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pdog on vay-cay

Pardon the interruption here, but I'm on vacation with the fam. Race notes for the Texas races are iffy. The rumors that I am in Tijuana with Roy Hobbson are mostly false.

Nationwide Race Starring Kimi up 23% from 2010

The ratings for the NASCAR Nationwide race Saturday are in. The event featured Kimi Räikkönen in his first stock car race, wherein he amused us with radio talk of hot feet and an empty water bottles.

From ESPN PR who continues to think ratings are YOUR BUSINESS ..

ABC’s live telecast of the NASCAR Nationwide Series Top Gear 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday, May 28, earned a final national rating of 1.6, averaging 2,457,000 viewers, according to the Nielsen Company.

The rating was up 23 percent from last year’s race, which also aired on ABC and earned a 1.3 rating.

Across ABC, ESPN and ESPN2, the NASCAR Nationwide Series is up 16 percent in ratings over this point last season.

Pippa's Most Excellent Indy 500 Adventure (Except for the Bloody Awful Pain Part)

A big shout out to Pippa Mann for her formidable diary-writing skills, on display again with her most recent Racer.com post here.

Driver blogs/diaries seem to be in vogue these days, but Pippa's always stand out. WHY? Because she writes them herself -- I know for a fact -- and they are very candid and sincere. You can almost hear Pippa speaking in her British voice as you read it. Kind of like letters to the family.

Plus Pippa remains dedicated to producing regular updates, which is key and where a lot of drivers tend to falter. It's easy to crank stuff out when things are going well or you have tons of stuff going. It's also easy to take a pass on making the effort when things are going not-so-good or nothing presents itself as an easy topic.

Building a relationship with fans means on-going, continuous effort, an area in which Pippa gets full marks. Thrill to Pippa's description of her Indy 500 experience HERE.

Danistar Sponsor Predicts She's NASCAR Bound

Danica Patrick's Sugar GoDaddy, Bob Parsons, hasn't been short on comments about Danica's potential NASCAR future.

Parsons talked about it with ESPN here, and was also quoted in a USA Today story here.

Danica herself has declined to comment on her plans for 2012, saying only all he options are open. Most observers would be shocked if Danica did not go to NASCAR full time, most likely in the Nationwide series.

Parson makes it clear in the articles above that he'd sponsor her wherever, and gives Danica a lot of credit for helping drive GoDaddy's growth from $300 million annually to $1.1 billion.