Welcome to the first football-less weekend since Labor Day. Are you bummed? Of course you are. You live in the South.
Alas, our crack research staff has informed me there are other sports besides football, and several of them have spotlight moments in the days ahead. I did not believe it at first, but the evidence is irrefutable.
NASCAR drops the flag on its season this weekend at Daytona, its version of the Super Bowl. The Sprint Cup storylines are rich. Lovable or loathable veteran Mark Martin starts on the pole looking for his first Daytona 500 win. Jimmie Johnson begins his quest for a possible mind-boggling fifth consecutive points title.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. could even finish in the top 10 in a race this year. Who knows?
The overriding story from Daytona this year, though, has been Danica Patrick, who has signed on with Junior’s JR Motorsports to run ARCA this season and will make her Nationwide Series debut today. Patrick already has attracted a new audience and reintroduced NASCAR, which has been plagued by the bad economy, bad PR and bad racing for the last 18 months.