Last year's champion. (Getty)

In last year's final race of the Izod IndyCar Series season, Ryan Hunter-Reay capitalized on a crash by Will Power to win the championship by three points after Power entered the race with a 17 point lead.

On Friday, the 2013 season kicked off with practices for Sunday's season-opening race at St. Petersburg. Power was atop the speed charts. Hunter-Reay was second; the two drivers who battled for the championship through the final weeks once again at the top of the heap. Doesn't that sound an awful lot like the Sprint Cup Series?

For Power, it was the second straight year he's come up just short in the final race. In 2011, it was to Dario Franchitti. Power is a monster on the series' road and street courses. Hunter-Reay is no slouch himself, but where he and Franchitti have kept up with Power is on ovals. When Hunter-Reay made his summer charge with three straight victories, two of them came at Iowa and Milwaukee, tracks where Power finished 23rd and 12th.

Is this the year for Power?

Unfortunately Fox was in commercial when this happened. (Getty)

New season, new Happy Hour! You know the drill. Throughout the week you can send us your best questions, jokes, rants and just plain miscellaneous thoughts to happyhourmailbag@yahoo.com or @NickBromberg. We'll post them here, have a good time and everyone's happy. Right? Oh who are we kidding, this is NASCAR. No one is ever happy.

Let's get to it.
I am losing my noodle dealing with FOX! They have a commercial every 9-10 laps @ Bristol...that's 3 minutes under green and 6 minutes of commercials! Every time we go to commercial something happens! FOX HAS TO GO! I mean they could go side by side...but they don't even do that! Between the supreme downforce Gen6 car and the commercial deal along with NAZICAR telling the drivers they cant speak without"Pappas Please"... Because of the all the downforce a week car with NO TIRES can hold off a strong car with 4???? IS THAT RIGHT? No longer does the fastest car win!?! I AM DONE WITH THIS bull excrement!
- Kaiya

Kaiya bringing the heat right

Welcome to Warped Wednesday, our new feature at From the Marbles. On it, we'll put out the rush to judgment map, go a little too far and have a little fun. Will it be funny? Sometimes. Will it be crazy and largely unbelievable? Probably. Will not everyone get it? Definitely. So let's get started with a little back to the future fun, shall we?

@CaleY @DAllison You blocked me

@DAllison @CaleY I didn't block you. I see your tweet right now. You got a problem with me?

@CaleY @DAllison I got a problem with both you and that brother of yours @BobbyAllison

@BobbyAllison @CaleY @DAllison what did I do Cale? Other than question your ancestry? And beat you up

@CaleY @BobbyAllison I beat you up. And @DAllison cost me a shot at the Daytona 500.

@DAllison @CaleY You could have made a pass in the grass. But that book ain't written yet @BobbyAllison Next time, come after me.

@DAllison @CaleY You have my address and my DM. And your chance in the grass.

@CaleY @DAllison @BobbyAllison Y'all still got

After every race, we'll opine about who we think is at the top of the Sprint Cup heap and how and why they got there in Power Rankings. Remember, this isn't scientific, as our formula is the perfect blend of analytics and bias against your favorite driver. And in honor of March Madness, we'll compare each driver with a team in the NCAA Tournament. So let's get on with it, shall we?

1. Brad Keselowski (LW: 1): Keselowski gets to stay at the top spot again this week by virtue of his four top 10s in four races. And not only was he pretty good at Bristol, he was almost really good. If he doesn't spin his tires on that final restart, who knows if Kasey Kahne doesn't get away for the win? Team comparison: Louisville. The obvious pick would be to go with the other team from Kentucky had they succeeded this season, but they weren't too Keselowskiesque.

2. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (LW: 3): The only driver with a case to unseat @Kes for the top spot is the one and only Junior, also the only other

Logano! Hamlin! Controversy! Kinda?

Yours truly, Nick Bromberg, and Geoffrey Miller are back once again to talk Bristol, the scuffle that really wasn't much of a scuffle, JUNIORRRRRRRR and Morgan Shepherd. Enjoy it, why don't you?

Click here to download the podcast or here to listen to in your browser. As always, we'd love to hear from you. Email us your thoughts, questions, rants, etc here and we'll talk about them on our next episode.

Oh, Miller's got one coming.

Jeff Gordon's rough start to 2013 looked poised to turn around on Sunday at Bristol until a melted bead on his right front tire eliminated Gordon's chances for the win. And unfortunately for Matt Kenseth, it ended his too.

Gordon was leading the race on lap 391 and dove to the bottom line of turns 3 and 4 to pass a lapped car. But before he had the chance to make the pass, his right front tire failed and Gordon's car made a sharp right hand turn into the outside wall.

Second-place Kenseth was just behind Gordon, but unlike Gordon, he took the high line into turn three. That meant that he had nowhere to go when Gordon's car went careening in front of him and as Gordon smashed the wall, Kenseth rammed into the back of Gordon's car. Both drivers' days were done. Gordon ended up 34th. Kenseth was 35th.

Last year at Bristol, a tire doomed Gordon's hopes as well, though that issue was spurred by contact with teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. Last year, Gordon left Bristol in 23rd in the points

Four races into their first season together in the Sprint Cup Series on different teams, you have to wonder how Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano got along with each other at Joe Gibbs Racing.

The two exchanged Twitter barbs at Daytona and on Sunday, the tiff escalated to non-social media levels after Hamlin got into the back of Logano and sent him spinning as the two were battling for second place on lap 349.

After the race, Logano exited his car and immediately went over to Hamlin's, which was less than 100 feet away. As Hamlin was still in his car with his helmet on, Logano, in his first season at Penske Racing, leaned in to voice his displeasure with his former teammate. To do so, he had to nudge one of Hamlin's crew members out of the way, who in turn, tried to keep Logano away from the driver's side window, causing a slight shoving match between the drivers' crew members.

What did Hamlin say Logano said to him?

"He said he was coming for me," Hamlin said. "So, I usually don't see him

A week after finishing second, Kasey Kahne found himself in second place once again late in the race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday. But this week, Kahne sprinted away on a late race restart and drove away from the field over the last 40 laps to collect his first win at the half-mile bullring.

Kahne started on the inside of leader Brad Keselowski, and given the race's pattern of restarts, it looked like he'd be at a disadvantage as for most of the day, the leader of the field had jumped out to a large lead rather quickly. However, with fourth place Denny Hamlin on Keselowski's bumper, Keselowski spun the tires and couldn't get going, opening the door for Kahne to be the one to dash out to the lead into turns one and two.

"This whole team was flawless again today," Kahne said. "Last week, today, this whole season so far, it's been a lot of fun."

During the final laps of last week's race, Kahne closed in on the back bumper of eventual race-winner Matt Kenseth, but never was able to