Hot 20

So, Danica Patrick is not all sweetness and loveliness. Okay, she is the latter, but the fact she is a little ticked or not going along with the company line, has some folks talking. She is upset with Joey Logano, she had a bit of a run in with Martin Truex Jr. at Martinsville and she thinks qualifying at Talladega stinks after her boyfriend got left in the cold. She even is not a fan of NASCAR’s diversity program.

Will it bother anyone if, conceivably, one not so deserving wins the Cup title this year? I mean, if it is Jeff Gordon, Joey Logano, or Brad Keselowski, I doubt few would argue the outcome. One could even argue that the likes of Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, or Ryan Newman would be a worthy champion.

When the smoke clears at Talladega, and I mean that literally, four of our top eight drivers throughout the course of the season, might no longer be contenders for the championship.

Life is full of milestones, some good and some not. Some win championships, some more than one, while others struggle to overcome adversity. Their ability to do so, to win the fight, are just as inspirational, if not more so.

Change where change is necessary is a good thing. NASCAR wanted us to keep watching, so out went the system that determined a champion based on season long performance. Winning is big, but it was not big enough, so in came the automatic Chase bye to race winners who at least put in the time to challenge Danica Patrick in the standings.

According to the Chase, a couple of Penske drivers lead the way in the standings with Sunday’s race at Dover to determine the dozen who advance to the next round. According to our season long standings, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano certainly are worthy of consideration.

New Hampshire is the next stop on the Chase tour, and if anyone needs to rewrite expectations it would be Aric Almirola and AJ Allmendinger. Both have not done well at Loudon in the past, though Almirola was fifth in the race 15 months ago and the Dinger has one Top Ten.

Ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive. If it was good enough for Johnny, Bing, and Perry, well, gosh darn it, it is good enough for me. I will not even breath a mention of the snore-fest that was Richmond.

I had hoped to announce the NASCAR Ron Thornton series, but I came up about $200 million short. Instead, the former Busch series and soon to be former Nationwide series shall be the NASCAR Xfinity Series for the next 10 years. Oh, so close.

In 2015, the Atlanta 500 makes its return. Well, sort of. That was the name of the early season race in Atlanta before they pimped out the brand to the sponsors. In 2010, they lost that date, while what once was the season finale in Cup got moved to where we find it today.