Beyond the Flag stopped publishing April Fools' Day pranks in 2019; there's enough actual fake news being circulated around the globe on every other one of the 364 days on the calendar.
But each year since, we've had a brief look back at some of our former pranks, and specifically how small portions of them actually ended up coming true, to a certain extent.
This April 1, let's take another trip down memory lane.
2014: Danica Patrick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
This article was based on the idea that Danica Patrick and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who were dating at the time, would be getting married and switching NASCAR Cup Series teams, with Patrick moving to Roush Fenway Racing and Stenhouse moving to Stewart-Haas Racing.
As it turns out, they ended up breaking up in 2017. However, Stenhouse has since gotten married (2022), and he did actually land with a new Cup team. And yes, it came via a straight-up driver swap. He moved to JTG Daugherty Racing (now Hyak Motorsports) in 2020, and Chris Buescher came over to Roush Fenway Racing (now RFK Racing).
Both drivers are still with those teams.
2015: Brian France
Brian France was indeed out as NASCAR chairman and CEO. It just didn't happen in 2015 like this prank article stated.
In August 2018, he was arrested for driving while intoxicated and for criminal possession of oxycodone, and he was ousted from his role as a result. Jim France, his uncle, took over, and he has been in charge ever since.
2016: Tony Stewart
Surprise: another prank that came true. Sort of. In 2015, Tony Stewart announced that the 2016 season would be his last, and Clint Bowyer was announced as his replacement for 2017. This article stated, however, that Stewart would be back for another Daytona 500 in 2017.
Interestingly, Stewart did win the race in 2017, but as a team owner; Kurt Busch won the race for Stewart-Haas Racing, which no longer exists.
It took 10 years, but Stewart did finally return to NASCAR for another start at Daytona International Speedway, although it came in the Craftsman Truck Series. He drove the No. 25 Kaulig Racing "free agent" truck as a part of their new Ram Trucks program but was knocked out in a wreck.
2018: Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin
At the time, Kyle Busch was still considered the most hated driver in NASCAR, but Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin was running him a close second after wrecking Chase Elliott at Martinsville Speedway in the previous October's round of 8 playoff race.
Hopefully fans didn't get too excited to learn that they had both announced their abrupt retirement in a joint statement.
Interestingly, Busch ended up leaving Joe Gibbs Racing after the 2022 season, and Hamlin, who still competes for Joe Gibbs Racing, started a new team, 23XI Racing, with co-owner Michael Jordan. The funniest part is that that team actually started because of a non-April Fools' Day "fake news" article.
2019: Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch
In 2019, there were two prank articles. One of them drew the attention of one of the teams involved, and the other one needed three race outcomes to turn out a certain way to be relevant.
Let's start with the one involving Carl Edwards, who abruptly retired just before the 2017 season started and has been the subject of unretirement rumors pretty much ever since.
The prank was that Team Penske would acquire Wood Brothers Racing, the team with which they had (and still have) a technical alliance, to run the iconic No. 21 Ford as a fourth car, and that it would be Edwards replacing Paul Menard in 2020. Edwards had initially been linked to Penske shortly after he retired.
Wood Brothers Racing addressed the article.
OMG y’all. This Carl Edwards thing has as much truth to it as Beyond the Flag being bought out by Winston Cup Scene. I keep getting texts and tagged on FB with the story and it’s like ok, today is what day? lol
— Wood Brothers Racing (@woodbrothers21) April 1, 2019
Edwards still hasn't returned. However, Menard was indeed replaced by Matt DiBenedetto in 2020.
As for the other prank, that one needed the Truck Series, Xfinity Series, and Cup Series races at Texas Motor Speedway in late March all to turn out a certain way: Busch winning the Truck and Xfinity races, while not winning the Cup race.
Busch, known for running as many races as he can run at the lower levels (and usually winning), did exactly that, placing 10th in Cup, and that led to a totally believable quote from Joe Gibbs that Busch had been fired for taking wins away from the lower series drivers, specifically Joe Gibbs Racing's Christopher Bell at the Xfinity level, while failing to win at the Cup level.
Busch allegedly responded with an equally believable quote, which was actually a lyric from a famous Drake song.
Even though he now competes for Richard Childress Racing in the Cup Series, Busch still runs as many Truck Series races as he can with Spire Motorsports, the team to which he sold his Kyle Busch Motorsports operation following the 2023 season. He did cut back on his Xfinity (now O'Reilly Auto Parts) Series appearances after securing his 100th career series victory in 2021.