Montoya

Like many race fans, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a fan of NASCAR history. Unlike most race fans, Earnhardt has the means and connections to get his hands on actual pieces of that history. And there's no more historic piece of NASCARiana in recent years than Juan Pablo Montoya's fireball-sparking 42 from this year's Daytona 500.

Guess what's now sitting in Junior's backyard?

"I got about 50 or 60 cars out there and I didn't buy any of them," Earnhardt said. "We get a forklift or a tractor with a forklift or front-end loader and just carry it into the woods and just set it out there somewhere." (Why is it no surprise that Earnhardt's backyard is like some backwoods version of the warehouse at the end of "Raiders of the Lost Ark"?)

So where does the Montoya car rank among Junior's collection?

"That one's good," he said. "That one ranks right up there.  I've got the car (Dennis) Setzer flipped when he was driving for Keselowski at Talladega so that was pretty cool, but it ranks right up

Danica Patrick's tribute helmet to Dan Wheldon from last fall's Texas race (Getty Images)

Five months ago, Dan Wheldon died during the inaugural running of IndyCar's Las Vegas 300. The events of the day haunted NASCAR then and now. As safe as the sport now is, with more than a decade since the last fatality, Wheldon's death was a shocking, painful reminder of how dangerous motorsports will always be.

Danica Patrick, now full-time in NASCAR, was in the field for the IndyCar race, and in her return to Las Vegas spoke in solemn tones about her memories of Wheldon and that weekend.

"My thoughts are still with Susie [Wheldon's wife] and the kids," she said. "There won't be a time when I come to Las Vegas where I won't think about Dan, and won't think about the family and hope they're doing well."

Patrick acknowledged that one simply cannot carry the pain of the day onto the track. "As race car drivers, our job is to drive the race car," she said. "We need to be able to do that with our whole heart and mind. It's in the moments where you don't have a singular focus, like walking

Donald Trump, Gil Hanse, Ivanka Trump (Getty Images)

Donald Trump has unveiled his initial plans for the revamping of Doral, and they are tremendous. Also great. Did we mention tremendous yet?

Trump announced the purchase of Doral Resorts last week, and as the tournament began, he laid out his vision for where things stand now, and where they're headed at the famed resort. This right here is some vintage Trump:

"We think that Doral has just tremendous opportunity, it's a tremendous location, 800 acres right smack in the middle of Miami, and we look to make this one of the great places anywhere in the world for golf.  It needs a lot of work.  It's a little bit tired and that's okay, and we are going to do something special."

In the course of his 11-question press conference, Trump used the word "tremendous" nine times, "amazing" seven times,  "fantastic" six times, and some variant of "great" 23 times. Clearly, it was a humble afternoon for Mr. Trump.

Working on the redesign, which Trump projects will run in excess of $200 million,

Here's a nice clip from a recent V8 qualifying race for the Clipsal 500 in Australia which shows that closing speed isn't always the greatest of assets. Careful with that merging!

The punter here is a guy named Greg Murphy, and the punt-ee is Jonathon Webb. His replacement car will be named for none other than former NASCAR champ Alan Kulwicki. Worldwide, baby!

The clip comes courtesy of frequent reader/commenter highflyjet, who notes, "If you've never watched V8's, ya gotta. The races are less than two hours, the announcers are great (dvr from channel 7 in Oz), the lingo is cool and the racing is generally good, they occasionally have a 1.5 cookie cutter runaway but not too often." Sounds a bit like heaven.

This is fairly cool: Martin Truex Jr. and NHRA Top Fuel driver Antron Brown swapped rides in Charlotte on Wednesday. Truex fired off the line in a dragster at the zMAX Dragway, while Brown took hot laps at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Check out the ways that each driver perceives the other's ride, from the sense of time to the feeling of G-forces. Good stuff.

One of the Tour's better events at one of the Tour's finer courses is underway right now, with the WGC-Cadillac Championship rolling at Doral. At the top of the leaderboard are Adam Scott and Jason Dufner. Catch up with the action there and at the opposite-scheduled Puerto Rico Open right here. Second rounds tee off on Friday morning.

So imagine you're the camera operator high above the pristine fairways of Doral's Blue Monster at the WGC-Cadillac Championship. You're clipped in and hanging out, getting spectacular views of the magnificent course and the surrounding South Florida landscape, when all of a sudden OH SWEET HEAVEN THAT BALL IS COMING RIGHT FOR ME AND I GOT NOWHERE TO RUN —

I bet Dustin Johnson couldn't do that again with 50 shots. I'm not, however, willing to get up in the crane and be the target to test that theory.

Johnson would go on to bogey that hole, his fifth over-par hole on the day. He now sits at 3-over, tied for 54th and nine strokes behind leaders Adam Scott and Jason Dufner.

-Follow Jay Busbee on Twitter at @jaybusbee and on Facebook right here.-

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David Duval (Getty Images)Ah, David Duval. How we so badly want you to come back.

Duval has long been one of golf's greatest enigmas, a former No. 1 and major winner who just keeps hanging around but can't quite get the engine to turn over. Every time we hope he's going to get it back in gear, well, the engine sputters out.

On Thursday at the Puerto Rico Open, Duval leaped out to a share of the lead, posting a 3-under score through the first six holes. Alas, it didn't go so well after that. He ended up bogeying 12, 13 and 15 to fall from a share of the lead all the way down to a tie for 48th.

It hasn't been a good year for Duval. In his four events this season, he has exactly zero made cuts. That translates to zero earnings. He hasn't finished higher than 115th in any tournament. And if you go back to 2011, he's missed the cut in seven straight events. That ... that's not so good.

Duval didn't speak publicly after the round, and if you'd played the way he did on the back nine, you probably wouldn't either. The