I've lost the lust I lived with most of my years and have only watched Daytona this year. I have no clue where ANYBODY stands in points and I doubt I could see 25% of the racers and know their names. Back in the day, I could probably name EVERY driver, tell you what car they were running and for most of them, tell you who their car owner was. NASCAR kept jacking around with the rules so much, I lost track a few years back. I have to assume today will still be the silly 3-race stages, who knows? It's been a while since Daytona and I don't even try to keep up. There's a whole new crowd of "younger" NASCAR fans now. I guess since they don't know the difference, all of this seems normal to them. I'm just an old dinosaur from the days when the best driver with the fastest car was declared the winner. Those days are long gone I'm afraid. And they've pretty much lost a life-long (up to this point) fan.

That said, I will watch Talladega. I have no clue who to pull for, so I'll just keep my tradition going. If your name is Earnhardt, I'll be pulling for you. I was a Ralph Earnhardt fan as a kid ... ever since we broke during practice and he gave us the part we needed to qualify and make the race. Dale and I were the same age and both of us used to run around the pits together. Of course, I was later a HUGE Dale E. fan and followed suit with Jr. Today? I guess I'll have to follow tradition and pull for Jeffery. He hasn't got a chance in Hell, but his name is Earnhardt, so he wins my vote. I'm sure one of the Penske boys will take today's race. Penske's pretty much unbeatable at Tallagega if nothing's really changed and "The Big One" doesn't take 'em out.

Oh well, I'm off to sit in front of the tube with a cold coke and a batch of boilt peanuts. I'll catch youse dufes after the race.