I’m on vacation this week. Well, technically, I’m unemployed save for this column, but that’s neither here nor there.

So if you are here to read something that remotely resembles 750 words of a cohesive narrative that makes a logical argument or has some singular point, you’re in for a disappointment. I am writing this on my phone somewhere on a beach, so, you are getting my random, slightly sunburnt, whisky-fueled thoughts.

Enjoy. And I’m sorry.

When I grow up, I want to be as good as Joey Logano is at making friends. Latest person to remove Logano from his Christmas card list after Daytona: Kurt Busch.

I am amazed at the NBA contracts at the beginning of free-agency period. I am waiting to read that Jackie Moon, Sidney Dean and Ice Cube (he did mess around and get a triple-double) have signed max contracts.

I have watched the end of the Xfinity race from Daytona several times and I still can’t figure why NASCAR waited nearly 9 seconds to throw a caution at the end of the race. I’m not sure what made it a caution then and not, you know, when the cars started wrecking.

I have seen a lot of people besmirching Kevin Durant for signing with the Warriors. This is America and last I checked, you can pick for whom you want to work. I start a new job next week and no one has given me any crap about it.

If you don’t know who Matt Tifft is, you should. The Xfinity and truck series driver has been sidelined for a few weeks after a tumor was discovered on his brain. After surgery late last week, he was released from the hospital on Sunday. Hard to imagine going through something like that at age 20, but he has remained upbeat and positive through the whole thing and hopes to get back in a racecar as soon as he gets a clean bill of health. Bully to that guy.

I mean, seriously, the Dallas Mavericks are going to give Harrison Barnes somewhere in the neighborhood of $24 million per season. For his career, Barnes has averaged about 10 points and a shade less than five rebounds per game. I repeat, $24 million for a guy who averaged 30 minutes per game in 2015-16.

Sometimes things come full circle. Matt Kenseth started his career driving a car sponsored by DeWalt. It looks like the 44-year old may end his career with the same sponsor. After Dollar General said it would not return in 2017, Joe Gibbs Racing announced this week that the toll manufacturer would be the primary sponsor for the No. 20 Toyota.

I went to the gym the other day and saw a guy in a Chauncey Billups Pistons jersey. I stood and stared for a solid 30 seconds. One, I can’t believe that was something that was made, and two, I can’t believe someone paid real money for one.

Major League Baseball and the Braves and Marlins are to be commended for playing a game on Fort Bragg on July 3. The game was an awesome thing for them to do as a small token of respect and appreciation for our servicemen and women.

On a related note, if you are on Twitter, you should follow the 82nd Airborne’s official account. It’s 100 percent not what you expect – in a good way.

I’m glad to live in country where grown folk eat hot dogs for sport on our most important national holiday. #merica

Twenty years ago, Atlanta put on a terrible Olympic games. Between the unfinished venues, the dirty water, the police officers that haven’t been paid in a couple of months and Zika, I’m betting this year’s edition in Rio will be worse.

I wrote nice things about the Cubs and the Red Sox in my last rendition of the random thoughts column. Glad to see the Cagle curse is still alive and well.

For the last week and a half, any time I get sad, I watch the John Wes Townley/Spencer Gallagher “fight” and I’m not sad anymore.

Andy Cagle writes a weekly column during the NASCAR season. He can be reached by email at andycagle78@gmail.com.

http://www.bladenjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/web1_andy_cagle-C.jpg