I am not an Earnhardt Jr. fan in the least but would be very surprised if NASCAR orchestrated his winning the pole for the Daytona 500. It was clearly evident, however, that his Dad had NASCAR deeply in his pocket and they blatantly exercised that favortism many times and without prior conspiracy.

I would agree with an earlier post that it would be very hard to keep a conspiracy of that magnitude in efect and under wraps. There are many people who would love to uncover something like that for their own benefit. And that goes for all major sports.