I've already shared my opinion of the NEXTEL Cup Awards Banquet in my R1 column, so maybe this is piling on. While I didn't watch the entire show (and thus missed Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s shout out to RacingOne in the process), I did see a few bits and pieces while we channel surfed Friday night. We were slammed with a foot of snow here in Chicago, so with Chinese food delivered, we were safely tucked away in front of the television most of the night.

In short, the bits I saw were as bad as they've always been. Host Jay Mohr, now in his third year as emcee of this mess, was painfully bad. His monologue rambled forever and although he got off a few minor funny zingers, proved once again that employing someone with really no working knowledge of the sport to host your gala awards affair is about as bad an idea as they come.

Mark Martin got a laugh when he re-introduced himself to his wife Arlene, Kyle Busch of course calling his girlfriend Eva and Tony Stewart's quips were about all the show had to offer in the way of pure entertainment. Watching Kasey Kahne read the teleprompter to exclaim, "Wow, what a season" was more on par with what this fiasco had to offer.

But the good news for me at least is I wasn't there and I only saw a small sampling of the show. To those of you who watched the entire affair, my condolences.