Tuesday, February 18th 'What If' Question

It’s been 13 years since NASCAR’s darkest day.

When Dale Earnhardt died in February of 2001 in the last corner of the last lap in the Daytona 500, it resonated throughout an entire sport and its fan base. Earnhardt has been considered one the sports greatest drivers and his sudden death briefly crippled not only NASCAR, but also his fans and the organization he left behind, Richard Childress Racing.

In 676 starts Earnhardt won 76 times and captured seven championships. He dominated at Daytona and Talladega, rattled cages at Bristol and drove broken at Watkins Glen. He was the Intimidator; there was one Dale Earnhardt.

He and Richard Petty are the only men who have seven championships, both sit atop the NASCAR mountain that most drivers aim to join. They’re the men that fans place above all. In 2001 Earnhardt and RCR were locked and loaded to chase another championship, coming off a 2000 season in which he finished second in points.

Feeling better than ever, with everything in his personal life in order, Earnhardt looked prime to return to glory. Then, he was gone.

Sunday the #3 will return. Austin Dillon and Richard Childress ready to continue a legacy that was built by the man in black. Earnhardt will continue to be remembered, maybe more so now than ever. Not only when seeing the 3 on the track, but as Jimmie Johnson attempts to race into history alongside him.

But …

What if Dale Earnhardt Sr. had raced past the 2001 season, would he have ever captured that eighth championship?

@TheblondeTweets Yes!

@jackrlewis I always said that he would’ve won it in 2001. They seemed so prepared

@nascar_creation absolutely, after a few off years his 2000 campaign was sweet. He woulsve retired with TEN…..

@poptart_31 we would never be running a COT car because he would of never drove it

@MarshallGabell Possibly. However, he was out of his prime.

@JBJB68 odds were waning yet entirely possible.

@ARosser14 His intent was to retire in ’02 so it would have depended on if he could have run with Gordon in ’01 probably. So maybe.

@66MWRfan15 Yes I do believe so. I was not a fan, but he was just that good!

@kaylamotte Had more momentum going in 2001 than in a long time, was very hopeful

@MontysAmendment Without a doubt but his death changed the sport for better in terms of safety. Would have lost more drivers as well.

Wednesday, July 18th 'What If' Question

Since 1909 the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has welcomed racers from around the world and all across the country.

And since that time they've crowned winners in many different forms. From F1, MotoGP, IndyCar and then to the surprise of many, NASCAR. Beginning in 1994 it was stock cars roaring around the famed Brickyard with Jeff Gordon taking home the first checkered flag.

Since then the Brickyard 400 has become one of NASCAR's most prestigious races, and according to IMS the second-highest paying race behind the Daytona 500.

Just two years after NASCAR got there a great Indianapolis tradition was born. In the name of tradition and winning big races, the Daytona International Speedway places the winners car in the Daytona 500 USA museum for a year. The driver is the introduced as the Daytona 500 winner for the remainder of the year and their name goes into the record books not just as winner, but a Daytona 500 champion.

Now when a driver wins at Indy they end up with much the same accolades. Part of their tradition is taking a ride around the speedway in the pace car and going to the "Yard of Bricks."

That's where they'll have one of the most memorable kisses of their life. It was Dale Jarrett and crew chief Todd Parrott who started the tradition in '96 when they innocently went to kiss the bricks after their win. They were soon joined by the entire team who also kissed the bricks and the rest as they say is history.

NASCAR winners and IndyCar winners all get their chance to kiss the bricks and go down in history as a winner at Indianapolis. Win there and you'll be remembered forever, regardless of whatever else you've done.

Beginning next weekend Indianapolis will now host the NASCAR Nationwide Series at the big track. For many years the NNS and CWTS raced away from Indianapolis at the small oval in Clermont, Indiana. The Lucas Oil Raceway - formerly Indianapolis Raceway Park and O'Reilly Raceway Park - will not be hosting NNS or CWTS races beginning in 2012, although many agreed the shorttrack put on some great racing throughout its history.

Now the Brickyard will go from hosting just Sprint Cup drivers and race to the NNS the day before. While Daytona does the same, with only the Cup race being known as a "big" race, this will be the first time in recent memory that a famed track and big race has gone from hosting just Cup cars to sharing it with the NNS.

Cars hit the track starting on Thursday, July 26th when the NNS hits the track for the very first time in practice. When they do it will bring many questions, which will only be answered throughout the weekend.

But ...

What if w/Nationwide now at Indy & if they start kissing the bricks, will it change your view of the prestige of the Cup race there?


@Talon64 yes, but only because the Cup guys would get Nationwide's sloppy seconds on the brick kiss.

@mrheadrick No. Has the prestige of Daytona been tarnished by multiple series running there? The whole #Indycar split several years ago killed the prestige of Indy in my eyes.

@dustin_n_va No not at all any win at indy is prestigious

@JoJo_6040 Yep, but I'm sure the winner will since it's a tradition for cup. Now you have me curious haha. Wish they kept nns at orp.

Thursday, May 24th 'What If' Question

Wednesday afternoon NASCAR announced their 2013 Hall of Fame class. The five men who will be officially place into the Hall on February 8, 2013 will be Buck Baker, Cotton Owens, Herb Thomas, Rusty Wallace and Leonard Wood.

As noted in his HOF biography on NASCAR.com, many call Wood the innovator of the modern pit stop among the many other things Leonard's credited with. And along with brother Glen, Wood Brothers Racing based out of Virginia, has become one of the most celebrated teams in the garage.

Elliott Sadler earned his first career Sprint Cup Series win in the Wood Brothers No. 21 Ford at Bristol in the spring of 2001. While drivers have come and gone in their cars, the success up and down, they've remained a constant on the track. Doing everything they could to get to the next track, the next race, the next season.

Then a young Tennessee driver named Trevor Bayne came along and gave the fabled team their second wind. Bayne went out and won the 2011 Daytona 500 after an impressive Speedweeks in which he gained the attention of champion and future Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon.

The win was the first for the Wood Brothers since Sadler's 2001 feat, the first Daytona 500 win since David Pearson in 1976. It was just the second career start for Bayne who had turned 20-years-old not even 24 hours before.

It was a sensational story that the NASCAR world latched onto. Bayne became its new star who was only running a partial Cup schedule for the Wood Brothers while competing for Jack Roush in the Nationwide Series. When Bayne got sick weeks after his win and was sidelined for a few months, the Wood Brothers stayed loyal and said the No. 21 was his.

He came back in late 2011 and tried to pick up where he left off but it's been a steep learning curve. Saturday night in Charlotte he'll be behind the wheel of the No. 21 in the Coca-Cola 600, a race that he missed last year. He's eager and excited to put another race under his belt, starting 13th, and certainly now that one of his team owners is a Hall of Famer.

But ...

What if the Wood Brothers hadn't won the 2011 Daytona 500 with Trevor Bayne and then been the focus of so much media attention for a year and a half because of his win, illness and comeback / success, would Leonard Wood still have been chosen as a nominee for the 2013 Hall of Fame class?


@cruetten no. He would've gotten in obviously, but not as soon.

@NancyatStudioN OMG - Yes! They have 97 wins w 17 dif drivers over 59 yrs. A shame they don't have financing to run TBayne fulltime

@RJ_Number8 They would've gotten in now. We're talking about THE men who invented the modern pit stop; a major contribution to the sport.

Thursday, March 15th 'What If' Question

For all those "Did you see that?" moments look no further than the Daytona 500.

In its 54 year running there's been a little bit of everything: there was 'the fight', rain shortened events, rained out events, potholes, animals demolished by machines, tragedy, triumph, and now not only a Monday night race but a jet dryer explosion. Of course we all should have known we were in for some excitement when this year's race, for the first time in history, had to be postponed until Monday.

Then more rain pushed the race to Monday night, primetime and the excitement was notched up another level. The action started right away with a major crash that collected Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, Danica Patrick and others on lap two. From there the Roush Fenway Racing drivers of Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle dominated the field.

And then as the race started to wind down it happened. Fire!

One of the jet dryers used to clean the race track during cautions began burning in turn three. A massive fire broke out as the gasoline from the jet dryer burned down the track. Upon further review it was found that something on Juan Pablo Montoya's No. 42 Target machine broke as he was trying to get up to speed and catch the field.

The car snapped away from him and spun into the jet dryer and chaos ensued from there. The race was red flagged for two hours as the track was cleaned and repaired. During that time Brad Keselowski tweeted from his car, drivers hung out on the backstretch and some raced each other to the porta potty.

When the race finally restarted it was Kenseth scoring his second 500 win over Dale Earnhardt Jr. Once the post race interviews and press conferences were over it was nearly 2:00 Tuesday morning. As the rest of the world woke up that Tuesday the Daytona 500 was national news, first because it was a primetime event and because of the amazing video of the jet dryer fire.

Keselowski tweeting from inside his race car didn't hurt either. NASCAR was already off to a roaring start in 2012 and the Daytona 500 got to add another historic page to its history book.

But ...

What if the jet dryer explosion hadn't happened, what would have been the most memorable moment of the 2012 Daytona 500 & would the race still have made national news?

@WickedJ8 No, it wouldnt have made news. But the story wouldve been not fully sponsored 17 winning the biggest race of the year..again

@Tradertoms Fact is that we will never forget that incident but considering it WAS a Night race, it was sure to make National News

@rcracer20 prime time and @DanicaPatrick ,had to think about who won

@StrokerAce90 Most memorable moment woulda been Danica's first Cup start. She made the Daytona 500 bigger National news by just being in it

Tuesday, January 31st 'What If' Question

The social media sphere exploded earlier this week when it was announced that Danica Patrick had a guaranteed starting spot in the upcoming Daytona 500.

Patrick, who has never completed a lap in the Sprint Cup Series, is embarking on her first full season in stock cars. She'll be back behind the wheel of the JR Motorsports No. 7 Chevrolet while doing a partial Cup schedule in the No. 10 for Stewart-Haas Racing. The Daytona 500 later this month will be her first race and she won't have to worry about qualifying on speed.

Stewart-Haas bought the points of Tommy Baldwin's No. 36 which had been driven by Dave Blaney last season. Further part of the deal was that in the 26 races that Patrick isn't running for Stewart-Haas the No. 10 car will be run by David Reutimann. Patrick's cars will be prepared by Stewart-Haas and Reutimann's by Tommy Baldwin Racing.

Those around the NASCAR world haven't taken to the news kindly. Then again, whenever it comes to Patrick, whether she's right or wrong, the news is normally meet with a chorus of boos. This was no different, many saying that the deal shouldn't have been allowed by NASCAR and buying or swapping points needs to be stopped.

What's interesting is that it's something that's occurred for years. In fact, the Wood Brothers did the same thing in 2011 in order to get rookie Trevor Bayne in the Daytona 500. No one said a peep and instead went crazy over Bayne when he won the race and since then they haven't gotten enough of the young driver.

Patrick isn't getting the same warm welcome, opinions being that she doesn't belong in the sports biggest race. Others have said she got a free pass and should have had to race her way like many others will attempt to do during the Gatorade Duel races on Thursday, February 23.

The hate isn't anything new. If Patrick appears on TV many yell for her to get off, she's not worthy of airtime. Should her commercials air or she does another photo shoot, there are those changing the channel and saying they don't take her seriously as a racecar driver. And heaven forbid her from voicing her opinion because she hasn't accomplished anything in NASCAR that allows her to complain. When she asks questions or voices her honesty about not knowing the rules or ways of NASCAR, she's ripped for that.

From her sunglasses to sponsor and performance, everything is up for grabs. There was even backlash from Patrick saying that she was going to embrace the Honey Bader attitude. She was accused of stealing the nickname from college football player Tyrann Mathieu.

And this chick better not hit the wall, hit another driver, speed down pit road or do anything else besides win or finish top 10 because she'll never hear the end of it. Let's not mention though that Patrick hasn't done anything any other driver or celebrity hasn't done. The rules are just different when it comes to what she can and can't do.

Damned if she does, damned if she doesn't. Patrick just isn't very popular and she hasn't done much to deserve it. That's what didn't make the latest round of negative comments that flew around and caused Twitter and Facebook to nearly explode much surprising. But whether they like it or not, Patrick will race in the Daytona 500 and that's a good thing for her and for NASCAR.

It kicks off the 2012 on a good note. The Sprint Cup Series will get a lot more attention and so will Patrick. There are a lot of expectations on the GoDaddy driver in her first full season. Her learning curve and improvement have begun to show, now she'll look to contend on a weekly basis in the Nationwide Series and bring home a top 10 points finish. On the Cup side she'll get a better taste for what the big boys of racing can do as she dips her toes in the big end of the pool.

And of course along the way she'll blow up the Internet, annoy those watching the TV broadcast and give many media members plenty of material. For Patrick knows all too well: Haters gonna hate.

But ...

What if @DanicaPatrick had had more success in #INDYCAR before coming to #NASCAR, would opinions and criticism of her be different?

@mcanchola2 yes they would.

@BuckyButler Yes. All anyone has ever wanted was for the performance and results to match the hype.

@thebigshmoog most definitely. The hype would be backed up with results.

@chuckallen2 opinions may be different, but I believe her success in INDY will pale in comparison to her NASCAR career. Shes a winner.

@StrokerAce90 Certain NASCAR fans and media would still and always will have the same opinions and criticism of @DanicaPatrick even if she had more Indycar success than she already has.

Saturday, January 21st 'What If' Question

Every season a star is born in NASCAR.

From Dale Earnhardt Jr. to Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards to Denny Hamlin, or even Jamie McMurray to Brad Keselowski. One driver grabs the eye of the garage every season and in 2011 it was 20-year-old Trevor Bayne. He wasn't looking for much coming into the season, just more seat time in the Nationwide Series for Roush Fenway Racing, who was sticking with the youngster and hoping to turn him into their new winner.

When it was announced that Bayne would then attempt to make the Daytona 500 with the Wood Brothers in the famous No. 21 it didn't raise that many eyebrows. It wasn't all that newsworthy but it soon became so when Bayne won the 500 in his first attempt, second career Sprint Cup Series start and a day after his birthday.

He was no longer just another young gun looking for any little headline he would get in the NNS. Now he was a celebrity, a winner, a champion in NASCAR's biggest race. Everyone knew his name and face, it was plastered all over the country and he was on many different TV shows. Even more importantly Bayne didn't have to worry about not having a girlfriend anymore, they were lining up at the track.

After his 500 win though the glass slipper quickly broke. Bayne struggled in the Cup races that he was entered in, seemingly hitting the wall week after week, looking every bit the rookie that he was. His 500 win was his only top 10 of the season, he finished no better than 15th in his 16 other races.

In the NNS for RFR it was only slightly better as Bayne grabbed a few top 10s before being sidelined with an illness for a few weeks. It kept him out of both cars and his learning process was halted. When he finally returned he went on to win his first NNS race at Texas in the second to last race of the year. Yet Bayne was overshadowed last season by another youngster, his own teammate in Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

The two were supposed to rise through the ranks together and put RFR in the winners circle every week. Good friends and fierce competitors it was often Stenhouse getting the best of Bayne in many head-to-head matchups, on and off the track. Whereas Stenhouse went on to win two races and the championship with 26 top 10s and 16 top fives, Bayne with his one win managed 14 top 10s and five top fives in the 29 of 34 races that he competed in.

Through the many up and downs the Wood Brothers and Roush stayed loyal to Bayne. Others filled in for him in the NNS but the Wood Brothers would not run the 21 in the Cup Series without Bayne behind the wheel. Wanting to show that it was his car, they were thankful to the kid who had brought them back to victory lane in the NSCS for the first time since 2001. And the first time in the Daytona 500 since 1976.

In 2012 Bayne will again run for the Wood Brothers in select Cup races. His NNS plans remain up in the air with Roush saying he could run races only if sponsorship is found. It's the same thing that hurts his teammate and champion Stenhouse. He plans on running a full schedule but he too, doesn't have sponsorship set in stone.

But ...

What if Trevor Bayne hadn't won Daytona, getting much attention, would he have kept the 21 or could Ricky Stenhouse be its driver? #NASCAR

@MattEmbury They'd of kept Bayne I'm sure, Stenhouse wasn't ready at that point.

@pablao21 if Bayne hadn't won I don't think either would be in the 21 now.

@StrokerAce90 if Trevor didn't win the Daytona I don't think he'd be back in the 21.