You want crazy fast at Atlanta? The Car of Tomorrow may run at its fastest speeds ever this weekend, but for the crazy fastest driver, you'll have to go back to 1960 and catch a fast train to Florida where a guy named Fireball smoked everybody he raced against. Read all about it over at Ovalscreams today.

Over at Ovalscreams today, check out the post "Nothing but blue skies and NASCAR over Las Vegas." Vegas has seen some hard times lately, but it's rolling the dice that this NASCAR race weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will have Vegas Vickie smiling, smiling, smiling. And all the boys in cars out at the track--and Danica, too--are hoping that Vickie will be smiling especially over them.

A classic Mike Smith Stockcartoon.

by NTW editor Ovalscream

Mike Smith is NASCAR fan to the bone. When heartland of the sport in the southeastern United States is in bed dreaming their sweet NASCAR dreams, the Las Vegas resident is still up watching whatever race action can be found on TV. Living out West, far from most of the races, a fan's gotta catch the action where he can. Stock car racing is his thing, but to satisfy the itch he's had since childhood, Mike will watch anything -- even lawn mower races.

And whatever Mike doesn't see with his eyes, his NASCAR-sotted brain fills in with a cartoon, capturing the inside story, the thought balloon that hovers over drivers, fans and the sport itself.

Mike's Stockcartoons appear regularly in the Las Vegas Sun, where by day he serves as the newspaper's editorial cartoonist. He has won several awards from the Nevada Press Association and placed second two years in a row for "Best Editorial Cartoons" at the National Headliner Awards. Stockcartoons are also syndicated by King Features and publish in newspapers across the country.

I caught up with Mike via telephone the other day.

How did you get into racing?

Since I was a kid I've been a car nut, and stock car racing has always been my favorite. But living out in Santa Clara (near San Francisco), you couldn't catch much of it. Occasionally a race would appear on ABC's Wide World of Sports. Bobby Allison was my favorite driver growing up. Once racing got picked up nationally by ESPN, I could catch a lot more races.

All I did as a kid was draw cars ... now I draw 'em for a living!

Tell us about your road to becoming editorial cartoonist at the Las Vegas Sun.

I went to Loyola Marymount University in LA where I studied for a degree in humanities. I started drawing political cartoons as a junior. Once I saw how much trouble I got into over them, I thought, hey, this would be a blast!

I used to hound Paul Conrad, the four-time Pulizter-winning editorial cartoonist at the LA Times. I'd drive from my dorm into Los Angeles and show him my cartoons. He'd go over them with a brutal, fine-toothed comb. "If you want a job in editorial cartooning," he'd say, "you need to learn how to draw." But I never formally studied art.

As a senior, I blindly sent packages of my work around the country. The Las Vegas Sun was one paper that started picking up some of my cartoons. But no one was interested in hiring me to be their editorial cartoonist.

After I graduated, I worked at National Car Rental at Los Angeles Airport. I'd draw cartoons in the morning and pump gas at the airport at night. I did that for a year and then Hertz offered to put me into management training at the San Francisco Airport. I called the Sun and told them about my job offer, and the editor there said, "you tell them to stick it up their ass." And that's how I came to work at the Sun in 1983.

When did you start drawing Stockcartoons?

When LMS came to Vegas (in 1997) I thought it would be cool to do some NASCAR cartoons. The Sun started running them on Vegas.com, a sister site that does mostly travel stuff. Reaction was good so they started running them in their own pages. It wasn't long after that Stockcartoons made its way into syndication.

There are three collections of Stockcartoons now available. The first two -- "Stockcartoons" and "Stockcartoons 2" -- were done about five years ago but are still available on Amazon. “Nuts for Racing” is the most recent collection. (Editor's note: There's a link to purchase this book from Amazon on the home page).

Where do you get your inspiration for Stockcartoons?

I approach Stockcartoons the same way I do editorial cartoons -- by keeping up with the reading. I watch all the races whenever I can. Most NASCAR coverage is available online, from place like NASCAR.com and, of course, NASCAR This Week. I stop by your site every day to read Monte’s stuff. He’s incredible.

Oddly though, whenever I see Monte at the races or in the media center, he always wants to talk politics--not racing. We have a good time going at it.

Tell us about your blog.

I started the Sun's NASCAR blog "Bloggity, Bloggity, Bloggity" as a way to draw people to my Stockcartoons. But the blog has its own fans now and is one of the more popular locations on the Sun website. Now I'm not a reporter--I'm really just a fan--but blogging is a fun way to keep in touch with other fans.

Do you like living in Las Vegas?

I like the job, so I'll stay. I came from Southern California; life is a lot less complicated here. I love the wide-open spaces of this part of the West. Yet Vegas is close enough to California, so it isn't difficult to get over there when you want to.

The local economy here is in as bad a shape as anywhere in the U.S. We've got 13 percent unemployment and a housing market that's deeply underwater. Gaming and construction are what have fed the local economy and both are suffering. People aren't coming to Vegas like they were a few years ago. A lot of residents here lived large during the housing boom -- that's what Vegas is all about. They used all that money they got on home equity loans to buy boats and cars and big screen TVs and now all that money is gone. Lots of people are moving away, looking for work.

Still, Vegas is still the adult playground of America-at least, that's the image of the Strip that our Mayor (Oscar Goodman) still wants to project. He's the guy who took such offense at President Obama's recent remarks about people who blow their college tuition money at Vegas. Goodman is real old-school, a former criminal lawyer. A character out of Vegas's wilder past. He's really something.

What do you see as the big issues in NASCAR this year?

I think the changes in the aero package going from wing to spoiler will be big. I hear they're talking about using an even bigger restrictor plate at Talledega, which should make the racing even more fun.

I like it that NASCAR is taking a hands-off approach with drivers this year.

The fuel of NASCAR is sponsorship, and drivers are the public face of those corporations. So there's always going to be pressure on them to act a certain way.

I think drivers and NASCAR both get a hard rap from fans, especially bloggers. People say they want more emotion, but when driver then shows some, he gets ripped. Same thing with NASCAR-they listen to fans and do all sorts of things to respond, but then they get critiziced for making the changes.

What's it like to be a West Coast race enthusiast?

As you can imagine, the Bay Area where I grew up is not a hub of NASCAR interest. As a teenager, me and some buddies would go to small-town tracks near San Francisco to catch races. But there wasn't much interest. You felt like you were really isolated. Interest still isn't as great as it is the Southeast. I usually attend races Fonatana, Phoneix, LA and Las Vegas, sometimes Sonoma. Last year, I made it to Daytona for the Coke Zero 400.

Do you have a good Vegas story to tell?

I once had lunch with an infamous, alleged hoodlum who bragged that he'd killed a few people, but they had it coming to them.

Anything about your off-job life?

I'm an avid four-wheeler. I love driving my Jeep on the Jeep trails around southern Nevada.

What's the state of editorial cartooning these days?

I think editorial cartooning will survive. There just won't be as many of us. Which is what's happening with every position in print journalism.

A recent editorial cartoon by Mike. In addition to appearing six times a week in the Sun, USA Today picks up one of Mike's editorial cartoons up every Thursday

What about this weekend's race at LMS?

I think the pressure is on Kurt Busch--who like his brother Kyle grew up in Vegas, but hasn't won a race at LMS yet--to produce. Look for Kurt to make a hard run. But look out for those Earnhardt Ganassi cars of of McMurray and Harvick, they're really hot. Personally I'm really looking forward to watching Brad Keselowksi race; he's colorful and cocky both on and off the track. Great material for Stockcartoons!

I'll be doing sketchbooks on both Saturday and Sunday of the two races, so look for them on my blog.

Thanks to Mike for consenting to this interview, for providing the extra art (including the self-portrait)—and for sharing his NASCAR ‘toons with us every week.

Tony Stewart delivers a jab at his Tweetie-pies.  (photo: John Clark/ NASCAR This Week)

Tony Stewart vowed not to join the growing ranks of NASCAR figures avidly taking part in social networking.

"I have no idea, because I don't do anything with that stuff," he said. "I actually have enough productive stuff to do with my life other than sit there and tell everybody what I'm doing every minute of every day. I really don't mess with it. I've heard about it, I've heard a lot about it, but don't know anything about it."

* * *

BETTER HIM THAN ME, SAYS MONTOYA--For the first time ever, both front-row starters in a Sprint Cup race are from the team predominantly owned by Chip Ganassi.

The present incarnation of Ganassi's team is known as Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, and Teresa Earnhardt and Sabates also have stakes in the team that sent Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray (183.744 mph) and Juan Pablo Montoya (183.477) to front-row spots in the Auto Club 500 at, oddly enough, Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.

Montoya told the media in California that McMurray's victory had a carry-over effect.

"It's good for the whole team," he said. "I think that victory ... the whole team has been working really hard for it. Jamie got a huge win in the 500 for the '1' car ... it was more necessary. If you said a team that had to win, either the '1' car or the '42' car (his), I think it was more important.

"Of course, I want to win, but as the sponsors and everything, I think it was better that the '1' car won."

* * *

WATCH WHAT YOU ASK FOR--McMurrray, meanwhile, talked about the hectic week he had in the aftermath of winning NASCAR's most prestigious race.

"I'm still blown away by how much attention is placed on the Daytona 500," he said. "It's a dream to win that race, but the amount of media attention that goes along with the Daytona 500, you really can't explain it to anybody.

"I don't believe that anyone would believe everything that you've gone through and that you've gotten to do. You get in the car, they drive you to whatever appearance you're doing, and you think you're going to rest, and they put a cell phone in your ear, and they say 'this is a newspaper' or 'this is a radio station' or 'this is somebody that you don't know.' And you talk all the way there, and then you get out, and you do your appearance and you get back in the car, and you get ready to take a break, and they put the cell phone in your ear again. No joke: Everybody's cell phone in the car was dead at the end of each day."

* * *

CATCH-UP ALREADY-- Kasey Kahne flexed his Ford's muscles with a qualifying-race victory at Daytona but was one of many victims of melees near the end of the 500, which hasn't been good to him. A year ago he left Daytona 29th in points; this year he's 30th.

And only 35 races to go ...

"I was disappointed with last week, and it took me a couple of days to recover, just because it's the Daytona 500," he said. You get so excited because we had such a good Bud Shootout (third) and 150 (Gatorade Duel) that I had a lot of high hopes, and that kind of got blasted with a couple of laps to go."

* * *

AND THE FAVORITE IS -- According to Denny Hamlin, it's still Jimmie Johnson.

"A very versatile race car is needed for California," said the Toyota driver. "A lot of races at California, you're chasing Jimmie (Johnson). He's three lanes up on the race track -- I know which line he runs -- but it's just so hard to match that because they've got a magic setup. If we could figure it out, it would definitely help us because this is a Chase race track and we know this is a race that he's going to perform well at when it comes Chase time.

"It's our job to try a lot of different things this spring race (actually, of course, a winter race) to help us set up for a good fall race. California is a track where all of it comes together. You have to have the big motor, the horsepower, the aero(dynamics) and all that because this track is so big. Every little advantage you get shows up big-time on this type of track."

Daytona 500 pole winner Mark Martin (far right) with Dale Earnhardt Jr. (left), who won the outside pole in Saturday's qualifier, with their boss Rick Hendrick of Hendrick Motorsports all smiles in the middle. (John Clark/NASCAR This Week)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Winning the pole hasn't always guaranteed success in the Daytona 500. For instance, the driver who started out front a year ago, Martin Truex Jr., finished 11th in the season's first race and 23rd in the Sprint Cup standings.

Recent pole winners have also included such luminaries as David Gilliland (2007) and Jeff Green (2003).

The odds are a little better this time around. The dominant team in NASCAR, Hendrick Motorsports, put Mark Martin on the inside and Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the outside of the front row for the Feb. 14 Daytona 500. A driver who gets considerable assistance from Hendrick, Ryan Newman, produced the third-best speed, and the reigning champion, Jimmie Johnson, was sixth.

Martin, 51, becomes the 500's oldest pole winner.

"I've always loved setting records," he said. "Once upon a time, I tried to set records for being the youngest, and now I'm on the other side."

Under Daytona International Speedway's unique qualifying format for the 500, only the top two nail down their starting positions in the first round. Martin's No. 5 Chevrolet averaged 191.188 mph and Earnhardt's No. 88 posted 190.913.

Chevrolet drivers posted seven of the 10 fastest speeds, the only exceptions being Bill Elliott, fourth at 190.573 mph in a Ford; Kurt Busch, seventh at 190.118 in a Dodge; and Kyle Busch, ninth at 190.050 in a Toyota.

* * *

UNAFRAID-- Greg Biffle looks forward to testing the barriers of bump drafting, now that NASCAR has adopted the policy of letting its drivers set the standards themselves.

"I'm going to push until somebody spins out," he said. "That's the only way to find out. We all know. We're drivers. We know what the limits are. Now that NASCAR has said 'we're not going to be the limit,' the limit becomes when the guy in front of you spins out ... so we have to regulate that ourselves.

"Now we don't have to worry about NASCAR. We can just ride on that limit."

* * *

THE YOUNG UPSTART - Brad Keselowski, entering his first full Sprint Cup season, won't win any popularity contests among his peers, but he's fairly unrepentant about past transgressions.

"My attitude toward racing is to do what it takes to win," he said. "I'd prefer to win honorably. I can't always say that I've done that. Hopefully, we can put together strong enough cars this year to where we can win without drama. A goal of mine is to win a race and look back and nobody said, 'He screwed me over to do it.'

"But at the end of the day, when I look my team in the eyes, I want to be able to say I took more than I gave. ... If you have to make a few competitors mad along the way, that's just part of it."

* * *

A BIT MORE MODERATE-- Kurt Busch is a bit more cautious than Biffle.

"My approach will be similar to how I approached double-file restarts (a change in 2009)," said Busch, "and that was let this first event unfold ... digest what I'm seeing and see how aggressive people want to be with it.

"At Daytona, you have to protect your race car to win the race. If you have torn-up fenders, you don't have any opportunity to win."

* * *

NO BIG DEAL--Matt Kenseth isn't overly concerned about bump drafting or NASCAR's decision not to regulate it.

"I think there are still going to be rough-driving penalties if you have that, just like there are at every race, and really, the drivers do a pretty good job of policing themselves," he said. "You've got to race these guys for 38 weeks (36 Cup, two all-star), and you're not going to go out and try to wrong somebody on purpose, or try co cause the wreck, or do any of that stuff, anyway.

"You're, hopefully, going to stop before you get to that edge, no matter what track you're at. ... Nobody wants to wreck, and nobody wants to get wrecked."

Over at Ovalscreams today, your NTW editor reflects on the nature of bad boys, and wonders how the Feb. 6 Bud Shootout, under NASCAR's new rules changes, will be affected--nay, afflicted--by a newly-sprung crop of road ragers.

Check out Ovalscreamin' today for a winter's tale of NASCAR.

"(Earnhardt) was an old-timer, not reluctant to knock a competitor out of his way — a character who had made the sport fun. Two days before he died, he sat on a golf cart outside his mobile home and grumbled that Nascar was slowing the cars down to ensure closer racing.

“I want to be driving racecars to race them,” he said.

Some further distillations on the season, from NTW editor and postinng drone Ovalscream.. Note: reading the following may cause dizziness or drowsiness at the wheel, or cause you to propose to that 88-year-old gal who's parked on the barstool next to you.

NASCAR NOTABLES 2009

- Jimmie Johnson and Chad "Darth" Knauss make it look easy again in winning their fourth consecutive Sprint Cup championship. Head-scratchers wonder what Chad manages to get away with under the hood of the No. 48, but actually it's what Jimmie is managing under the sheets with Winnie, the NASCAR's wild woman of trackside luck.

- Double file restarts make for much on-track messiness and closer finishes; fans love 'em but they give drivers a severe case of the willies.

- Digger becomes a national symbol of annoyance at NASCAR. Best use for the Gopher cam: track chick upskirts.

- Most notable crash: An airborne Carl Edwards nearly clears the catchfence in the first Talladega race, lands in a pile of wreckage, climbs out unscathed and runs across the finish line. Generic car and drivers 1, aerodynamics 0.

- Other notable crashes: Ryan Newman (going airborne again at the second Talladega race) and Jimmie Johnson (Texas).

- Usually in a wreck: Michael Waltrip and Robbie Gordon.

- Usually starts race but never finishes: "Back row" Joe Nemenchek.

- Jeremy Mayfield's drug-testing and ban from competition forces dozens of drivers and crew members to stow their stashes closer to the toity.

- Kyle Busch fails to make the Chase by eight points, but kicks ass in almost every Nationwide race. What's the difference? Kyle also displays a habit for harrumphing off the track after a bad finish without speaking to the media, which he much later explains quoting the words of management theorist Dr. Lawrence J. Peter: "Speak when you are angry, and you'll make the best speech you'll ever regret." Riiiiiiiiight.

- Rankest firesuit: Sprint Cup gal Monica Palumbo's, after doing photo op duty all afternoon prior to the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona in July. Say rotten cheese...

- Miss USA Kristen Dalton models NASCAR-themed costume for the Miss Universe Pageant. Dalton narrowly beat out Miss California, Carrie Prejean, for the Miss USA crown, a gal whose augmented breasts caused her to be stripped of her Miss California title when they started appearing in nude photos and sex tapes posted on the Internet. (Note to NASCAR: Consider a topless Prejean to wave the starting flag at the next Talladega race.)

- Junebug disappears down a spiraling oubliette of crappy luck. Cousin and crew chief Tony Eury waves bye-bye from the commode, giving NASCAR a final middle finger before disappearing out of sight.

- Tire changer Jimmy Watts chases a tire onto the frontstretch during the Kobalt Tools 500, almost becoming a hood ornament and/or human rotor-rooter down Digger's track hole.

- AJ Allmendinger gets a DUI prior to the second Talladega race: NASCAR places him on probation; designated drivers for RVs, tracktor trailers and private planes multiply for oh, a week or so.

- Kyle Busch smashes trophy guitar he received after winning the Federated Auto Parts 300 in Nashville on June 6; Les Paul is not amused and soon gives up the ghost.

- Worst national anthem: Jesse McCartney forgets words to the national anthem prior to the Pepsi 500 in Fontana in October. Oddest opening act: Goth-haired and tattooed Buckcherry belts out Deep Purple's "Highway Star" to seventy thousand gawking rednecks prior to the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona.

- Oddest race: The Amp Energy 500 race in Talladega last October, which begins as a polite single-file parade and ends in royal rumble wrestling match with hapless Jamie McMurray scooting by a 16-car wreck at the finish to take the checkered flag.

- Snoozer race: Lifelock 400 in Michigan.

- Makes for snoozer races: pit row and fuel strategies.

- Snoozer end of a race: Daytona 500, where Matt Kenseth got caught in exactly the right place when the rain started pouring.

- Surprisingly exciting race as well as end to the season: Ford 400 at Homestead, with Jimmy freaking out every time a car got close to him, a six-car pileup - on pit row -- and Smoke playing High Noon with Juan Carlos Montoya.
 

Left photo: As his fellow NASCAR Sprint Cup Series top drivers roast him, four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson laughs and covers his face during Wednesday's Champions Roast at Las Vegas Motorspeedway as part of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champions Week. Right photo: From left to right, NASCAR drivers Greg Biffle, Tony Stewart and Juan Pablo Montoya laugh at Las Vegas Motorspeedway at the Jimmie Johnson roast. See David Caravello's story on the roast at NASCAR.com. (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)