President Obama, like he does with all top sports teams or athletes, has invited last year's NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson and the 11 other drivers who competed for the championship to a White House reception next week. Usually this is an invitation that you accept, always, unless you're deathly ill in bed with athlete's butt or whatever it is people catch these days. And yet only seven of the 12 will be attending. Hmm.

SB Nation reports:

President Barack Obama will honor NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson and the 11 other Chase drivers from last year in a White House ceremony on Wednesday – but nearly half of the 2010 playoff contenders won't be there.

NASCAR said Thursday that five drivers – Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart – will not be attending the White House visit due to "schedule conflicts."

What the Hell is going on here? We know that the White House schedulers have been having some communications issues recently with John Boehner and staff. But here we're only dealing with five race car drivers, who are not supposed to be so tethered to an oppositional politics that it would boost their careers by rejecting an offer from the President of the United States. Perhaps they are. Or they somehow do have legitimate excuses, like each of their wives is giving birth that day.

[Image via AP]