Welcome to 2011, everybody! Hope 2010 closed out well for you
and yours. As the new year kicks off, it dawns on me that we're
so totally living in the future. I mean, check it out -- the
iPhone is so much better than Star Trek communicators (and the
iPhone 5 will feature a laser beam!), we've actually got flying
cars now (ask Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski), and aliens walk
among us. How else to explain the dominance of Jimmie Johnson,
huh?  Anyway, as the year begins we're barely a month from the
season starting in Daytona. I know, I know, it seems like we
just got done deconstructing the whole Johnson-Denny Hamlin-
Kevin Harvick triumvirate, and here we are getting ready to
start the whole deal all over again. Having the offseason come
at Christmastime makes it just zip by, doesn't it?  We'll spend
some time over the next few weeks discussing in more detail the
big stories of 2011, but for now, let's take a flyover look at
what will be the key issues of the year to come, and we start
with that cat right th