I spent the latter part of my Tuesday evening watching the wild and gory celebration of horror on the ‘Scream 2007’ awards on Spike TV. You know when a show starts off with an onstage dismemberment (one that showers the audience with fake blood and body pieces), and one of the categories is ‘Most Memorable Mutilation’, that you haven’t tuned into the Oscars. As he accepted the ‘Hero Award’ for his work in science fiction/fantasy, Harrison Ford said, “This isn’t your mama’s awards show.”

After lots of hideous, wonderful gore, the show culminated in the award for ‘Scream Rock Immortal’, which was given to Alice Cooper. As a teenager in the seventies, I can vouch that I spent many hours blaring such songs as ‘I’m Eighteen’ and ‘Dead Babies’, and I still have an album of his complete with the pair of pink underpants wrapped around the record. It was a real kick to see Alice onstage in full eye-dripping makeup, roaring out ‘School’s Out’. I was immediately taken back in time to the summer of 1977, riding in my old ’71 Maverick, and leaving the parking lot of my high school for the last time, with this song screaming on my less-than-stellar speakers.

With closer scrutiny, however, as he strutted onstage, you could see a double-chin developing below the face that scared a million parents, and when Cooper turned around you could see the bald spot that was otherwise hidden by his shoulder-length hair. I tried to ignore these reality checks, and for a moment I was that rebellious teen who delighted in things that horrified my parents. It was invigorating to be ‘bad’ again, if only for the length of a song older than my son in college.

It got me wondering: in twenty years, what replay of events from the world of NASCAR will take me back with such refreshing and rejuvenating speed, and make me feel like the rabid fan that I am today? Will it be one of the thrilling close finishes, such as Dale Earnhardt’s and Bobby Labonte’s in 2000, or Kevin Harvick’s and Mark Martin’s this past February? How about a replay of the twelve Chasers on David Letterman this past September, doing Letterman’s first ‘Top Twelve’ list ever? Or Jeff Burton and Matt Kenseth on Glenn Beck’s show, giving terrific candid answers to his questions? It could be a thrilling race clip that could do it, a replay of an old commercial, or perhaps a rerun of Jeff Gordon hosting ‘Saturday Night Live’. Any film clip of Tony Stewart in a particularly mischievous mood ought to do it. As the years wear on, who knows what will stir me to morph into a fresh, new NASCAR fan, even if only for a few fleeting moments?

My question is, how long will it take to become a veteran NASCAR fan, and how will I know when I have become one?

In twenty years, what do you think will send you back in time and feel the octane in your blood again, NASCAR fans?