There’s no better moment in sports, really. Shot, horn, swish, ballgame in the NCAA tournament. Think about all the names that stick with you over the years because of it — Tyus Edney, Bryce Drew, Christian Laettner — because of moments like that.

But such moments are rare, which only adds to their luster. As much as the NCAA tournament is about buzzer beaters, it’s about those upsets too.

George Mason was bounced by Notre Dame in Denver this year, but the Patriots’ run to the Final Four in 2006 is still almost unbelievable. I was at each of the games in the D.C. Regional and in Indianapolis; all this time later, it’s still almost surreal. Looking back at their win over UConn is still breathtaking. Even as the score graphic morphed from the lower right to the bottom of the screen — the ultimate finality — it still felt surreal.

Completely off-topic, I know. But it did get me thinking: With the success of Davidson and Western Kentucky this weekend, what are NASCAR’s five biggest upsets?

I limited the responses to the recent past, since 1990 or so, since that’s what I know best.

Here you go…

5. Brian Vickers wins at Talladega (Fall 2006): Vickers’ own mistake didn’t cost him a thing. While attempting an ill-advised pass against then-teammate Jimmie Johnson, Vickers knocked Johnson into Dale Earnhardt Jr., taking out the top two cars in the event’s final laps. After that season, Vickers parted ways with Hendrick Motorsports to join Toyota’s Red Bull operation and is still seeking his second win.

4. Jeremy Mayfield wins at Pocono (June 2000): Mayfield, a moderately successful driver with Penske, had two career wins heading into a rain-delayed Monday race at Pocono. Running second on the final lap behind Dale Earnhardt, Mayfield closed in on the Intimidator’s bumper and nudged him out of the way. After the race, Earnhardt was furious; but that moment proved to be the high-water mark for Mayfield. Since then, he’s won only twice (once in 2003 and again in 2004) and has never had more than five top-fives in a season.

3. David Gilliland wins at Kentucky (Busch race, 2006): Gilliland drove for the ultimate underdog, an under-funded Busch team. Yet at Kentucky, everything fell into place, allowing the upstart team to beat established powers like J.J. Yeley and Denny Hamlin (both of Gibbs Racing), Kevin Harvick (Childress) and Greg Biffle (Roush). Gilliland parlayed the victory into a Cup ride with Yates Racing; since moving to Cup, he’s had two poles, one top-five and three top-10s in 56 races.

2. Derrike Cope wins the Daytona 500 (1990): As Earnhardt tried again for that elusive victory in the 500, all was going according to plan. He was well ahead in the final laps, but a piece of debris cut a tire. Earnhardt was forced to slow drastically as Cope sped by for the most unlikely win in the event’s history. Cope also won a second race that year — at the first race at Dover — but from 1991 onward, Cope had no wins and only four top-fives in 308 races. He last ran a Cup race in 2006.

1. Alan Kulwicki wins the Winston Cup title (1992): Even in the early 1990s, the multi-car team model was widely employed. So when Kulwicki, a driver for a single-car team, won the season championship, it was an upset of historic proportions: His title is still the last won by a single-car team. It was also one of the most exciting finishes in Cup history, as Kulwicki’s battle with Bill Elliott went to the final race in Atlanta — a race which Elliott won, but lost the championship to Kulwicki by only 10 points. The following season, Kulwicki had two top-fives in the first three races and was ninth in points; on April 1, he was killed in a plane crash in Tennessee.

(Photo by Chuck Burton/Associated Press)