The 2013 inductees to the NASCAR Hall of Fame were decided on Wednesday, and making the cut were Buck Baker, Cotton Owens, Herb Thomas, Rusty Wallace and Leonard Wood.

Thomas and Wood tied with 57 percent of the vote. Wallace, the driver with 55 Sprint Cup wins who is now an analyst for ESPN's NASCAR coverage, got 52 percent of the vote. Owens had 50, and Baker and Fireball Roberts had the first tie of the first three Hall of Fame voting sessions with 39 percent.

That necessitated a re-vote for the final spot, which Baker got. The five will be inducted on February 8.

Current NASCAR team owners Rick Hendrick and Richard Childress were both on the ballot, but neither were in the top eight in the voting.

Baker: Baker won 46 races and 45 poles during his driving career which was from 1949-1976. He was the first driver to win consecutive NASCAR championships.

Owens: Owens won 9 races as a driver, including the first NASCAR win for Pontiac, and 38 races as an owner. He and NASCAR Hall of

Welcome to the latest Happy Hour mailbag! You know how these work: You write us with your best rant/ joke/one-liner at happyhournascar@yahoogroups.com or on Twitter at @jaybusbee, we respond to your messages, everyone goes away with a smile on their face.

We've got the greatest day of the motorsports year coming up this Sunday. Combine that with the unofficial kickoff to summer, and you've got one hell of a good reason why it's a very good thing there's no work on Monday. You listening, NFL? This is how you do a celebration. Make Super Bowl Monday a holiday and then we'll talk. Till then, we have Racing Sunday and then a blessed day to recover.

To your letters, starting with the issue of Jimmie Johnson sandbagging:

If Dale Earnhardt Jr. had won the All Star race, everyone would be saying it was the greatest race format ever! Be thankful Jimmie Johnson did sandbag, or he probably would have won all 4 segments. [Those complaining about Johnson's win are] the same bunch of whiners that couldn't appreciate JJ winning 5 in a row. I personally thought it was impressive to see a team come out with a strategy & execute it to perfection. No matter how you tweak the length of segments or pit stops, no one was outrunning the 48 Saturday night! Get over it!

— Jeff
Collinsville, Ill.

Do you think 20 years from now they'll still be talking about "fireworks" and "no holds barred" and "tempers flaring" and great All-Star race memories and show replays of Kyle Petty and Davey Allison followed by Earnhardt and Elliot? NASCAR is living in the past, especially when it comes to the All-Star race. The meatball nostalgic fan thinks that even in this current format that Dale Earnhardt or Rusty Wallace or Bill Elliott would've tried to win all 4 segments anyway and then run away in the 10-lap shootout.

— Eric
Chicago

First off, let's lay this out there: yes, Jimmie Johnson sandbagged the last three segments of the All-Star Race. There's no other way to put it. Good strategy? Absolutely. Crap racing? Also, absolutely. But Eric makes an excellent point: Johnson did exactly what the wise drivers of earlier days would have done before him: used the rules to his own advantage. Do I have a problem with that? Aesthetically yes, competitively no. You do what you do to win, and it doesn't matter if you don't look pretty doing it.

Longtime readers of this column know I don't have a whole lot of patience for some of the Sacred Whines of the NASCAR faithful ("It was better back then," "Jimmie is a cheater," etc.) Those of you displeased with the All-Star race, which would be everyone who's not a 48 fan, unfortunately need to accept that Johnson gamed the system to his own advantage, and did so in a perfectly legitimate fashion, like it or not.

Can you feel the love? (Getty Images)Catching up with our year-long Fireball Cup competition, recognizing excellence in the field of NASCAR brawling. Our reigning champion holds onto his throne, but there are challengers starting to line up.

Recall our rules, which can and do change on a whim:

• Verbal/Twitter exchange; slightly aggressive driving leading to issues: 1 point
• Bumping cars in an aggressive, making-a-point fashion: 2 points
• Spin, non-critical: 3 points
• Spin, critical: 4 points
• Out of car, punches thrown: 5 points

Fireball Cup stats, All-Star Race:
• Ryan Newman calling Kurt Busch "chemically imbalanced" (Darlington): 1 point
• Kurt Busch reminding Ryan Newman who pushed him to that Daytona 500 win: 1 point
• Kevin Harvick thumping Paul Menard and unfortunately putting himself into the wall: 2 points
• Menard griping that he gets no respect from Harvick: 1 point

Which gives us current standings of:

Time again for our weekly chat. If only there was something to talk about! Join us on Tuesday as we discuss the All-Star Race, the upcoming Coca-Cola 600, and oh so much more. See you here!

Danica Patrick's car. (Getty Images)

Here's what's left of Danica Patrick's car after Sunday's Nationwide race. Create your best caption right here. (And no hack "women drivers" lines. You're better than that.)

After the jump, we observe Jimmie Johnson's unconventional pit road strategy.

You think this is on McGee's birth certificate? (h/t Deadspin)

Mistakes happen.

It's what we tell ourselves, anyway, and speaking from NASCAR Live Chat experience, you sometimes don't know that you've let in something a tad inappropriate until it's a little too late.

That's what happened on Sunday night's episode of "Wind Tunnel." Dave Despain and Larry McReynolds were taking questions from Twitter, and when they went to answer the final question (about drivers and anger issues, of course), well, you can see from the picture above that it's highly unlikely that Mr. McGee is using his given name.

Video can be found here. Props to Despain for catching himself and rolling right along with it as he's reading the teleprompter. But how in the world did McReynolds not react? That's either the greatest stifle of amusement in history or he totally missed it.

(H/T Deadspin)

Other popular content on the Yahoo! network:
• Former NHL player Sean Avery tries semi-nude modeling
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• Y! TV:

The race is done, and that means it's time for Power Rankings. Each week throughout the season, we'll size up who's rising and who's falling, based on current standings, behind-the-scenes changes, expected staying power, recent history and general gut feelings. It is not scientific, nor is it meant to be. And remember, whoever your favorite driver is, we're biased against him and like someone else better. We continue with a guy who knows his way around the top of the charts...

Well, it was a weekend. The All-Star Race on Saturday night perhaps didn't have the drama we would have liked to see from a collection of the sport's greatest stars. But hey, at least we got to see them driving cars and such. The actual racing would have to wait until Sunday ...