I think that Kyle Larson kid is going to be pretty good. That or he is just great on two-mile tracks. He got his first career win last year at Michigan and swept the weekend last week at California. Both are two-mile speedways.

Who would have thought Columbia, S.C. would become the center of the college basketball universe? For a week anyway.

I keep seeing all this stuff about why Colin Kaepernick is still unemployed. And since you didn’t ask, here are my thoughts: he’s unemployed because he is a crappy quarterback. NFL teams will put up with a bunch of off-the-field controversy for someone who is good. Kaepernick is not good. For comparison, see Cutler, Jay.

When Carl Edwards decided he was going to hang up his driving gloves this offseason, the tinfoil-hat brigade came out in spades with many a-theory about the reasons why and that he would sit out a year and come back. My inclination was to be skeptical of the word he would be back. This week Joe Gibbs Racing announced his old crew chief, Dave Rogers, was taking a leave from the team for personal reasons. Edwards said last year he would only race if Rogers was his crew chief. I am beginning to think smoke = fire.

I rediscovered the Marty and McGee podcast with my old friends Marty Smith and Ryan McGee. If you are into podcasts, I highly recommend it. For two straight recordings, Coy and Vance Duke have come up. It’s my kind of thing.

I am getting ready to go to Martinsville and got looking at some previous race results. I started five years ago and got looking at spring 2012 race. Of the 43 starters in the event, 20 are no longer active Cup drivers. The list from that race included Ken Schrader, Dave Blaney (not Ryan) and Hermie Sadler. It made me feel old and was shocking to realize how much had changed.

So, in the next few years, we will have an NFL and an NHL team in Las Vegas. I’m glad to see some of our major sports leagues have decided to embrace the fact that people gamble like hell on their products.

Speaking of Vegas, NASCAR is going to be heading their twice next year. Bruton Smith’s Speedway Motorsports Inc. decided to take a date from New Hampshire Motor Speedway to ship west thanks to a $2.5 million incentive package from the Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. While I feel for the race fans of New Hampshire, my sympathy is tempered by the fact that their second date came from one of North Wilkesboro’s dates when Smith closed the venerable race track. I think I wrote about the inevitability of this about 10 years ago when Smith bought a share of New Hampshire.

I’m a pretty big college basketball fan and I like to think I am pretty well versed in its ins-and-outs. So, I feel comfortable saying this: LaVar Ball is a clown.

Y’all remember when Jimmie Johnson won his seventh championship five months ago? If you started watching NASCAR this year, this would come as a huge surprise.

Andy Cagle can be reached at andycagle78@gmail.com or on Twitter @andy_cagle.

Andy Cagle NASCAR columnist
https://www.bladenjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_AndyCagle.jpgAndy Cagle NASCAR columnist