CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Brad Keselowski was right three weeks ago when he said the failed drug test by Penske Racing teammate AJ Allmendinger was a "death sentence."

Team owner Roger Penske was right on Wednesday when he let Allmendinger go.

He had no choice, really.

In a world dictated by sponsors and perception, in a world where the participant is more of a danger to others than in arguably any other sport if under the influence of drugs, there is no room for violators of the substance abuse policy.

"Within the sport we rely on sponsors and reputation," Keselowski said at New Hampshire.

Allmendinger has neither now. It will be hard when he completes NASCAR's Road to Recovery program to find an owner or sponsor with a top-tier -- or maybe lower -- organization willing to give him a second chance unless we discover the form of amphetamines found in the test came from a supplement or over-the-counter drug.

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Todd Warshaw/Getty ImagesAJ Allmendinger on his future: "As I stated last week, I have begun NASCAR's Road to Recovery program and look forward to using those resources and its completion to compete again in NASCAR in the near future."

That isn't likely, according to Dr. David Black, the administrator of NASCAR's drug-testing program in Nashville, Tenn.

"Certainly, if that had been a possibility that would have been ruled out before any action was taken," Black told me last week. "On every positive test we have, we look to rule out the possibility of a supplement being involved.

"I'm not aware of any commercial products that would have influenced the test outcome."

Death sentence.

That Allmendinger has remained mostly mum, refusing to talk publicly since it was announced a few hours before the July 7 Daytona Cup race that he violated the policy, doesn't help his cause. If he doesn't defend himself, who will?

That he's never won a Cup race, had a DWI from a few years ago and was 23rd in points at the time of the failed test also doesn't help.

Allmendinger did issue a statement Wednesday, thanking Roger Penske, the sponsors and fans, and apologizing "for the distraction, embarrassment and difficulties that my current suspension from NASCAR has provided."

While NFL and NBA teams tend to forgive players who fail drug tests, there isn't nearly as much tolerance in NASCAR because of sponsors and reputation. Maybe that's why Jeremy Mayfield fought his suspension in 2009. He knew he was damned if he did, damned if he didn't.

Making the decision now was Penske's only choice. He simply could have let Allmendinger's one-year deal run out and signed somebody else for 2013, hoping the situation would go away quietly.

But as long as Allmendinger was under contract for this year there still would have been questions, which would lead to distractions.

Penske doesn't want or need distractions. He has Keselowski with three wins vying for a championship. He has a top sponsor in Shell Pennzoil that already went through an embarrassing situation when Kurt Busch was released following an embarrassing end to last season, opening the door for Allmendinger in the No. 22.

He also has the move from Dodge to Ford in 2013 that will involve possibly the sale of his engine department and the transition to Roush Yates engines.

The last thing Penske needed was weekly questions about what he'll do with Allmendinger if and when the driver is reinstated four or five months down the road.

So he made a clean break.

Now Penske can move forward trying to find a driver for the No. 22. Sam Hornish Jr. is the front-runner. He will drive in most -- if not all -- of the remaining races this year. If he does well, knowing Penske's fondness and loyalty to the three-time IndyCar champion, the ride likely is his.

If Hornish isn't the pick, Joey Logano could emerge as a candidate if Joe Gibbs Racing can't get him full sponsorship in Sprint Cup for next year. If sponsorship can't be found for Ryan Newman at Stewart-Haas Racing, he could seek a return to the organization he left after the 2008 season to join SHR.

Brian Vickers perhaps is driving himself into candidacy with two top-5s in four races as a fill-in for Mark Martin at Michael Waltrip Racing.

Maybe with the move to Ford, Penske will turn to 2011 Daytona 500 champion Trevor Bayne, who already plans to drive a full Nationwide Series schedule for Ford's Roush Fenway Racing and part time for the Wood Brothers in Cup in 2013.

As Penske said on Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, his phone is ringing off the hook. He has lots of options.

And no, as some of you insist on asking, bringing Busch back isn't one of them.

Penske also gave us a hint that Allmendinger's release was coming, reminding us that he lets go regular Penske Racing employees who fail a drug test. He reiterated that on Wednesday.

So this wasn't a surprise.

After all, Allmendinger already had been given the death sentence.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. doesn't think he's much of a comedian, but some of NASCAR's best and funniest commercials have featured him in a comic role.

There was the one in 2000 in which NASCAR's most popular driver and his father are in the backseat of a Chevrolet while the Tasmanian Devil drives. It's priceless as Earnhardt goes "blah, blah, blah, blah" while his father tells the Devil how to drive.

There was the one in 2004 in which Earnhardt drives long distance to return the lipstick to the date he had just seen off on a plane, only to find out it belonged to another woman. The look on his face is priceless when he learns it is not hers.

Now there's his latest Nationwide Insurance commercial with Danica Patrick, which will debut during Saturday's Nationwide Series race.

Patrick is shown on pit road talking about vanishing deductibles. As the camera pans down pit road to pit signs showing dollar figures the insurance will decrease, you hear laughter in the background as the final sign -- Danica's cell phone number, 480-388-0988 -- comes into the picture.

The camera then pans to Earnhardt, standing on pit wall, laughing and holding up his hand as though he's telling Patrick, "Call me."

It's one of three Nationwide commercials that debuted during the Indy Super Weekend. The other two are pretty straightforward and serious, the first with Earnhardt and Nationwide chief marketing officer Matt Jauchius and the second with Earnhardt and the Jarretts -- Ned and Dale -- talking about how long their families have used the insurance.

Despite Earnhardt's critique, his funny side wins out.

Hands down.

"I appreciate the sincere ones a bit more," Earnhardt said. "I feel like that's me, more genuine and more sincere. The funny stuff, I don't think I'm a good comedian.

"I do what they say. The sincere stuff, the stuff where they get really down to it, that's what I like."

Trust me, he's funny.

By the way, if you call the cell phone number, you'll hear Patrick's voice saying she can't get to the phone but she'll get right back to you.

It ends with her saying, "If you'd rather leave a message on how I can get back at Dale, that would be great. If I like your idea, I might just call you back."

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- For weeks we've been hearing Carl Edwards tell us how close his team is to performing at a high level. For weeks we've been hearing him say the struggles of the No. 99 team have nothing to do with a hangover from losing the 2011 title on a tiebreaker to Tony Stewart.

For weeks I've been saying Edwards was kidding himself.

Tuesday's announcement that Chad Norris will replace Bob Osborne as crew chief doesn't sound like something a team close to turning the corner would do.

It reeks of desperation.

And it should have happened a lot sooner.

Edwards, winless in the past 52 races and 11th in points, has been a nonfactor this season. Outside the 206 laps he led at Richmond, a race he could have won had he not jumped a restart, he's led one lap.

His average finish is 14.3, on pace for the third worst of his career after recording a career-best average 9.3 a year ago. He has only two top-5s a year after posting 19 -- 10 by this point.

If you weren't looking for him Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where he finished 18th, you wouldn't have known he was in the race.

You can't call it a RFR performance problem, because teammate Matt Kenseth is first in points and Greg Biffle is third. Each of them has won a race and contended in others.

Edwards needed a change just like Denny Hamlin needed a change after coming so close to winning the 2010 title with Mike Ford, something that took that team a year to realize.

The release doesn't say that. The release says Osborne has issues with his health that necessitate a change in roles. Not to make light of the health issues, which are serious enough and will come out later when Osborne is out of pocket for an extended time, but this was a move that would have been made regardless.

For the health of the 99 team, for the health of Edwards, a change was needed.

"There was clearly concern about performance,'' Roush Fenway president Steve Newmark said.

The frustration has been building in Edwards for some time. It became almost comical on Friday at New Hampshire when Edwards was asked if he did all qualifying runs in the first practice instead of work on race setups.

"It's never good when people ask, 'Did you do all qualifying runs?' '' Edwards said. "That means you were slow. There's nothing worse than people come over and say, 'Man, you still in race trim?' No. That's as fast as we can go."

He laughed. But inside you know it was eating at Edwards, who has gone from three poles and an average start of 9.4 in 2011 to one pole and an average start of 16.4.

The good news for Edwards is that he's only one win from one of the two wild-card spots and he has two tracks -- Atlanta and Richmond -- where he's almost always a threat. The bad news is he's really only been a threat to win once all year.

But it can be done. Edwards reminded us of that at New Hampshire when he mentioned Stewart last season going from a nonfactor with no wins to champion with a record five Chase wins.

"That whole 14 team and what they did last year showed all of us that it's not over until it's over,'' Edwards said. "If you can make it into the Chase, truly, just by making it in, you have as good a shot as anyone for the championship.''

Norris had better find speed quick for Edwards to make the Chase. He also better find chemistry. The last time Edwards and Osborne split, seven races into 2006, they were back together for the final two races after Edwards missed the Chase.

At the time, they said they were better together than apart.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and these are desperate times for Edwards.

Tom Pennington/Getty Images/NASCARThe back of Kevin Harvick's car says it all for the new father.

LOUDON, N.H. -- Baby talk and triathlons.

That's what you may have missed over the past week as the Sprint Cup world focused on AJ Allmendinger's suspension for a failed drug test and the subsequent news and speculation.

If you didn't hear, Kevin and Delana Harvick became first-time parents -- no, dogs and cats don't count here -- on Sunday as Keelan Paul was born. That same day Kasey Kahne beat Jimmie Johnson in a triathlon in Charleston, S.C.

Friday's interviews surrounding both of these events were as entertaining as anything you'll see or hear this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. I'll give you a few nuggets on each.

•  Harvick on Keelan having his own Twitter page: "Well, Keelan has his own everything because I didn't want some crazy-ass fan getting hold of his twitter name or his website."

•  Harvick on driving Delana to the hospital: "It wasn't very fast because she was obviously in a lot of pain. That was partly my fault because I made her wait too long, so we didn't make any real fast corners. I had been to the doctor's office several times so I knew where every bump was. So I didn't get yelled at, and that was my goal."

•  Harvick on whether Keelan has his own go-kart yet: "We're hoping for no go-karts. We're hoping for golf clubs. We're hoping that we go in a different direction there."

•  Johnson on having cramps in the triathlon the day after a hard crash at Daytona: "I went to the curb and was stretching my calves real quick, and a guy in a No. 24 hat came running up with a Bud Light and said, 'Hey, this will help, this will help.'"

•  Johnson on seeing a woman riding a beach cruiser during the bike portion of the race: "The only thing she was missing was a basket on the front."

•  Johnson on Kahne saying he beat his Hendrick Motorsports teammate by 27 seconds: "Oh, twenty-something."

•  Dale Earnhardt Jr. on whether Johnson has asked him to compete in a future triathlon: "Jimmie knows better than to waste too much time on that."

Hey, it can't be Allmendinger 24-7.

Cotton Owens couldn't really speak last month when he was named to the NASCAR Hall of Fame's class of 2013. He couldn't move the right side of his body.

But he knew he'd been selected.

Oh, he knew.

"Oh, yeah," fellow Hall of Fame member and Spartanburg, S.C., native David Pearson said on Thursday, just hours after Owens, 88, passed following a lengthy battle with lung cancer and a suspected stroke that robbed most of his motor functions.

"You knew it because he just smiled. You could tell it meant a lot to him. He perked up there a little bit after they announced it. I just hated he won't be there to accept everything."

Everett "Cotton" Owens was Pearson's hometown hero, car owner and best friend. From 1962 to 1967, Pearson won 27 races driving out of Owens' Spartanburg shop. In 1966, he won 15 races to give Owens his first and only title in NASCAR's premier series.

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ISC Images & Archives/Getty Images Driver David Pearson and car owner Cotton Owens together won 27 races from 1962 to 1967 and the NASCAR championship in 1966.

There was a time when Pearson picked up Owens and his wife every Sunday after church and took them to lunch.

Then there were the final weeks when Pearson visited Owens daily just to let him know he still was his hero.

"He meant more to the sport than a lot of people thought," said Pearson, selected to the HOF's second class in 2011 along with another Spartanburg native, Bud Moore. "He won a ton of races in modifieds. He built the cars himself. He built the motors himself. He drove them. He won at Daytona on the beach.

"And he was just a good, honest fella."

If Pearson was in charge of Hall of Fame balloting, Owens would have been among the first five selected along with Raymond Parks, Tim Flock and other founding fathers.

Pearson definitely would have put Owens in ahead of himself, and Pearson in the minds of many is the greatest to ever driver a stock car.

"That's just how I feel," Pearson said. "I felt like they ought to put the older ones, the ones who started it, in there first."

If you want to be entertained with stories on Owens, Pearson is the one to ask. He remembered one year when he was running in the Grand National Series in one of Owens' cars.

Owens, who won nine times as a driver, was in another.

"Anyway, I was leading the race and when it was time to pit, they told me to pit," Pearson recalled. "I looked and here came Cotton in, so I had to sit and wait until they got through with Cotton's stop before they could change my tires.

"When he went back out, he was in front of me and he ended up winning the dadgum race. He's always kidded me about that. He'd tell everybody that he went up there on dirt and showed me how to drive. We've always had a good time."

The good times usually spilled over into the hotel, where the two often spent the night "shootin' the bull."

"Sometimes we'd end up rasslin' like kids," Pearson said with a laugh. "I will never forget one time we got to rasslin' and fell off the back of the bed. I was laying on his arms and he was on mine. We had to take our feet and push the bed away to get back up.

"We was always just like brothers."

Even their split in 1967 sounds like a typical brother tale. Here's Pearson's lengthy version:

"We were getting ready to go to Columbia [S.C.], to the race down there," he recalled. "He had the truck pulled outside [of the garage] and went home to take a shower. All of us were out there ready to go. We were running a little bit late so ... me and the crew, we got in the car and took off to get some ice for the cooler, so we wouldn't have to when he come out.

"Cotton came out and he thought we run off and left him. He kind of got a little ill about that and he just pulled the race car and truck and everything back in the garage. So when we got back we thought he'd left us and we'd have to hurry up and go catch him."

When Pearson & Co. got to Columbia, there was no Owens. When they got back to Spartanburg, there was no job.

"The next morning I went up there and the boys were standing on the outside," Pearson continued. "I said, 'What are y'all doing standing out here?' They said, 'He just fired us. He got mad, said we run off and left him last night.'

"I couldn't believe it and I went back in there and I said, 'What are you doing, Cotton, getting mad at these boys and running them off?' He said, 'If you don't like it, you can go too.' I said, 'Well, I don't like it.' So I just turned around and walked out. I told the boys when I went outside, 'Well, I'm gone too.' So that's what we broke up about."

But the two remained friends until the day Owens died. Pearson's only regret is that his hero and friend won't be able to enjoy the Hall of Fame induction ceremony in February like he and Moore did.

"But at least he knew he was going in," Pearson said. "You could see it in his smile."

Jeremy Brevard/US PresswireDanica Patrick and actress Brooklyn Decker pitched their products at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

CONCORD, N.C. -- The Indianapolis 500 was drawing to an end on Sunday and Danica Patrick was standing in Victory Lane at Charlotte Motor Speedway with supermodel/actress Brooklyn Decker.

If Patrick's mind was on the IndyCar Series she left after last season to focus full time on NASCAR, it didn't show.

Patrick was explaining to Decker the intricate details of how to handle a gas can and a jack as the two revisited their days of posing in swimsuits for Sports Illustrated in 2009. Patrick also had a little shoe envy as Decker donned a pair of bright yellow patent shoes.

"They're really cute," said Patrick, words you seldom if ever hear from a NASCAR driver. "I wish I would have had something so stylish. Instead I just have tennis shoes on. Gosh, I just can't compete."

Decker, a native of nearby Matthews, N.C., was at CMS for the first time to promote her movie "Battleship" for Coke Zero. Patrick, here to make her Sprint Cup debut in the Coca-Cola 600, was leery two weeks ago of appearing next to the woman who has appeared on the cover of SI's Swimsuit Issue.

"Unfortunately, I'm going to look terrible compared to her," Patrick said then when introduced as the newest member of the Coca-Cola Racing Family. "You know, the short brunette and the tall blonde."

Patrick's trepidation continued on Sunday as she referred to Decker as a "smoking hot model." That started this exchange between driver and actress:

"She can do my job, she can do her job," Decker said.

Replied Patrick, "The only thing is I have to diet for four to six weeks straight, hard-core, to get in shape for it. She's just like, 'Tomorrow? I'll be there.' "

Said Decker, "That's hardly the case. Not only is she obviously beautiful, she's a strong girl. She's cool. She's good at what she does. She's a really good example for women out there."

Patrick and Decker met at a Swimsuit Issue launch party a few years ago. They were introduced by tennis star Andy Roddick, who went on to marry Decker.

"I remember him telling me at the bar while we were standing there. ... He was like, 'I really like this girl. I think I'm going to marry her,' " Patrick said of a story she'd yet to share with Decker.

If Patrick's mind was on the Indy 500, a race she'd run since 2005 before today, she didn't show it. She seemed more interested in the good sport Decker was for playing gasman and jackman for photographers.

"I know I wouldn't want to pick up the gas cans," Patrick said. "I just like turning left."

Said Decker, "You're really good at turning left. … I can't keep up with her. She's so skilled and talented. If I can hold your gas can, I'm honored."

And so it went.

By the way, Patrick did clear her schedule to watch the last 10 laps of the 500.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- I'm pretty sure Indianapolis 500 pole winner Ryan Briscoe said I was a great writer. I'm pretty sure Sprint Cup driver AJ Allmendinger said I was a combination of Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

You be the judge. Here's what they said when asked what they took away from Monday's media go-kart challenge in which the Penske Racing drivers were team captains for five hapless scribes and one IndyCar rep:

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AP Photo/LAT/Michael L. LevittTwo days after celebrating winning the pole for the Indianapolis 500, Ryan Briscoe was racing go-karts with the media in Charlotte.

"That maybe journalists can stick to journalism and drivers can stick to driving," Briscoe told me after I finished fourth out of six karts at Victory Lane Karting.

"That you've just got to get to a gym more," said Allmendinger after I complained that winner Nate Ryan of USA Today was 50 pounds lighter. "My dad does that to me, too. He says, 'Well, you're lighter.' Well, work out more. You can fix that yourself."

OK, after considering more carefully, I'm pretty sure they weren't trying to get on my good side.

And I think by that "dad" reference Dinger called me old, too.

It is true that I'm like Stewart in that I may need to lose some weight and that I don't get to the gym much more than NASCAR's most popular driver. It's also true that my writing skills outweigh my driving skills, although Kyle Busch might disagree judging by his "this is trash" comment earlier this season.

But the more important question: What did I get out of this test of man versus machine? A test, by the way, that was won by Team Briscoe despite my derriere, which fit tighter in the kart seat than most, thanks to a super-fast and super-light teammate in Ryan -- as in Nate, not Briscoe.

The top 10 things I learned:

• That it's more prestigious to win the pole for the Indianapolis 500 than for the Showdown for the Sprint All-Star weekend. Sorry, Dinger, not even close.

• That Allmendinger apparently doesn't want me to write good things about him. On the first restart -- which became necessary because Jenna Fryer of The Associated Press took off waaay before the green dropped -- Dinger told Jeff Gluck of SB Nation to pass me quickly because my kart would take off slow due to excess weight. And did I mention he's ruthless? He made Briscoe's wife, ESPN's Nicole Briscoe, his first selection of the media draft. "I think I'm in Briscoe's head a little bit," Dinger said.

• That the Australian-born Briscoe does a pretty bad Southern accent imitation, at least the one where he mocked NASCAR drivers and their terminology while Dinger was coaching his team with constructive criticism.

• That clean air and downforce don't matter in go-karts, particularly when you have another kart beating the heck out of your back bumper.

• That Nicole Briscoe looks better in Ryan's helmet than he does. Still waiting to see if Ryan looks better in Nicole's 6-inch stilettos she wore to the White House.

• That even in karts sometimes you have to go slower to go faster. Never quite figured out how to handle a couple of those hairpin turns, losing way too much speed sliding my fat rear end around.

• That wrecking really is more entertaining than long green-flag runs. Most fun I had all day was sending Fryer into the wall during practice.

• That restarts really are the craziest part of the race. There were more people trying to be Kyle Busch on the first three turns than the rest of the 10-lap race.

• That I have worse helmet hair than Kurt Busch.

• That Roger Penske probably won't be calling if he decides to add another Sprint Cup or IndyCar team to his stable, and that journalists really should stick to journalism and drivers to driving.

CONCORD, N.C. -- Here's what was learned at Tony Stewart's news conference Tuesday to promote the eighth annual Prelude to the Dream charity race on June 6 at Eldora Speedway:

•  Stewart wants to keep Ryan Newman, whose contract is up at Stewart-Haas Racing after this season, in 2013. It all hinges on sponsorship, but if that can be found SHR will have Stewart, Newman and Danica Patrick next season.

This came on the heels of a report that Newman was given permission to look for options if sponsorship isn't found.

"Obviously, we're working on the sponsorship to make sure we have the funding to keep that going," Stewart said of Newman's No. 39 team. "I have every intention of keeping him for next year. I like him as a teammate. He's been somebody from day one that believes in what we're doing.

"He can still win a lot of races. I think he can still win a championship with us. I have every intention of hiring him back for next year."

•  Stewart and Darrell Waltrip called Danica Patrick's 31st-place showing in the Sprint Cup race and 12th-place finish in the Nationwide race one of the best first-time attempts they've seen at Darlington Raceway.

"She showed maturity that a lot of drivers don't show the first time at Darlington," Stewart said. "It's hard to not make a mistake at Darlington. She ran about 600 laps and only had a couple of places where she got herself in trouble. I thought she showed her worth there, and I think she showed her talent level."

•  As successful at Stewart's charity event has been -- this year it benefits the Feed the Children program -- the three-time Cup champion would do anything to have Dale Earnhardt Jr. participate.

"If he called in the next 30 minutes, I'd have him a car in the next 35," Stewart said.

Earnhardt's standing reason for not participating is he doesn't like to compete on dirt. But if Patrick can give it a whirl, you'd think NASCAR's most popular driver could.

"The Prelude has always been an example of showing people why these drivers got to the level they are, because they really do pick it up real quick," Stewart said.

•  Remember when Stewart went on his sarcastic tirade about not wrecking enough cars at Talladega? Well, he really doesn't like wrecking cars, particularly at Eldora.

Apparently, there is a $2,000 crash clause he has to pay to cover the expenses of each car damaged. That could reach more than $50,000 if the entire field crashed.

"You can't expect guys to bring nice race cars like that and not do something," said Stewart, who had to pay $10,000 one year. "I don't usually think about it until after the race. Then I cringe."

•  Drivers scheduled to compete in the Prelude include Stewart, Patrick, Newman, Jimmie Johnson, Clint Bowyer, Kasey Kahne, Bobby Labonte, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon, Ty Dillon, Steve Kinser, Donny Schatz, Cruz Pedregon, Ron Capps and Tony Kanaan.

In case you aren't aware, Feed the Children is a U.S.-based charity that has helped more than 365,000 families since 2009 through its Americans Feeding Americans Caravan.

CONCORD, N.C. -- There's a certain aura, a rock star quality, around Danica Patrick. You can see it in the way she carries herself around the racetrack, and you can hear it in the way she speaks with great confidence -- even when it's about things she's not confident about, such as her debut at Darlington Raceway.

Sometimes you can even feel it.

Such was the case on Thursday as Patrick was introduced as the first female member of the Coca-Cola Racing Family.

Never mind that she hasn't won a race during her short time in NASCAR. Never mind that she's not even a full-time driver in the top series. Fans are drawn to her in much the same way they are to Dale Earnhardt Jr. because she represents something that goes beyond trips to Victory Lane.

Naturally, sponsors such as Coca-Cola are drawn, too.

"With all of our celebrity talent, with all of our athletes, we have a plethora of criteria," said Sharon Byers, Coca-Cola's senior vice president of sports and entertainment. "We don't just sign up for winners. We sign for the personalities on the track, off the track, what they represent as an individual."

Patrick represents what NASCAR needs more of: diversity and sex appeal. She climbed out of a race car on Thursday wearing six-inch stilettos and a tight black outfit with a plunging neckline. Ryan Newman, the other member of the Coca-Cola family here, wore blue jeans and a red shirt.

Newman doesn't do stilettos.

Or tight clothing.

Thank you for both.

Those things help create that aura around Patrick. She generates as much interest over what her 10th race will be -- likely Homestead or another Chase race over Indianapolis -- as Newman does talking about how team owner Tony Stewart got away with not being fined for his sarcastic comments at Talladega.

How long Patrick can get away with being a marketing machine without competing for wins will be the interesting twist. Maybe that won't matter. Earnhardt hasn't won since 2008, he's never won a Cup title, and his fan base remains the largest in the sport.

And bottom line, it's way too early to judge Patrick on what she can do in a stock car. This is only her first full season in NASCAR without IndyCar racing hanging over her head.

It may be two or three years before we truly know whether she can be a top-level driver.

But the good news, as we saw again on Thursday: Everything she represents is solid enough that she has the sponsorship and backing to hang around to find out whether she can succeed, to find out whether she can be a true member of the Cup racing family and not just a member of the Coca-Cola Racing Family.

"I don't know if anyone can put as much pressure on me to do well as I do for myself," Patrick said as she prepared for her second Cup race on Saturday at Darlington Raceway. "I of course want to do well for [sponsors]. I understand they're there because of everything I represent at this point."

But in the end, Patrick wants to represent the sport as a winner, not a media darling.

She wants to earn respect as a driver almost as much as she wants to earn her first Darlington stripe.

Meanwhile, she sure can sell herself and her sponsors. When Charlotte Motor Speedway president Marcus Smith mentioned that sales were up 30 percent at a track concession stand since Danica's Fit Fuel menu was added a year ago, Patrick was ready with the suggestion that they add Coke Zero to the menu.

"No calories," she said. "All the taste with no guilt. Promise."

CONCORD, N.C. -- Speedway Motorsports, Inc. chairman Bruton Smith and ex-employee associate H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler are at war again.

When Charlotte Motor Speedway sent out a press release on Tuesday promoting the 20th anniversary of the first race under the lights at a superspeedway and called it Smith's idea, his former president and general manager of CMS responded strongly.

Wheeler said the idea to install lights at CMS for the 1992 All-Star race was his idea and his alone.

"I usually let Bruton spiel on, but this one got me," Wheeler said. "He would take credit for the sun and moon if he could!"

In fairness to Smith, he didn't write the press release or suggest that he be given credit in it. But when asked who came up with the idea for lights at CMS and what he thought of Wheeler's comments, he didn't smooth the waters.

"I'm not going to comment on anything about him at all," Smith said. "I don't pay attention to what [Wheeler] thinks. He's a former employee. I can't possibly think about anything about him, period."

Wheeler and Smith have been at odds since Wheeler claimed Smith pushed him out of his job earlier than he wanted in 2008 after a 33-year relationship.

Wheeler said the hastily called press conference to announce his resignation was not his idea. Smith said Wheeler was offered a consultant's position.

He said, he said. That's been the relationship of the two men -- who once were the dynamic duo of NASCAR -- ever since.

It's a shame.

And sad.

Considered one of NASCAR's greatest race promoters, Wheeler has since formed a marketing/consulting company.

Wheeler had remained relatively quiet about his strained relationship with Smith, with whom he helped make CMS a model for other big tracks with lights, condominiums and a speedway club, until Tuesday's press release.

"Twenty years after Speedway Motorsports, Inc. Chairman Bruton Smith floated the idea of installing a first-of-its-kind lighting system at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the seemingly impossible notion of racing at night has become the norm, with some of NASCAR's biggest events, including the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, now running in prime time," the release began.

On Wednesday, Wheeler fired back with a 13-paragraph email with the title, "SMITH WRONG IN SUGGESTING LIGHTS WERE HIS IDEA."

"The release sent out by Charlotte Motor Speedway suggesting that the lights at the track were Bruton Smith's idea is not true," Smith wrote. "I will not stand by and see history rewritten."

Smith said he made the suggestion to install lights and run the Sprint All-Star Race at night during a 1991 visit with T. Wayne Roberton, the director of RJ Reynolds Sports Marketing, to keep the race at CMS.

Wheeler said he was worried that RJR might move the race, which has been at CMS every year but one since 1985 -- it was in Atlanta in 1986 -- to Richmond. He made a presentation with five ideas, he said, "and [Robertson's] group didn't like any of them."

"I thought we were going to lose the race," Wheeler wrote. "Right before the meeting ended I said, 'OK, I have another idea … let's run it on Saturday night.' Wayne looked at me like I was crazy and so did my associate Jim Duncan.

"Wayne thought it was a great idea and said, 'If you can do it and NASCAR approves, then let's do it.'"

Wheeler said the idea "just came out of my head."

"We got back to Charlotte and at some point I told Bruton Smith that was what I wanted to do," Wheeler wrote. "He said, 'OK.'"

After the race, Wheeler said Robertson presented him with a bottle of champagne and a note that said, "Great idea.'' The bottle and note were sent to the Hall of Fame to be placed on display.

"I am proud of my idea," Wheeler said. "Bruton and I did a lot of great things together. We helped to change NASCAR in some way.

"A lot of the things we did in Charlotte were mutual ideas. The lights were not one of them."

Sadly, they can't enjoy their accomplishments together.