The Yellow Stripe

Back in April 2010, when Kasey Kahne first signed on the dotted line with NASCAR’s powerhouse team; he knew there would be a couple transition seasons before he finally started piloting Hendrick horse-powered cars. In fact, it would take the better part of 20 months before Kahne finally pulled those belts down tight in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports ride: a journey that included a one-year sabbatical at the now defunct Red Bull Racing outfit as well as more than half a season finishing up his Richard Petty Motorsports contract. 2012, then, was meant to be the year he ignited a sustained and genuine title challenge that had been years in the offing.

One month ago, the season-opening Daytona 500 entry list lacked a familiar face — Brian Vickers. But Vickers, a mainstay in NASCAR’s top series since 2004, remained optimistic about his plans for the upcoming season, warning fans to not count him out just yet.

“The point of the story is, I plan on being in a race car in 2012,” he said in a video posted on Facebook that February. “Hopefully, in a car that I can win with and contend for championships with.”

Looks like he’s remained true to his word.

About the only thing missing from a mesmerizing 2012 Daytona 500 was a plague of locusts, but given the sheer insanity that transpired this past weekend I wouldn’t have been surprised to see one descend from above. Now though, with the hoopla of the Great American race finally consigned to the annals of NASCAR history, we get down to the serious business this weekend.

But wait, you say. Isn’t the Daytona 500 – the sport’s biggest race – the very definition of serious business? Well yeah, of course it’s serious, but it’s the form of the drivers and teams over the next two race weekends at Phoenix and Las Vegas Motor Speedway that will give us a true indicator as to who is going to make a sustained run in 2012 and ultimately who’ll challenge for the title.

Wasn’t it good to see the cars back on the high banks of Daytona this past weekend? The NASCAR off-season might be the shortest in all of professional sport, but it sure feels like a long cold time in the frigid weeks of a Northeast winter without the throaty roar of stock car engines each weekend. So, as we head inexorably towards Sunday’s Great American Race, and before I get too caught up in the day-by-day minutiae of the soap opera that is NASCAR, here are my 12 wishes for the 2012 season.

I was going to write a totally different column this week. I’d planned to do an end of year awards piece, but after Sunday’s Herculean tussle between Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards, it just doesn’t seem right.

To be honest, given this will be my final weekly column of my fourth full year writing for this great site (unashamed bias there), I’d written quite a bit of the column already. Here are, for the record, some of my categories…

After ten long months, 35 grueling races and 10,383 laps run, we’re left with just 400 miles (267 laps) to decide if Tony Stewart will win a third Cup crown in nine years, or if Carl Edwards will win a first ever title after eight years of trying. We’ll find out soon enough this weekend; but after the checkered flag flies at Homestead, whoever wins doesn’t deter us from running slap bang into the racing free months of deep winter. So, I figured in one of my final columns of the year, I’d take a quick peek at twelve things that are in store for us NASCAR aficionados in 2012…

Once again, the venerable old paperclip of a track nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains gave us an absolute gem of a race. After the fiasco that plate racing has become last weekend at Talladega, it was just great to get back to the true roots of the sport and see how racing should be – short track style. It just doesn’t go out of fashion, gentle readers! Now, just three races remain before we crown our first new champion since what seems like the 1970s and then, it’s the interminable, frigid winter break before engines rev up once again at the start of Speedweeks in February.

But while Carl Edwards and Stewart fight for that title, Martinsville’s mayhem was a reminder that for many, the “frigid winter” can’t come soon enough. So with the 2011 season in the final stages, here are six drivers who are probably already looking forward to getting back on the track next year…

Short of moving the Southern 500 to Fontana, there’s perhaps been nothing more maligned during Brian France’s reign at the top of stock car racing than the Chase.

Back in 2004, when that faithful move was made to put the Southern 500 on the outskirts of Los Angeles, the intent was clear; a more modern facility in a larger TV market would result in bigger money for all involved. And the result? One of NASCAR’s crown jewels died, Fontana found itself back to one Cup race within seven seasons, and the Auto Club Speedway had to cut its race length down to 400 miles as the few fans that actually showed up to the track screamed “Mercy” at the top of their lungs.