The off-season seemed morbid, teams merging, drivers out of rides, sponsors uncertain, but once Speed Week at Daytona was coming into focus, looking at the top, Hendricks, Gibbs, Roush and Childress – all was well. In the lesser ranks, the new DEI/Ganassi lineup looks competitive. A name game at Gillette/Evernham saved the exit of NASCAR’s most famous name changing their name to Richard Petty Racing and keeping the legendary #43 car, but gone is the familiar Carolina Blue color. For the most part, the also-rans are still the also-rans. They come and go every year. We’ll see a lot of the same familiar faces struggling to make the field. The real interest though will be the new life pumped into Hall of Fame racing, now functioning as a third Yates team with crew chief, Bud Parrot, and past champion, Bobby Labonte in the driver’s seat. They’ll start with Roush/Yates engines, but with Parrot and Labonte together, both with championship experience, this could be a team to watch and perhaps be the one Ford that isn’t a Roush car that could wind up in victory lane. The other new team, of course, is Stewart-Haas racing with Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman, proven winners, racing with essentially Hendricks equipment. Both have looked tough so far.
Martin Truex Jr. seized the poll demonstrating that old DEI touch in restrictor plate racing is alive and well in the new Earnhardt/Ganassi operation. Sharing the front row could be the sentimental favorite to finally get his Daytona 500 win, racing full time for Hendricks, Mark Martin. Row two features the winners of the twin 125’s. Jeff Gordon is looking to be this year’s comeback kid and cannot be ignored. Next to Gordon stands the most hated driver in NASCAR, the punk himself, Kyle Busch. Tony Stewart is off to a brilliant start looking for his first Daytona 500 in row 3 paired with Red Bull racer, Brian Vickers, who was starting to show real potential in his Toyota toward the end of the 2008 campaign. Last year’s champ (well last three years’ champ) Jimmie Johnson and Juan Montoya, another strong showing for Earnhardt/Ganassi hold down row 4. Rounding out the top ten are rookie, Joey Logano and his Gibbs teammate, Denny Hamlin. It is not until row 11 where Ford makes its first appearance with Bobby Labonte in the #96 Ask.com Ford. Dodge doesn’t make its first appearance until Kurt Busch shows up in row 7 in the 13th position. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is in 14th postion in row 7. The next Ford doesn’t appear until row 8 with Carl Edwards starting in the 16th spot.
Looking the starting lineup, the field is dominated by Chevrolet that by numbers alone has far more cars in competition that the other makes given Hendricks and Childress are both teams that dominate the Chase and are now both four car operations. DEI/Ganassi adds three cars and Stewart/Haas adds two more cars. The Gibbs operation looks strong for Toyota with all three cars in the top ten but now Brian Vickers looks like one of the most likely breakthrough drivers for 2009.
Things look tough for Ford and especially Dodge. Roush/Fenway has struggled to figure out the Daytona 500 and restrictor plate racing, but with the five teams spread out in 16th (Edwards), 21st (McMurray), 33rd (Regan), 35th (Biffle), and former champ, Kenseth, in 39th. Meanwhile, Yates entries show Paul Menard in 19th and Travis Kvapil in 41st. Bill Elliott racing for the “legendary” Wood Brothers, who looked so powerful in qualifying and practice starts in 40th. One the Dodge slate, Penske starts in 13th (Kurt Busch), 21st (Stremme), and 29th (Hornish) after Ryan Newman won for them last year. The new Petty team catches 15th (Kahne), 20th (Allmendinger), 30th (Sadler) and 34th (Sorenson) the famed #43 car.
Small time operations who will enjoy their moment in the sun driving Toyotas fill-out the 9th row with Scott Riggs and Jeremy Mayfield. Of the cars that did not qualify, there are no real suprises but one can surely see that “Front Row” Joe Nemechek’s career is in decline. Brad Keselowski, racing with a minor team, at least gained experience for future endeavors. His place to shine is running for a Nationwide Championship this year. The Cup series will be there in the future.
One more note, we’re not going to mince any words, NASCAR.com is an absolutely shitty site and does a terrible job being the first click for information on NASCAR’s top three series. We were hoping to find the Daytona 500 starting lineup, GOOD LUCK. The site is poorly organized. The most important information is not right at hand. The quality of reporting is average. For real detailed stuff but not the quick fix, jayski.com is a great site. The Charlotte Observer provides thatsracin.com which is also an excellent resource. For the regular day-in-day out quick fix, both Fox Sports and ESPN are far better than NASCAR.com. NASCAR.com has been junk, despite numerous revisions, since EPSN got dumped from NASCAR’s coverage prior to the 2001 season.
We’ll do our best to highlight each week’s upcoming race and comment on the results as best as possible. As much as we'd love to see someone else (Mark Martin, Carl Edwards, Dale Jr.) win the championship, what could possibly stop Jimmie Johnson? Hopefully not Kyle Busch. Has anyone ruled out Jeff Gordon?
GO MARK MARTIN!!!!
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