Man alive - what in the world was up with last week's "Wally's World?" Before all NBC and TNT race broadcast, we are entertained by Wally Dallenbach's "Wally's World." A ride-along segment where race fans get to see what driving around the weekend's track is like. Lately, Wally brings in certain people to ride with him to spice up the segment. Last weekend in New Hampshire we had to have seen the worst "Wally's World" ever! Robin Meade, a CNN Headline News anchor joined Wally for fun SPIN around the track. One word describes the entire segment - annoying!

Shane Hmiel, driver for Busch Series team Innovative Motorsports and the son of DEI's Steve Hmiel has found himself in an embarrassing situation. NASCAR has indefinitely suspended Shane for failing a drug test violating NASCAR's substance abuse policy.

Something makes me believe that after the Richmond race, something sparked NASCAR's interest to put Shane under the drug test microscope. It was in Richmond where Shane punted Jason Keller into the wall late in the race. Rumors had Jason waiting for Shane after the race, some type of altercation took place which then led to penalties for both drivers.

The bigger question is since the drug test and now suspension happened after the incident in Richmond you have to ask yourself was substance abuse the contributing factor to the Jason Keller run in? We may never know, but I would guess that it did play a factor.

Even though I am extremely disappointed in Shane, I am very impressed with how NASCAR is handling the issue. NASCAR has said that Shane is out of his ride indefinitely or for him to return, he must undergo counseling and agrees to periodic drug testing. This is an issue where NASCAR cannot rule with a gentle hand, but rather come down hard on competitors for violating the drug policy. I applaud NASCAR for showing Shane the door, however because he is proving to be foolish in his young decisions, allowing him a second chance to clean up his act before getting behind the wheel of a stock car is actually quite forgiving and he should appreciate NASCAR's forgiving spirit.

If in fact Shane did race while under the influence of a drug, then if I was NASCAR and he is allowed to return, I would FREAKIN test him before every race! If I were one of his competitors, I would DEMAND that NASCAR test him before every race! If tough policies about drugs are not enforced, why even spend another cent of safety? If Shane did race under the influence of a drug, to be honest on my watch - no matter how talented a driver is, he would be done - period! The act alone of racing while under the influence of a drug is one of the most selfish, disrespectful things to do to another competitor.

Okay - if your reading this to see if I am going to SPIN OUT Jimmie and his team for stealing last weekends race after getting away with a rule violation of having too many men over the wall during one of his pit stops you'll be sadly disappointed. If you think I am going to SPIN OUT Jimmie's crew chief for getting away with going over the wall during the same pit stop without a helmet when that would be a rule violation, again you'll be sadly disappointed.

As someone who follows the sport in depth, I know how hard it is to find sponsorships. I have also been taught that no matter what you do, don't burn your bridges especially when you are dealing with sponsors. You'll never know when you will need their money!

After Jimmie pulled the #48 Lowe's Chevrolet into victory lane, NASCAR placed three small bottles and one large bottle of Powerade on the roof of Jimmie's car. Once Jimmie got out of his ride and before he could begin to celebrate, he pushed all four bottles off the car in obvious disgust. Powerade is an official sponsor of NASCAR, but Jimmie is a Gatorade endorser, so instead of showing respect for both sponsors Jimmie in a very immature fashion crossed the line of jeopardizing NASCAR's relationship with Powerade.

It would have been very easy for Jimmie to leave the Powerade bottles alone and sip on his Gatorade while he spends time on television. As a matter of fact, Powerade pays good money to have their bottles on the roof of NASCAR winners. Jimmie took matters into his own hands and by tossing their bottles off his roof, cost Powerade and possibly NASCAR thousands of dollars.

Could you image if all drivers went to the extreme of sponsor bashing as Jimmie did last weekend? HECK - Ryan Newman won at Richmond and Chevrolet sponsored the race. Ryan drives a Dodge, but the trophy and a guitar given to Ryan had the Chevy 400 logo on them. What if Ryan smashed them or brushed them off to the side so they could not get their proper acknowledgment? Soon sponsors will get the hint - stay away from NASCAR!

NASCAR needs to make it perfectly clear to drivers - stop bashing rival sponsors! It absolutely hurts the sport! As matter of fact, in the best interest of NASCAR, Jimmie should apologize to the Powerade folks for disrespecting them and their sponsorship. Jimmie needs to learn that people are looking at what the winning driver is doing while on TV and all he had to do was keep taking a sip of his Gatorade and the Powerade bottles sitting on the roof of his car would have never been an issue.

Sponsors spending millions of dollars on marketing their products through NASCAR, especially when they pay to be an official sponsor of NASCAR will reevaluate their marketing strategies and walk when they are flat out abused.

If you are a digital cable subscriber and a NASCAR fan you know all about NASCAR In Car iN Demand. It seems that my cable company here in Michigan has a channel solely dedicated to marketing this unique sports package. The folks at iN Demand have Rusty Wallace walking us through what we get when we purchase the package and for your everyday NASCAR freak like myself the temptation of pulling out the old plastic is at times weakening.

I've only taken advantage of the FREE weekends that iN Demand has offered. Before I spend the big dollars on the package I wanted to get a feel of how it works and to see if I am comfortable with dedicating my time during a race to riding around with a few selected drivers.

Even though I found it very interesting, trying to go back and forth to FOX or NBC to watch the race made the package less attractive. However, when FOX or NBC went to a commercial break, it was nice to be able to go back to in car racing.

The freak that I am found it necessary to move a smaller TV into my living room so I could watch the race, while on the big screen watch iN Demand. The wife didn't like the extra TV in the living room, but WOW - I was getting the best of both worlds.

Even after the test proved to be successful, I felt that paying the $129 for the package wasn't in my best interest due to my schedule. Well, now here we are with less than half a season to go and I was thinking about treating myself to the package. However, I certainly didn't want spend $129 for 10 races. Come to find out iN Demand is offering a half season special! YEP, $89 for 10 races. YEAH RIGHT!

At the beginning of the season, iN Demand had a $99 early bird special for the package, then it went to $129, an average of $2.75 - $3.58 a race depending on what package you purchased. The half season package averages $4.94 if you truly purchase the package at mid-season. Now today with 10 races left, if you purchase the half season package your looking at over $8.00 per race and the per race price keeps increasing as the season progresses. This is truly horrible marketing!

I am not sure if NASCAR in Car is profitable for iN Demand, but I would think that the product would be more marketable if after mid-season they came up with a per race price like they do with the $3.99 pay per view movies they sell. I am sure the majority of us who didn't purchase the full season NASCAR in Car package, but would like to check it out, would purchase the product per event to meet our personal schedules. Seems iN Demand has forgot about the little people here.

They give the perception that they would rather punish those who didn't purchase the full season package at the beginning of the year, instead of attempting to maximize customers by offering many purchasing options. They have taken the "want it all or none at all" attitude and for delivering such a unique, highly marketable product, I am surprised that they don't recognized the value of potential customers. If the product lives up to its expectations, people who buy it per event will come back and purchase it again. Customers that see the true value in the early package purchase will do it in advance. But, iN Demand should stop punishing those of us who would rather pay per event instead of paying for events that we will miss due to vacations and other reasons. In addition, when a potential customer emails their customer service department asking for pricing information, a simple reply of thank you or call us is better than no response at all.

I have written about this subject before, but I am more aggravated about this past weekend's race and how NASCAR can just pass out probation after probation. I am convinced that NASCAR is probation drunk!

As many of you know, I love good short track racing. I also like it when a driver can stick up for themselves and their team members when they have been done wrong. I say there is nothing wrong with a driver showing emotion. I say nothing is wrong with a driver going up to another driver and letting them know that they're an idiot! I would much rather them do that, than hold a grudge and punt someone into a wall causing possible injury.

Kevin who normally holds nothing back when being punted into a wall was put on probation last year for an incident with Greg Biffle during the Busch Series race at the Bristol Motor Speedway. Greg punted Kevin hard into the wall and after Kevin exited his destroyed racecar decided to wait on top of his Pit Box for the race to end. After the race ended and Greg made his way onto pit road, Kevin was waiting for him with a few choice words. Did it cause a crowd? HECK YES! Of course it did.

RCR and Kevin Harvick walked away with a destroyed racecar and on probation. Kevin said this last year about the run in with Greg, "There's no way I'm leaving this race track without telling somebody that just intentionally put me into the fence and tried to knock me out of the way how I feel." Can someone explain to me what is wrong with what Kevin did? I can tell you, that if you or I were in that racecar and we just got slammed into a wall at 100+ miles per hour, we'd be just a bit angry. We'd want to tell the person who did it that we did not appreciate it. But in today's NASCAR we can't or they would throw us on probation!

Now here we are another year, Kevin is once again punted into the wall and for making a huge production of speaking his mind to Ricky Rudd, the driver who punted him, Kevin is once again placed on probation. No punches were thrown and actually they didn't even get all that close to each other. If NASCAR wants to fine him, then fine him. If NASCAR wants to scold him, then scold him. But, to place handcuffs on a driver by placing him on probation for showing emotion and yelling at a driver who just put you into the wall is down right wrong.

The #29 team members who damaged Ricky's car by jumping on the hood got what they deserved, fined and suspended. What they did was totally unacceptable. But, NASCAR, you and I can't expect these drivers to hold it all in and think that they will meet up next week to talk about what happened at the last race. All Kevin was doing was what he said, "I was hot and I wanted Ricky to know that."

NASCAR felt they needed to do something and they did, they pulled out the probation stick and pointed it ever so loosely. From Busch Series drivers who showed emotion without physical harm to Kevin Harvick, they made their point perfectly clear - hold it in and take it out on the person on the track!

This is what happened with Kurt Busch and Jimmy Spencer. Did we ever see them last year have it out on pit road? Did we see them yelling at each other? No! They kept it to themselves, shared it in the media and then took it out on each other while on the track. Do you think if Jimmy wouldn't have hit Kurt in Michigan that we would have heard Kurt's comments on his radio? No! These two drivers bottled their emotions until Jimmy couldn't control it and it lead to physical violence. This is what NASCAR is doing by not allowing drivers to show emotion on pit road! By restricting heated arguments after the race, NASCAR will force drivers to rethink their retaliation strategy.

People talk about how someone will get hurt on pit road by allowing driver-driver heated conversations. But, I argue that someone is going to get killed on the track if they force drivers to hold it in and take it out on the person their mad at while racing. Let them yell it out, as long as there is no fist flying, all is good people!

The second line NASCAR crossed is that they are so inconsistent with their judgments. During last weekend's Busch Series race, what happened at the end of the race should have never happened. Why you ask? Because if NASCAR was consistent with their penalties, Matt Kenseth should have served a penalty on pit road for hitting Johnny Sauter in the rear end under caution. NASCAR penalized Jeff Gordon for doing the same exact thing to Robby Gordon back in 2001. So, if NASCAR were truly consistent, Matt would have never been in position to win at the end of the race.

I've got to ask, is John Darby's group lost in la la land? My gosh, anyone with a brain knows that if a driver gets punted toward the end of the race, he'll be looking for the guy who did it after the race. Where is the prevention? Why isn't NASCAR being proactive in dealing with driver tempers? In reality, they are setting these drivers up for failure. They react by dealing out probations and that takes away from a driver's ability to maintain their style. Everyone and their mother knew Kevin was mad, why wasn't NASCAR there to assist in the matter before it got somewhat out of control. They're reactive instead of proactive and we all suffer!

Robby Gordon said last weekend about Jeff Burton and their deal, Jeff should bring two cars next time and he was going to wreck him. If justice can't be found in dealing with a situation on pit road with simply yelling and harsh words, then drivers will resort to taking it out on competitors while on the track and then turning around saying it was a racing deal. In the end, someone will get hurt and it'll be a shame that NASCAR ignored the big picture!

Before we get bumping, I must get something off my chest. I am hearing that the #66 shop is now out of business. I won't say I told you so, but the folks over at Travis Carter's #66 team can send me one of those REAL nice Hallmark E-Cards saying how sorry they are for giving me such a hard time last year. Last year, I wrote about what a BAD idea it was to put Hideo Fukuyama in their car.

Even worst, TC put all his cards on the table for Hideo and the "possible" sponsorships that were going to jump on the Hideo to NASCAR bandwagon. Instead of going down to the Busch Series and rebuilding his organization with a young talented driver, TC made a bad business decision and it has now bit him in the BUTT! Oh man the emails I received from their team! The truth hurts and now today reality has set in. Could you imagine what would have happened if TC went down to Busch, secured a sponsor and signed a Brian Vickers or a Scott Riggs. He could have been BUMPING up to CUP next year and enjoying the wealth of a good, sound decision. Oh well. By the way - you guys have my email address for that e-card!

Like many in NASCAR, I spend a ton of time in the Motor City. Revenues from the Big Three help support my professional career, so maybe this is why I can sympathize more with the manufacturers about drivers going from one manufacturer to anther between NASCAR series.

Jason Leffler, a Dodge truck driver in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series has moved up to the Winston Cup Series to drive a Pontiac for Haas-CNC Racing. Ultra Motorsports owner Jim Smith who owns the Dodge truck was at odds with Jason about going from a Dodge to a Pontiac and those in the Dodge camp were also miffed.

Many are criticizing Dodge for their hard stance with Jason and feel Dodge Motorsports put truck owner Jim Smith in a bad situation basically making him dump Jason. But in my eyes people need to realize, this is a business and just like with a sponsor, drivers need to be obligated to those they represent. If you are a Dodge, Chevrolet, Ford or Pontiac driver in one NASCAR series then make sure you follow suit if you venture to other NASCAR series. If you can't drive the manufacturer of your primary ride in another NASCAR series, then don't do it. Make the decision to stick with main ride or move on. It's really that simple.

In Dodge's defense, why would they allow one of their drivers to drive another manufacturer? Would Budweiser allow Dale Jr. to go to the Craftsman Truck Series and drive for Coors or would Cellular One allow Joe Nemechek to drive the Cingular Wireless car in the Nextel Cup Series if something happened to Robby Gordon? I am sure they wouldn't. The driver or owner would have a serious decision to make. In the eyes of the manufacturers, they've invested just as much into their specific teams as a sponsor would on their specific team. Is it too much to ask for driver loyalty?

I am all for Jason moving up to take advantage of a situation that puts him in the top NASCAR series. But, you can't have it both ways. If both teams would have been Dodge's, then it would have benefited all the parties involved. However, that's not the case and they did the right thing by terminating the relationship.

It holds true for our friend Greg Biffle. Greg's situation is a bit more confusing and many do not understand how he is getting away with it. Word on the Motor City streets is that Ford will put a leash on Greg next year because Roush is allowing him to venture down to the Busch series to drive a Chevrolet. Ford is concerned about what is taking place. Again, Greg represents Ford, but Chevrolet gets to benefit from his services as well. What adds fuel to the fire is Greg shows up on the Ford commercials, telling us how great Ford is, but turns around and puts his rear end in a Chevrolet. How can you believe Greg's sincerity that Ford is the way to go, when he doesn't practice what he preaches? It's like Kenny Wallace pushing Stacker 2 on all of us, but then every once and a while he shows up in a TrimSpa T-shirt. Its just not good marketing and Ford, who at this time is being patient will only play this game for a short time. Soon, Roush will be given a choice - Biffle or the $$$$.

I've given Joe a rough time over the past two years. First, I did not see how he was any better than Jerry Nadeau when he took over the #25 ride and during the 2002 season, Joe didn't prove that he deserved the ride except toward the end of the season. Then Hendrick gave him a shot. Yes, in 2003 Joe has won a race and he's actually done better than I have given him credit for, but Joe is the perfect example of how NO middle of the pack driver (even with a win) is secure in a ride.

Rick Hendrick who has an eye for young talent may have found a diamond in the rough. After finding out that UAW-DELPHI will not return next year, Rick had a decision to make. Behold, GMAC comes to the rescue and they want their driver Brian Vickers in the ride. What is a guy to do? Exactly what Rick is doing!

For an organization who has two championships with Terry in the #5 car, four championships with Jeff in the #24 car, plus add all the success of Jimmie in the #48, no one can blame an owner for making changes to a car/team that is not performing up to those standards. Joe should have known that.

Now there is a BIG debate on if Brian is too young to drive the #25 or if he's even ready for CUP. Well, same questions were asked of Jimmie Johnson and look at where he's been - In the top 10 for a long time!

What does it hurt? Hendrick is in a win-win situation. They get a sponsor for the #25 and if all goes well with Vickers, a marketing machine is born. But, if Vickers fall's on his face, who does Hendrick have waiting? YEP, Kyle Busch and he's ready to go!

If I were Joe, I would SPRINT over to DEI and the other teams who are looking for a driver that can win. Joe is a winner and he can bring a win to a team, however he is not a WC championship type of driver.

Once the hammer falls on the #19 or #30, Silly Season will be in full swing and Joe needs to be there if he plans on running next year in the Nextel Cup. If not, he will be a successful Busch Series owner and driver and I am guessing he may go that route.