Work. Life. Limericks.

The 2010 Daytona 500 was an interesting race, even if you’re not normally a NASCAR fan. From the debut of Danica Patrick to the constant start and stops on the field, even newspapers that don’t normally play sports big did a bigger-than-average review of the race.

Our challenge was to cover the Daytona 500 race using at least three ASF (or alternative story form) elements.

First, the page:

(Again, the conversion has totally blacked out the story about Danica Patrick and part of the Daytona 500 finishes graphic. These were originally on a 10 percent screen with black text and were perfectly readable).

Orlando Sentinel Page Design Nick Musada had these critiques:

Great photo edit. Great graphic in upper right. Great timeline. Nice choice of stories.  

Very well done. Headline does feel a bit small and squeezed into a small area, but you guys nailed everything else.

You’ll notice that our going too small on the headline will be a trend in the upcoming page design critiques. In this case, I have to agree with Nick. Not that the headline is necessarily too small, but that it doesn’t convey enough information. After several lackluster Daytona 500 finishes (and so many touch-and-go’s on the track that day), FINALLY! can certainly sum up Jamie McMurray’s feeling of the day. But wait a minute — Jamie who? That’s right. We didn’t give enough credit to the guy who actually won the Daytona 500. His name is in the photo caption and in the second sentence of the main article, but someone glancing at the page who didn’t really follow the sport would have no idea who won the race.

Even the graphic element that Nick complements — that is, the listing of NASCAR 500 past performances — is missing key information. WHOSE past performances? We don’t say and the reader has to assume. Bad form on our part.

-Heidi A. DeVries