Brothers home for the 50th Daytona 500 wasn’t fair”. I agree wholeheartedly Kyle. Sending home any team because of the Top 35 rule is a shame. This system doesn’t work when you try to combine it with the old qualifying system for the Daytona 500. Instead of having at least 20-30 drivers trying to get in, it’s down to 4 drivers getting in.
On the pre-race show, Faux King Brian was asked on Race Day about the drivers showing emotions. “I like the drivers showing emotions”. Uh-huh. Like last year, when Tony showed some emotion about the Ms Terry DeBris Cautions. He expressed his emotions and opinions and was punished for it. Another great quote from HRH was “I’ve been in the sport all my life”. Don’t laugh too hard folks. I almost spewed my coffee out when he said that. This from the same person who said at the beginning of his reign that he didn’t know much about the sport.
Several other things came out before the green flag dropped. Tony Cola (sp?) from Ganassi Racing said that the Toyotas had 30 more horsepower than what Childress was running and 15 more than what Hendrick had. This was found after doing some chassis dyno test after the 150’s. Supposedly, NA$CAR was going to take 10 engines after the race and test them on an engine dyno. Now if this is true that Toyota has 30 more horsepower than Childress, maybe it’s time for Dodge to re-submit their original engine design from when they returned to racing. That engine had 30 more horsepower than what everyone else had at the time and would give Dodge some parity to the Toyotas. Remember, NA$CAR is the one who goes on about parity amongst the teams, so let’s see if they put their money where their mouths are.
The Official Apologist kept going on different shows about how it’s not Badyear’s fault that the tires were blowing, “chunking”, or wearing down to the cord. Badyear has had since the first test of the Uni-Car to develop tires. They had 16 races last season to develop tires. They had during the off-season to develop tires. And yet, we keep having tire problems. Sorry, this isn’t safe for the drivers and is unacceptable. The Uni-Car has been in the works for at least 7 years and the tire should’ve been developed in conjunction with it. Another example of poor management at the top.
There was a sign on the Race Day show which reflects the sentiment of a lot of race fans. “We Miss Winston Cup Racing”. Ain’t it the truth.
One of the other things said during one of the race shows was from DW. He said, “That wing will keep them from spinning”. Funny thing DW, several cars spun during the 500. They didn’t flip on their sides or go end over end, but they did spin.
After the race on Wind Tunnel, Dave Despain said to DW, “You’ve been leading the chorus about how good the new car is”. Dave, DW isn’t a singer, he’s a cheerleader, so you should’ve asked him about being the head cheerleader for the new car.
One another announcement that came out after the race was that Jacques Villeneuve had been dumped by Bill Davis Racing, but that they would continue to support his efforts. Huh? I wonder if he got an e-mail telling him he’d been fired like a certain driver from South Boston did? Anyways, Mike Skinner will be filling in next week at the Snoozefest 500 and Johnny Benson will be doing some driving in that car also. It’ll be good seeing Johnny back on the Cup circuit, even if it is just temporary.
The National Anthem was done good in one race, horrible in a second, and so-so in the third of the 3 NA$CAR events. But there was a common thread through all of the races this past weekend. That lack of respect for the flag and National Anthem themselves. Hat’s on, people talking, no hands or hats over the hearts, and even a soldier who should know better didn’t render the proper respects. I don’t know who he is, but I’m sure he got an earful on Monday from his Top.
During all the big “Hollywood Production” before the race, they showed some of the previous winning race cars which had won the Daytona 500, which was pretty cool. It brought back a lot of memories. I thought it was also pretty funny that they showed some of the former winners sitting together on the stage and they didn’t look very happy with all the hype and hoopla going on. If I want to see a big Hollywood Dance Number, I’ll watch an old Gene Kelly movie.
A couple of things they did right. One was having the real Junior, Junior Johnson, drive the pace car. Junior is still the man. The other thing they did right was having The King wave the green flag to start the race. He sure did look strange without his cowboy hat on.
One of the things Fox was using was what they called the Gophercam. Neat idea, not the first time something like that has been used. Luckily they didn’t use it as much as that damned Daft Tracker that ESPN continues to use. Just don’t overuse it fellows.
Another common theme throughout the weekend was a lot of advertising for the I$C tracks. Somehow I get the feeling the I$C tracks aren’t selling out. Even one of their tracks that use to sell out 6 months ahead of time hasn’t sold out.
A lot of advertisements for Fathead.com during the whole Speed Weeks thing, so I had to check once again to see if my “favorite fathead” had one of his one. Nope, still no fathead of HRH.
On one of the pre-race shows, they estimated 240,000 fans at the track for the Daytona 500. Mike Joy said during the race that 175,000 plus fans. And Fox did a damned good job of not showing the grandstands or moving the camera fast along the back straight so you couldn’t clearly the if the stands were full or empty. But by going about 1/5th speed on the DVR, I was able to see that the back straight stands weren’t full. And one shot that gave away how empty the front grandstands were came when they showed Kurt Busch’s car for the Good Hands Award. I slowed the shot down and could see plenty of empty seats on the top tier along the front dogleg and in the lower tiers there also. One shot front pit road showed empty seats right across from the pit road entrance. So to say it was a sell-out or that there were 240,000 fans was somewhat misleading. It was a larger crowd than the Firecracker 400 though and appeared to be larger than last year’s crowd.
Once the green flag dropped, Mikey led the first lap then started advancing towards the rear. Not a good example of Toyota’s slogan “moving forward”. Jimmy Johnson got the lead from him as Mikey fell towards the rear. They had a good in-car shot of Jeff Gordon and how he was having to work the steering wheel because of the roughness of the track. By Lap 16, there were two distinct packs on the track, similar to some previous years. The front pack was a 13 car single file pack and the second pack was 1-3 cars wide. The race was going along great. No accidents, decent speed. They were averaging about 182 mph.
On Lap 35, Sam Hornish Jr. would pit under green flag conditions because his tires were “chunking”. This would also be the start of the green flag stops for everyone else. One of the things mentioned afterwards was that after 37 laps, Dale Jr.‘s tires were blistered. I’m not exactly sure when Kenny Wallace went out since they didn’t bother to mention or show it when it happened. By Lap 40, Front Row Joe, Kenny’s teammate was out with engine problems. Lap 45, Kyle Busch had the lead. When things sorted themselves out after the pit stops, they were running in several smaller packs between 3-5 cars in each pack.
On Lap 63, John Andretti came into the pits. John was one of the feel good stories of the weekend having raced his way in via the 150’s. An under sponsored, under-powered, low budgeted underdog team. The rest of the field would start pitting around Lap 73. The race was going too smooth and too fast. You knew something had to happen. On Lap 75, Larry Mac was saying how they needed a caution to bunch things back up and make the racing exciting. And sure enough, on Lap 80, we got to see one of Faux King Brian’s “return to basics” with the re-appearance of Ms Terry DeBris on the back straight. And this wouldn’t be her only appearance either.
It didn’t take very long to get things going again, but on Lap 86, Mark Martin had a tire go down on him. One thing that the official mouthpieces keep saying is that the new car is saving the teams money and they actually mentioned the price on the air. $200,000 for the car and $60,000 for the engine. Funny, the old car only cost $150,000. Oh yeah, they’re saving money all righty.
Around Lap 90, Kurt Busch got the lead with The Shrub following behind him. They cut to commercial and when the came back, The Shrub was in the lead. Not the first time something eventful would happen while at commercial. On Lap 109, Matt Kenseth got the lead from The Shrub. Further back in the pack, Kurt Busch was forced down into the grass by Dale Jr. and Kurt did a great job saving the car which earned him the Good Hands Award. On Lap 110, Greg Biffle got the lad going across the finish line but Shrub got it back by the time they got to Turn #1.
On Lap 188, they started the green flag pit stops once again. On Lap 122, Kurt Busch pitted and got nailed for speeding. He got a drive thru penalty, which cost him a lot of track position. Ryan Newman got the lead and although they showed it, the Booth Buffoons didn’t seem fit to mention it. Guess Alltel isn’t buying enough time for commercials from Fox. Kyle Busch got the lead back once again and once again, no mention from the Booth Buffoons.
During a visit to the Hollyweird Motel, Chris Myers referred to the COT as the CON (Car of Now). You’re right for once Myers. It is a CON. Con job. On Lap 130, they showed that Denny Hamlin had picked up some damage on his left quarter panel but didn’t bother showing how it happened or when it happened. Lap 131, Reagan Smith smacked the wall as the result of a flat right front tire, but no caution was called. This was too weird. Way too much green flag racing. It looked like they’d have to fill in about an hour of air time as fast as this race was going.
The Commentating Clowns never mentioned when Kenny Wallace returned to the track, but were quick to mention that he was black flagged for not meeting the minimum speed and showed him heading back to the garage. On Lap 152, Ms Terry DeBris would be spotted once again, this time in Turn #2. I like how she get’s around the track. Almost like “Where’s Waldo?”. You never know where she’ll appear. Greg Biffle made up a lot of spots on pit road and got the lead. Once they got rolling again, on Lap 154, they showed Jeff Gordon going behind the wall. Folks has been worried about the Hendrick engines blowing up but instead, it was a suspension failure that took him out. Jeff said the car was dangerous to drive like that, so he parked it. Speculation from the Booth Buffoons was that it was a broken shock, spring, or A-Arm caused by the use of the bump stops.
Lap 159 saw the lead pack going 3 wide and on the next lap, David Ragan once again showed he has problems with Daytona when he didn’t get the all clear and slid up in front of Matt Kenseth and wrecked them both. Kenseth went back to the garage but Ragan’s car was on the hook. Matt would get back out on the track after repairs, but lost 5 laps in the process. Under this caution, it was strange to see Dale Jr. staying out on the track while everyone else pitted. Speculation from the Booth Buffoons was there was so much traffic on the team radio that Eury Jr. couldn’t get a word in edge-wise to tell Jr. to pit.
We wouldn’t be under green for very long. When they were at commercial (we interrupt these commercials to bring you a lap of racing) Caution #4 came out when Jimmie Johnson got loose, got tagged by Hornish and spun, and collected Truex Jr., Hamlin, and Mikey in the process. Kahne. Got the lead off of pit road and they restarted on Lap 180. As DW likes to say, “cautions breed cautions” and sure enough they did. Caution #5 came out when Bowyer got spun by One Problem allowing Newman to take the lead before the yellow flag actually came out. They restarted on Lap 186 and on Lap 188 were under caution again . This time, Mr. Happy got into Dave Blaney, Blaney went up the track and collected Mark Martin. Don’t think Mark was going to win this one either. When they finally got things cleaned up, it was a single file restart. Things got rolling again but with 6 laps to go, Casey Mears tried to block Tony Stewart. That wasn’t a smart idea as he hadn’t cleared Tony and Tony turned Mears into the wall bringing out Caution #7. Once things got rolling again, Tony and Shrub were trying to keep the lead. Tony went high, Shrub went low, Kahne pushed Tony to get him back up front, Newman was low and moved high in front of his teammate. Kurt gave Newman a heck of a bump draft shot and propelled him into the lead. Tony lost a lot of momentum going low in front of Shrub allowing Newman to pull away and win the race. This was the first restrictor plate win ever for Penske Racing. To go along with the, Bob Nardelli, Chairman of Chrysler, had said that whichever Dodge team won the race would receive an additional $1 million dollar bonus from Chrysler. So a nice payday for Penske Racing. This was also the first 1-2 finish Penske has had in a long time. Robby Gordon, who had switched to Dodge just a couple weeks before finished 8th. Bobby Labonte, who wasn’t mentioned much during the race came in 11th. Dark Horse pick Reid Sorensen finished 5th, which is his best finish at the 500. The Top 10 was dominated by 6 Dodges after all the worries about Toyota dominating during the race.
John Andretti making the 500 was a feel good
story. Another one was Ryan Newman’s crew
chief Roy McCauley (sp). He took time off last
year to take care of his wife who was undergoing
cancer treatment. Well, she insisted that he
return to the track and he did. In an interview with
Dr. Dick, he said he had promised himself he
was going to take Dick’s hat when he won the
big one and sure enough, Roy did. Both Roy and
Berggren were laughing about it. Good to see it.
The overall coverage was just what Faux King
Brian had dictated it would be. Dale Jr., One
Problem, Hendrick, and the Toyotas. Too bad
Newman and Kurt Busch rocked the boat. And I want to send a kudo out to Kurt Busch for being a team player. Keep it up Kurt. You might change some folks minds about yourself.
And something not to forget folks, this was the 50th running of the Daytona 500, not the 50th anniversary. I know, sounds weird, so expect to see some 50th anniversary hype starting up later this year.
Want to chat with other race fans about this article and other NASCAR stuff?
Gotta comment, question or want to say hey there...email Mike here
Go visit our home page, called appropriately The Pits & check out our photos & pages. Our most popular page; Race Recon is where you get all the info you need to go to the races including local camping, hotels, bars, restaurants, tracks, golf & other important race weekend information. We also have attending a NASCAR Race tips, tailgating tips & recipes, stories, trivia, quotes & more! While you are surfing see if you are a REAL RACE FAN. Be sure to read the Fan Fables, LAIDBACK RACING’S adventures with the tailgating race fan at NASCAR tracks.
