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If Mother Nature decides to take Sunday off we might have a race. Of course, I wouldn't mind a good ol' fashioned do-over after looking over the eight bums I picked in this week's Race to Victory contest.

Just looking over the car manufacturers for my team of drivers gives me the willys. I have three Dodges, two Toyotas, two Chevrolets and a Ford. That's just painful for me to admit. I'll be rooting for a car other than a Chevrolet.

Just to give a little more personal information out, I don't openly root for foreign-manufactured cars or even the two other domestic car manufacturers in NASCAR. There's only one car-maker in the Priest family: Chevrolet.

Well, at least that's how it was for the 30 years my dad drove to the Delco-Remy parking lot in Anderson, Ind. Things have changed a little, my mom bought a 1994 Ford Mustang until my dad made her sell it, and then my dad broke down and bought a Dodge Ram a few years back. Those were the first non-Generous Motors vehicles that were parked in our driveway.

Now, they only have two. Both are my dad's pride and joys: A 1964 Oldsmobile 442 Cutlass and a 1963 Chevrolet Corvair Monza convertible.

I digress. You're here to read about my picks for the Auto Club 500, not read about trivial family matters.

A group

Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet: DEI, Inc., is going to get a win. It's as simple as that.

Denny Hamlin, Dodge: This isn't his favorite track but Hamlin will stay in top 10.

B group

Mark Martin, Chevrolet: This is painful because for most of my life I've associated Mark Martin with Ford. But he's another guy that's consistently in top 15.

Jamie McMurray, Ford: Have you seen our list of B drivers. I call shenanigans.

Juan Pablo Montoya, Dodge: Juan will take out a few drivers en route to a top 15 finish.

Reed Sorenson, Dodge: He's got a Target on his back, so I had something to aim at when I threw the dart.

C group

Sam Hornish Jr., Dodge: I've liked Sam from his days in Indianapolis. Just wish he didn't pass Andretti on the final lap two years ago.

Brian Vickers, Toyota: I'm taking Vickers because the guy I replaced in North Carolina now works for Red Bull Racing. He's one of the PR minions for Vickers.

That's it. My unscientific way of selecting drivers. Now, you know what you're up against.

Who do you have this week?

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Couple things stood out after five hours of watching the Daytona 500.

Must be the Hemi

Ryan Newman followed the same path as Bakerfield native Kevin Harvick in winning the Super Bowl of stock car racing. The Purdue University electrical engineer didn't have the fastest car but he put himself in the right position at the right time. Newman, with the help from teammate Kurt Busch, passed fellow Hoosier Tony Stewart on the final lap and gave team owner Roger Penske his first Daytona 500 victory.

Cloaking device

Biggest question of the day: What team does Casey Mears drive for? I know you're saying, "Hey moron, Mears drives for Hendrick Motorsports." Reason I ask is because you'd never know from watching and listening to the TV commentators on FOX and ESPN. Both Jeff Hammonds and Darrell Waltrip said that Earnhardt didn't have any help once Jeff Gordon made a sharp left turn toward the garage, and Jimmie Johnson fell back in the pack.

Nevermind that Earnhardt did in fact have a teammate still in the race, and that he was running five spots ahead of Junior with 10 laps to go. It wasn't just Hammonds and Waltrip, the ESPN guys said the same thing, and they have the luxury of taping their show after the race is over.

Seriously, Mears needs some P.R. help. He might be the understudy to the Big Three at Hendrick, but if not for a hesitation on lap 194, it might have been back-to-back Daytona 500 champs from Bakersfield. Mears had a great car, and was driving a smart race until he hesitated too long to try and get in front of Tony Stewart for a little aero-push. Stewart clipped Mears, and that was it for Bakersfield's other NASCAR driver.

Open-wheel racers

Darrell Waltrip gushed about Sam Hornish Jr.'s ability to drive among the leaders throughout the day. Hornish finished 15th, respectively. Dario Franchitti finished 33rd and was seldom isolated by FOX cameras. I'm sure there were a few guys that wished the cameras would have shown Franchitti's tower a few more times. I'm sure D.W. would have forgotten about Hornish and gushed about Ashley Judd if they had.

All preseason we heard about the open-wheel drivers making the move to stock car.  Hello McFly, it's not new to the sport. Here's a quick rundown on how all the former open-wheel drivers did at Daytona:

Tony Stewart 3rd; Robby Gordon, 8th; Hornish, 15th; Paul Menard, 22nd; J.J. Yeley, 25th; Franchitti, 33rd; Mears, 35th; John Andretti, 40th.

Not a bad showing, and remember Mears was running third before his accident on lap 194.

Race to Victory update

Also be sure to check out our newest member of the Beat the Experts family: www.bakersfield.com/racetovictory

I had four drivers in the top 10 with Stewart (3rd), Kasey Kahne (7th), Robby Gordon (8th) and Earnhardt Jr. (9th). But  I was equally unimpressive with my other four drivers all in the bottom 20: Jimmie Johnson (27th), Michael Waltrip (29th), Casey Mears (35th) and Regan Smith (37th). OUCH!

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OK, so I'm doing a shameless promotion for our newest game in the Beat the Experts family. Ethical? Borderline. Fun? You bet.

In case you haven't seen the ads in the sports section or the ads on our Web site, we're sponsoring a fantasy auto racing game: Race to Victory. It has a few similarities to the Yahoo Auto Racing game but not exactly the same format. We had to change few things because of copyright/trademark infringements.

Here's a link to the game: www.bakersfield.com/racetovictory/

Getting back on point, if you like NASCAR, this will be a great game. Even if you don't like NASCAR this is a great game. My wife has become more a fan after playing a few seasons of fantasy NASCAR when we lived in North Carolina.

Race to Victory is actually three games in one. We have a prizes for midseason winner, second-half season winner and overall winner. Also our weekly prize winners will receive a T-shirt and some other cool stuff, that I don't know about.

I did hear, but haven't confirmed, that Casey Mears and Kevin Harvick autographed memorabilia is part of the prize packages.

Check it out for yourself. Deadline to have your drivers selected is Friday. So choose wisely! And if you need some help, check out the experts. Of course, if it's anything like the football season, you'll know to do the exact opposite of what I pick.

Just giving an update to an earlier blog on the Nevada high school football player that gave a verbal commitment to UC-Berkley last Friday only to have the validity of his national letter of intent questioned.

Turns out it was a hoax. He lied about the recruiting. He lied about talking with Cal coach Jeff Tedford. Really there wasn't any truth to his story. Well, expect that he went to Oregon for a summer football camp and had a good season for the small high school football program.

ESPN's First Take picked up on the bizarre story Thursday and aired a 5-minute interview with Reno Gazette-Journal reporter and a former colleague Chris Gabel.

Gabel spoke with the boy's father on Wednesday, and said he and his family were embarrassed and sorry for all that happened.

There's even thought that the police will file charges against the football player for filing a false police report.

Personally, the kid doesn't deserve jail time or community service. I'm sure embarrassment and public ridicule will be enough. As for playing college football, his best bet will be at the junior college level.

A good friend and former colleague of mine when I worked in Yuma, Ariz., sent me this story from the Reno Gazette-Journal.

news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article

Truly a bizarre case of a coach not protecting his athlete. If four or five BCS football programs are supposedly recruiting your top player, wouldn't red flags go off if said programs have never asked for game films or even called you and asked about said player.

Also, I can't believe the kid chose Cal without taking a recruiting visit. I believe the football program pays for the trip (flight, food, hotel, etc.), so why not take a visit to the campus and check out the facilities?

A practical joke that went beyond the limits of good taste. I'm sure his peers  were involved in this heinous crime. Let's hope the joke has a better ending.

Hallelujah! Praise the Lord, Allah, Buddha, Mercury Morris, Larry Csonka and even L. Ron Hubbard.  

For the previous six weeks, I've been openly rooting for whichever team is playing New England. To be totally honest since Week 1 I've rooted against the Patriots. This week was different. I played it close to the vest. If someone asked who I was rooting for I'd say, "The Giants, but I think the Patriots will win." It was a little reverse pyschology.

It actually worked. The New York Giants and Peyton's little brother, Eli Manning, pulled off the third-largest upset in Super Bowl history. As a Colts fan, I'd like to think Peyton had a little to do with it, but Eli definitely matured in the postseason. And the Giants' defense probably had more to do with the win and New England's collapse than any other factor.

Just some things that deserve mention:

What a Super Bowl? The first half flew by, which was nice since I was starving. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers played one of the best Halftime performances since ummmm, well in forever. OK, at least my lifetime.

How about David Tyree? He will forever be linked to the greatest Super Bowl acrobatic catch after Eli squrimed his way out of a game-ending sack. I had to see that play three times before it sunk it.

Eli and Peyton became first brother combination to win Super Bowl MVPs.

Joe Namath picked the Giants to pull off the upset, as did Plaxico Burress. Both were ridiculed. Who's laughing now?

And probably, the most important factor to consider is that this will likely mean the end of the Patriots' dynasty. Junior Seau, Tedy Bruschi, Mike Vrabel and Rodney Harrison will all consider retirement. Seau will likely end his Hall of Fame career without a Super Bowl ring. How do you replace that linebacker corps? I think the Patriots will still be a force in the AFC LEAST but the transmissio n has lots of miles on it. 

Is this truly the end? I pray for it every year.