Donna,

Just this weekend? Every weekend since February 2001 hasn’t been the same without the black No. 3 on the track. Just a small personal story, I covered the Pocono 500 in June of that year. Now, I grew up a huge Dale Earnhardt fan and interviewed Kevin Harvick that weekend. (By the way, I still give the guy credit for walking out on the interview after another reporter asked him one of the dumbest questions I had ever heard). Seeing the white No. 29 sitting in the garage was a little weird.

I doubt NASCAR ever does anything to take back the plates. They need a “level playing field” to make all 43 sponsors feel as though their driver has a chance to win each week. I say take the plates off. With the roof flaps, you don’t have as many cars doing a gymnastics routine on the backstretch. I don’t see why that would be any different with cars traveling 220 and spread out across the track.