Daily Dirt: Start the day with candy, cap it off with the Bristol dirt race at ‘The Last Great Colosseum’

Happy Easter Sunday from the staff at the Daily Dirt. Enjoy the day with your family, then settle in for a little dirt-track racing from Bristol, Tenn. … Welcome to Vol. 261 of The Daily Dirt and today’s three thoughts.

1. Here are three medal-worthy thoughts tied to Easter Sunday:

Gold medal: “Golf is just the adult version of an Easter Egg Hunt.” — Unknown.

Silver medal: “Tell the chocolate bunny I’ll pass. I have enough men in my life who are hollow and disappointing.” — Unknown.

Bronze medal: “All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” — Charles M. Schulz.

2. I recently started watching “Off Base,” a new afternoon program on the MLB Network.

It’s worth a look. Don’t expect an Emmy nomination, but if you enjoy good, solid baseball talk — with some laughs and interesting observations — you might give it a try.

The host is Lauren Gardner, who rose to MLB Network prominence last year as one of the hosts of its nightly “Quick Pitch” recap of games. She works with Xavier Scruggs, Laura Albanese and Keith McPherson.The well-spoken Scruggs’ resume includes brief periods with the St. Louis Cardinals and Marlins, plus stops in Mexico and South Korea. Both he and McPherson, who was hired away from WFAN in New York City, have a bright future. Each has excellent insights, but Scruggs tends to dominate some conversations, however, and I would like to hear more of the affable McPherson. Albanese is a sports writer for Newsday and at present is probably the show’s weakest link, but she does have great sources. Hopefully, she’ll find her niche on what is still a developing format.

3. NASCAR’s second dirt-track race at Bristol is scheduled for 6 p.m. today.

It will be televised by Fox. 

The half-mile concrete track — a.k.a. “The Last Great Colosseum” — has been transformed into a dirt bullring, thanks to 20,000 loads of prime racing soil. That’s 23,000 cubic yards of dirt.

Joey Logano is the defending champ of the event, which is scheduled for 250 laps.This will be the first NASCAR Cup race held on Easter Sunday since Rusty Wallace won at Richmond in 1989 in a race postponed from February because of snow.

Steve’s Thought of the Day: Steve will not eat a Peep today, but may have a jelly bean or two.

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. His bunny suit just got back from the cleaners.