Those NASCAR guys really know how to drive but when it comes to finding their way in the Big Apple, well, let Clint Bowyer tell it.  He has never spent significant time in New York — this is a man who has a dirt go-kart track in his back yard —and he had a big night on the town Wednesday to mark the occasion. Just don’t ask him where he went. Here's more from our Dennis McCafferty:

“They were telling me street names and stuff and I don’t have a clue,” Clint confessed, turning to his publicist: “Where were we last night?”
“P.J. Clarke’s in Times Square,” his publicist said.
Bowyer’s been shuffled around quite a bit this week. So much so that he ended up on a morning show, too, and admitted that he didn’t know which one it was. The ever-helpful publicist filled us both in: Good Morning America.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., always packs the biggest crowd for media day, in part because he's one of the most recognizable names and faces in racing. Unlike Bowyer, he’s well familiar with New York; he finds it to be a city where he can walk down the street without getting mobbed by fans. “I could go all the way to the Hudson and back,” he told me. I’d suggest he take a taxi if he wants to go that far.

Carl Edwards,  who has been a certified airplane pilot since he was 17 and rides motorcycles for fun, told me more about his first-time surfing adventure in Australia. He said it was hard, but worth it. “The waves were 18 inches,” he said. “Real small. But we did it … One time, I went 80 yards. It was the coolest thing ever.”

As a Lowe’s guy, Jimmie Johnson, 32, elaborated some more about the light bulb thing we mentioned earlier. It’s not that he CAN’T change a light bulb. It’s that he won’t. Or, at least he puts it off as long as possible. “My wife has plenty on the to-do list,” he told me. “But it’s a matter of when I get around to it. The one that’s always still up (on the list) is changing lightbulbs. I CAN do it. But it’s just like a guy reflex — no! no! no! Our house has, like, three lightbulbs working so I have to get on that.”

Johnson’s counterpart on the mega-home retailer sponsorship universe, Tony Stewart, 36, is taking on more than light bulbs in the off-season. He’s building a large house on 400 lakeside acres in Columbus, Ind., and it’s going to be quite the nature preservation, as he’s going to take up what he calls ‘deer population management’ there. “I’m really excited,” he told me. “I have a lot of fun with deer and the nature. I grew up in a town so I really wasn’t raised in the country. We keep track of how many (deer) offspring we get.”

Let's hope his two dogs and two cats don't scare off the deer. His pet monkey will not. It has a new home that Stewart’s also excited about. “He’s actually staying at the Louisville zoo now,” he said, “which is really cool."

Matt Kenseth and I started exchanging our fantasy football highs and lows for the season. Unlike me, Kenseth says he’s in good position to make his league’s playoffs, which is all an owner can ask for. “If I win this week, I will make the playoffs,” he told me. “There are four of us tied for the last playoff  spot. Chad Johnson is probably my number one guy.”

Biggest disappointment?

“Phillip Rivers,” Kenseth said, referring to his quarterback. “Every time I play him, he gets zero points. And when I don’t, he goes off.” I shared my own disappointment, with the same situation, with one of my top running backs, Maurice Jones-Drew.

Kenseth put himself into a tricky situation this year, picking the Bears defense. A reputable defense for sure, but the move conflicts with his fan allegiance. “I’m a huge Packer fan,” said Kenseth, a Wisconsin native. “If you’re a Packer fan, you don’t like the Bears.” It doesn’t help that the Bears D hasn’t scored as much in fantasy points this year, either."

Check back here tomorrow for our final follow-up on NASCAR in New York.