--I still think that "Chicagoland" sounds like a Chicago-themed amusement park. "Come ride the North Side Hipster Simulator!"
--It looks like Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will have Best Buy, Zest, and FifthThird Bank coming back to the 17 to sponsor him next year (with increased support). So if you're keeping track at home, that's two sponsors for Biffle, three sponsors for Stenhouse, and thirty-one sponsors for Edwards.
--Anybody else get the feeling that Clint Bowyer is Ricky Bobby (wins, personality, commercials) while Martin Truex Jr. is Cal Naughton Jr. (never wins)?
--Georgia-Pacific returns to Nascar this weekend as a sponsor of the EGR #1 car. Good luck, Jamie Mac--you have a long way to go to equal the G-P glory days of Steve Grissom and Buckshot Jones.
--Casey Mears and sponsor Geico have announced that they're returning to the #13 Ford through 2014. I hear that next week the Gecko will finally be initiated into the dreaded Mears Gang.
--I don't really have a pick for the Chase, but I'll jump on the Tony Stewart Bandwagon IF he does what he did last year--publicly announce that he has no chance.