This past motorsports season offered up a little bit of everything, from dramatic finishes to major upheaval in NASCAR to bankruptcy in CART to a tragedy at Indy.

Jack Roush finally got a championship, but NASCAR's champ only managed one win in 36 starts so the point system may be overhauled.

J.J. Yeley captured three USAC titles and 24 main events, but that didn't impress anybody in the IRL so he's headed south. Ford and Chevrolet became partners in IndyCars, Gerry Forsythe finally won a CART championship but lost at least $30 million on the stock market when CART bottomed out. Steve Kinser, still barnstorming around the country and running the cushion at age 50, won 25 features and his 18th World of Outlaws crown. And Formula One changed some rules, but not the final outcome as Ferrari's Michael Schumacher claimed his sixth world championship.

Thanks to ESPN.com and RPM2Night, I was again able to have the easiest job in America and a national platform. So here's a quick look back, from my perspective, of the good, bad and hard to imagine of 2003.

Jan. 10: Steve Shunck, who handles public relations at Michigan International Speedway, calls from NASCAR's winter fan appreciation show in Charlotte to inform me that Danny "Chocolate" Myers, former gas man for Dale Earnhardt, has more than 100 people lined up to get his autograph but he'll only sign official "Hero Cards." My thoughts immediately turn to suicide.

Jan. 15: FIA president Max Mosley announces that all drivers aids, like traction control, launch control, automatic gearboxes, plus all radio communication between driver and crew, will be banned by 2004 in Formula One. And that Ferrari, BMW and Mercedes must provide engines for other F1 competitors. In America, we burst into laughter.

Jan. 27: During IRL press day, CART's all-time winner Michael Andretti raves on about the IRL's direction and how happy he is to be in the all-oval series. Hmmm, that's not what he said in 1997-98-99.

Feb. 4: Thanks to a close friend in the tobacco industry, I break the story that R.J. Reynolds has told NASCAR to look for a replacement sponsor for Winston Cup because it will cease sponsoring the stock car series at the end of 2003. Rusty Wallace politely tells me I'm way off, a buddy at RJR tells me I'm out of my mind and Jim Hunter of NASCAR simply laughs at me. Forty-eight hours later, RJR and NASCAR confirm their 33-year partnership will be ending after '03 if and when a new sponsor can be secured.

Feb. 7: Kurt Busch climbs into one of Bobby Rahal's Champ Cars at Sebring, Fla., and proceeds to dazzle everyone with his quick adaption. He nearly goes as fast as one of the new CART drivers, which says a lot for Busch and not much for Patrick Lemarie.

Feb. 16: Michael Waltrip, who spends most of every season saying, "We had a top 20 car today," wins the Daytona 500 for the second time.

	In his Cup career, Michael Waltrip has never won anywhere other than Daytona and Talladega.

Feb. 23: Paul Tracy opens the CART season with a victory at St. Petersburg in front of a decent crowd, but the race draws a pathetic 0.2 rating on Speed Channel.

March 2: CART refugee Scott Dixon, who really didn't want to go to the IRL but had a binding contract with Chip Ganassi, captures the IndyCar opener at Homestead, Fla. The race gets a 1.8 rating on ABC but plays to a small turnout. On the other end of the country, Matt Kenseth pulls into Victory Lane at Las Vegas. It's a Kodak moment 'cause Matt won't see it again in 2003.

March 8: In an Autoweek interview, CART CEO Chris Pook disses Toyota Atlantic drivers for not getting up to speed as quick as F3000 grads and therefore not being as qualified to drive Champ Cars. Later, the founder of the Long Beach Grand Prix says CART doesn't belong at tracks with "outhouses and picnic tables." For the record, Long Beach sported 24 Port-O-Pottys and six picnic tables last April.

March 16: Ricky Craven and Kurt Busch beat, bang and finally crash together under the checkered flag at Darlington in one of the most exciting finishes ever. Afterward, both drivers grin and talk about how you live for that kind of moment. Open wheel fans everywhere feel a twinge of jealousy.

March 23: Gil de Ferran suffers a broken neck and back after tangling with Michael Andretti in IRL race at Phoenix, won by Tony Kanaan for Andretti's team. In Monterrey, Mexico, 20-year-old Danica Patrick finishes third in her Toyota Atlantic debut as Tracy wins again in CART's main event.

March 30: On RPM2Night, I predict de Ferran will retire at the end of 2003 and be replaced by Sam Hornish Jr.

April 10: Dario Franchitti suffers a fractured vertebra in a motorcycle accident in Scotland. Local doctors say take two aspirin and go race in Japan. Dr. Steve Olvey suggests a CAT scan, and orthopedic magician Dr. Terry Trammell grounds him for Japan, all of May and most of June.

April 12: Scott Dixon breaks his right hand and wrist while Tony Kanaan suffers a broken left arm and punctured leg in a nasty accident at Japan. Toyota wins the race to keep Honda winless at its home track.

April 19: I get a tip that Andretti-Green Racing is making a seat for Tony Stewart and the defending NASCAR champ will replace Franchitti at the Indianapolis 500. I break the story on SportsCenter, ESPN.com and our RPM2Night Sunday show. Stew issues an official denial a few days later. I eat crow, well-done, with french fries for several days.

April 23: Mario Andretti flies, literally and figuratively, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Testing Kanaan's car, the 63-year-old legend runs a lap of 225 mph before running over a small piece of debris and flipping end over end through the short chute. Shards of carbon fibre reportedly hit the empty South Vista, and some pieces are found behind that grandstand. Mario lands on his wheels and walks away with a small cut on his face. "All I saw was sky, and I was damn lucky to land on my wheels," he said afterward. "But I don't have any second thoughts about being out there. It was a freak accident, and before that everything was awesome."

May 9: Returning to the track where he lost his legs in a horrendous crash in 2001, two-time CART champ Alex Zanardi completed the final 13 laps of his Champ Car career -- at speed -- in one of the most emotional moments ever. Later on in the summer, Zanardi raced in the European Touring Car Championship, and he will run that series full-time in 2004.

	Castroneves

May 10: Two-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves and his Toyota-powered Dallara win the Indy 500 pole position at 231.725 mph. Toyota and Honda occupy the first 17 spots as Hornish is the quickest Chevy in 18th.

May 11: Rookie Sebastien Bourdais wins his oval-track debut at Germany in a thrilling duel with Mario Dominguez and Michel Jourdain Jr. that restores overtaking to CART ovals thanks to the aero package implemented by Lee Dykstra.

May 15: I wrote that the 2003 Southern 500 would be the last to be run on Labor Day weekend, as California Speedway in Fontana would be awarded a second race for that weekend. NASCAR eventually confirmed that Fontana would get a second race for Labor Day and that the Southern 500 would remain at Darlington but would be run on a different date.

May 18: It's the sorriest day in IMS qualifying history because nobody attempts to bump after the field of 33 is filled with 90 minutes remaining on the final day of qualifying. The IRL doesn't want Sarah Fisher or Anthony Foyt IV knocked out so an "agreement" is said to be reached in Gasoline Alley not to bring out backup cars. ABC and ESPN had to be thrilled with all that empty track while another Indy tradition died.

May 25: Just a few weeks after breaking his neck and back, Gil de Ferran slips past teammate Castroneves in traffic with 30 laps left and wins Indy to give Roger Penske his 13th trip to Victory Lane.

June 1: CART finally has its first night race, and Jourdain finally earns his first Champ Car triumph.

June 6: I write that Chevrolet is so slow and General Motors is so desperate, it's negotiating with Ford about leasing Cosworth's normally-aspirated IRL engine. Toyota's Lee White says "bring 'em on."

June 7: Al Unser Jr., who underwent treatment for substance and alcohol abuse in 2002, comes all the way back by scoring a popular victory at Texas.

	Gordon and Montoya trade places.

June 11: Jeff Gordon and Juan Pablo Montoya swap rides on the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in a made-for-television (Speed) show that turns out to be quite entertaining for everyone. Both drivers adapt nicely and enjoy the experience -- especially Gordon, who turns some competitive laps in the Williams F1 car. Friends say they hadn't seen the four-time NASCAR champion that happy since his divorce was final.

July 5: Greg Biffle wins the Pepsi 400 at Daytona, and Bourdais scores his third CART win of '03 at Cleveland under the lights.

July 6: Bryan Herta, subbing for Dario Franchitti, stretches his fuel and takes the IndyCar victory at Kansas City.

July 7: I break the news the 2004 U.S. Grand Prix at Indianapolis will be moved to June 20 because Bernie Ecclestone wants it right behind Canada so only one trip is made to North America each year.

July 19: It's confirmed: archrivals Ford and GM are on the same team. The IRL is allowing Chevy to change engines midseason. Badged as the Gen IV Chevy, the Cosworth IRL engine will be put in play by Michigan. A few in the media will refer to it as the ChevWorth.

July 25: Sporting a mask over his mouth, Paul Tracy goes on Speed prior to qualifying at Vancouver and tells Derek Daly he's taking precautions so he won't catch "whiner-itis" from a couple of his fellow drivers. After posting quick time, he then snarls: "Let's see those crybabies beat that."

July 27: Alex Barron recovers from a spin to edge Sam Hornish and his new ChevWorth engine by 0.0121 seconds at Michigan.

Aug. 2: Thanks to the efforts of Mario Andretti, the CART race at Road America was restored to the '03 schedule, and he's cheered by several hundred fans in a forum at Elkhart Lake.

Aug. 3: There is a downpour just as the CART race at Elkhart Lake is set to go green. Two red flags, in between several laps of yellow, stop the cars for three hours. Rookie Sebastien Bourdais correctly wonders why there are rain tires if CART doesn't intend to race in the rain. Restarted at 5:30 and shortened from 60 laps to 34 because of an impending storm (which never developed), it is a ripoff for the people who came out in bad weather to support Champ Cars. Fortunately, it was only shown on High Def TV so nobody had a chance to see this fiasco. Not that anybody would have watched on regular TV, mind you.

Aug. 10: J.J. Yeley breaks the USAC record for wins in one season with his 20th victory of 2003 and leads all three categories -- midgets, sprints and dirt cars. But the 26-year-old confesses that not one owner in the IRL has called him. "Guess I'll just have to go to NASCAR," he says.

Aug. 17: Hornish Jr. leads 181 of 200 laps and laps all but second and third place at Kentucky to give the ChevWorth its initial victory and set off a Whine Parade from Toyota and Honda drivers.

Aug. 19: After a national teleconference, I write a speculative story saying Hornish will be going to Team Penske in 2004 but it will be in stock cars and he'll continue to run the Indy 500 for The Captain.

Aug. 25: Roger Penske confirms he's hired Hornish -- but it's to replace the retiring de Ferran in the IRL.

Aug. 31: A.J. Allmendinger clinched the Toyota Atlantic title with his seventh victory and the 21-year-old rookie hopes he's headed to Champ Cars in 2004 with his RuSport team.

Sept.. 12: A source close to Nextel, which is replacing RJR as NASCAR's title sponsor, tips me off that Bill France Jr. has decided to step down and put his youngest son, Brian, in charge. I call Brian at his LA office, but he's not there so I inform his secretary of my story and ask him to call me. My source calls back and informs me the announcement will be made early next week. I go with the story on ESPN.com. The Associated Press responds with a national story rebuking my report. The next day at Loudon, N.H., in the middle of race weekend, Big Bill admits he's turning the keys over to Brian. Breaking the two or three biggest stories of the year in Winston Cup gives me immense pleasure since I haven't been to a NASCAR race in three years.

Sept. 20: Veteran winged sprint star Jac "Wild Child" Haudenschild pockets a record $200,000 for winning the 40-lap USAC MOPAR Million non-wing sprint car race at Rossburg, Ohio, over Stevie Smith and Dickie Gaines.

	Junqueira

Sept. 27: Excuse of the Year. After losing the pole position by a fraction of a second at Miami, CART driver Bruno Junqueira blames the fact he didn't make it to the Port-O-John for his pre-qualifying whiz and therefore carried a little too much weight on board. I'm not sure if he's serious or having fun with the media.

Sept. 28: Schuey drops back early, then excels when it begins raining and wins the U.S. Grand Prix at Indianapolis. Montoya is given a ridiculous penalty for bumping into Rubens Barrichello and is effectively removed from the title picture. For the second straight year, attendance is under 100,000.

Oct. 4: After apprenticing in Indy Lights, being a driver's coach at Derek Daly's Driving School, being a spotter for Unser Jr. and a test driver/substitute for Kelly Racing, Tony Renna finally lands his dream job -- being named to replace Tomas Scheckter at Target/Ganassi Racing.

Oct. 5: Ryan Newman wins his eighth Winston Cup race of the year and bolts from sixth to fifth in the point standings.

Oct. 12: Dixon clinches the IRL title with a second-place finish and de Ferran wins his swan song, but the race ends prematurely after a ghastly accident that leaves Kenny Brack battered and broken. His car climbed the wheel of Scheckter's car and then climbed the backstretch fence before exploding and bouncing back down the track. The 1998 IRL champ suffers a broken back, sternum, right leg and fractures to both ankles. The gearbox and a corner of the suspension wind up in the spectator tunnel, but thankfully nobody was sitting in that area. During the race, Rusty Wallace is asked on national TV about driving an Indy car: "I wouldn't get out of the electric chair to drive one of those cars," he responds.

Oct. 22: On only the third lap of practice with his new IRL team during a test at Indy, Tony Renna loses control in Turn 3, becomes airborne, clears the Safer Wall and slams into the spectator debris fence -- dying instantly of massive head and internal injuries. An IRL investigation proved inconclusive, although it leaned toward driver error, yet the IRL admitted mechanical failure couldn't entirely be ruled out. Renna's family was also told by IRL officials that a dead bird was found on the track after the crash in the entrance to Turn 3.

Oct. 26: Tracy clinches his first championship by finishing out of the points (13th) and rookie Ryan Hunter-Reay becomes the first American rookie to win a CART race since John Paul Jr. in 1983.

Oct. 30: CART announces it has lost $77.9 million after nine months and will likely liquidate its assets and shut the doors unless a buyer can be found.

Nov. 7: NASCAR is considering using only the final 10 races of the 2004 season to determine the champion and the first 26 races will merely determine the top 10 drivers who will be competing for the title. In other words, somebody could win 15 of the first 26 races, get shut out in the last 10 and finish 10th in the final point standings. Sure, that makes sense.

	Kenseth

Nov. 9: Kenseth clinches the final Winston Cup by driving 55 mph under the white line and joins Benny Parsons as the only champion with one win in the modern era while Roush is finally No. 1 after 15 years and four runner-up finishes. The team wins over $4 million for the championship plus collects another $5 million from R.J. Reynolds.

Dec. 3: Open Wheel Racing Series principals Gerald Forsythe, Kevin Kalkhoven and Paul Gentilozzi propose to buy CART's assets instead of paying 56 cents a share to purchase the company. "We want the selected assets of CART (tracks), and we're willing to put up the money and run the company if the CART Board approves our offer," said Gentilozzi, who anticipates 16-17 races.

Dec. 12: After Tony Renna's death, Kenny Brack's accident and two other major accidents where the cars literally flew, IRL officials confirm they will reduce the engine capacity from 3.5 liters to 3.0 liters beginning at Indianapolis in 2004. The move is expected to cut 90-100 horsepower and aerodynamic changes will likely be implemented before the '04 season opener at Homestead, Fla. "Who knows whether this change will help, but it's a step in the right direction," said Honda's Robert Clarke, whose company had voiced its concern over the number and severity of accidents in the IRL. "I believe what the IRL has done is appropriate. To do nothing would have been inappropriate." Brack applauded the change but said he'd like to see "less downforce in the cars and more slip angle in the tires" to make them slower and harder to drive.

Dec. 22: Ryan Newman didn't win the NASCAR title, but his eight wins earned him Speed's Driver of the Year for 2003. It was only the second time in the award's 37-year history a champion didn't win the honor. It gives me some hope for the motorsports media, but it really should have been J.J. Yeley for winning three USAC championships and 24 races -- none of them on fuel mileage.

Robin Miller covers open wheel racing for ESPN and ESPN.com.