Big weekend all around for NASCAR as season gets under way

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Updated: February 18, 2008, 5:23 PM ET

Sprint Cup Series: It's Early, But New Car Doing Its Job

Mark J. Rebilas-US PRESSWIRE

So far so good for the new car. But the next test awaits.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- It isn't pretty. It isn't easy to drive. But this funny-looking hunk of bolts, formerly known as the Car of Tomorrow, passed the test in NASCAR's biggest event.

The stats don't lie. The new Cup car put on a heck of a show Sunday in its Daytona 500 debut.

The race had five lead changes in the first 16 laps, six in the first 20 laps. By Lap 68, seven drivers had swapped the lead 14 times.

And all that happened with a lot of single-file racing before the first caution flag flew. The event ended with 42 lead changes between 14 drivers.

It was the most changes at the front of a Daytona 500 in seven years. The 2001 race had 49 lead changes among 14 drivers.

Last year's Daytona 500 had one of the most exciting finishes in the 50-race history of the event. Kevin Harvick edged Mark Martin at the stripe, but the event had only 13 lead changes among nine drivers

That makes the new model look pretty racy, but the real test begins this week at California Speedway.

The Auto Club 500 at Fontana is another debut for the new car, the first time it will race on the 2-mile oval. But this is a much different situation than Daytona.

Restrictor plates aren't used on the super wide California asphalt. So it's impossible to draw any conclusions from Daytona about how the car will race at Fontana.

It's the intermediate ovals like California where the car needs to prove it can produce exciting racing up front. The 1.3-mile egg-shaped oval at Darlington was the only intermediate track where the COT was used last season.

The Cup teams have learned a lot about the car since that race last May. The teams also tested the car at California and the 1.5-mile Las Vegas oval last month. The high-banked Las Vegas track plays host to the Cup event the weekend after California.

These two races should give a good indication of how the car will perform this season on tracks that make up over a third of the Cup schedule.

First is California, a track that has suffered through more than its share of boring moments in recent years. The Fontana track is relatively flat, and it's wide enough to land a 737 on. But the dreaded aero-push in the old car often made it difficult to pass someone up front.

The new car was designed to try to reduce that problem. Drivers and crew chiefs still have their doubts, but they also had a lot of doubts about the car at Daytona.

The California race last February had a respectable 28 lead changes among 12 drivers in the old car. Can the new car do better? We'll find out soon.

-- Terry Blount

Nationwide Series: A Toyota Feeling At Daytona

Icon SMI

Tony Stewart -- and Toyota -- had a great Saturday.

DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. -- It remains to be seen if there's a new sheriff in town in the Nationwide Series, but the results of the next two weeks could provide a pretty good indication of whether or not the face of the series will now look a lot like the Toyota insignia.

Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch took the top two spots, with Braun Racing's Brian Vickers taking fourth. Denny Hamlin was eighth. But restrictor-plate engine packages are different than what everyone will be using this week at California Speedway, so it's a little too early to say that the days of dominance by Roush Racing and Richard Childress Racing are at an end in the series.

It is likely, though, that Toyotas will be a much bigger factor in the series this year than a year ago, in which Jason Leffler and David Reutimann recorded the only two Toyota victories.

And the good news for the rest of the Nationwide drivers is that while Stewart now has three wins in the series to his credit, he's only won at Daytona. If that changes, it's a sure sign that Toyotas will carve out a bigger niche in Victory Lane this season.

Perhaps the most pleasant surprise -- at least from the perspective of a series struggling to develop more young drivers as Cup stars dominate most weeks -- was the performance of Bryan Clauson. The rookie, whose schedule remains uncertain due to a lack of sponsorship for Chip Ganassi Racing's No. 41 team, finished sixth in just his sixth career start.

If more funding can be found, it might not only be a boost to his career, but to the overall health of the series.

Clauson was the highest finisher of the non-Cup drivers and the only driver in the top 11 without a full-time Cup ride. The next Nationwide-only driver was Kelly Bires in 12th, followed by Johnny Sauter (13th). Brad Keselowski, Mike Bliss, Scott Wimmer and Jason Leffler finished 17th through 20th among Nationwide-only drivers.

-- Mark Ashenfelter

Craftsman Truck Series: Bodine Steps Up; Other Stars Fade

AP Photo/Terry Renna

Todd Bodine celebrated his first win at Daytona after 19 years of frustration.

There were relatively few surprises at the end of the Craftsman Truck Series opener at Daytona. A three-wide finish? Saw the same thing here last year. A caravan of Toyotas? Sure, four of the top five for the third consecutive year were Tundras, with one winning for a second straight year.

No shock either in that Toyota belonging to Germain Racing's Todd Bodine. The 2006 series champion had never finished outside the top five in a truck at Daytona and won last year on the high banks at Talladega.

The surprise Friday night was who wasn't left to challenge him.

Defending champion Ron Hornaday and 2007 Daytona winner Jack Sprague both found trouble in the race's choppy first half, a disappointing start for the new Kevin Harvick Inc. teammates.

Hornaday spent extended time behind the wall with mechanical problems and recorded his worst finish in over a year (25th, 54 laps down after missing three all of last season), while Sprague caught a piece of a 10-car crash 19 laps in and could only manage 19th. That wreck severely damaged the Tundra of 2007 championship runner-up Mike Skinner, who in finishing 29th will have to wait at least one more week to purge the sour memories of last year's season finale -- where he lost the title.

Only four of last year's top 10 in points finished in the top 10 at Daytona. Five of the six former champions in the race finished off the lead lap, whereas five of six rookies went the distance.

Don't expect to see that too often this year in the trucks.

-- John Schwarb
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Jayski Podcast

Jayski Podcast

Mark Garrow recaps all the action from the 50th running of the Daytona 500, including Ryan Newman's last-lap victory.
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Dodge Shows Newman The Money

Ryan Newman

Newman

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Mike Accavitti stood there, chatting, a model of intensity and pride, the big square piece of poster board with all the zeroes on it serving as his backdrop.

He'd just forked over a million bucks to Ryan Newman, and he couldn't have been happier about it.

Accavitti heads up Dodge Motorsports, and thanks to Newman one of his cars was resting in Victory Lane at Daytona. Newman's move to the high line and a push from teammate Kurt Busch sealed Dodge's first Daytona 500 victory since Ward Burton did it in 2002.

Just twice since 1974 has Dodge gone to Victory Lane at Daytona in February.

But there it sat, the blue and white Dodge Charger, covered in champagne and confetti. And in the 50th anniversary race, no less.

For nearly two weeks the headlines read Hendrick Chevrolets and Gibbs Toyotas. But there it sat, the blue and white Charger.

"It makes it sweeter to win when it's not expected," Accavitti grinned.

Despite the nearly-identical similarities between makes in NASCAR these days -- as a result of the new car introduced last year on a part-time basis, and will be raced full time this year -- the manufacturer rivalry is alive and well.

When discussing his want to beat the other manufacturers in NASCAR Accavitti's jaw clenched a bit. He stood up straighter. He removed his hands from his pockets and became more animated. The body language tells the story.

"I want to beat Chevy, Ford and Toyota every week on the racetrack -- bad," he said. "And we internalize it. The performance is an extension of us."

To remind its teams of this desire, Dodge officials offered up a million dollar bonus to any of its teams that won the Daytona 500.

Pretty big hit to the wallet, no?

"That last lap (of the race), I made that million back," Accavitti said. "A TV (advertisement) for the Daytona 500 is more than half a million dollars. Having Ryan and Dodge cross that finish line first -- yeah, I made it back, and a lot more."

Accavitti estimates the exposure for winning the race is some $4 million or $5 million more than that received by the second-place finisher. In all, six of the top eight finishers drove Dodges Sunday.

"We served up a heaping helping of Dodge Boys pudding out there today," Accavitti said.

So, then, does the ol' "Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday" mantra still apply? Sort of. Accavitti said wins raise brand awareness, but don't necessarily translate into direct sales.

That's not really what this is about. It's about morale, really.

"We need the Dodge dealers to feel like we're helping," Accavitti said. "Winning the Daytona 500 is exactly how to do that."

-- Marty Smith

Heartbroken .. And Gracious

Tony Stewart

Stewart

DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. -- Never one to beat around the bush, Tony Stewart wasn't about to start Sunday night after getting beat by Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch. Watching the 50th running of the Daytona 500 slip away on the last lap took a lot of steam out of a driver who'd won the Nationwide Series race a day earlier.

"Disappointed, obviously," he said when asked what he was thinking. "It would be a lie to come in here and say I was happy about, you know, going from first to third on the last lap of the Daytona 500."

It was trying to work with teammate Kyle Busch that may have led to Stewart's undoing. Hoping to get a push from Kyle Busch, Stewart moved down the track and that opened up the high side for Newman, who received the winning push from Kyle's older brother, Kurt.

"I just made the wrong decision on the backstretch," he said. "I thought I would get a push down there, and the top line [worked better when Newman and Kurt Busch worked together]. When you do that, I mean, I don't know if I could have stopped them anyway, even if I would have changed lanes [back to the top]. I'd say most likely we would have ended up like a bunch of other guys: wrecked."

Stewart led four times for 16 laps on a day when Kyle Busch dominated by pacing the field eight times for 86 laps. It was a Toyota day, except at the end when Dodge stole the show.

When Stewart contemplates reasons to be happy, it'll include how well Joe Gibbs Racing performed during Speedweeks. There were some who thought the transition from Chevrolet to Toyota would hinder the team, but that wasn't the case when it comes to restrictor-plate tracks. The next test will come this weekend at California Speedway.

And Stewart, who hasn't always been gracious in defeat, was able to take this setback in stride.

"I want to take a second to congratulate Ryan. He's a fellow Indiana boy," Stewart said. "If we couldn't win, I was glad to see him. I was hoping it would be a Joe Gibbs Racing car to win this thing tonight. Happy for Ryan. He's a good guy, a good friend of mine, and I did want to congratulate him."

-- Mark Ashenfelter

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We're Off To ... California Speedway

California Speedway

Once the smoke clears from the season-opening Daytona 500, the real season begins in essence at California Speedway. Located about an hour east of Los Angeles, it's a track where you just might see a famous fan in attendance.

The first race at California is the Auto Club 500 on this Sunday. The two-mile track is the first of many intermediate-length venues on the circuit, so teams try very hard to get off to a good start here.

The second race is the CAS Sprint Cup 500 Aug. 31, and it occurs just before the final race in Richmond that determines who makes the Chase for the Championship.

The straightaways are fast, but the corners are pretty flat, so drivers struggle there to get their cars to handle. The races here require a good day by the entire race team -- driver, pit crew and the boys back in the shop.

Break out from Fontana, and one can visit Hollywood, all the movie studios, Disneyland and a plethora of beaches in SoCal.
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