Ron Thornton

As justly proud I am of my ancestors, there is a downside to not being born a France. I could have a dream, wake in the morning and jot it all down on a napkin, and there is no chance in hell that it could be NASCAR policy by the afternoon.

In 1949, Red Byron and Bob Flock each won two of the eight races run that inaugural NASCAR season. Bryon had more points, so he was the champion. The next year they ran 19 events with Curtis Turner winning four, Dick Linder had three, but one race winner Bill Rexford was king, and so it began.

Daytona was great. Phoenix was not bad, once you got used to the differences. One week we had a 2.5-mile superspeedway, the next we got was a single mile circuit. It rained in Florida, yet despite the forecast the only rain came to prematurely end the Nationwide race on Saturday. They ran in big packs in the southeast, not so much in the southwest.

Which driver has the highest level of success? Well, if the point of racing is to finish first, then the answer comes easy. Last Sunday, Dale Earnhardt Jr was the most successful driver in the Daytona 500. There is no argument.

Jeff Gordon is correct. Now that Dale Earnhardt Jr has claimed his second Daytona 500, all is right with the world. Now, what on earth has made a 20 race winner, one who has won exactly three races in the past 279 events, all that popular?

My grandfather might have fought on the front lines in World War I from the time he was 18 until he turned 22, but he did not invent NASCAR. My father might have turned limited educational opportunities in World War II Saskatchewan into a career in public works, but he never ran NASCAR.

The long season, well it might have been just three months, of our winter discontent has come to a close. The engines are running, our hopes and dreams have been renewed, and NASCAR keeps trying its damndest to drive us to watching something else.

Matt Kenseth ruined NASCAR. He did not mean to do it, and we did not know at the time that he did, but it would seem his single win 2003 championship changed everything.

Imagine the Super Bowl as Percy Harvin takes the second half kickoff. However, before he gets very far, he is blindsided by someone from ... the 2 and 14 Houston Texans?

I guess it was written in stone, after all. NASCAR has gone ahead and, starting this season, will award the season crown to the best finisher amongst just four drivers at the year’s finale in Homestead.