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Of course, none of you do so it’s a moot point.

But anyway, today may be the biggest non-Daytona 500 day of racing in Daytona Speedweeks history.

Usually, pole day for the Daytona 500 is on Sunday, but the Super Bowl is obviously tomorrow, so instead it’s today. And per usual, the Budweiser Shootout unofficially kicks off the race season tonight with a 24 car, 75 lap exhibition race that may come down to which car can crash the least.

And for many, sandwiched between the two, is the main event. Danicamania.

Yes, today’s the day when Danica Patrick races in a stock car for the first time. She qualified 12th, and has one of the best cars in the field, but it’s an ARCA race. ARCA races at Daytona tend to turn into demolition derbies that seemingly involve blind drivers. There are moments when you can’t believe that a driver doesn’t slow down to avoid a wreck much further up the in field and then subsequently wonders why the heck he got caught up in the mess. (Last year, this happened late in the race, and led to a fractured back for one of ARCA’s best drivers)

However, Danica isn’t the only female driver in the field for the ARCA race. There are four others, but none of them have either the looks or the marketing prowess that Patrick does. (Though I guess you have to give Jennifer Jo Cobb some credit for trying. She’s taken advantage of the economic stimulus and gotten new hair, teeth and boobs)

How will Danica do? Well, I’m already on record as saying that she’s going to win today, so I’ll stick with it. Remember, this is ARCA. It ain’t rocket science. It’s crash avoidance.

Some of you will take issue with the word “playing.” Sorry, it’s a good headline.

Denny Hamlin, one of the top drivers in Sprint Cup, tore his ACL Friday playing pickup basketball.

And since the season unofficially starts in two weeks, Hamlin will have to wait until around Thanksgiving to have the surgery.

Yikes.

The injury was to Hamlin’s left knee, which is his braking leg, so the circumstances could be worse. The ACL primarily is involved in stabilization during knee flexion and Hamlin shouldn’t be extremely hampered because the angle of a driver’s knee doesn’t change much during the course of a race. Some modifications will probably have to be made, however, to the cockpit of Hamlin’s car to allow him more room to extend his leg.

But where Hamlin is going to feel it most is outside of the car. Getting around for seven months with a torn ACL has to be a chore.

Yes, it’s official that Danica Patrick is coming to the Busch* Series, so you now can all go buy your #7 GoDaddy NASCAR shirts and wear them with pride.

That was expected, but what wasn’t–at least plausibly anyway–was GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons’s public expectations for Danica.

As of now, she’s going to do about 20 Busch* races amongst the full IndyCar season, and–if Parsons’s plan go as expected–make the full time transition to the Sprint Cup series in 2012.

What car would she drive? Well, that’d be the #5 of Hendrick Motorsports, the car that’s currently driven by Mark Martin.

Seriously.

GoDaddy is sponsoring the #5 in 20 races in 2010 and 2011, and Martin recently signed a two-year extension with Hendrick that will most likely take him to the end of his career. Those factors were known as soon as the 2009 season ended.

But Danica taking over for Martin? Now that one was kind of unexpected.

How would that Hendrick Motorsports marketing juggernaut look then? Jeff Gordon would still be in the fold, as would Dale Earnhardt Jr. unless his marketing power went the way of his appearances in Victory Lane, and of course Jimmie Johnson would still be there and at the rate things are going now, he’d probably be a five or six time champion at that point. Throw in the most marketable driver in all of motorsports on top of that–and assuming the economy hasn’t crashed by then–Hendrick Motorsports would have enough money to buy NASCAR and the tracks it races on.

However, I have serious doubts about this all happening. No one knows how Danica is going to transition to stock cars, and that includes Danica herself, who says that she can’t remember the last time she sat in a stock car and doesn’t know the differences between one and an IndyCar. (Would a driver be saying this knowing that he or she wasn’t a foolproof cash cow with a guaranteed seat based on his or her marketing power? Hell no)

Danica is going to struggle. She hasn’t set the IRL on fire, and the IRL’s champion–Dario Franchitti–was absolutely horrible at driving a stock car. If Mrs. Ashley Judd can’t do it, why could Danica?

I’ll be surprised if Danica does well and ever makes it to Sprint Cup, let alone be competitive.

–Silly season has been pretty quiet so far, with no real big driver or crew chief moves. The big moves (Truex to MWR, Keselowski to Penske) were announced during last year, and so the drivers who are out of rides right now are going to have to settle for start and parks or startups with a very limited budget.

–Looking over the paint schemes for 2010, Tony Stewart’s Old Spice car has my vote for best of the year, with Dale Jr.’s National Guard scheme close behind.

–Kyle Busch is going to be starting his own truck series team in 2010, and the plans will be officially announced Friday. He may field up to three trucks–depending on sponsorship of course–and is going to run a good portion of the season himself, so he’s already the odds on favorite to visit Victory Lane more than any other driver in the truck series.

–Busch isn’t running the full Busch* season in 2010 unless he can convince JD Gibbs otherwise, so look for Carl Edwards to be the odds-on favorite for the title. This could be the weakest season of competition in recent memory for the Busch* series, with Cup drivers in Cup equipment taking up the top 10 and start and parks filling up the bottom 10 or 15.

–Yes, there is going to be a Larry the Cable Guy car in the Daytona 500…

–I’d post something about the year-end banquet, but even I didn’t watch. I watch enough NASCAR during the season that I don’t need to be subjected to four hours of talking and scripted speeches.

Giant flop.

She sure knows how to work the media though, so you’ve got to give her credit for that.

Rumors swirled that she was announcing a partnership to do a NASCAR and IRL schedule, or that, even worse, she was announcing that she was going to make her stock car debut in the ARCA race in Daytona in February.

Instead, it was a new paint scheme for her IRL car.

Must have been a slow day on Good Morning America.

Jimmie Johnson wrecks on lap two after Sam Hornish gets into him after being tapped by David Reutimann.

And NASCAR officials collectively breathe a HUGE sigh of relief.

For a few reasons:

1. Before the race, the sanctioning body issued a decree to the drivers that there was to be no bump-drafting in the corners, and that a violation of the rule would lead to immediate penalization. (NASCAR 101 moment: Talladega is one of two tracks where the cars run a restrictor plate that restricts air intake to the carburetor, which slows the cars down and limits acceleration. Because the cars are unable to break away from each other–and the banking at Talladega is such that they can run flat out around the track–the cars run in packs, and bumping the car in front of you has become the preferred way of making a pass on a car in a different line without breaking your own momentum) Well, this isn’t a new rule, as it has been understood that there should be no bump-drafting in the corners in the past, but this was the first time that NASCAR was actually going to enforce the rule.

And, to make matters even more complicated, NASCAR announced that the driver getting bumped would also be penalized. Yes, you read that correctly. Now I assume that was to make sure that the driver in front didn’t drag the brake to force the driver behind to run into him (and draw a penalty) but given the inability of the car in front to pull away, there’s nothing much a driver can do if he’s getting pushed by the car behind him.

So as the drivers were left to ponder the sudden hard-line statement from NASCAR just two hours before the race, their response was obvious: they weren’t going to push the limit. Heck, they weren’t going to come close to pushing the limit.

What resulted was one of the most boring races in Talladega memory. Long segments of the race turned into single-file conga lines, with 35+ cars spaced evenly apart, all with no intentions of passing. When they did form multiple racing lines, the action wasn’t as intense as usual, and drivers were asking their crews–only half-kidding–to help keep them awake.

2. While the racing did pick up a bit in the final laps, the no bump-draft in the corners rule might have caused the first big wreck of the day. With five laps to go, Tony Stewart was forced to check up entering turn 3, a check up that was possibly magnified because of the new situation. Ryan Newman, his teammate, was behind him, and he swerved hard left in an attempt to avoid Stewart. The hard turn sent Newman into a slide, and he was turned backwards by Kevin Harvick. Once the car was backwards, it took off. Literally. That’s the second time a car has gone airborne at Talladega this year, and I’m beginning to wonder if there’s a serious design flaw–whether it’s the rear wing or the roof flaps–that is allowing these cars to take off so easily. Newman was very direct towards NASCAR and their attempts (or lack thereof) to fix the racing at Talladega after walking out of the infield care center. (Not to mention the fact that after Newman landed upside down, it took 12 minutes to get him out)

3. The Chase is now really over. Jimmie Johnson ran around the back of the pack all day in an attempt to avoid the big crash and ended up avoiding two of them and finished sixth. Mark Martin, who is still in second place, was caught up in the final wreck, a big melee one lap from the finish, and ended up flipping two times before his car settled right side up, unlike Newman’s. Martin is now 184 points behind Johnson, which is more than a whole race’s worth. Johnson’s day was made better by some bizarre fuel strategy by drivers that were in front of him. Newman’s crash caused a lengthy delay, and because of that delay many drivers ran out of fuel instead of playing it safe and getting some fuel after the crash like Johnson did. Even Johnson’s teammate, Jeff Gordon, ran out of fuel before the final restart and had to be pushed to pit road.

4. Oh, Jamie McMurray won the race.

Denny Hamlin won yesterday at Martinsville.

Buuuuuut Jimmie Johnson finished second, while Mark Martin finished eighth.

That means that Johnson’s points lead extended from 90 to 118, taking even more drama out of the Chase barring a a big calamity including Johnson next week at Talladega.

The old system–the one where the points went over the whole season, like in soccer–would actually be closer than the Chase is now.

Tony Stewart would be leading, with Johnson 80 behind in second and Jeff Gordon 117 behind in third.

Yes, under the yawn inducing old system, the third place driver would be closer to first than Martin is now.

I’m sure NASCAR is loving that.

With his win Saturday night, Jimmie Johnson now has a 90 point lead on second place Mark Martin.

The Chase is only halfway over, so, multiply that lead by two, and it’s feasible that Johnson will win the Chase by 180 points.

The most points any driver can make up in a race is 161, and in the start-and-park era, that’s a pretty farfetched scenario.

So while it’s not all that probable, Johnson could wrap this thing up at Phoenix, the ninth of 10 Chase races.

That’s definitely not what NASCAR had in mind.

But who can stop Jimmie? In these first five races, he has finishes of fourth, first, ninth, first and first.

Juan Pablo Montoya has finishes of fourth, third, third, third and 35th, but he’s 195 points behind Johnson, thanks to the 35th place finish.

Of course, since one bad finish can swing the points that much, a poor finish could certainly stop Jimmie. And that poor finish could easily come at Talladega in two weeks, when the big one can strike anyone at any time.

However, this week’s race is at Martinsville, a place where Jimmie has had a ton of success. He could very well leave Martinsville with a 100+ point cushion, giving him a huge margin for error at Talladega.

With the way things are going right now, Johnson will probably narrowly skirt the big wreck at Talladega, while Martin gets caught up in it. (Martin always seems to get wrecked at Talladega)

And if that happens, watch out. The finale at Homestead will definitely not be must-see television.

The inaugural NASCAR Hall of Fame class was elected today.

And I don’t think anyone can argue with the inductees.

Those going in first are Bill France Sr, Bill France Jr, Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Junior Johnson.

Yeah, just five people.

And that stinks.

Left out were David Pearson, Cale Yarborough and Bobby Allison. All three of them deserve to be in on the first ballot.

But they’ll have to wait til next year.

Five is a great number for a standard hall of fame class. However, since this is the first class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, why couldn’t the class have been 10? Sure, that might have meant a two night induction banquet affair, or really short speeches to keep it to one night, but that’s a small price to pay.

Obviously when it opens, the HoF will have more to it than shrines to the five original inductees. But what incentive is there for a fan to go when there are only five inductees?

And what good is a NASCAR Hall of Fame without David Pearson, even if it’s only for a year?

– Greg Biffle is one of the nicest guys in NASCAR, and is one of the best quotes too. Biffle was candid in admitting that his decision to take four tires late in Sunday’s race cost him the race, but later added that he was having the time of his life. Biffle may be on the borderline for contention for the Sprint Cup, but given the way he ran at Kansas, he isn’t out of the hunt.

– A local television reporter asked Tony Stewart why he liked the track. “It’s round,” Stewart said. Deep.

– Another local television reporter told a certain driver that he was like “a fine wine.” Said certain driver is a recovering alcoholic. Uncomfortable grimaces and silence in the media center ensued.

– The reclusive George Gillett came in for a press conference on Saturday, and bizarre is the only way to describe the 30 minute session. Gillett was all over the map, first taking a phone call while on the podium before answering any questions. (The common conspiracy theory, given the way the press conference went, was that the phone call was staged. By the way, his ringtone is You’ll Never Walk Alone.)

The press conference was held to announce a partnership between Gillett and a Saudi prince that included plans to build NASCAR academies–no, I’m not making this up–in the Middle East in exchange for some marketing rights to Richard Petty Motorsports.

One of the sponsors for Richard Petty Motorsports is the Air Force, so Gillett was asked, rather indirectly, if the partnership with the Saudi prince would tick off the Air Force. No, I’m not making this up either.

As the press conference went on, Gillett avoided three or four questions by claiming that his hearing was bad and at one point called Kasey Kahne a “dear guy” who had no idea how to deal with the media. (Kahne is one of the most media friendly drivers around.)

– I can’t help but wonder that Joey Logano’s crash from Dover has been replayed more times than it would have been if Logano got hurt. Yes, the new car is very safe, and that wreck looked very scary. And yes, Logano admitted that he was scared during the wreck. But while the highlights make for good television, a wreck like that is safer than a sudden impact, because the energy dissipates over time, instead of an impact like Dale Earnhardt’s. If Logano wasn’t such a nice kid, he’d have told everyone to shut up about it now. Maybe he should have gotten Kyle Busch to say it for him.