Daily NASCAR

Tony Stewart delivers a jab at his Tweetie-pies.  (photo: John Clark/ NASCAR This Week)

Tony Stewart vowed not to join the growing ranks of NASCAR figures avidly taking part in social networking.

"I have no idea, because I don’t do anything with that stuff," he said. "I actually have enough productive stuff to do with my life other than sit there and tell everybody what I’m doing every minute of every day. I really don’t mess with it. I’ve heard about it, I’ve heard a lot about it, but don’t know anything about it."

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BETTER HIM THAN ME, SAYS MONTOYA–For the first time ever, both front-row starters in a Sprint Cup race are from the team predominantly owned by Chip Ganassi.

The present incarnation of Ganassi’s team is known as Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, and Teresa Earnhardt and Sabates also have stakes in the team that sent Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray (183.744 mph) and Juan Pablo Montoya (183.477) to front-row spots in the Auto Club 500 at, oddly enough, Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.

Montoya told the media in California that McMurray’s victory had a carry-over effect.

"It’s good for the whole team," he said. "I think that victory … the whole team has been working really hard for it. Jamie got a huge win in the 500 for the ‘1′ car … it was more necessary. If you said a team that had to win, either the ‘1′ car or the ‘42′ car (his), I think it was more important.

"Of course, I want to win, but as the sponsors and everything, I think it was better that the ‘1′ car won."

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WATCH WHAT YOU ASK FOR–McMurrray, meanwhile, talked about the hectic week he had in the aftermath of winning NASCAR’s most prestigious race.

"I’m still blown away by how much attention is placed on the Daytona 500," he said. "It’s a dream to win that race, but the amount of media attention that goes along with the Daytona 500, you really can’t explain it to anybody.

"I don’t believe that anyone would believe everything that you’ve gone through and that you’ve gotten to do. You get in the car, they drive you to whatever appearance you’re doing, and you think you’re going to rest, and they put a cell phone in your ear, and they say ‘this is a newspaper’ or ‘this is a radio station’ or ‘this is somebody that you don’t know.’ And you talk all the way there, and then you get out, and you do your appearance and you get back in the car, and you get ready to take a break, and they put the cell phone in your ear again. No joke: Everybody’s cell phone in the car was dead at the end of each day."

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CATCH-UP ALREADY– Kasey Kahne flexed his Ford’s muscles with a qualifying-race victory at Daytona but was one of many victims of melees near the end of the 500, which hasn’t been good to him. A year ago he left Daytona 29th in points; this year he’s 30th.

And only 35 races to go …

"I was disappointed with last week, and it took me a couple of days to recover, just because it’s the Daytona 500," he said. You get so excited because we had such a good Bud Shootout (third) and 150 (Gatorade Duel) that I had a lot of high hopes, and that kind of got blasted with a couple of laps to go."

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AND THE FAVORITE IS — According to Denny Hamlin, it’s still Jimmie Johnson.

"A very versatile race car is needed for California," said the Toyota driver. "A lot of races at California, you’re chasing Jimmie (Johnson). He’s three lanes up on the race track — I know which line he runs — but it’s just so hard to match that because they’ve got a magic setup. If we could figure it out, it would definitely help us because this is a Chase race track and we know this is a race that he’s going to perform well at when it comes Chase time.

"It’s our job to try a lot of different things this spring race (actually, of course, a winter race) to help us set up for a good fall race. California is a track where all of it comes together. You have to have the big motor, the horsepower, the aero(dynamics) and all that because this track is so big. Every little advantage you get shows up big-time on this type of track."

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by Holly Cain

Filed under: Daytona Int’l Speedway, Sprint Cup

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — With new rules increasing horsepower, loosening oversight and adding up to three overtime periods, NASCAR drivers are more hesitant than usual to make any predictions about Sunday’s 52nd running of the Daytona 500.

“I’ll be honest, I really don’t know what to expect,” driver-owner Tony Stewart said Saturday after his win in the Nationwide Series race.

“I mean, I assume it’s going to be something similar to the qualifying races. But, you know, with having the full field, obviously you’re gonna have a lot more good quality cars that are right.”

Stewart’s win Saturday gives him 15 at NASCAR’s most famous track, Daytona International Speedway — only Dale Earnhardt (34) and Bobby Allison (16) have more victories.

“There’s one I haven’t won, and that’s the Sunday show,” said Stewart, who will start sixth in his No. 14 Office Depot Chevrolet.

“So, you know, I would trade a couple of races, I’d let anybody pick which ones they want to trade out, I’d trade any one of ‘em for a Sunday race for sure.”

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As I write this the countdown for the Daytona 500 is entering it’s final hours. While NASCAR’s biggest race has yet to begin, the week’s other events have provided an exciting lead-in. On Thursday, Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne won their respective duels to secure positions on the second row for the 500. The Truck Series and Nationwide Series took to the track on Saturday. Tony Stewart won the Nationwide race for the second straight year and Timothy Peters edged out Todd Bodine to score his second Series win. This is the NASCAR week that was February 7 to 13, 2010.

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**Remember if you have a NASCAR blog or website and would like a recent article you wrote featured in this section email me and you could be part of next week’s NASCAR Week That Was. Please only send stuff you have written.**

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Smoke leaves his dream of racing in the Indy 500 in his rear-view mirror as he looks for a February win at Daytona’s premier Sprint Cup race. (Photo: John Clark/NASCAR This Week)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Tony Stewart would still rather win the Indianapolis 500 than anything else, but he’ll settle for a Daytona 500 victory because he’s come to grips with the fact that winning Indy isn’t likely to happen.

Stewart has won the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard twice.

"Indy is the one that frustrates me the most that I haven’t got," said Stewart. "The good thing is, I still have opportunities here. I’m not going to have any more Indy 500 opportunities — that side of it is past — so that is why that is frustrating. This (the Daytona 500) at times has been frustrating because we’ve been so close so many times."

Stewart has won the July race at Daytona International Speedway three times but has never won in February. He said the race here is "never the same."

"You spend all your time trying to get the car’s balance where you want it," said Stewart. "The conditions are going to be different every day. There are going to be overcast days. There are going to be clear days. … Every day you’re out there, you’re logging information, you’re trying things, knowing that eventually when race day gets here, you hopefully have a day like you had in practice and you know how to start the balance of your race car."

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THE OTHER WOMAN–Chrissy Wallace’s DRIVE4COPD 300 didn’t last a lap. The daughter of veteran NASCAR driver Mike Wallace crashed off turn four as the leaders were crossing the start-finish line at speed for the first time.

There’s a bit of irony in the fact that Mike Wallace’s daughter now competes in NASCAR. On March 12, 1994, it was famously alleged - by Joe Nemechek - that Wallace wrecked Shawna Robinson intentionally after Robinson started the Bud Light 300 at Atlanta on the pole. Wallace denied the allegation, which created quite the media frenzy at the time.

The Nationwide Series race started slowly. With some help from Mike Bliss’s Chevy, Trevor Bayne’s Toyota made extremely hard contract with the turn-two wall on the seventh lap.

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THE MENTOR’S VIEW–Brad Keselowski, now racing in Sprint Cup for Penske Racing, found his first success racing for Dale Earnhardt Jr. - and Rick Hendrick - in the Nationwide Series.

Keselowski’s aggressive style has caught more than a fair share of criticism, but Earnhardt remains on his side.

"Well, you know, I think Brad has a lot to learn," said Earnhardt. "He’s a rookie coming into the sport. I’ve never met a rookie yet that’s known it all. He’ll learn his lessons, whatever those are.

"Everybody’s still learning. I’m still learning. But, you know, as a rookie, you know, you go through a lot of things that will teach you a lot. I bet you, at the end of the season, he’ll be the first one to admit all the lessons he got taught this year."

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DUH–When asked what happened after he won the first two races of 2009, Matt Kenseth deadpanned, "If I had to pick out the main thing, it’s that our cars weren’t fast enough."

Kenseth didn’t win again and failed to make the Chase for the first time in his career.
 

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Wininng the Bud Shootout is cool, but except for a nice-sized purse, Kevin Harvick (above, racing against the No. 16 car of Greg Biffle) didn’t gain much. (photo: John Clark/NASCAR This Week)

Some late-night observations on an eventful day/night tripleheader at Daytona International Speedway:

Danica Patrick did OK. She made some mistakes but acquitted herself nicely. There were some lessons in the ordeal, and it was probably a good place to start. The odds heavily favor a Monday announcement that she will race in the Nationwide Series race. That will be much harder, and the following race at Auto Club Speedway in California will be harder yet.

Kevin Harvick’s 2009 victory in the Budweiser Shootout meant almost nothing. Matt Kenseth’s Daytona 500 victory meant almost nothing (though the money was nice). Neither made the Chase. That doesn’t mean they won’t this year, but there’s no need to get carried away.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who qualified second for the 500, was a no-show in the Shootout.

The three most impressive drivers in the draft were Harvick, Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart. Edwards clung to the lead with all the desperation of a cornered lynx, but once he lost it, he dropped off the lead pack. Stewart’s final pit stop cost him any chance.

The current rules configuration seems to have improved the racing. The runner-up, Kasey Kahne, said, "I like everything. It’s more exciting. I was excited and on edge the whole race. I think the changes are good."

But … more excitement could also mean a crashfest in the Daytona 500, which some fans will enjoy even if they won’t admit it.

"Here’s something that no one’s said," said third-place finisher Jamie McMurray. "It rained all day (Friday), and in the past we’ve had tire problems under those circumstances. I think Goodyear deserves a lot of credit."

Qualifying means almost nothing here. It’s boring and isn’t the slightest challenge for the drivers. Racing is tough. It isn’t seat-of-the-pants racing, but it’s so close that the slightest mistake is disastrous. Drivers who fare well at Daytona (and Talladega) are the ones who can go 500 miles without ever having a lapse in concentration.

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