Stage Five of the Dakar Rally

There was a change in leader of bike class after stage five.

Marc Coma won the stage in the bike class and in doing so, along with some misfortune to fellow Spaniard Joan Barreda Bort. Coma won by twelve minutes and fifty-four seconds over Jordi Viladoms with Polish rider Kuba Przygonski twenty-two minutes and forty-five seconds back.

Joan Barreda Bort had his worst stage of this year's Dakar Rally, finishing seventeenth, forty-four minutes and twenty seconds back of Coma. Coma take the overall lead in the class by forty-one minutes and ten seconds over Barreda Bort. Francisco López Contardo remains third overall despite finishing twenty-seventh on the day, fifty-one minutes and thirty-nine seconds back. López Contardo is fifty-three minutes and forty-one seconds back of Coma in the overall standings.

Viladoms jumps to fourth overall, fifty-eight minutes and fifty-eight seconds back of Coma with Alain Duclos dropping back to fifth after finishing eleventh for stage five. He is now over an hour back of the overall lead. Olivier Pain drops back a position to sixth as Przygonski moves up to seventh from tenth just ahead of defending Dakar winner in the bike class Cyril Despres.

Sergio Lafuente picked up his first stage win of the 2014 Dakar Rally when he defeated Ignacio Casale by a minute and twenty-one seconds. Rafeł Sonik finished the stage in third, forty-two minutes and fourteen seconds back of the Uruguayan.

Casale maintains his lead in the quad by thirteen minutes and twenty-eight seconds ahead of Lafuente with Sonik fifty minutes and twenty-eights seconds back. Dutch rider Sebastian Husseini had a disappointing day, finishing three hours three minutes and twenty seconds back of Lafuente. Husseini only drops to fourth in class overall, three hours fifteen minutes and thirteen seconds back of Casale overall.

Nani Roma won his second stage of the 2014 Dakar Rally and in doing so retakes the overall lead from Carlos Sainz. He defeated 2009 Dakar Rally winner Giniel de Villiers by four minutes and twenty seconds. Robby Gordon finished third, twenty minutes and twelve seconds back. Orlando Terranova finished fourth, twenty minutes and forty-four seconds back with Mini teammates Nasser Al-Attiyah and Stéphane Peterhansel finishing fifth, twenty-one minutes and thirty-eight seconds back and sixth twenty-three minutes and fifty-five seconds back respectively on the day.

Roma leads by twenty-six minutes and twenty-eight seconds over Al-Attiyah with Terranova in third, thirty-one minutes and forty-six seconds back. Peterhansel is fourth, thirty-nine minutes and fifty-nine seconds back with Giniel de Villiers sixth, forty-one minutes and twenty-four seconds back. Carlos Sainz drops to sixth, fifty-nine minutes and forty-three seconds back of Roma after finishing nineteenth in stage five, one hour one minute and forty-nine seconds back of Roma's stage winning time.

Robby Gordon is nineteenth in the car class, four hours thirty-four minutes and twenty-nine seconds back.

Dmitry Sotnikov picked up the win in the truck class by two minutes and fifty-six over fellow Kamaz driver and Russian Andrey Karginov. Gérard de Rooy finished twelve minutes and seven seconds back in third and maintained the class lead. Karginov is second, thirty-two minutes back of de Rooy in the overall standings with Eduard Nikolaev third, one hour nine minutes and forty-one seconds. Marcel van Vilet had a disastrous day falling from behind de Rooy in second to ninth, two hours and twenty-eight seconds back after finishing twenty-third in stage five, one hour thirty-six minutes and twenty-three seconds back of Sotnikov.

There were a few noticeable withdrawals. Stage two winner in the bike class withdrew prior to the start of stage four. He was thirtieth at the time. American Kevin Muggleton withdrew from the bike class during stage three.

In the car class, Guerlain Chicherit withdrew during stage four. The Frenchman had finished fifth in stage three and finished fifth in class in 2010. American Spencer Trenery withdrew prior to the third stage.

And in the truck class, 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans winner, two-time winner of the 24 Hours of Daytona and former Formula One driver Jan Lammers withdrew prior to stage five. The Dutchman was nineteenth in the class.

The First Endurance Race of The Year... And It's Not In Daytona

When you hear someone talking about the first 24-hour race of the year in January in a warm climate to escape the chill of winter, you would probably be thinking of the famed 24 Hours of Daytona which has seen the likes of Dan Gurney, Phil Hill, Lloyd Ruby, Vic Elford, Mark Donohue, Pedro Rodríguez, Mario Andretti, Peter Gregg, Hurley Haywood, Rolf Stommelen, Bobby Rahal, A.J. Foyt, Al Unser, Henri Pescarolo, Scott Pruett, Wayne Taylor, Andy Wallace, Arie Luyendyk, Ron Fellows, Scott Dixon, Dan Wheldon, Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario Franchitti, Buddy Rice and Mike Rockenfeller claim victory.

But I am not talking about the kickoff event to Speedweeks at Daytona. I am talking about a race that isn't even a decade old and is halfway across the globe from Daytona: the Dubai 24 Hours.

The #1 Abu Dhabi by Black Falcon Racing Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 has won the past two years and looks to complete the hat trick this year along with drivers Jeroen Bleekemolen and Khaled Al Qubaisi. It would be a shame if I did not mention the late Sean Edwards had been apart of the last two winning teams besides Bleekemolen and Al Quabaisi. Bernd Schneider returns to that team for the second consecutive year. This race was the start of an impressive 2013 for Schneider who won five endurance races last season. Swedish driver Andreas Simonsen is the fourth driver of the #1 this year. Simonsen won the Pro-Am championship with Russian driver Sergey Afanasyev in the FIA GT Series last year.

The #2 Black Falcon Mercedes consists of Bleekemolen, Al Qubaisi, Abdulaziz Bin Turki Al Faisal, Hubert Haupt and 2009 Star Mazda champion Adam Christodoulou.

The #4 Fach Tech Auto Porsche 997 GT3 R features one of the few Americans in the field, Porsche Junior driver and 2009 Skip Barber National Champion Connor de Philippi. He is joined by Germans Otto Klohs and Sebastian Asch and Austrian Martin Ragginger. Asch won the 2012 ADAC GT Mastes championship with Maximilian Götz. Ragginger won the 2010 Spa 24 Hours along side Jörg Bergmeister, Wolf Henzler and Romain Dumas.

The defending FIA World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers winner Gianmaria Bruni teams with fellow AF Corse Ferrari driver Toni Vilander and Belorussians Alexander Talkanitsa, Sr. and Alexander Talkanitsa, Jr. in the #5 Spirit of Race Ferrari 458 Italia GT3.

Aston Martin factory drivers Stefan Mücke and Darren Turner team with former DTM driver Darryl O'Young, Hong Kong driver Frank Yu and Japanese driver Tomonobu Fujii in the #7 Craft Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3.

Two other Americans in the field are Bill Auberlen and Dane Cameron will be driving the #76 BMW Z4 GT3 for SX Team Schubert alongside Paul Dalla Lana, Dirk Werner and Claudia Hürtgen. Werner and Hürtgen are past winners of the Dubai 24 Hours with Werner winning in 2007 and Hürtgen in 2010.

Ram Racing features a talented driver line-up with ELMS GT Drivers' champions Johnny Mowlem and Matt Griffin, four-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Jan Magnussen and Indian businessman Cheerag Arya in the #30 Ferrari 458 Italia GT3.

The surprise of Thursday qualifying was the all-Dutch #21 V8 Racing Chevrolet Corvette C6-R of former ChampCar driver Nicky Pastorelli, Wolf Nathan, Danny Werkman, Rick Abresch and Alex van 't Hoff taking pole position over the defending race winning #1 Mercedes-Benz of Abu Dhabi by Black Falcon by 0.163 seconds. The #4 Fach Tech Auto Porsche qualified third ahead of the #2 Black Falcon Mercedes-Benz. The #76 SX Team Schubert BMW is fifth ahead of the #30 Ram Racing Ferrari and the #17 and #7 Craft Racing Aston Martins. The #27 Walkenhosrt Motorsport BMW qualified ninth with the #5 Spirit of Race Ferrari rounding out the top ten.

A German manufacture has won every edition of the Dubai 24 Hours with Porsche and BMW tied for the all-time lead at three apiece and Mercedes-Benz having won the last two. At least one German driver has been apart of all but one winning team of the Dubai 24 Hours. The 2008 winners were the only German-less driver lineup which saw V8 Supercars drivers Australian Jonathon Webb and New Zealander Craig Baird alongside Australian Klark Quinn and British driver Tony Quinn take the victory.

The 2014 Dubai 24 Hours starts at 5:00 a.m. ET tomorrow and will conclude 5:00 a.m. ET on Saturday.

Stage Four of the Dakar Rally

Before going into the results for the fourth stage of the Dakar Rally, a quick summary of withdrawals over the last few days.

Yesterday we went over the surprising withdrawal of two time quad class winner and leader of the class entering stage three, Argentine Marcos Patronelli. Portugal lost two favorites to get a win. Stage one winner in the car class Carlos Sousa withdrew prior to the start of stage three. After winning stage one, he finished 97th in stage two after turbo problems. Portugal's other blow was the withdrawal of Ruben Faria during the third stage. Faria finished second last year in the Dakar Rally and was sixth overall after stage two, only seven minutes and eighteen seconds back of Joan Barreda Bort.

Another winner from stage one has withdrawn and that would be truck class winner, Russian Ayrat Mardeev who had an accident on stage two.

Americans Peter Hardy (bikes) and Peter Harjas (car) both withdrew after stage two.

In stage four, Carlos Sainz became the fourth different stage winner in the car class and became the fourth different leader of the car class overall. Sainz finished six minutes and four seconds ahead of Stéphane Peterhansel with Peterhansel's Mini teammate Nasser Al-Attiyah finished third, eight minutes and fifty-eight seconds back. Argentine Federico Villagra finished fourth thirteen minutes and nineteen second back with Nani Roma finishing fifth, fourteen minutes and eights seconds back of Sainz.

Sainz has a two minute and six second gap over Roma with Al-Attiyah third, six minutes and fifty-six seconds back. Orlando Terranova drops to fourth, thirteen minutes and eight seconds back with Peterhansel moving up to fifth, eighteen minutes and ten seconds back.

Robby Gordon finished fourteenth, forty-two minutes and sixteen seconds back. He is four hours sixteen minutes and twenty-three seconds back of Sainz overall in thirty-first place. BJ Baldwin finished the day twenty-fifth, an hour and five minutes and thirty-three seconds back. Baldwin is forty-seventh overall, seven hours one minute and fifty-nine seconds back of Sainz.

Spaniard Juan Pedrero Garcia won the bike class on stage four, defeating Chilean Francisco López Contardo by twenty-nine seconds. Marc Coma finished third for the second consecutive stage, three minutes and ten seconds back. Jeremías Israel finished fourth, his best finish stage finish to date with Olivier Pain and Joan Barreda Bort rounding out the top six, thirteen minutes and fifty-six seconds back.

Barreda Bort remains the bike class leader by three minutes and ten seconds over Coma. Loópez Contardo moves up to third from fifth, five minutes and twelve second back. Alain Duclos remains in fourth for a fourth consecutive stage but is twenty-five minutes and fifty-five seconds back. He is ahead of fellow Frenchmen Olivier Pain and defending winner of the Dakar in the bike class Cyril Despres. Despres drops from second after finishing forty-two minutes and nine seconds over the stage winning Sherco of Pedrero Garcia.

Gérard de Rooy appears to have another truck stage victory in this edition of the Dakar Rally after defeating stage three winner Russian Andrey Karginov by a minute and thirty-one seconds. Eduard Nikolaev finished third, nine minutes and four seconds back. De Rooy extended his overall lead in the class to thirty-six minutes and twelve seconds ahead of fellow Dutchman Marcel van Vilet. Karginov is third, forty minutes and forty-one seconds back. Karginov is fourth, fifty-seven minutes and three seconds back after a five minute penalty.

Chilean Ignacio Casale is the first to reach the finish line for the quad class. He does so in seven hours fifteen minutes and thirty-one seconds. He finished twelve minutes and five seconds ahead of Sebastian Husseini, thirteen minutes and thirty-three seconds ahead of Sergio Lafuente and fifteen minutes and forty-five seconds ahead of Rafeł Sonik.

With the victory, Casale takes a nine minute and thirty-five second lead over Sonik, thirteen minute and fourteen second lead over Husseini and fourteen minute and forty-nine second lead over Lafuente.

Stage Three of the Dakar Rally

The third stage of the Dakar Rally saw a change at the top of the car class and a former Dakar winner and top contender this year retiring in the quad class.

Spaniard Nani Roma won stage three in the car class and in doing so took the overall lead in the class, the third different leader of the class in as many days. Roma defeated Polish driver Krzysztof Holowczyc by one minute and seven seconds with South African Leeroy Poulter finishing third, three minutes and nineteen seconds back. Argentine Orlando Terranova finishing fourth, four minutes and fifty-four seconds back. Guerlain Chicherit finished fifth, six minutes and fifty-two seconds back with Robby Gordon finishing ten seconds back of Chicherit in sixth. Nasser Al-Attiyah finished seventh, ten minutes and nine seconds back.

Roma takes the lead overall by nine minutes and six seconds over Terranova with Al-Attiyah ten minutes back. Carlos Sainz finished eighteenth on the day and drops back to fourth, twelve minutes and two seconds back but the Spaniard jumps Stéphane Peterhansel who drops from the lead to fifth, twenty-four minutes and eight seconds back. The eleven-time Dakar winner finish twenty-ninth in stage three.

Robby Gordon moves up from fifty-seventh to forty-first overall with his sixth place finish today. He is three hours forty-six minutes and nine seconds back. The other American driver in the car class BJ Baldwin finished forty-second in stage three and is sixty-eighth overall, six hours eight minutes and eight seconds back of Roma.

In the bike class, Joan Barreda Bort extended his overall lead to thirteen minutes and four seconds over Cyril Despres with another stage victory. Barreda Bort defeated Despres by four minutes and forty-one seconds to take the stage victory with Marc Coma finishing another two minutes and fifteen seconds back. Coma is third overall, thirteen minutes and fifty-six seconds back of his fellow Spaniard. Frenchman Alain Duclos finished fourth on the day and remains fourth overall for the third consecutive day.

Chilean Francisco López Contardo drops from second overall to fifth after finishing sixteen minutes and thirty-six seconds back on the day. Stage two winner Sam Sunderland finished seventy-fifth, two hours twenty-eight minutes and six seconds back of Barreda Bort on stage three. He drops from third to thirtieth overall, two and a half hours and thirty-nine seconds back of Barreda Bort overall.

American Mike Johnson finished 113th on stage three, six hours twenty-two minutes and twenty seconds back of Barrdea Bort. Johnson was assessed a one-hour penalty and finds himself 107th overall, ten hours five minutes and twenty-five seconds back of the lead in the bike class.

In the quad class, Rafał Sonik won by three minutes and fifty seconds over stage one winner Ignacio Casale. Sergio Lafuente of Uruguay finished another twelve seconds back with Dutchman Sebastian Husseini finishing four minutes and fifty-one seconds back.

The surprise of the day was the announcement that leader of the quad class entering stage three Marcos Patronelli has retired from the Dakar Rally after an accident sent his ATV down an ravine. Patronelli has won two of five Dakar Rally since the introduction of the quad class in 2009 including last year's edition.

Sonik holds a six minutes and ten second lead over Casale overall, seven minutes and nineteen seconds over Husseini and is seven minutes and twenty-six seconds ahead Lafuente.

Russian Andrey Karginov won the truck class today by two minutes and forty-two seconds over Gérard de Rooy. Czech driver Aleš Loprais finished third on the day another two minutes and twelve seconds back. De Rooy increased his overall lead in the class to eighteen minutes and forty-nine seconds over fellow Dutchman Marcel van Vilet. Karginov moves up to third with the stage win, thirty-nine minutes and ten seconds back.

Through Two Stages of the Dakar Rally

The second stage of the 2014 Dakar Rally is in the books and some familiar names are at the top.

Stéphane Peterhansel won stage two and in doing so took the overall lead in the car class. The Frenchman and 11-time winner in the legendary rally defeated 2010 Dakar winner and double World Rally champion Carlos Sainz by forty-six seconds leads the Spaniard by twenty-eight seconds. South African and 2009 Dakar winner Giniel de Villiers finished third today ahead of Nani Roma and 2011 Dakar winner Nasser Al-Attiyah. Al-Attiyah is third overall, four minutes and ten seconds back of teammate Peterhansel and nine seconds ahead of Roma.

As of 8:35 p.m. ET, stage one winner Carlos Sousa of Portugal has yet to finish stage two. He entered the day with an elevens second lead of Argentine Oliver Terranova who finish sixth on the stage and dropped back to fifth overall, eight minutes and thirty-one seconds back.

American Robby Gordon recovered after a disastrous stage one. After finishing 133rd and being assessed a twenty-six and a half minute penally, Gordon finished twenty-eighth in stage two but still trails Peterhansel by three hours, forty-three minutes and twenty-six seconds and is fifty-seventh overall.

Fellow American BJ Baldwin finished eighty-second, six hours thirty-second minutes and twenty-one seconds back after a two-hour penalty. He is eighty-first overall, seven hours twenty-four minutes and  thirty seconds back.

British rider Sam Sunderland won the bike class in stage two, thirty-nine seconds ahead of Chilean Francisco López Contardo with stage one winner Joan Barreda Bort finishing in third, two minutes back. Barreda Bort maintains a two minute and three second lead over López Contardo and two minutes and thirty-three second lead over Sunderland.

Marc Coma and Cyril Despres finished ninth and tenth respectively on the stage and dropped from second and third to fifth and eight overall, seven minutes and eight minutes and twenty-three seconds back respectively.

Americans Mike Johnson and Kevin Muggleton finished 87th and 131rd on the day. Johnson is 93rd overall, two hours, forty-three minutes and five seconds back after a five-minute penalty. Muggleton is 129th seven hours, fourteen minutes and forty-one seconds back after being assessed a two-hour penalty.

Argentine Marcos Patronelli won stage two and in doing so overtook Chilean Ignacio Casale for the lead in the quad class. Patronelli defeated fellow Argentinean Lucas Bonetto by two minutes and fifty-four seconds and leads Bonetto by three minutes and fifty seconds overall. Casale finished sixth on the day, eight minutes and forty-seven seconds back and dropped to fourth overall, eight minutes and twenty-six seconds back. Polish rider Rafał Sonik finished third in stage two and moves to third overall, six minutes and six seconds back.

Russian Anton Shibalov initially won stage two in the truck class by a minute and forty-nine seconds over Dutchman Marcel van Vilet with fellow Dutchman and 2012 Dakar winner Gérard de Rooy finishing third but after the stage, de Rooy was given the stage victory after having twenty-three minutes waived for stopping and helping stage one winner, Russian Ayrat Mardeev after an accident ended their rally.

De Rooy officially wins the stage by thirteen minutes and twenty seconds over Shibalov and fifteen minutes and nine seconds over van Vilet. He also leads overall by thirteen minutes and fifty-seven seconds over van Vilet and eighteen minutes and fifty-two seconds over Shibalov.

The Start of 2014: Daytona to Dakar to Anaheim

The 2014 motorsports season starts with sports car testing, rallying and supercross.

The Tudor United SportsCar Championship began it's Roar Before the 24 test yesterday from Daytona International Speedway. The fastest on the day was the #5 Action Express Racing Corvette Daytona Prototype shared by João Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi and Sébastien Bourdais with a time 1:38.630. Second fastest on the day and fastest in the second session was the #90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP driven by Richard Westbrook, Michael Valiante and 2010 24 Hours of Daytona winner and defending DTM champion Mike Rockenfeller.

The Gainsco/Bob Stallings #99 Corvette DP of Alex Gurney, Jon Fogerty, Memo Gidley and Darren Law was third fastest ahead of the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP driven by the Taylor's (Wayne, Jordan and Ricky) and Max Angelelli. The first of the LMP2 cars was the #1 Extreme Speed Motorsports of Scott Sharp, Ryan Dalziel and David Brabham. Defending race winners Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas was sixth fastest with their new teammates for 2014, Jamie McMurray and Sage Karam.

The #9 Action Express Racing Corvette DP of Brian and Burt Frisselle, John Martin, Stefan Johannsson and Fabien Giroix were next on the time sheet ahead of the #02 Gannasi Ford-Riley of Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Kyle Larson and Marino Franchitti. The #42 OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan of Olivier Pla and Romain Rusinov were ninth with the #31 Corvette DP of Marsh Racing and drivers Eric Curran, Boris Said and Max Papis rounded out the top ten Friday.

The #54 CORE Autosport driven by Jon Bennett, Colin Braun and Mark Wilkins led the PC class with a time of 1:42.468 ahead of the #87 BAR1 Motorsports driven by Sean Rayhall, Doug Bielefield and Chapman Ducote. The #38 Performance Tech Motorsports entry of Charlie Shears, Jon Brownson, Raphael Matos and Ryan Booth were third.

In GTLM, the #911 Porsche North America set the fastest time in the second session with a time of 1:45.564 set by Nick Tandy. The factory Corvettes set the next two times with the #4 of Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner and Robin Liddell leading the #3 of Antonio García, Jan Magnussen and Ryan Briscoe. Dominick Farnbacher, Marc Goossens and Ryan Hunter-Reay put the #91 SRT Viper fourth just ahead of the factory Aston Martin of Stefan Mücke, Darren Turner, Pedro Lamy, Richie Stanaway and Paul Dalla Lana. The #93 SRT Viper of Kuno Wittmer, Jonathan Bomarito and Rob Bell sandwiches the Aston Martin in sixth.

The Rahal Letterman Langian BMWs were seventh and eighth with the #55 (Bill Auberlen, Andy Priaulx, Joey Hand, Maxime Martin) leading the #56 (Dirk Müller, John Edwards, Graham Rahal, Dirk Werner). The Krohn Racing Ferrari 458 Italia rounded out the class. That car was driven by team owner Tracy Krohn and Nic Jönsson.

Flying Lizard and their #45 Audi R8 LMS led GTD in both sessions with the fastest time coming in the afternoon (1:47.981). Spencer Pumpelly, Tim Pappas, Nelson Canache, Jr. and Markus Winkelhoek are the drivers entered for that Audi. The #71 Park Place Porsche driven by Jim Norman Craig Stanton and Norbert Siedler were second with the Level 5 Motorsports Ferrari of Scott Tucker, Townsend Bell, Bill Sweedler and Jeff Segal third.

Testing resumes today at 9 a.m. ET.

The Dakar Rally begins tomorrow in Rosario, Argentina. Stéphane Peterhansel looks to defend his title against the likes of Nasser Al-Attiyah, Giniel de Villiers, Carlos Sainz, Nani Roma and Robby Gordon. Along side Robby Gordon, other Americans in the Car class are Kellon Walch as Gordon's co-driver; the #318 of BJ Baldwin and Quinn Cody, #346 of Peter Hajas and Kevin Selchow, Luis Ramirez Payen, Jr. is a part of the #348 Jimco and Spencer Trenery is the driver of the #429 Can-Am.

In bikes, Cyril Despres returns looking for his sixth title but this time he looks to win on a Yamaha after his first five victories came riding a KTM. Last year's podium riders Ruben Faria and Francisco López return as well as three-time Dakar winner Marc Coma, all looking to extend KTM's winning streak in the Dakar Rally to thirteen consecutive. Three Americans are entered in the bike class. Mike Johnson will ride the #92 Honda, Peter Hardy on the #167 KTM and Kevin Muggleton on the #186 Honda.

Marcos Patronelli looks to win his third Quad class and continue Yamaha's unbeaten streak in the class having won every year since being introduced in 2009. Eduard Nikolaev defends his Truck class title as he looks to give Kamaz their eleventh victory. Gérard de Rooy will be Nikolaev's main rival in his Iveco.

Finally, the 2014 AMA Supercross season begins tonight in Anaheim. Ryan Villopoto is looking to join Jeremy McGrath as the only riders to claim fourth consecutive titles. Villopoto will have a difficult task holding off former champions Ryan Dungey, Chad Reed and James Stewart as well as young riders Justin Barcia, Trey Canard, Eli Tomac and Ken Roczen. Last year's runner-up in the championship Davi Millsaps will miss the opening round with a knee injury.

Tonight's AMA Supercross season opener can be seen live at 10:00 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1.

Welcome to 2014, Let's Embrace Change

It is 2014.

I am sitting, hot chocolate by my side and the Winter Classic is on.

But it's not the Winter Classic. It's the "Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic."

Later today I will turn on ESPN for the Rose Bowl.

But it's not the Rose Bowl. It's the "Rose Bowl Game Presented by Vizio."

Do you see where this is going?

This is all about selling naming rights and I am going to start 2014 with a bang:

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway needs to sell naming rights to the Indianapolis 500.

Naming rights pay the bills and the Speedway and IndyCar have bills that need to be paid. The one problem is the "t-word" that is more overused by IndyCar fans than emojis by an 18-year girl when texting.

Tradition. Fuck it (don't worry, this will be one of the only Freudian slips on this blog all year).

Tradition doesn't pay the bills. Don't get me wrong, tradition needs to be preserved but to a certain extend. Indianapolis 500 on Memorial Day weekend. Shouldn't be touched. Taps, same. Back Home Again in Indiana is a staple. The winner should always have a sip of milk. But some things people need to relax on. Naming rights is one of them and other historical sporting events already have them and fans don't bat an eye toward them.

The Rose Bowl and pretty much every bowl game has a title sponsor. But we don't let that bother us. They are still the Rose Bowl or Orange Bowl or Cotton Bowl to us. The sponsor doesn't matter.

The Winter Classic is a modern example. Started in 2008, NHL's showcase game on New Year's Day has always had a title sponsor but no one remembers AMP Energy Drinks sponsored the first one. It is the Winter Classic. We remember the 2008 game in the snow, the game in Fenway and this year's game is setting up to be one for the ages as the snow falls at Michigan Stadium.

An even older example comes from England and is the FA Cup. The knockout competition involving over 700 football (soccer) clubs dates back to 1871. It has a rich history and has a presenting sponsor, Budweiser. The sponsor doesn't alter the FA Cup's history. Preston North End is still the first team to complete The Double. Cardiff City is still the only non-English club to win the competition. Wimbledon still upset Liverpool in 1988. Wigan Athletic still upset Manchester City this past May.

The title sponsors are there for these events but we forget them because it has no effect on the event and really don't matter. The title sponsor only pays the bills. What happens on the field or ice or asphalt is what matters and what we remember not who sponsored event.

So why shouldn't the Indianapolis 500 have a title or presenting sponsor? Tradition? Tradition can clearly still exist even with a title sponsor. Not to forget mentioning a lot of "traditions" are no more.

Remember when the race was actually on Memorial Day?
Remember when the race was actually on a track that was completely made of bricks?
Remember when there were riding mechanics?
Remember when the race was called the International 500-mile Sweepstakes Race?

Things change folks and no one lost their marbles over the four changes listed above. No one threatened to never attend, watch, listen or spend money on the race ever again when those changes occurred. Today's fans have got to learn that some things will change and it's ok that things change.

If anything the Indianapolis 500 needs a title sponsor more than ever. MORE THAN EVER PEOPLE! The race is coming off its lowest television rating ever. Why not have a sponsor shell out a couple million dollars, which the Speedway and IndyCar needs to promote the race through more television and radio ads and possibly bring more people through the turnstiles with promotions? It makes too much sense. IndyCar, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indianapolis 500 need partners that will help the event. If a company is spending, say $8 million a year on sponsorship rights for the Indianapolis 500, I bet they will do all they can to get as much return on investment as possible.

The Indianapolis 500 will always be the Indianapolis 500 regardless if some sponsor is said before or after Indianapolis 500 during the television and radio broadcast. It will always be the Indianapolis 500. Ray Harroun will always be the first winner ever. Louis Meyer will still be the first driver to drink milk after winning the event. Jack Brabham will still be the first to run a rear-engined car post-World War II. AJ Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears will still be the four-time winners. The history will not change.

And the race day experience will still be the same even if there is a title sponsor. There will still be families that have their tradition of getting to their seats at 5 a.m., the pork tenderloin sandwiches will still be available and the parade will be the day before with a pit-stop competition on Carb Day. Things won't change all that much with a title sponsor. Maybe it get's a few more thousand people to buy a ticket and maybe another million watching on their televisions but for the most part, things really won't change.

Unless you let it bother you. If a title sponsor bothers you to the point that you stop buying tickets and stop watching the race than I think it's for the better. Because you clearly never really were a fan if you are going to let something so minute get in the way in what fans should actually care about: racing. A title sponsor won't change the racing that happens on track or change the drivers that we have come to know and love.

For 2014, the motto is going to be embrace change because change is needed now more than ever.

Happy New Year.