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The Daytona 500 has what may be the quirkiest system for setting the field of any race in all of professional motorsports. On Sunday, it was Pole Qualifying day at Daytona. Pole qualifying for the Daytona 500 only sets the front row for the race, though. It also sets the …

Sometimes, history can, in fact, repeat itself. In a scenario very similar to the one that allowed Kevin Harvick to win the Daytona 500 back in 2007, a lane opened up on the high side at the end of the backstretch on the final lap. Harvick took advantage of the …

A.J. Allmendinger spent most of his offseason much like several drivers across NASCAR’s national series – unsure of where he would be in 2009. He didn’t know which team in the Richard Petty Motorsports stable he would show up to Daytona with. He didn’t know whether or not he would have a guaranteed spot in the field of 43 when the Great American Race rolled around, or if he would even have a full-time ride. What could be worse for the 27-year-old? He still doesn’t know.

So, the season is gonna suck because there’s a whole flotilla (I’ve counted 16 in the Daytona 500 entry list) of one-horse or new start-up teams. Right? Fans left and right are bemoaning the problems with field-fillers and all the trials that come with this lower echelon of NASCAR. But …

_This year Driver Diary contributor Rick Crawford will take on the role of mentor to his new teammate, 18-year-old James Buescher (pronounced Busher) who takes over the wheel of the No. 10 MaxxForce Diesel by International Ford F-150. Rick thought it might be interesting for his fans to get a different perspective and hear about the Camping World Truck Series from the point of view of his young protege for 2009. We welcome James as our new Drive Diary contributor and we hope our readers enjoy getting to know this very talented newcomer._ I guess the best way to start this off is to tell you a little bit about myself and my background and how I got here. I started when I was 12 years old, racing Bandolero cars in Texas at Lil’ Texas Motor Speedway. I started out doing it for fun. I don’t have any racing background in my family. We got a Bandolero and started going to the race track and racing it.

Sometimes being in a position where it’s my job to scrutinize all things NASCAR under a microscope with a fine-toothed comb can skew the reality. Sometimes looking at every angle, every minute piece and part somehow takes away from the whole. And it’s that whole that I find myself desperately wanting to grasp again as the 2009 season is just beginning. Because while the pieces and parts look tainted and broken, the whole machine is still as impossibly, achingly beautiful as it ever was. I never intended to make racing a hobby, let alone a lifetime commitment. Writing was something I always hungered for, and I wanted to write about baseball. But in the late 1990’s, women still weren’t taken seriously in that field. So I gave up that dream for a steady job and the paycheck that went with it. But I never forgot the hunger.

OK, now relax. I’m confident that the pseudonym “Man In Black” won’t stick to the four-time Winston Cup champion. When people hear “The Man In Black”, of course, they think of one or both of two men—Johnny Cash, iconic country singer and wearer of ubiquitous black leather outfits, or Dale Earnhardt, iconic driver of the black racecar with the trademark white number 3 on the side. Both are no longer with us and the world is lesser for it. Cash and Earnhardt both relished the “man in black” role. Dark clothing or a dark car. Black like the night. In Johnny Cash’s case, black like much of his life, even if much of the blackness was self-inflicted by his own admission. In Earnhardt’s case, black like Darth Vader—and to be feared just as much on the racetrack.

Each year about the time we’re getting ready to race again, I have to think about the guys who have had an effect on my life as a race official and publicist who have passed on, people like Milt Hartlauf, Bob Daniels, Bob Harmon, and others. This time it’s John Marcum, the founder of the Midwest Association for Race Cars, which later became the Automobile Racing Club of America. John gave me my first chance to work bigger tracks on a regular basis, and I have to say knowing him was a real experience. Mickey Thompson of Dayton, who oversees the Daytonspeedwaylives website, e-mailed me recently about a race at Tri-County Speedway near Cincinnati (later Queen City Speedway). A driver in an AMC product dusted the field pretty badly and they found two four-barrel carbs on the car in the post-race inspection.

Here we are again. Another offseason is coming to a close, and the Truck Series is ready to hit the track once again. Time to shake the cobwebs out of your head and get ready for what should be yet another exciting season of Truck Series racing. For the first time since its inaugural year, the Truck Series will have a new series sponsor. Craftsman announced they would not return as the title sponsor following the 2008 season, and after what seemed like forever, Camping World announced they had reached an agreement with NASCAR to sponsor the Truck Series.

Justin Allgaier went into the last year’s ARCA Re/Max Series finale at Toledo third in series points, well behind points leader Scott Speed and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. In a strange series of events, Stenhouse got into the back of the series leader and forced him into the wall, only to …