The No. 15 truck that Michael Waltrip drove to victory lane in the Camping World Truck Series race at Daytona on Friday night has been penalized by NASCAR because of a spoiler issue that arose, err, fell down during the final laps.

The right half of the spoiler on Waltrip's truck broke from the braces and laid flat somewhere during the next-to-last lap of the race. It's unknown if the reduced drag on Waltrip's truck helped him complete the last-lap pass of Elliott Sadler -- Sadler said that the pass probably would have happened if the spoiler was up -- but it certainly couldn't have hurt.

The No. 15 truck driven by Michael Waltrip was found to be in violation of Sections 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing); 12-4-J (any determination by NASCAR Officials that the race equipment used in the event does not conform to NASCAR rules); and 20B-3.1.2E (rear spoiler did not meet specifications in post-race inspection) of the 2011 NASCAR Rule Book.

As a result, crew chief Doug Howe

Because of the protests going on in Bahrain, Formula 1 has canceled the season-opening race that was scheduled for March 13 at Sakhir.

It was the obvious decision, and the teams will now test again instead of racing that week. While F1 said that it was Bahrain's decision alone, you can bet that the teams and series weren't unhappy with the news.

From Yahoo! Eurosport:

"At the present time the country's entire attention is focused on building a new national dialogue for Bahrain," said the crown prince.

"Although Bernie Ecclestone had graciously made clear that a decision on the race was entirely Bahrain's to make and was not yet required, we felt it was important for the country to focus on immediate issues of national interest and leave the hosting of Bahrain's Formula One race to a later date."

Bahrain was the first Middle Eastern country to host a F1 Grand Prix when it had its first race in 2004.

As of now, it's unclear if the race will be simply canceled or fit in somewhere else

After winning the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway Sunday, Trevor Bayne (half?) joked that he was going to talk to NASCAR President Mike Helton about possibly switching series for 2011.

And given the way that Bayne drove in the 500, can you blame him if he's being entirely serious about it?

Thanks to a new NASCAR rule allowed to limit the influence of Sprint Cup drivers in the Nationwide (and Camping World Truck) Series, drivers declared on their official season entry blank what series that they would compete for the championship. If they chose to compete in any races in the other two series that they did not fill in the box next to, they wouldn't receive points towards that series' points race.

With Bayne's win on Sunday, that means that the three Daytona winners didn't receive points in their respective series. Nationwide Series and Camping World Truck Series winners Tony Stewart and Michael Waltrip declared for the Cup title while Bayne declared for the Nationwide

The Daytona 500 can mean very little when it comes to a 36-race season. Just look at Tony Stewart. He blew an engine just a few laps in to the 2002 Daytona 500 and went on to win the Cup championship that year.

But that was with the old points system. We've got the new 43-1 points system in place, where last place pays just one point. Will that mean a bad finish will hurt more? A bunch of 2010 Chase drivers are about to find out thanks to their performances in the Daytona 500 on Sunday.

Kevin Harvick (42nd): One of the favorites for the Daytona 500 thanks to his two plate wins in 2010 and the dominance of the Earnhardt-Childress engine program saw his engine go up in smoke 22 laps in to the 500. Harvick finished 42nd and was back in Charlotte with 40 laps to go. While Harvick probably liked having the evening free, he only earned two points.

Matt Kenseth (34th) and Greg Biffle (35th): Both were caught up in the 14-car pileup in Turns 3 and 4, but both also made it back out onto the

Thanks to a push from Landon Cassill on the last lap, Tony Stewart beat Clint Bowyer by 0.007 seconds to win the Nationwide race at Daytona International Speedway Saturday afternoon.

That's about a foot or two, by the way.

The win was Stewart's third straight win in the Nationwide season-opener and his sixth in the last seven years. That's a pretty incredible accomplishment, especially given the unpredictability of restrictor-plate racing.

Stewart's pass was a pretty incredible accomplishment too. He pushed Cassill to the front after the two started outside the top 10 with six laps to go, and the two swapped positions on the penultimate lap, and that swap looked momentarily like it would derail the momentum that the cars had gained.

However, going into turn one on the final lap, Kyle Busch, who was paired with Joey Logano on the outside, pushed Logano a little too hard, sending Logano into the wall. The caution wasn't thrown, and that allowed Stewart and Cassill to catch up to Bowyer

10 years to the day after Michael Waltrip won the Daytona 500 -- and 10 years to the day after Dale Earnhardt was killed in that last lap crash -- Waltrip visited victory lane at Daytona again, winning the NextEra Energy 250 Camping World Truck Series race Friday night after a last lap pass of Elliott Sadler.

Sadler and Waltrip broke away from the pack over the last two laps in one of those now-familiar two vehicle drafts, with Waltrip pushing Sadler until the two entered the trioval approaching the checkered flag. Waltrip faked Sadler to the inside and pulled to the outside as Sadler defended the inside, completing the pass as the two drag raced to the finish line.

However, it wasn't without some controversy. On the penultimate lap, somewhere between the start finish line and turns three and four, part of Waltrip's spoiler broke, leaving the passenger-side half leaning backwards over the bumper of the truck. (Here's where Tony Kornheiser jumps in)

And as we all know, the resistance

Thanks to little competition and the aid of the new rules in place that limit drivers' points in multiple series, barring any unforeseen circumstances, Andy Lally will be the 2011 Raybestos Rookie of the Year in the Sprint Cup Series.

Yes, Brian Keselowski is also eligible for the award and he's certainly the feel-good story of Speedweeks after qualifying for the Daytona 500 in Thursday's second duel. But Keselowski fully admits that his opportunity at Daytona was a Hail Mary. The paycheck for starting the Great American Race is nice, but it takes more than purse money from the 500 to run a full Sprint Cup season these days.

Lally, 36, isn't really a true rookie either. He's run eight Sprint Cup races, but still retains his rookie eligibility because he ran seven races in 2009. Had he run eight, he would have been ineligible.

Lally and the No. 71 TRG Motorsports team are planning to run a full season, but their sponsorship is tenuous at best. However, even if TRG has to resort to

As we've discussed before, one of the main complaints about Jimmie Johnson has been that he's too "vanilla," and that he doesn't have enough personality.

Johnson and his fans bristle at that suggestion and have offered many examples to the contrary. But even if the repeated stories aren't enough to convince fans that Johnson is more of a caramel macchiato, if the responses from the Sports Business Journal's fan pane are any indication, it's unfair to single out Johnson.

In preparation for the 2011 season, SBJ surveyed five fans on a variety of topics, ranging from sponsor loyalty, favorite driver choices and drivers' personalities. When it came to asking if drivers being too vanilla or scriped impacted fans' consumption of the sport, the responses were unanimous.

Terri: It’s impacted how I consume some of the peripheral programming. If I know exactly what someone’s going to say, I’m not going to bother listening.

Michael: The interviews aren’t as interesting as they used to be. You