And now for a word from our sponsor …

I like the cavemen. They make me laugh.

The commercials, not the television show — I never saw it during the brief time it was on the air but was told it was decidedly not funny.

You see, I know there is little chance of me getting to watch a race from beginning to end, so I tape them on my trusty VCR.

That way, even if Maddie the dog needs a walk, I have to make dinner — I do my share of the cooking — or the sun finally comes out and I can do yardwork, I won’t miss any of the action.

And I can skip through what annoys me, like the talking heads in the “Hollywood Hotel” and the commercials.

Except the cavemen.

And the new Michael Waltrip commercial, the one where he’s signing autographs and a guy comes in with replica cars from some of Waltrip’s crashes, including a pile of parts in a box. When the guy asks him to sign “one of the bigger pieces,” the look on Waltrip’s face is priceless.

Waltrip’s spots from last year, where he’s answering letters from “fans,” (“Why, yes, I have been shifting into fourth gear while qualifying.”) were also pretty funny. Maybe if the racing continues to be a struggle, he should look into acting.

Speaking of last year, the Wallace kid was much funnier then: “… the story always ends with me putting him into the wall.” Looks like the kid grew about a foot, doesn’t it? For whatever reason, his commercial just doesn’t have the funny this year.