My father talked baseball in the barbershop while getting a haircut and a shave.

My daughter is growing up in a country where NASCAR is discussed during a shampoo and blow out.

Wanna guess who is Catalano's favorite driver?

One of the places the new NASCAR conversation echoes is a high-end beauty salon in Boise, Idaho. At Mystique Salon & Spa, owner Julie Catalano vividly recaps the previous weekend's Sprint Cup Series race to all her customers in earshot. She does so in front of a Carl Edwards cardboard cutout at her workstation. Another Edwards life-size replica stands in the reception area.

Julie has flipped for Carl, you could say.

Catalano, who opened Mystique Salon in 2000, can't help herself. She's a prolific NASCAR evangelist who can analyze a four-tire, 13-second pit stop while performing equally impressive wonders of speed and dexterity with sharp scissors and bottle of peroxide.

A captive customer can spend serious time in the chair, especially when going for extensions and a coloring, Julie's specialties. Many of the ladies enjoy chatting about all things NASCAR.

Take Sandy Steward, a fellow Roush Fenway Racing fan with family employed by Ford and a husband whose shares a portion of his heart with Mark Martin. Sandy has been coming to Mystique for five years for hair, nails, the occasional massage, and of course the NASCAR low-down. Usually, when she sees Julie, four or five races have gone by. There's serious ground to make up.

"Julie and I talk about the last race, how the Roush Fenway drivers have done, especially Carl. We'll discuss the major happenings in the garage like Dale [Earnhardt] Jr. leaving DEI and Tony Stewart forming his own race team. The conversation will track whatever's happening in the sport."

Julie's passion for the sport will grow this weekend at Kansas Speedway. She is being feted at her first race as a VIP guest as winner of the "Official Small Business of NASCAR Courtesy of Office Depot."

As the first female winner of one of the most successful sponsor promotions in NASCAR, Catalano's business name and logo will appear on Carl Edward's Office Depot Ford. She'll also meet Edwards, who she already knows pretty well after spending so many waking hours cutting hair next to his cardboard cutout.

"Office Depot couldn't have picked a better person to represent the company and the sport," Steward said. "She's a very determined, positive, successful person. She's going to give the sport some incredible exposure. And she's going to absolutely have the time of her life at her first race."

As Mystique Salon enjoys the distinction of the Official Small Business of NASCAR, Catalano's business will garner mass-market exposure usually exclusive to large companies with behemoth marketing budgets -- the logo of her business, a symbol of her blood, sweat and tears, will be emblazoned on the No. 99 race car.

Office Depot is lending the exposure to Catalano, who is important to their enterprise as one of the 6.2 million women-owned businesses today, employing more than 9 million people and generating sales of $1.15 trillion, according to Jeff Herbert, SVP of Marketing for Office Depot.

Herbert's master stroke of a promotion generates tens of thousands of entries a year. The companies previously showcasing the "Official Small Business of NASCAR" moniker in front of millions of fans are: Fort Bend Lock & Key of Houston, Texas; K&M Storage of Dodge City, Kansas; and Kentuckiana Engineering Company, Inc, of Louisville, Kentucky

"'The Official Small Business of NASCAR' promotion has worked so well because it engages our core customers who are also loyal fans of the sport," Herbert explained.

His team tries to make the contest better each year. This season Office Depot launched a new viral component called "Connect With Carl." Entrants could spread the word to draw extra nominations by sending a customized e-mail audio message from Carl Edwards.

With the winner selected at random from the pool of entries, more nominations meant a greater chance of becoming the "Official Small Business of NASCAR." Of course, Catalano made great use "Connect with Carl," generating 165 nominations from family, friends and business associates.

Early on, she told a few of her customers she'd win. Then she did.

Great stylists can be as cocky, check that, "confident," as great race car drivers.