4th in points
2005- 4th in points
396 career top 10’s
243 career top 5’s
35 career wins
13.4 average finish

They call him “the Kid” but Mark Martin is far from it. He’s an old veteran to NASCAR but he’s lost none of his edge. In 2005, Martin ran his last full season and finished an impressive 4th place in points. Not bad for an old man who was pushing 50. Now he’s running full time in a Hendrick car with teammates like Dale Jr., Jeff Gordon, and Jimmie Johnson. With that kind of power under the hood and teammates that have the impressive resumes those guys have, how can he not be in position to win some races, even that elusive championship?

1. Matt Kenseth

2000- ROTY
2003- Won championship
2006- 2nd in points
2007- 4th in points
164 career top 10’s
90 career top 5’s
18 career wins
14.9 average finish

You could say Matt came out number 1 because that’s the only finish he’s known this year so far but there is far more to it than that. The boy can drive. I’ll be the first to say I hated to see him win Daytona on a rain call but given those extra 49 laps or so, I believe he could have won on his actual merits instead of the way he did win. It was all luck of the draw, that one was. But Sunday’s race at California was no luck. That was pure, raw talent. Watch for more of it this coming season.