UAW-GM 500 Notebook

CONCORD, N.C. -- The UAW-GM Quality 500 had more of its fair share of celebrity sightings.

Mike Easly, the governor of North Carolina, made an appearance at his homestate track. Joining him was Rebekah Revels, the original 2002 Miss North Carolina. Kid Rock was also in attendance, as was Paula Zahn, news anchor for CNN.

Stewart missing from program cover

For each race at Lowe's Motor Speedway, motorsports artist Sam Bass draws up a special print that also as the program cover. This year, Bass wanted to play up the Winston Cup Series points battle.

The print was titled "Draw" and depicted several cars facing off against each other -- notably, the cars of Bill Elliott, Sterling Marlin, Jeff Gordon, Rusty Wallace, Dale Jarrett, Ryan Newman, Matt Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick.

Tony Stewart, the points leader, was nowhere to be seen on the cover of the Lowe's Motor Speedway race program.

Not your average post-race press conference

The fact that Jamie McMurray won his first Winston Cup Series race in just his second start is a story of its own. But, when crew chief Lee McCall and owners Chip Ganassi and Felix Sabates got to the press box for the post-race interviews, that took on a life of its own.

	Chip Ganassi Credit: Autostock

"He told me the reason I got the job was because I had a good looking girlfriend," McMurray said. "He told me a good-looking girlfriend didn't always get you the job, but an ugly one would definitely not get you the job.

"The girl had a lot to do with it."

As the room erupted with laughter, Ganassi was slowly covering his face with his hands and sinking in his chair. When McMurray stopped, Ganassi reached over and took the microphone out of his hand.

"I'd believe my career in Winston Cup just ended," Ganassi said. "It's been great, I've had fun in NASCAR. Good bye everybody."

With that, he got up and mockingly left the room.

But, that wasn't all the exuberant McMurray told the room. Upon being introduced to Bruton Smith, CEO of Speedway Motorsports Inc., which owns the track, McMurray had a revelation to the owner.

"Bruton, this was my least-favorite race track last year," McMurray said. "It's a challenging race track as a driver. My girlfriend will tell you, when I was told I was going to drive the No. 40 car for the rest of the year, this is the place I was really worried about.

"I woke up at 4 a.m. two or three nights after I was told. She asked me what I was doing, and I told her I didn't want to go to Charlotte."