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In the 1996 NBA draft, the Portland Trail Blazers took a chance on a 6-foot-11 center straight out of high school named Jermaine O’Neal. Although young and raw, O’Neal showed enormous potential, enough so that Portland rewarded the bench player with an absurd four-year, $24 million contract.

It was the finest money ever thrown towards a trash can, O’Neal acting like a first-class bust from the start instead of a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Heavily criticized for gameplay that at times wouldn’t hold up in your gym, once the contract expired, the Trail Blazers gladly waved the white flag. Determined to cut their losses, they landed a deal with Indiana for former All-Star (and aging) center Dale Davis.

*Mark Martin*
*2013 Ride:* No. 55 Aaron’s Toyota (Michael Waltrip Racing)
*Season With Team:* 2nd
*Crew Chief:* Rodney Childers

*Burning Question: How much longer can Martin be competitive?*

With Martin, at this point it’s continually a question of age. The veteran turned 54 years old in January, and while his skills haven’t diminished at the rate of many of the drivers of his generation (Terry Labonte, Dale Jarrett, Rusty Wallace) it’s only a matter of time before Father Time catches up with him – physical fitness be damned. Even the timeless Harry Gant, who holds the record for oldest Cup victory at 52 years of age couldn’t hang on forever. Holding his retirement tour in 1994, two years after that record he couldn’t even pull down a top-5 result despite driving for the same organization.

*2012 Ride:* No. 12 Penske Racing Dodge
*2012 Primary Sponsor:* Alliance Truck Parts
*2012 Owner:* Roger Penske
*2012 Crew Chief:* Chad Walter

*Stats:* 33 races; 0 wins, 10 top 5s, 22 top 10s, 1 pole, 0 DNFs, 4th in points.
*Average Finish*: 9.7.
*Best Finish*: 2nd – three times (Indianapolis, Montreal, Kentucky – September).

Th-th-th-that’s all, folks! For the second year in a row, we are talking about someone not named Jimmie Johnson winning the championship. For the first time since 2005, someone not named Tony Stewart or Jimmie Johnson finally took the trophy home. But who would have thought that out of all the experienced, talented, and qualified drivers out there, that it would be Brad Keselowski? Not that there could have been a better driver considering his outreach on social media, but still .. he beat Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, and Denny Hamlin when it came to winning their first titles. I get the feeling that this dude is going to be around for a while.

Hello, race fans. Welcome back to The Critic’s Annex, where I take an additional opportunity to take a look at some motorsports-related programming. Today’s special Wednesday edition will not be the last Annex of the year. A later edition will cover the recently released sophomore NASCAR effort from Activision and Eutechnyx, NASCAR the Game: Inside …

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By Jeff Wolfe When Brad Keselowski came onto the NASCAR Sprint Cup scene in 2008, there weren’t a lot of questions about his talent. The then 23-year-old proved rather quickly that he had a desire to win and didn’t like it if someone got in his way. There were questions however about his tactics, and …

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One to go! Can you believe we are down to Homestead already? While it doesn’t appear that this weekend’s championship will be nearly as exciting as last year’s and that Keseowski all but has this one, all that needs to happen is, well, basically what happened to Johnson last week and it’s back to a barn burner.