Daily NASCAR

As Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick battle for the points lead and the Gibbs cars make their performance surge, a story few have been talking about is the race at the other end of the point standings – that is the race to stay in the top 35 in the owner standings.

For most of the last 11 weeks as NASCAR has traversed the country and this season’s plot lines have developed and grown, Front Row Motorsports (collectively) and Robby Gordon have been trading that dreaded 36th spot in the points standings.

Front Row Motorsports for its effort has three drivers – Travis Kvapil, David Gilliland and Kevin Conway -  that it’s been attempting to keep in the top-35 and locked into races. With a limited budget, and old Roush-Yates motors, the team has performed admirably. The story of Bob Jenkins and his little team that could has been one of the feel good stories of the year.

The team’s main goal has been to keep the fully sponsored, but struggling Kevin Conway with a guaranteed starting spot. Conway has traded his number/team with teammate David Gilliland twice now. Though it’s purely a surface thing (the team even changes the number on the hauler), it’s worked. Conway hasn’t missed a race. Perhaps more remarkably, neither has Gilliland.

Front Row’s main foe this season has been the independent Robby Gordon. Gordon, like Front Row, faces some adversity – he’s under-funded and under-supported- still Gordon has been able to fight against the start-ups and even Front Row’s three car assault and keep his team in the top-35 (most weeks).

Gordon though may or may not compete the whole season. And this week’s penalty didn’t help him in his bid to keep his team with a guaranteed starting position. After losing 25 points for unapproved additional door braces, Gordon is now just 18 points ahead of David Gilliland and that 36th place position.

As these teams fight to maintain their very valuable points positions every little mistake will be amplified and every position will count. As we continue through the summer and the season (barring anyone falling way behind) this will one fight to keep your eye on.

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When the Cup Series heads to Bristol this weekend, it marks the fifth race on the 2010 schedule.  It will be the final race that the top 35 in the owners standings from 2009 will have a guaranteed starting spot.  The following weekend at Martinsville, the 2010 owners points will decide who is in and who is out.  Bristol will be crucial for those who are floating right around that 35th spot in the standings.

Those who are on the outside looking in right now include Kevin Conway, Boris Said, Robby Gordon, and Max Papis.  A good run at Bristol for any of these drivers could mean the difference between racing and going home at Martinsville and beyond.  For Said, Gordon, and Papis who all have limited sponsorship, the idea of not having a guaranteed starting spot could drastically affect the health of their race teams and their ability to continue competing.

The drivers who are in currently, but are dangerously close to being out, include Mike Bliss, Travis Kvapil, Brad Keselowski, David Gilliland, Sam Hornish, Bobby Labonte, Ryan Newman, and Marcos Ambrose.  A bad finish at Bristol, combined with some good runs by the competition, could knock any of these drivers out of the top 35 and that vital guaranteed starting position.

Two drivers who stand to benefit following Bristol are Mike Bliss and Scott Speed.  Speed is very solidly in the top 35 (currently 12th) after a difficult 2009 season left him having to race his way in to the first five of 2010.  But his team has rose to the occasion this season, and their performance has improved markedly.  Bliss currently sits in the final guaranteed spot in 35th, which, if he could keep it would be a huge boost to his Tommy Baldwin Racing team.  This team continues to run severely underfunded, but a locked in spot in every race could help this team secure more sponsorship.

Bristol is always an exciting race anyway, filled with drama from start to finish.  And this season’s spring stop in Thunder Valley will be no different.  But if the usual story lines don’t grab you, take a look down the leaderboard a ways.  You will definitely find a tension filled race for many teams./

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Three of the fifteen drivers hoping to get a ticket to ride in the 500 as by winning one of four slots in today’s Gatorade Duel: Reed Sorenson, Aric Almirola and Casey Mears.

Race 1 - 2 p.m. EST, Speed Channel

Race 2 - 4 p.m. EST, Speed Channel

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Today’s Gatorade Duel plays a significant role in preparing for the Daytona 500, but it isn’t as fraught with tension as it once was.

Perhaps "they once were" is a better term since there are actually two 150-mile qualifying races to finalize the starting order in Sunday’s 500 at Daytona International Speedway.

"In every one of these races, I’m out there trying to learn something new," said 2004 Sprint Cup champion Kurt Busch. "That’s especially true every time the rules are tweaked and we change to a different package."

Among this year’s changes is a carburetor restrictor plate with a 63/64ths-inch opening, thus raising speeds and increasing horsepower.

Thirty-nine of the 43 starters have already been determined: 35 entries are guaranteed spots based on last year’s owner point standings, and four more have clinched with qualifying speeds. The order, not the composition, is what today’s qualifying races are designed to do.

Based on qualifying runs on Feb. 6, Bill Elliott, Scott Speed, Joe Nemechek and Bobby Labonte are assured places in the Daytona 500 field. Regardless of what happens today, Mark Martin will start on the pole and Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the outside of the front row.

That leaves only four more spots - two from each race - to be decided among Michael Waltrip, Mike Bliss, Reed Sorenson, Casey Mears, Max Papis, David Gilliland, Jeff Fuller, Aric Almirola, Terry Cook, Dave Blaney, Michael McDowell, Derrike Cope, Kirk Shelmerdine, Mike Wallace and Norm Benning.

Sorenson agreed with the notion that this is "a crossroads season" for him.

"I think it is," he said. "The economy is tough right now, it’s hard to get sponsors and there are not a lot of great Cup seats available for anyone right now."

As for his long-shot bid to make the race, Sorenson added, "The guys working on the car know it’s going to be a challenge."

The first race includes Martin, Ryan Newman, Jimmie Johnson, Clint Bowyer, Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and Greg Biffle. Among those in the latter race are Earnhardt, Juan Pablo Montoya, Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne and Brian Vickers.

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Daytona 500 pole winner Mark Martin (far right) with Dale Earnhardt Jr. (left), who won the outside pole in Saturday’s qualifier, with their boss Rick Hendrick of Hendrick Motorsports all smiles in the middle. (John Clark/NASCAR This Week)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Winning the pole hasn’t always guaranteed success in the Daytona 500. For instance, the driver who started out front a year ago, Martin Truex Jr., finished 11th in the season’s first race and 23rd in the Sprint Cup standings.

Recent pole winners have also included such luminaries as David Gilliland (2007) and Jeff Green (2003).

The odds are a little better this time around. The dominant team in NASCAR, Hendrick Motorsports, put Mark Martin on the inside and Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the outside of the front row for the Feb. 14 Daytona 500. A driver who gets considerable assistance from Hendrick, Ryan Newman, produced the third-best speed, and the reigning champion, Jimmie Johnson, was sixth.

Martin, 51, becomes the 500’s oldest pole winner.

"I’ve always loved setting records," he said. "Once upon a time, I tried to set records for being the youngest, and now I’m on the other side."

Under Daytona International Speedway’s unique qualifying format for the 500, only the top two nail down their starting positions in the first round. Martin’s No. 5 Chevrolet averaged 191.188 mph and Earnhardt’s No. 88 posted 190.913.

Chevrolet drivers posted seven of the 10 fastest speeds, the only exceptions being Bill Elliott, fourth at 190.573 mph in a Ford; Kurt Busch, seventh at 190.118 in a Dodge; and Kyle Busch, ninth at 190.050 in a Toyota.

* * *

UNAFRAID– Greg Biffle looks forward to testing the barriers of bump drafting, now that NASCAR has adopted the policy of letting its drivers set the standards themselves.

"I’m going to push until somebody spins out," he said. "That’s the only way to find out. We all know. We’re drivers. We know what the limits are. Now that NASCAR has said ‘we’re not going to be the limit,’ the limit becomes when the guy in front of you spins out … so we have to regulate that ourselves.

"Now we don’t have to worry about NASCAR. We can just ride on that limit."

* * *

THE YOUNG UPSTART - Brad Keselowski, entering his first full Sprint Cup season, won’t win any popularity contests among his peers, but he’s fairly unrepentant about past transgressions.

"My attitude toward racing is to do what it takes to win," he said. "I’d prefer to win honorably. I can’t always say that I’ve done that. Hopefully, we can put together strong enough cars this year to where we can win without drama. A goal of mine is to win a race and look back and nobody said, ‘He screwed me over to do it.’

"But at the end of the day, when I look my team in the eyes, I want to be able to say I took more than I gave. … If you have to make a few competitors mad along the way, that’s just part of it."

* * *

A BIT MORE MODERATE– Kurt Busch is a bit more cautious than Biffle.

"My approach will be similar to how I approached double-file restarts (a change in 2009)," said Busch, "and that was let this first event unfold … digest what I’m seeing and see how aggressive people want to be with it.

"At Daytona, you have to protect your race car to win the race. If you have torn-up fenders, you don’t have any opportunity to win."

* * *

NO BIG DEAL–Matt Kenseth isn’t overly concerned about bump drafting or NASCAR’s decision not to regulate it.

"I think there are still going to be rough-driving penalties if you have that, just like there are at every race, and really, the drivers do a pretty good job of policing themselves," he said. "You’ve got to race these guys for 38 weeks (36 Cup, two all-star), and you’re not going to go out and try to wrong somebody on purpose, or try co cause the wreck, or do any of that stuff, anyway.

"You’re, hopefully, going to stop before you get to that edge, no matter what track you’re at. … Nobody wants to wreck, and nobody wants to get wrecked."

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Kurt Busch grabbed the lead on Lap 1, leading the first 52 laps of the race before being passed by Jimmie Johnson. Busch led three times for 69 laps and finished sixth. (Photo: Getty Images)

AVONDALE, Ariz. - The first 52 laps of the Checker O’Reilly 500 belonged to Kurt Busch. After that, the action got all too familiar.

Sprint Cup point leader Jimmie Johnson spent the early laps in third, then moved up to take second place from pole winner Martin Truex Jr., then patiently set his sights on Kurt Busch, passing him on the 56th of 312 laps.

Busch later regained the lead during green-flag pit stops, but Johnson made another pass prior to the 100-lap mark.

* * *

CAUTION TANDEM–No yellow flag waved at Phoenix International Raceway until the 116th lap, when debris induced NASCAR officials to slow down Johnson. That caution period led to another when the cars of Erik Darnell, Michael Waltrip, David Ragan, Robby Gordon, Elliott Sadler, Jamie McMurray, David Gilliland and John Andretti tangled taking the green flag.

Most of the aforementioned cars suffered relatively minor damage.

* * *

SEATS WITHOUT SEATS–The grandstands were close to full, but the hill backing turn four was somewhat sparsely populated. Since the track’s "seating capacity" of 76,812 reportedly, or at least according to local sources, counts 20,000 of those seats as being on the hill, where there are actually none other than what fans bring there.

In other words, a liberal crowd estimate would probably be about 60,000.

* * *

PILE-UP–The race’s most noteworthy accident occurred on lap 171, when Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Chevrolet spun off turn four, creating a pileup that wound up including cars of Tony Stewart, Joey Logano, Scott Speed, Matt Kenseth, Matt Kenseth, Max Papis, Bobby Labonte, Brad Keselowski and Brian Vickers.

"The ‘88′ got on the apron and got loose," said Labonte, referring to Earnhardt. "It’s easy to do. I about did it a couple of times myself."

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