It’s my take on what to watch for as the Cup series heads west to Fontana this weekend. Enjoy the read!

Thanks for stopping by.

I’ve started writing for Bleacher Report. They’ve asked me to be a NASCAR analyst. I like titles. It always makes things sound so much more official. I like being referred to as a NASCAR analyst. It does make me feel official.

I’m spending a good deal of my time working on the things I write for Bleacher Report, even the slideshows, which the editors love and the readers apparently love even more. I would like to think that I’ve been able to make a difference in the NASCAR content at Bleacher Report with my work. I guess time will tell. But there are a lot of people reading what I write.

NASCAR website Jayski, who I really like and I appreciate for what he does, (offering the best up-to-date, one-stop shop for all things NASCAR) well, Jayski likes what I do here, but he doesn’t pick up on the things I write at Bleacher Report. Maybe that will change at some point. Or maybe I just shouldn’t worry about it.

My current column at Bleacher Report is about NASCAR’s addiction to Danica Patrick. They wouldn’t let me use the word “addiction” in the headline at B/R, so they posed it as a question instead.

I used to be a big-time Danica hater when I was writing for Yahoo! Sports. At first it was genuine. Then after a while my attitude towards her changed, but the editors there liked it so much (because people clicked on my work just to get pissed off at me) that I kept on doing it, even after I had changed my mind about her.

Now that Ms. Patrick has been racing in NASCAR my attitude is one of full support. I want her to do well. It is important for all the women drivers who will follow in her footsteps. There will be a few very good women stock car drivers in our future.

So, please excuse me if I’m not updating this blog as often as I should.

There are so many things to write about that are not NASCAR. For instance, sports car racing needs to attract more fans in America. There are a few things I think IMSA should do to attract the fans it should have.

It bears watching if the NHRA will recover from more than a decade of media neglect. It’s shameful that there are so few major media outlets covering professional drag racing and even more embarrassing that the various NHRA team PR efforts haven’t figured out a way to overcome this problem. Professional drag racing too good to be ignored.

Ah…I wish I could get into it now. Perhaps in the next week or two.

For now, my focus needs to be on my work at Bleacher Report. However, I do expect to find more time to write here. For me, Sledgehammer! is the Zone of Real.

Thanks for stopping by.

Was it just me or was the choice of O Fortuna from Carmina Burana the wrong music for driver intros? It’s a bit too ominous for auto racing. It’s almost as if the drivers were about to do battle to the death. Ugh! Maybe something a bit more up tempo next time guys? The way the introductions were staged was pretty lame, too.

Speaking of music...As a NASCAR beat writer for several years I had the opportunity to hear a lot of different versions of our nation anthem. Now, before we go any further, you should know that while I dearly love to hear The Star Spangled Banner, it is a difficult song to sing for most and it does glorify victory in battle. I would prefer our national anthem be America the Beautiful, which is much easier to sing and is about purple mountains majestic and amber waves of grain.

Sorry to get off track. Back to the national anthem. I was wondering if the person who chose the rock band Madison Rising (which bills itself as “America’s Most Patriotic Band”) to do the anthem prior to the Nationwide Race on Saturday auditioned the band’s version prior to hiring them. If you’ve not heard their version of the anthem…

Now that you’ve clicked away from that before the end, you should know that before their unbelievable version of the anthem this past weekend, most observers felt the worst rock version was done by Steven Tyler, sung before the 2001 Indianapolis 500.

I don’t know about you, but Tyler’s version, while a bit out of place for where it was being performed (maybe), at least he didn’t turn it into a really bad rock song like the guys from Madison Rising did. It really is hard to get through their version, isn’t it?

My pick for best rock version? That’s an easy one. Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock

Hell of a way for Martin Truex Jr. and Todd Berrier, two of the good guys in the sport, to start off the new season, isn’t it?

The hysteria surrounding the return of the No. 3 car was over the top during Speedweeks. At one point, Fox television announcer Chris Meyers actually wondered (aloud) during the pre-race show “Who would the fans be rooting for if the finish of the race came down to the 88 car of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the 3 car of Austin Dillon?”

Race fans didn’t have the chance to see such a finish as Dillon was too busy bumping into much of the field. I counted at least three of the big wrecks where the television announcers began with “And it looks like the three car ran into…”

It might be that Dillon’s first 500 in the 3 car was a real eye opener, as he had a “deer in the headlights” look to him in the post-race presser. He’s good though and he’ll be fun to watch the rest of the season.

So will Kyle Larson, who had issues early and often. This year’s rookie crop has some strong talent and is well worth watching. I would guess that six of the eight rookies will end up driving in the Cup series for a decade or more.

You’d think with all the money he has that Jeff Gordon could find a good barber. Doesn’t it seem like he cuts his hair himself? Or could his new hairstyle be hiding something? Like a receding hairline maybe?

If you’re wondering why the Joe Gibbs Racing cars aren’t winning championships look no further than the missteps and mistakes all three teams made during the Daytona 500. Their pit road etiquette leaves quite a bit to be desired.

Did you notice that before she crashed out of the 500, Danica Patrick hit both Richard Petty Motorsports cars?

The rain delay made for two different races. The first one, before the rain, was lame and for a minute, I was afraid it would be another sleeper. But when the rain turned the 500 into a night race, it made for a much better show. I wrote about it for Bleacher Report.

After he drove into victory lane, Earnhardt Jr. climbed from his Chevy and before doing anything else, he hugged and thanked everyone of his crewmen. A real class act! Having Earnhardt Jr. as the 2014 champion would be the shot in the arm that NASCAR is desperately searching for. I’m not sure if this team can get the job done down the stretch, but with this win it looks as though they will get a chance to try.

Postscript

I don’t know what you did during the rain delay on Sunday, but I ended up watching several episodes of Season 2 of the House of Cards. It really was a long day, especially since I was writing a post-race piece for Bleacher Report that I started just before midnight and didn’t file until 1:15 AM.

The wait for the rain to stop and for the track to dry was worth it. It was a fast and exciting race.

When the cars flashed by the camera on the backstretch it was just unbelievable. There was little mention of it during the television broadcast, but I’m sure that for much of the race, the speed of the main pack was well over 200 mph. The speed made the race the kind of edge-of-your-seat entertainment that they need more of in NASCAR.

The real season starts next week on the short track in Phoenix. That’s when we’ll have a better idea of who’s on it in 2014 and who’s not.

Thanks for stopping by.

My editor at Bleacher Report.com, where I now write regularly as a NASCAR analyst, asked me to produce a slideshow with my picks for the 16 drivers who will make the Chase this season — even before the Daytona 500!

I think I did a pretty damn good job. Please take a few minutes and check it out:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1968679-preseason-prediction-for-the-2014-nascar-sprint-cup-chase-field

And then leave a comment there or here and let me know how good a job I did, or how badly I screwed up and left out your favorite driver.

Happy Daytona 500 weekend to you! And I will be publishing my post-500 Observations column for Bleacher Report on Monday

Thanks for stopping by.

Single-car qualifying for the Daytona 500, broadcast live and in living color on big screens across the USA.

Three hours of excruciating boredom with little meaning.

Oh wait. Of course. Someone will make a lap around the high-banked, 2.5-mile tri-oval faster than the other the other 49 entries and have the privilege of leading the field of 43 cars to the green flag next Sunday. Outside of bragging rights, it doesn’t really matter all that much.

It seems that every NASCAR fan remembers the winner(s) of the Daytona 500. Pole winners? Not so much.

We only remember last year’s pole winner because it was Danica Patrick, the first woman to accomplish the feat. She did so by not only going quicker than everyone else, but she edged out Jeff Gordon, who won the pole in both 1996 and 1999, the same year he won the 500.

Gordon’s feat (winning the pole and the race the same year) is a rare one indeed, as only eight drivers have won the Daytona 500 from the somewhat coveted pole position, the last time in 2000 (Dale Jarrett).

The current rules package of the Gen 6 restrictor plate stock car makes racing at places like Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway something between a chess match, a poker game, a game of craps and *Who Do You Trust?

*That last reference is to a television game show that ran in the 50s and 60s that once had Johnny Carson as its host. You say you don’t even know who Johnny Carson was? Google him.

Restrictor plate racing in 2014 is all about knowing when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em, who’s your BFF for at least a few laps and how much get up and go does your race car have when you pull out from the pack to try and make a pass.

Last night’s Sprint Unlimited was quite the entertaining show, especially the last two segments. It did show how the new rules package will make for an equally (if not more) entertaining show next Sunday during the Daytona 500.

But single car qualifying. I’m not so sure its worth taking a break from binge-watching “House of Cards” but you might want to just check in sometime during the “show.” Thankfully, this is the only race that will still have the dreadful procedure. Group qualifying begins at the next race.

I’m hoping Danica Patrick wins the pole again. At least there’ll be something to write about and it’ll have the rest of America talking about “that girl who drives a stock car” for the week leading up to the big event.

Thanks for stopping by.

Bottom line here: He’s wrong, I’m right.

Despite all his years in and out of the sport of NASCAR racing, this time Richard Petty is off the mark with his comment about Patrick.

I am not.

Is It Crazy to Call Danica Patrick a Contender for the Daytona 500?

Remember, the column for Bleacher Report.com you just read was written by the same guy who wrote this about Patrick for Yahoo! Sports over five years ago:

Putting Patrick’s Victory in Perspective

I have to admit, that since she moved her show to NASCAR, I have become a Danica Patrick supporter. She’s more talented in a race car than nearly half the field she’s racing against. It takes seat time to make a great race car driver. And while she may never be considered great, over time, she will gain the respect of those haters out there who see her as nothing more than a sophisticated PR machine (as Petty’s son Kyle called her) who doesn’t belong in NASCAR.

Sorry boys and Mr. Petty, but this is 2014 and the girls get to do everything the boys do – and sometimes they do it a lot better.

Thanks for stopping by.

The single car qualifying show on restrictor plate tracks and at Pocono for the Cup cars was dreadful. It was two hours (or thereabouts) of sheer misery, which again, meant little to nothing.

At that time, I offered up a far more entertaining alternative. Why not run multiple car qualifying sessions, similar to those currently being used for NASCAR races that are contested on road courses, using this simple formula – 10 cars at a time, running 10 laps per session with the fastest lap being considered the car’s qualifying speed, regardless of the draft. The final session would be run with 13 cars.

I not only wrote about this proposed new qualifying format back in 2006, but I started a dialog with several key players in the NASCAR competition department, including then series director John Darby, current EVP of Competition Steve O’Donnell and current VP of Competition and Racing Development Robin Pemberton. When I first outlined my alternative qualifying format I was met with raised eyebrows and some smiles, the equivalent of the pat on the head you’d give your young child or dog. Nevertheless, I continued to tout this alternative format both in print and with NASCAR execs for several years, until circumstances and my health forced me to leave the NASCAR media pool for a brief period of time.

The reason I write about this now, is not to say “I told you so,” but to show that the powers-to-be that run NASCAR are a very benevolent bunch – and open to change. I was once told by someone who works in the garage and whose roots run deep in the sport that “NASCAR is a very conservative bunch. It takes them years to figure things out. But, usually when they make a decision to change, it proves to be the right decision.”

NASCAR is expected to announce a change in qualifying rules later this month that are expected to closely mirror those I suggested back in 2006. I admit that I wasn’t the only person who suggested this format change to NASCAR execs. But I’d like to think that I was one of its earliest proponents.

It’s a very smart move and will make for a much better show.

Thanks for stopping by. Follow me on Twitter @BobMargolis

You can read it here.

And if you’re wondering, no…I’ll not be covering Monster Trucks, which I find fascinating and entertaining, but which happen to be part of a scripted show for little kids and their gullible moms and dads.

Wait a minute…haven’t I read that same thing somewhere about NASCAR??

But seriously, I’m thrilled to be a part of the Bleacher Report team of writers, albeit as a contributing member at this stage. I’m working towards being one of their featured writers, which will get me better story placement and other perks. So for now, expect to read only 3-4 columns a week from me, with more as I settle into a routine.

Although I will be entertaining and (hopefully) educating you on the pages of Bleacher Report you’ll not see the kind of language you’re accustomed to seeing here at Sledgehammer! due to B/R’s rules of conduct. So, I will continue with Sledgehammer! Here is where you’ll get my stuff unadulterated, uncensored and unrestricted. (Had to use some form of the word “restrictor” didn’t I?) With a few f-bombs and other adult language thrown in (when necessary) for good measure.

Come read my work at Bleacher Report. I told them I had several million readers and I’ll be disappointed if any of you don’t show.

Thanks again for stopping by.

In Formula One, former world driving champion Kimi Raikkonen has rejoined Ferrari, the team the Finn was driving for when he won his only driving title in 2007. His teammate is Spaniard Fernando Alonso, himself a two-time F1 driving champion. Both men are the epitome of competitive spirit and the pairing of these two at the Scuderia has all the makings of a classic Formula One soap opera battle that will likely be written about for years to come.

In IndyCars, Juan Pablo Montoya has returned to open wheel racing with that series’ premier team, Penske Racing. The Colombian, who boasts successful stints in both Formula One and NASCAR on his resume, returns to IndyCar racing after a tour of duty driving for Chip Ganassi, first in IndyCars and then in NASCAR. Prior to moving to NASCAR with Ganassi, Montoya’s brief open wheel career with Ganassi included winning the 1999 CART title in his rookie season and the 2000 Indy 500, the first driver from Columbia to win the Memorial Day classic.

Since leaving NASCAR in November, Montoya has been quietly testing, getting himself reacquainted with the ins-and-outs of driving open wheel race cars. He’s a fast learner and he’s turned very competitive laps times, which is to be expected given the organization he’s driving for and team mates Will Power and three-time Indy 500 champion Helio Castroneves, who helped with the set up of Montoya’s car. He will be competitive from the get-go and he’ll draw crowds everywhere the series races.

In NASCAR, the return of the number 3 into Sprint Cup competition by team owner Richard Childress and with driver Austin Dillon, his grandson, caused quite a stir last week. Social media took center stage following the long-rumored announcement, with fans on both sides expressing their opinion on whether or not Dale Earnhardt Sr’s number should have been retired or returned to competition. Agree with him or not, it was a smart decision by the legendary team owner. He knows that those fans who disagree with his bringing the number back into competition will still tune in to watch how young Dillon performs. They’ll not be disappointed. He’s a rare combination of poise, talent and humility that will make him one of the sport’s more popular drivers – at the same time he enjoys success on the race track.

Expect each of these three drivers to be the prime focus for their respective racing series for both fans and the media in the 2014 season.

The list of questions that Raikkonen will have to answer is lengthy. At 34 years of age, does he still have what it takes to win a driving title against a tough field of drivers, many years his junior? Can he overcome having a brilliant teammate who will give him no quarter on the race track and who enters the season as the team’s No. 1 seed? Will his morphing back into a Ferrari driver happen quickly enough, so as to afford him the luxury of focusing on winning races and not having to get comfortable with the car and the team?

Like I said the list for Raikkonen is endless.

For Montoya, his move from NASCAR to IndyCars will be watched the world over. His name remains a household word among those who follow Formula One and his return to open wheel racing has already made headlines in Europe, South America and elsewhere. And while the casual NASCAR fan may remember him as the driver who caused the calamity at the Daytona 500 a few years back by running into the jet dryer, causing a huge fireball, those who follow NASCAR closely will have a reason to sample IndyCar racing — if only to see if Montoya will fail in his return to open wheel racing. When they do watch IndyCars, they will like what they see – including close racing and shorter races than they’re used to watching in NASCAR.

Austin Dillon’s move into the Sprint Cup ranks signals a new era in NASCAR. One of familiar family names, car numbers and an influx of new young faces appearing in the sport. Chase Elliot, Jeb Burton, Ryan Blaney, Darrell Wallace and Dillon’s brother Ty are at the forefront of the next generation of NASCAR drivers, many of whose bloodlines run decades in the sport — unlike the lion’s share of current Sprint Cup drivers. The return of recognizable family names and of drivers from the southeastern United States will inject a new spirit into NASCAR, one that has been missing for several years.

The change takes place when Dillon rolls out for practice onto the Daytona International Speedway behind the wheel of the number 3 Chevy SS next February.

Thanks for stopping by.