The Eighth NASCAR Day of Christmas: 8 NASCAR Babies

Ryan and Chrissie Newman
welcomed Brooklyn Sage
on Nov. 18, 2010.

In 2010, the Sprint Cup drivers' lot turned into Romper Room.

And it's not because Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski got into a play fight.

There was a bona fide baby boom in NASCAR that set this season apart.  At last count, a whopping seven babies were born to drivers and their wives - and there's one due at the end of this year.

1. Jimmie Johnson and wife Chandra welcomed Genevieve Marie. 

2. To Jeff Gordon and Ingrid was born Leo Benjamin. 

3. Mr. and Mrs. Carl Edwards said hello to little Anne Edwards.

4. Elliott and Amanda Sadler became the proud parents of Wyatt Herman Fritts Sadler. 

5.  Juan Pablo and Connie Montoya added baby Manuela to their family. 

6.  Ryan and Krissie Newman welcomed Brooklyn Sage. 

7. Carter Scott was born to Jamie and Christy McMurray.

8. Finally, Sam Hornish Jr. and his wife Crystal are expecting to end the year with the birth of their second child.

And for the record, all those skeptics who claimed Johnson would be adversely affected by the stress of fatherhood, now don't have a leg to stand on.

Country Countdown - NASCAR style

I'm not sure if it's their shared Southern outlaw roots or the down-to-earth appeal of their respective stars, but for some reason NASCAR and country music go together like creamy sausage gravy and flaky buttermilk biscuits.

So it's entirely fitting that Dale Earnhardt Jr will be a guest presenter on ABC's Country Music Academy Awards Wednesday night. To be honest, if anyone's season resembles a country song, it's Junior's. Heck, he's had such an awful time of it, that Bleacher Report writer Mary Jo Buchanan even wrote Junior his own little country ditty.

And Junior's impending country music gig got me thinking...what drivers deserve their own country anthems and what would those anthems be? In no particular order, I've counted down my ideas below. Feel free to add to it or to share your own suggestions.

Dale Earnhardt Jr: I've already mentioned that he deserves his own country song, but which one? Maybe "It Happens" by Sugarland or even the ol' Hee Haw standby "Gloom, Despair and Agony on Me."

Kurt Busch: Busch may have technically earned the right to don that black western hat after Sunday's race, but it sure didn't look natural on him. So in honor of Busch's out of character headgear, may I suggest "So You Think You're a Cowboy," by Emmylou Harris?

Kyle Busch: Poor Rowdy had another promising race end in the tank. And true to form, he eluded the media and hightailed it outta the Texas Motor Speedway faster than Speedy Gonzales on acid. Busch's post-race disappearances are becoming legendary and in the words of Dierks Bentley, Busch has likely still got a "Lot of Leavin' Left to Do".

Jimmie Johnson: The points leader may have wrecked and then some Sunday, but Knaus and crew were determined to get as many laps in as they could -- even though Johnson's car looked like a wannabe Batmobile when he wheeled it back onto the track. And Johnson may have left Texas with a 100-plus points loss, but he still ain't gonna let them catch "The Midnight
Rider".

Mark Martin: Johnson's wreck is Martin's best hope for finally snagging a Cup championship. And there's no doubt the #5 team is singing "God Bless Texas" about now.

Michael Waltrip: You gotta love ol' Mikey...because even though he struggles through every race, he gets in there and gives it all he's got. We'll sure miss him driving in the Cup series next year, but I think even MW would tell you himself, "I Ain't As Good As I Once Was."

Jeff Gordon: Gordon is a tough competitor. And he doesn't like it when he gets beat time and time again - even if it is by his good friend and teammate Jimmie Johnson. Gordon recently told Scene Daily that he was having a tough time dealing with Johnson's unprecedented success. Gordon is even questioning whether his equipment is as good as Johnson's - it's as if he's saying to JJ "Maybe I'll Be Fast As You."

Sam Hornish Jr: Hornish hit the wall so much in Texas that it ceased making news. The driver has even earned a new Twitter hashtag #blamehornish. It's true, Hornish is always running fast, but he doesn't always have the best sense of direction. That's why he deserves Alabama's mega-hit "I'm In A Hurry (And Don't Know Why)"

Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski: We all realize that there's no love lost between these two hard-core competitors. It seems like any time they tangle on the track, there's going to be near fisticuffs in the pits - or at least a barrage of verbal artillery. Merle Haggard sums it up with "You're Walkin' On the Fightin' Side of Me".

Matt Crafton: Because I really, really wanted an excuse to use this song...as Crafton watches Ron Hornaday win the Camping World Truck Series Championship perhaps Rhett Akin's "That Ain't My Truck" would be the proper tuneage?

Country Countdown - NASCAR style

Looky There - Things Just Got Interesting

Everyone said it was highly improbable that Jimmie Johnson would have a bad race between Talladega and Homestead. But that's the funny thing about the improbable - it sometimes happens.

In fact, Johnson got hit with a ton of improbable during lap three of the Dickies 500 on Sunday in the form of David Reutimann and Sam Hornish Jr. And although Johnson's crew (as well as several members of other Hendrick Motorsports teams) worked frantically to get the #48 back on the track, they lost an hour of time and more than 100 laps. And Johnson lost 100 points.

Just like that.

Of course there's no great loss without some gain. And Mark Martin stands to gain the most from Johnson's unlikely brush with fate. Although Martin started Texas with a nearly insurmountable points lag, he left the track only 73 points behind.

It looks like Pheonix just got interesting--and that Homestead tickets just got harder to come by.

Fontana: Different Track, Same Story

Sound familiar?

Jimmie Johnson pulls out a win. Dale Junior's promising run ends in catastrophe. And Juan Pablo Montoya scores a top five finish.

Yup, California may have been a different track. But Sunday's race was the same old story.

Of course, there were a few small Sunday surprises - like the strong finishes of Casey Mears, David Ragan and Sam Hornish Jr. But all in all, Fontana just didn't have any shock value. (Unless you're Richard Petty and all four of your cars ended the day in a crunched up mess)

In my book, the most entertaining moments of the day were Jesse McCartney's embarrassing flub-up of The Star Spangled Banner and watching the ailing Kyle Busch get pulled from his race car.

Maybe my expectations for Sunday were too high from the get-go. After watching Saturday's Nationwide race, I was all hyped up for some head-to-head racing at every turn, a few dramatic cautions and possibly post-race fisticuffs. But instead there was just phantom debris, a mildly belligerent Kasey Kahne, and Jimmie Johnson back in the Chase lead.

Ho-hum. Let's hope the Sprint Cup race in Charlotte packs more of a punch!