Joey Coulter's truck took off in a scary last-lap incident. (Getty)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — For the start of Friday night's NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Daytona International Speedway, I sat in the second row of the frontstretch grandstands eight seats to the right of the start/finish line. I wasn't assigned to cover the race and opted to join my father to take in the event that always has memorable moments.

On Lap 12, we decided to move in search of a better view and fewer of those damn particulate debris blowing in our unprotected eyes. I was glad to do so, mainly for the view but also because the images of drivers like Carl Edwards and Geoffrey Bodine climbing the wire mesh and steel pole fencing in horrific crashes were in the back of my mind.

Travis Pastrana will make his Nationwide debut at Richmond.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The 40 places that Travis Pastrana shattered his right ankle and foot last summer have healed enough to get the action sports superstar back in NASCAR this season.

Pastrana, the 11-time X Games gold medalist, will make his first Nationwide Series start April 27 at Richmond International Raceway in what's currently known as the NASCAR Nationwide 250 — though you can bet potential race sponsors will be more interested now. It'll be the first of seven starts in the Nationwide Series for Pastrana, with races at Darlington, Charlotte, New Hampshire, Chicagoland, Indianapolis and Atlanta joining Richmond — and maybe more.

"The wait has been grueling," Pastrana said Friday at Daytona International Speedway. "This is one of the toughest things I've ever done. But we're ready to go now. We have seven Nationwide races planned but if we can secure some additional sponsorship we'll run more. If it were up to me, we'd run every race after Richmond. I'm ready to get this thing going."

Robby Gordon made the Daytona 500, but wants a rule change. (Getty)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Robby Gordon finished the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season 38th in the owner standings, three spots and 160 points from 35th. It was a critical miss for Gordon's underfunded, self-owned effort, as the top 35 teams are given guaranteed starting spots for the first five races of 2012.

That meant Gordon wasn't a lock for the 54th Daytona 500 — and could miss the race for the first time since the year he opened his own NASCAR team in 2005.

But Gordon avoided that in Thursday's Gatorade Duels at Daytona — the qualifying races that set the grid for the 500 — and raced his No. 7 in to the field thanks to a ninth-place finish in the first race. He picked up one of four spots open to previously unqualified drivers in the qualifying races, and then railed on how another driver — Terry Labonte — joined the field.

Don't expect the Daytona 500 to look like this. (Getty)

NEUTRAL: NASCAR's opening weekend was a merciless one on the hard work of team fabricators in the sport's top division. In total, two days of track activity substantially damaged 15 separate Sprint Cup cars with many more requiring varying amounts of repair either before or during the Bud Shootout.

None, of course, felt the same damage as the thrashing Jeff Gordon's No. 24 Chevrolet received after the gymnastic exhibition it put on exiting Daytona's Turn 4.

And so, naturally, the echo chamber of fear started even before Kyle Busch finished his sensational display of driving ability in Saturday night's Budweiser Shootout: Will Sunday's Daytona 500 be a farcical mess of caution flags and torn up race cars?

I say no.

The reasons for the wrecking exhibition in the season's first exhibition race vary widely, but they are real. But if we have learned anything about race car drivers over the century-plus of race car drivers being called race car drivers, it's that they very often learn how to avoid crashing in the same way over time. Typically, that stretch of time is pretty small.

Randy Bernard was bold during IndyCar's State of the Sport. (Getty)

IndyCar showed us two summers ago that they are really good at doing a pep rally on steroids when the ICONIC committee unveiled the new Dallara race car that comes in to use next month in St. Petersburg. Monday, they were at it again with hastily-announced "State of the Sport" address in downtown Indianapolis.

Drivers, sponsors, fans, teams and media were all in-house at the Hilbert Circle Theater for the show that led off with a photo of drivers Tony Kanaan as a caveman and Helio Castroneves' ESPN: The Magazine photo depicting him naked with only a tire swing to block the essential pieces. It was also streamed online.

But aside from the expected fluff — and smoke, dramatic music, lights, holograms and an ill-advised use of some Nickelback — the event put forward some very encouraging news for the series that could certainly use some.

First, and likely most important, IndyCar won't be searching for a new tire supplier amid this first season of the Dallara DW12's use. Firestone will retain the role through at least the 2014 season — a nice shot in the arm after the two briefly looked to separate during the 2010-11 offseason. Firestone has been the sole tire supplier since 2000, and it also means that the helmeted, t-shirt-shooting Firehawk mascot will remain a track staple.

In an irreverent moment, emcee Vinch Welch questioned driver Oriol Servia about any future plans of having children as part of a strange offshoot of regarding mini-vans and the new engine suppliers. Honda, Chevrolet and Lotus will power IndyCar teams this season, news that preceded Welch's insistence that Servia should "practice, practice, practice."

Geoffrey Miller / Y! Sports

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- I swiped my credit card at a McDonald's one and a half miles from the turn one tunnel sometime after 12:30 Sunday morning for an order that I hardly wanted to eat — a number one with extra pickles, an extra cheeseburger and a Dr. Pepper.

It was too much food — about 1,220 calories of gluttony plus ketchup — and inane for that time of the morning. But this trip to the Golden Arches wasn't a lesson in false pretenses. Rather, it was a simple case of supply and demand: most of the concession stands in the Daytona infield had closed while race cars continued to drone on. And those race cars had no immediate plans to stop their attack either, driving on and on twice around the clock and apparently straight through our heads.

So Chris (a longtime high school buddy) and I headed out, venturing in to the Daytona darkness in search of food and some sort of relief from the audial onslaught of Mazdas, Porsches, BMWs, Audis and more. The non-stop noise of the cars along the straightaways combined with the high pitches associated with downshifting and upshifting in and out corners had finally taken its unexpected toll. My head ached. Bad.

The Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, in its venerable 50th edition, had taken us bright-eyed rookies by surprise.

After all, Chris and I had never tried endurance racing before. Both of us are longtime veterans of 16th and Georgetown in Indianapolis, having sat through our share of shivery-cold Pole Days and scorching practice ones. We aren't racing newbies. But the 24 Hours is a different beast, and 6 p.m. was merely a point in this year's race when everyone could look at a dark green Rolex clock in the middle of pit road and know that a mere 21 and a half hours remained.

Welcome back to the first Hot/Not of this glorious new year. Since we last talked, Kurt Busch found a ride, Brian Vickers didn't and A.J. Allmendinger hit the the lottery. Oh, and we've had some honest-to-goodness rubber to the road at Daytona preseason testing. Let's jump in:

HOT: It came to me amid one of SPEED's 3,764 interviews about social media during their broadcast of last week's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series test at Daytona. Naturally, Jeff Gordon has been on it "for years".

Even if he hasn't, I'll let the future Hall of Famer slide this time after he made my/his point during a lunch-break media session: NASCAR ought to open up qualifying, and only use the current restrictor plate/spoiler package during race scenarios.

"I've been saying for years, I wish we could run a different restrictor plate or different spoiler for qualifying just because in single car runs we're able to go so much faster, and it's a lot different obviously when you're in a group of cars doing those speeds and

Typically, in this space, we'd be talking about the most recent on-track NASCAR dramas (thanks, Busch brothers!) from the previous weekend's racing. However, the very nature of the offseason isn't very good about giving us material. And since I'm so dedicated to you, my three loyal readers, I'm not even going to take vacation while guys like Jimmie Johnson send Twitter pictures from far-flung, palm tree-laden destinations.

So we're going to change it up a bit until Daytona, and use this space to review the most pressing (and occasionally irrelevant) NASCAR news of the past week. Ready? I am. Jump in:

NOT: Not to depress you in the midst of the holiday season, but there's a lot of families with NASCAR ties hurting after the typical ebb and flow of sponsor issues and team direction changes led to many layoffs.

The most recent negative shift was last Thursday's closing of Red Bull Racing. It wasn't exactly a shock after the Austrian energy drink-maker announced early in 2011 that it