Back on Thanksgiving 2012, I was thinking how I’d like to cut back and concentrate more on writing fiction.

Someone? Anyone? Bueller?

“Uh, watch what you ask for ‘cause you might just get it?”

“Correctimundo.”

With no pit-road speed limit to slow him down Friday, Kyle Larson zoomed to the pole for Saturday’s Monster Energy All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Larson – making his second start in the biggest All-Star event in sports – earned the pole ahead of Kyle Busch with an average speed of 143.839 mph over three laps and a four-tire pit stop in one minute, 52.636 seconds. Busch was second by just .01 seconds. The pit crew for third-place qualifier Kevin Harvick earned the Pit Crew Challenge award for the fastest pit stop with a blistering, 13.279-second stop in Round 1. Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch rounded out the top five in time trials. Dale Earnhardt Jr. qualified sixth for his final All-Star Race while Brad Keselowski, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin and Jamie McMurray completed the top 10. Saturday’s 70-lap Monster Energy All-Star Race goes green at approximately 8:15 p.m.

Tony Stewart is a three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and his passion about people, pets, and motorsports will be on full display during the 101st Running of the Indianapolis 500 this Memorial Day weekend. The Indiana native announced that his Tony Stewart Foundation has launched the Faces of Team One Cure, which will adorn the No. 77 Lucas Oil/Team One Cure Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda driven by Jay Howard in this year's Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

"Together we're racing to find the cure for cancer in both pets and people," shared Tony Stewart. "It's an innovative yet proven approach where treatment of pets with cancer can improve therapies for people. It perfectly aligns with my foundation's mission and we're excited to share stories of people and pets benefitting from comparative oncology."

A year removed from the 20th anniversary of winning the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing" in 1996, Buddy Lazier confirmed he would attempt to qualify for his 20th Indianapolis 500 this month. One of the league's most experienced drivers returns to the famed oval track for the 101st running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil behind the wheel of the Lazier Racing Chevrolet.

"It's hard to believe another year has passed and May is upon us again," said Lazier. "We are coming off one of our most successful ski seasons at my family's Tivoli Lodge in Vail (CO) and it's exciting to once again turn my attention to the Brickyard. My fitness and training regimen remains a big priority daily and I'm thrilled at the opportunity to again race at Indy with Chevrolet."

Forty wins and 124 top-10s in 148 NASCAR starts during their 2016 and 2017 seasons, to date. … Three series champions, two of whom are the youngest in their respective NASCAR touring series. … The 2016 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Rookie of the Year and the 2015 Snowball Derby runner-up.

These are just a few of the accomplishments already earned by the nine drivers in this year’s NASCAR Next class, and they’re just getting started.

Ryan Blaney sped to his first career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series pole position today at Kansas Speedway.

Blaney’s drove his Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion to qualifying laps of 188.789 mph, 189.480 mph and 189.600 mph and will pace the field to the green flag for tomorrow night’s Go Bowling 400.

“We’ve been really close a few times this year and it’s nice to finally get it done,” said a smiling Blaney. “I know it’s only qualifying but it feels really cool to get the first pole because qualifying hasn’t really been my best thing. That says a lot about this whole team. I can’t tell you how proud I am of this 21 team.”

One of the unexpected consequences of Dale Earnhardt’s death in 2001 was the last growth spurt of NASCAR to date.

Some like to say that event was the beginning of the decline, but it wasn’t.

The tragedy of Earnhardt’s death, on the last lap of the Daytona 500, put NASCAR on the cover of Time magazine (back when it meant something). It wasn’t just the biggest sports story. It was the biggest news story, and the investigation into the accident and the safety improvements necessary to prevent such tragedy from happening again kept stock car racing on the evening news and in the headlines for most of the year.

Records are meant to be broken, but there are some that have stood the test of time.

Joe DiMaggio established his 56-game hitting streak in Major League Baseball with the New York Yankees in 1941.

Will Chamberlain scored 100 points in a National Basketball Association game for the Philadelphia Warriors on March 2, 1962.

Secretariat’s march to the 1973 Triple Crown began in the Kentucky Derby when he covered the one-and-a-quarter-mile distance at Churchill Downs in 1 minute, 59.4 seconds.

“Hit ‘em where they ain’t.” Those were the simple words Wee Willie Keeler used to describe the secret of hitting baseballs. It wasn’t the full quote, though.

“Keep your eye on the ball and hit ‘em where they ain’t.” Not that splashing spheroids around fields of green bears much resemblance to racing automobiles pell-mell and fast-forward around closed circuits, but, at Richmond last Sunday, Jimmie Johnson tried to drive his Chevy where they weren’t but failed to keep his eye(s) on his teammate, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

When I was a kid, my racing heroes were David Pearson and A.J. Foyt. I went to Foyt’s last Indianapolis 500. I got to know Pearson while I was writing about the men who succeeded him.

I was driving home from Fenway Park on a New Hampshire NASCAR weekend when I heard on the radio that John Unitas had died. It’s a vivid memory. I had to pull off the road and cry for a while. I felt embarrassed because I thought I was a grown man.