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They include a two-time champion car owner, and drivers who have won some of the most prestigious races NASCAR has to offer. One driver is a former Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year, another has that honor in the Nationwide Series. They have seen what the view from the top looks like. And now they're trying to get back there the hard way. NASCAR isn't a sport where past accomplishments are a guarantee of future success. It is a sport where the haves and have nots are obvious to fans, just from the way they run week to week.

Who says NASCAR isn’t filled with good ol; boys anymore? Look, I’m not big on things like fishing, hunting, or anything involving the term “mudding." I enjoy country music and NASCAR, but that’s about as far as my southern blood runs. Having been born and raised in the Midwest, I’m a tad less inclined to peel the dead, festering skin from the body of an animal I’ve just eviscerated with an AK-47 ... or whatever. I don’t know anything about that kind of thing. I also don’t find holding a slimy, scaly sorry excuse for a living animal known as a fish for “sport.” (Shivers) If I’m going to be on the lake, it’s going to be on a Sea-Doo or tubing behind a boat. You know … something _fun._

Who says NASCAR isn’t filled with good old boys anymore? Look, I’m not big on things like fishing, hunting, or anything involving the term “mudding”. I enjoy country music and NASCAR and that’s about as far as my southern blood runs. Having been born and raised in the Midwest, I’m …

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and Sprint Cup Series spent the weekend in Martinsville. You can bet your butt that NASCAR CEO and Chairman Brian France didn’t. NASCAR’s leader prefers to watch from afar. He’ll show up during Speedweeks in Daytona and for when the Sprint Cup trophy is awarded at Homestead, but his stops on the NASCAR calendar are few are far between.

One was already known well before he debuted, the benefactor of a last name beloved by many in NASCAR circles. The other, though not part of the conversation in NASCAR just yet, has rattled off impressive statistics in multiple racing series, including four top-five finishes in the 2012 ARCA Racing Series as a 15- and 16-year-old. When it comes to NASCAR, both can lay claim to the same thing: a top-10 in their first Camping World Truck Series race. Chase Elliott and Erik Jones, two up-and-coming youngsters who have made waves in stock cars even before their 18th birthdays, made their NASCAR debuts last Saturday in the Kroger 250 at Martinsville, joining fellow rookies Devin Jones, Robert Bruce and Grant Galloway.

Sometimes NASCAR drivers are just impossible to understand. One minute they’re burning rubber on track, making three wide passes and proving why they’re in NASCAR in the first place. The next, they’re bitching on pit road about another driver racing them too hard with 10 laps to go. They go from zero to hero, shining to whining, in a matter of moments, and it’s disheartening. Take the post-race … er … “scuffle” on pit road between Kevin Harvick and Brian Vickers last Sunday at Martinsville (though it’s hardly a scuffle when they use their cars). I’ve watched the replay of the last few laps and, frankly, I just don’t get it. With just a few laps left, Vickers, Harvick, and Danica Patrick (!) were battling for right around the 12th position. Vickers blamed Patrick for blocking (which she was), and Harvick got upset with the way Vickers was blocking him (which he was). Nobody did anything _wrong_, but they were racing. It was Martinsville. It happens. width="132" height="129"/>