Gordon gets monkey of his back!!!!!!!!

During the final 20 laps Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway, Jeff Gordon found a way to beat the driver perhaps closest to matching Gordon's talent during his prime.
"We beat Kyle Busch! Are you kidding me? Pinch me, man! Pinch me!"

“

Man, what an awesome, awesome, feeling it is when you've got the car right like that. And they give you 20 [laps] to go and it's your job to go get it done, you've got what you need to go do that and then you pull it off.

”

-- JEFF GORDON

No one stays atop NASCAR's throne forever. Richard Petty. David Pearson. Cale Yarborough. Bobby Allison. Bill Elliott. Darrell Waltrip. Rusty Wallace. Dale Earnhardt. Jeff Gordon. Jimmie Johnson.
And now perhaps Kyle Busch, with his 88 victories in NASCAR's three major touring series, could be considered today's heir apparent. So for Gordon to beat Busch at his best was like turning the clock back 15 years, when it was the Intimidator and the Golden Boy going toe-to toe, week-in and week-out.
"He's tough," Gordon said of his former Hendrick teammate. "I respect his talent, that team, and he's aggressive. I think everybody knows, you don't want to have to restart up against him. He's just won a lot of stuff lately. And to be quite honest with you, to me, there's nothing cooler."
Busch won Friday night's Truck race. He never gave up the lead in Saturday's Nationwide race. And when he wrestled the lead away from Tony Stewart on a restart with 21 laps to go Sunday, it seemed that Busch was destined to sweep all three races at Phoenix. But Gordon had other plans.
"I think he was on a mission [Sunday], that's for sure. And when Jeff Gordon has a good car and he has the opportunity to beat you, he's going to beat you," Busch said. "There's no doubt about that. He's my hero and I've always watched him and what he's been able to accomplish over the years. It's no surprise that he beat us."
Gordon should have won at least four times in 2010 but didn't, for a variety of reasons. So given the chance in the second race of 2011, Gordon didn't let the opportunity slip away.
"Man, what an awesome, awesome, feeling it is when you've got the car right like that," Gordon said. "And they give you 20 [laps] to go and it's your job to go get it done, you've got what you need to go do that and then you pull it off."
Gordon passed Stewart for second on Lap 292, but was still more than a half-second behind Busch with the laps winding down. But as Gordon's No. 24 Chevrolet began to reel in the No. 18 Toyota -- chipping away precious hundredths of a second with every lap -- the estimated 75,000 in attendance began to believe in something special, standing almost in wonder as the gap between the two cars closed.
And on Lap 304, eight laps from the checkered, Gordon found himself in a long-familiar spot. And unlike 2010, when it seemed like everything that could go wrong, did -- he looked again like the driver who seemed at one time to be a shoo-in to join Petty and Pearson as the only drivers to win more than 100 Cup races in their careers.
"I thought, 'Even if I catch him, what am I going to do with him?' " Gordon said. "We caught him, he got loose, I got underneath him and I didn't know what to expect. I got into [Turn 1], he was right on my door. I got loose, got up into him, they said 'clear' and I went. Because I knew I'd need to get away from him as fast as I could."
Busch could see Gordon coming and realized there was little he could do to halt Gordon's charge.
"He was gaining on me really good and I knew he was going to get to me eventually and this place is so flat and it's one groove that we all run the bottom," Busch said. "He got so tucked up behind me in [Turns 3 and 4], he got me loose and I could not put the gas down. I mean, he was so far up underneath me that I could not go forward.

"So I was loose, and he was just waiting for the exit of the turn to turn underneath me and get alongside of me and then once we got down into Turn 1, we both drove off in there pretty deep and I had enough where I could slow down and kind of run on what I thought would be the second lane. And he just drifted up a little bit into me and knocked me out of the way."
Busch admitted the bump didn't matter to the eventual outcome.
"He had a fast enough car," Busch said. "He could have done that, either way. He would have won if he didn't do it, if he did do it. It has nothing to do with how he won."
Once he got by Busch, Gordon continued to pull away, eventually winning by 1.137 seconds. It was a victory that finally tied him with Yarborough at 83 victories, one shy of Allison and Waltrip.
As the fans cheered and clapped and waved their hands, Gordon did perhaps the worst burnout in the history of PIR. But when you haven't won in 66 races, you don't care about style points.
"It's been a long time, I know," Gordon said. "I'm going to savor this one so much.
"I've been tweeting lately for the first time, and all of the stuff the people have been saying, the motivation has been unbelievably inspiring. And then to see that crowd stick around to see my really lame burnout -- because I stink at them -- they loved the show. Man, we hope we can give them some more shows like that this year. That was awesome."

Busch goes wire to wire for victory at Phoenix

Kyle Busch held off a frenetic challenge from Carl Edwards in the closing laps of Saturday’s Bashas’ Supermarkets 200 at Phoenix International Raceway and collected his 44th Nationwide Series victory, four behind career series leader Mark Martin.
Having won Friday night’s Camping World Truck Series race at the 1-mile track, Busch will try for a weekend sweep Sunday in the Subway Fresh Fit 500 Sprint Cup event.

Bashas' 300

Results

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Kyle Busch	Toyota
2.	Carl Edwards	Ford
3.	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet
4.	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet
5.	Reed Sorenson	Chevrolet

Busch became the only driver to sweep races in NASCAR’s top three series at the same track on the same weekend when he accomplished the feat last August at Bristol.
Edwards, who finished .514 seconds behind Busch, made a contest of the race in the final 20 laps, running side-by-side with Busch for extended stretches as the race neared its end.
Busch became the first driver to lead every lap of an event in one of NASCAR’s top three series since Dale Earnhardt Jr. accomplished the feat in July 2003 in a Nationwide race at Daytona.
Kevin Harvick ran third, followed by Ryan Newman and Reed Sorenson, who took the series lead by five points in front of seventh-place finisher Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Sorenson and Stenhouse were the highest-finishing drivers eligible for the Nationwide title.
Though Busch never trailed at the stripe, Edwards gave the driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota all he could handle. During one exchange, Edwards crossed the finish line .039 seconds behind Busch.
Busch was well aware he had a chance to be a wire-to-wire winner.
“I knew after the first run that it was such a long run that nobody stayed out [under the first caution],” Busch said. “The second run was such a long run that everybody pitted again. So I’m like, ‘So far, I’ve led every lap of this thing.’
“It came down toward the end of the race there, and Carl was alongside of me, and we were racing really hard, and he was trying to pass me, and I was like, ‘Man, just beat him back to the start/finish line; man, just beat him back to the start/finish line.’
“I was trying to hold on as long as I could. Finally, it seemed like about 15 laps or so that his stuff would start falling off enough that we could start clicking back away and get away from him a little bit. So I knew that if we could just make it to that threshold, I thought we’d be OK.”
Edwards said he considered giving Busch a bump in close quarters but thought better of it.
“This is a new year, and you’ve got to do the best you can to go out and race everyone all the time with the most respect you can,” Edwards said. “Kyle was driving that car so well, and we were having such a good race.
“It was a lot like the race Kevin [Harvick] and I had in 2006 or 2007. That’s one of the best races I’ve ever had, and it was because we really gave each other all the room we needed to race, and the best car ended up winning. Kyle’s car was the best, and it’s fun to be able to race like that.
“It’s frustrating to lose them, but it’s better to lose them that way than it is to win by running into somebody.”
Danica Patrick finished 17th, three laps down, and posted her third consecutive top-20 result in the series. She is fourth in the Nationwide standings through two races but will take a break from NASCAR competition in March, when the IndyCar Series begins its 2011 campaign.
As Busch continued his domination in the desert, the fortunes of 2010 series champion Brad Keselowski continued to ebb. On Lap 105, Keselowski blew a right front tire and clobbered the Turn 4 wall to bring out the second caution of the race.
Keselowski, who had finished 102 consecutive Nationwide races before falling out of last week’s race at Daytona, suffered his second consecutive DNF.
Saturday’s race featured 40 entries, three short of a full field. That’s the first time since 2008 a Nationwide race has started with fewer than 43 cars.

Sam Hornish

These days Sam Hornish Jr. has idle time, but not idle hands. With no testing to divert his attention, he spent two weeks in December restoring an old bicycle that belonged to his father. He's been able to stay home and help his wife, Crystal, with their new baby, born just before the new year. He's been able to spend more time with family members and friends who maybe didn't see as much of him when he was traveling the country piloting race cars. In some ways, running only a limited schedule has its benefits.
"My first child, when she was born, I was home for about a day and a half and I was gone for about five weeks straight, running all over the nation," Hornish said prior to the season opener. "Having the opportunity to be home for this one, and spend a lot of time at home, it's been good. If I didn't have so many other things going on in my life, like two little kids, I'd probably be pulling my hair out. But there are a lot of things that can remind me what the real positives are in my life, and what's really important."

“

The only reason I need to race right now is because I want to race. I'm not in it to go out and collect a paycheck. I just want to race.

”

-- SAM HORNISH JR.

That kind of outlook is key for a driver who is beginning perhaps his most frustratingly uncertain season since he hit it big in major auto racing a decade ago. A three-time champion on the IndyCar circuit who moved to NASCAR in 2008, Hornish lost his Sprint Cup ride when car sponsor Mobil 1 left Penske Racing. The points he accrued in the No. 77 car last season were sold to the team of Steve Wallace, who used them to gain a berth in last week's Daytona 500 -- an event Hornish watched. His 2011 plans consist of about a dozen starts in the Nationwide Series for Penske Racing, and a scattered schedule that began at Daytona but won't pick up again until Texas in April.
That means he isn't racing this weekend at Phoenix, the first NASCAR event weekend he's sat out since failing to qualify at Homestead in the final race of his first full-time season in 2008. It would be a humbling transition for any driver, but Hornish isn't just any driver -- he's a former Indianapolis 500 champion whom boss Roger Penske still refers to as "one of the best oval-series drivers I've ever seen." Now he's running a limited Nationwide schedule, hoping to add a few more races along the way, hoping to sow the seeds for a potential return to the Sprint Cup level in 2012.
Fortunately, despite a rocky stint in NASCAR that's led to what some might view as a demotion, Hornish has never lost his sense of perspective. He's still an unassuming guy who lives in out-of-the-way Defiance, Ohio, who's saved much of what he's made, who remains grounded, loyal to Penske, and optimistic about his fortune turning around. He's seen it happen before -- in 2000 he was a struggling IndyCar driver who had just missed his second consecutive race because of a lack of sponsorship when a phone call came asking him to jump in a car at Kentucky. He led 30 laps, finished ninth, and by the following Tuesday had signed a contract with Pennzoil-backed Panther Racing, the team that would launch his career.
"I've been racing professionally for 11 years. I didn't get paid a lot in the beginning, I'm not getting paid a lot right now, but there were times. And I tried to save everything I could. I had a couple of toys here or here, but I didn't have a Ferrari, I didn't have a bunch of expenses. I was engaged or married for most of it, so it wasn't like I was out doing all these different things. The only reason I need to race right now is because I want to race. I'm not in it to go out and collect a paycheck. I just want to race," said Hornish, who was involved in an early crash last week in the Nationwide race at Daytona and finished 36th.
"I just want to give myself an opportunity to go out there and do the best that I can do. It is tough in some shapes and forms that we'll only be able to run at minimum 11 races [in Nationwide], but I also know that 11 or 12 years ago I was sitting there wishing I had something to do, and from Wednesday to the next Tuesday everything changed. And I know I'm a heck of a lot further down the road than I was at that point. I was figuring out whether I was going to work on trucks, drive trucks, what I was going to do. I still have something to do. I'm still a lot better off than I was there."
His experience in NASCAR has been a trying one. Attending a party for former open-wheel sponsor Marlboro, he watched footage of himself winning the Indianapolis 500, and got a little emotional. "It was nice to remember you once did something after getting dirt kicked in your face the last three years. I kind of needed that," Hornish said. The reaction is understandable considering his exploits in stock cars have produced eight top-10 finishes in 108 Cup starts, the few hopeful moments buried beneath wrecked race cars and disappointment.
"I know there have been days that I could have won Cup races if the right things happened, but we never got to the point where we could do it consistently enough to where we could be there all the time. There's been days when I've done everything right, and we've gone out there and finished well, and there have been days when I've screwed up quite a bit," Hornish said.
"Some days it was there, and some days it wasn't. If I could tell you why it wasn't .... Sometimes that chemistry doesn't work out the way you need it to. It was mentally tough. But ... I always felt there was a ray of hope -- all right, I learned this. How come every time we go to Pocono we can lead 10, 15 laps of the race but can't win? We run good there, and if can do it there, you should be able to do it at another place. It's one of those things where, I don't think people understand how closely competitive it is, and how just little things being off can affect a team."
Penske granted Hornish permission to solicit offers from other Cup teams, as long as the driver didn't commit to a vehicle that planned only to start and park. Some organizations showed interest, Hornish said, but those overtures were thwarted by the same sponsorship difficulties that forced him to give up the No. 77 car. The end result is a lot of free time during a very long racing season, some of which Hornish hopes to fill by testing for teammates Kurt Busch and Brad Keselowski, and by attending the races close to home. He seems a little curious about the idea of competing in the 100th Indy 500, but as of last month Penske had no plans to field Hornish in one of his cars.
"As I've said to him, we've got to be honest about this and where we're going," Penske said. "What I said to him was, look, let's step back here. It's like being put back a grade in school. I know a lot of guys who were put back a grade in school who turned out to be pretty good guys."
Time will tell whether being held back to a limited Nationwide schedule will further Hornish's NASCAR education. In the meantime, there are those two little girls -- 3-year-old Addison and infant Eliza -- who are going to get plenty of time with their dad. "I know in my opinion," Hornish said, "this is probably going to be the most fun I'm ever going to have."

Banye Wrecked

One week after being the belle of the fancy ball, Cinderella shattered the glass slipper. On his first lap in Friday's initial Cup practice at Phoenix International Raceway, Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne knocked a bit of the shine off the victory -- and bent up the entire right side of his No. 21 Ford -- when his brakes failed heading into Turn 3.

Subway Fresh Fit 500

Final practice

Pos.	Driver	Speed
1.	Kyle Busch	136.085
2.	David Ragan	136.034
3.	Carl Edwards	136.024
4.	Jamie McMurray	135.993
5.	Greg Biffle	135.716

PIR: Final | Prac. 1

Bayne realized something was wrong with the car, but his relative inexperience showed when he stayed on the throttle and on the track instead of slowing and heading back to the garage. Heading into the corner, the car washed up the track and slapped the outside retaining wall twice, the first time hard enough to fold in the right front wheel well.
"On pit road I told them the brakes felt like they weren't working right," Bayne said. "I paced myself getting into the corner and the brakes just never worked. It was either just one of them working and it locked them up."
Bayne tried making adjustments in the car during that lap, but nothing helped.
"When I went into the corner, as soon as I let off the gas, I said, 'I'm crashing,' because I knew it wasn't gonna slow down and it happened," Bayne said. "There was not much I could do there."
While some crewmen unloaded the backup car from the hauler, others started scavenging the trashed primary -- which sported an identical paint job to the one that will be on display in Daytona for the next 12 months -- for salvageable parts.
"I don't know what happened there," Bayne said. "I don't know why. It's the first backup car I'm gonna have to go to, but I don't know what happened to the car and why the brakes weren't right there."
Bayne turned 28 incident-free laps in final practice, sitting 33rd on the speed chart with a fast lap of 133.052 mph. Kyle Busch paced the final practice on the flat one-mile oval at 136.085 mph, just a tick faster than Ford teammates David Ragan and Carl Edwards, as drivers made a flurry of mock qualifying runs in the final few minutes.
Travis Kvapil and A.J. Allmendinger scraped the wall twice, once in each practice, while Dave Blaney damaged the front end of his No. 36 Chevrolet in final practice when he spun and collided with the inside retaining wall coming out of Turn 2. The team was expected to use a backup for qualifying.
Landon Cassill was another driver in disbelief when the engine in his No. 60 Toyota let go in a big ball of white smoke just as he crossed the start/finish line on his first practice lap. The team spent the rest of the session putting in a replacement.
"It was an oil-pan failure," Cassill said when pressed for specifics. "The oil pan failed to hold all the parts inside."

Rowdy Buwsh

After taking the lead under caution on Lap 44 of Friday night's Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix International Raceway, Kyle Busch led the final 107 laps to post his second win at the 1-mile track and his 25th in the Camping World Truck Series.

Lucas Oil 150

Results

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Kyle Busch	Toyota
2.	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet
3.	Ron Hornaday	Chevrolet
4.	Johnny Sauter	Chevrolet
5.	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet

Phoenix: Results

Busch beat polesitter Clint Bowyer to the checkered flag by .291 seconds, as Bowyer tightened the margin on the final lap.

Ron Hornaday was third, followed by Johnny Sauter and Austin Dillon.

As full-time Sprint Cup drivers, Busch and Bowyer aren't collecting points in the Truck Series. Consequently, seventh-place finisher Matt Crafton left Phoenix with a one-point lead on Clay Rogers [16th Friday] in the series standings.

"We had a really good truck, but I was scared there at the beginning," said Busch, who ran second to a dominant Bowyer at Phoenix in November. "I was like, 'Man, it's going to come down like last fall -- Clint's going to walk the dog on this one.'

"But [crew chief] Eric [Phillips] made some changes to this thing that really brought it to life."

Bowyer faulted himself for not being able to overtake Busch on six restarts in the final 50 laps of the race.

"Whichever one of us had clean air, we were about a 10th [of a second] to a 10th and a half better," Bowyer said. "For me -- and I'm not making any excuses; I was screwing up big-time on the restarts -- I'm just not used to a) not having any power and b) I was hitting the rev what sounded like about 5,000 less rpm than it should have been.

"I was just messing up. It's the difference between a Corvette and an Impala -- maybe a Volt. ... That's that electric car."

Bowyer dominated the opening green-flag run, leading the first 41 laps before Chase Mattioli blew his right front tire and scattered debris in Turn 3. After pit stops, Busch was first off pit road and held the top spot through four more cautions, the last of which [and fifth of the race] was caused by a wreck off Turn 4 involving defending series champion Todd Bodine, David Starr and Dusty Davis.

Busch led the field to a restart on Lap 120, having held the point for 76 consecutive laps. Timothy Peters' spin in Turn 2 on Lap 123 slowed the race for the sixth time.

In the late going, the trucks had difficulty running more than three laps without a caution. Brendan Gaughan spun and backed into the wall in Turn 2 on Lap 128 to bring out the seventh yellow flag.

The win is Busch's second at Phoenix and his fifth consecutive top-two finish in a truck. Busch becomes the fastest driver to win 25 races in a series in any of NASCAR's three national series.

Bayne smart with his decision to stay the course

Debating the 500 winner's future, Johnson's pursuit and NASCAR's resurgence

1. Should Trevor Bayne and the Wood Brothers have tried to run the full Sprint Cup schedule now that they've won the Daytona 500?

David Caraviello: Bayne was on a conference call Tuesday and basically said he's sticking to their original plan, which is a limited Cup schedule and the full Nationwide slate. That's the smart move. Winning the Daytona 500 is a great thing, but it's such a different animal compared to the rest of the season. It's a little premature to extrapolate greatness for 36 events based on Bayne's one run at Daytona.
Joe Menzer: I'm still trying to figure out how they were granted the option. I thought everyone had to choose a series in which they wanted to run for the championship prior to the season. Now it's like Bayne was granted a do-over option because he won the Daytona 500. I understand why -- I'm just not sure I agree with it.
Dave Rodman: Classic case of Monday morning quarterbacking. Even given the fact that they've won the Daytona 500, hats off to Trevor for cautioning everyone to keep this in perspective. Actually, the Woods' 18-race Cup schedule is an awful lot more solid than Bayne's totally unsponsored Nationwide gig -- which may not have much of a shelf life.
David Caraviello: Joe, I will agree, that did seem like an odd rule alteration on the fly, as if NASCAR's new exclusionary championship system was put to the test the very first week, and somebody in a corner office went, "Uh-oh ...." But either way, they're making the sensible move here and continuing with the plan. The Woods won the Daytona 500 in part because they've been running a limited schedule and not overextending themselves. They don't have the sponsorship to go the whole way, and they realize it.
Joe Menzer: I believe Bayne's win will help him get that Nationwide car sponsored for at least a large portion of the season in short order, so I don't think that's going to be an issue. But you can't just have a plan in place to run 18 races for the season and all the sudden double that in the blink of an eye, no matter who you are or what you've done recently or in the storied past.
David Caraviello: Joe, I don't know about that. I mean, it sounds completely reasonable, but sponsorship is often so slow to come together in this post-recession economy, that things don't happen instantaneously anymore. Maybe Trevor will be different -- goodness, you'd wonder how he could not be. But the kid can't change economic conditions.
Dave Rodman: I know I've said this before, but after listening to the kid for two days, and having watched him since he made his Nationwide debut at Bristol for Jimmy Means, Trevor Bayne really is special and, I think, may be the best-equipped of the current crop of young hooligans to really make some noise in Cup. Just look at his Texas debut! He and the Woods are made for each other.

A star is born

Trevor Bayne recaptured the magic of David Pearson in the Wood Brothers throwback No. 21 Ford at Daytona.
Youngest 500 winner
Exactly what NASCAR needed
An uncertain future

Joe Menzer: Maybe so, Rodman, but how long are they actually going to race together? Not past this year, I don't think.
Dave Rodman: Joe, I got an update late Tuesday on the championship situation. Any driver can change his or her declaration at any time. However, they will only begin gathering points in the "new series" from the time they change the declaration, which in most cases will make it a moot point..
Joe Menzer: Wow. An update Tuesday. Two days into the season and already they've changed a rule again! Sorry, guys, but that's ridiculous. NASCAR is coming off a great opening weekend, but part of their problems in recent years has been a constant tinkering with all the rules. This continues that bad trend. Do something and stick with it for a while for a change.
David Caraviello: Well, Trevor isn't going to try to change series, so the point is moot anyway. And that's the right thing to do. To me, it all goes back to the fact that Daytona is simply not an accurate barometer of the season as a whole. He won Daytona, and yes he was good at Texas last fall, but let's see how he does at Las Vegas, Bristol and Fontana before we begin assuming he could vie for the season championship in Sprint Cup. The feats of last week aside, that's a massive bite of the apple right there.
Joe Menzer: As for Bayne and sponsorship, No. 1, we're talking about him trying to get something on his Nationwide car, not a Cup car. Two, that's a Roush Fenway car and they are going to be positioning him for a push to a full-time Cup ride, probably next season in the No. 6 car if David Ragan doesn't get his act together. So that's less money and a big bang for some sponsor's bucks if they get hooked up with Bayne for all or part of this Nationwide season. I'll bet it happens, and it will say something about Bayne's wide appeal when it does.
Dave Rodman: Phoenix is only the second race but it's the first in which none of the Roush Fenway Nationwide cars are sponsored -- at least as of Tuesday they weren't (if you don't count "Ford" backing on Edwards' car). I bet the money on the 60 is predicated on Carl driving it, so it can't be spread to the "two kids'" cars. It'll be interesting to see just how much "boardroom clout" a Daytona 500 win carries. Potential sponsors have certainly seen what TB has to offer!
David Caraviello: In a perfect world, you guys are absolutely right. But things in the sponsorship market simply don't move that quickly these days. Companies burned the last recession are being very, very careful about where they spend money.
Joe Menzer: Well, the wild card in the Cup debate for Bayne was, in fact, the new rule regarding two wild-card entries into the Chase. History has shown that two wins probably will guarantee at least getting into the Chase as a wild card, and Trevor was already halfway there.
Dave Rodman: Like so much else in racing, this is a tangled web. Yep, I think the heat in David Ragan's area of the world just went up a few thousand degrees. I think Ragan can handle it, and deliver -- as he and Drew Blickensderfer began to prove at the end of 2010, and during Speedweeks. But that head-to-head battle will be interesting in these first six races. Despite Ragan's 14th-place finish in the 500, I'd say they were neck and neck for 99 percent of the 500 -- but that last 1 percent -- wow.
David Caraviello: Listen, I don't want to take anything away from Trevor Bayne. What he did was phenomenal. But goodness, people are projecting a lot onto him based on that Daytona 500. He's 20, and just barely. He'll have plenty of seasons to vie for a Sprint Cup crown. The Wood Brothers just aren't in position to scrap their plans and go racing full-time, which is what dug them into such a deep hole in 2008.
Joe Menzer: And I'm not totally disagreeing with you, David. I just think they'll be able to make something happen with Bayne. In an odd way, it's more likely to happen for less money on the Nationwide side than it would have been for the Wood Brothers to find another half of a season to fund a full Cup campaign all of a sudden. Another reason why it's obvious Bayne made the right call here.
David Caraviello: And let's remember -- Jamie McMurray proved that a successful season isn't necessarily dependent on the Chase. Ideal situation for the Woods: they win another plate event, they get the ball rolling on full sponsorship for 2012, and they come out full-time that year ready to contend for the championship. That's a more realistic plan than jumping right into it now.
2. Daytona is just one of 36 races, so now it's on to Phoenix. Can Trevor Bayne keep it going there? Or is this where Jimmie Johnson takes his first strides toward title No. 6?
Joe Menzer: Jimmie loves Phoenix. And if anyone thinks he's going away anytime soon in his vigorous defense of his five consecutive championships, they are very naive. I wouldn't be surprised at all if Jimmie wins this race. In fact, I'll go ahead right here and now and say I think he will.
Dave Rodman: There's no question the true championship contenders will step up big time at Phoenix. The best thing for Trevor Bayne and the Woods is that they're locked into the first five races, so he'll get plenty of experience. But I see Phoenix being a reprise of the 2010 Chase drama: Johnson, Harvick and Hamlin -- and after the Daytona debacle for all three, believe me they'll have plenty to prove. And this point scheme is so new, and potentially so bizarre, I don't think anyone is too keen on test bedding how far behind they can fall and still make a comeback into the Chase.
David Caraviello: Looks like Bayne has three Nationwide starts at Phoenix -- two with Waltrip, one with Roush -- with an average finish of 20th. He's never made a start there in the Cup Series. Of course, he'd never made a Cup start at Daytona, either, and look what happened. Regardless, whatever he does this week is icing. After winning the 500 and the subsequent media blitz, I'll be amazed if he's just awake at the end of the race. May not be fair to expect another stunning result this Sunday.
Dave Rodman: You gotta take a real wait-and-see attitude. The Woods and Donnie Wingo have some real credibility. But they haven't done this in a while, and Bayne never has. So let's wait and see.

Jimmie Johnson

Phoenix stats

Year	St.	Fin.	Led
2002	37	15	1
2003	3	2	84
2004	13	6	0
2005	12	15	0
	2	7	0
2006	10	7	0
	29	2	28
2007	5	4	0
	6	1	55
2008	7	1	120
	1	1	217
2009	10	4	1
	3	1	238
2010	16	3	113
	21	5	0

David Caraviello: Let's remember, some strange things have happened in this first Phoenix race over the past few years. It's been moved up on the schedule a few weeks, but this was the race last year that Hamlin competed in days after knee surgery, and where Ryan Newman earned his first victory since the Daytona 500 two years earlier. Two seasons ago ageless wonder Mark Martin went to Victory Lane. So expect the unexpected, perhaps. Or Jimmie, who has won four times there.
Joe Menzer: As for Bayne, one race does not make a wonder boy. He's got all the goods, no doubt about that. But I agree with what one of you said earlier. It will be considered a stellar season if he wins another plate race or contends in one, and does little between now and then. We have to be realistic here. Don't expect much from him at Phoenix. I don't. But if he proves doubters like me wrong, wow, look out.
David Caraviello: Speaking of Jimmie Johnson ... boy, what a quiet Speedweeks for the No. 48 car. Were they even there? You had to wonder sometimes, they were so below the radar. But Daytona hasn't been very good to them lately, and they've still managed to run roughshod over the competition the rest of the year. Phoenix, a place where Jimmie is often so strong, will be a nice first indication of what he has under him in 2011.
Joe Menzer: Here's the way the new points deal may profoundly affect this season: you could see guys like Johnson, Edwards, Harvick, Hamlin, Kyle Busch and so on -- veterans of past Chases -- really pushing the envelope through the first 10 to 12 races to get wins in the bank this season. But once any of them get to two victories, which will virtually assure they're in the Chase via the wild card if not points, then I think you may see them start building toward what they want to do in the Chase. That, in turn, could open the door for others to come out of nowhere and contend for wins over the last half of the "regular season."
David Caraviello: So what you're saying, Joe, is instead of forcing everyone to go all-out for victories, some guys might stick a few in the bank and soft-pedal? I don't know about that. We're all making a great leap assuming that two wins would get you in, but we don't really know that. I don't think these guys are just going to assume two wins are enough. You think Chad Knaus operates on assumptions? You think Johnson doesn't want to go out and beat everyone else every week? This is all extending our logic to them, and I'm not sure if that works.
Dave Rodman: The raccoon in the woodpile on that strategy, Joe, is that I hope you're not dismissing how hard everyone is already trying to win every week as it is. I don't think any of those teams have anything magical that will enable them to wave a wand and everyone else will freeze and they'll waltz into Victory Lane. I think how this is going to develop will be a thrill. As of Phoenix, the Daytona 500 winner becomes a footnote because in terms of the Sprint Cup championship, neither he nor his team are a factor in the title hunt. Johnson, Harvick, Stewart, the Busch brothers, Hamlin, etc., on the other hand, are very much in play.
David Caraviello: I wonder if Denny Hamlin has this race track circled after what happened at Phoenix last fall. Or if he feels like a win here would send a message, given how it's kind of been Jimmie's house, and how it effectively lost the Chase for him last season. Either way, if the situation calls for it, I bet he'll save fuel whether he's told to or not.
Joe Menzer: What I was saying earlier, Caraviello, is that if Jimmie Johnson gets two or three wins in the bank early, yes, he and the calculating Chad Knaus will start prepping to kick everyone's butts in the Chase again. That means they'll do some experimenting, and some days they might hit and some days they might miss. On the days they hit, they'll still contend for wins; on the days, they miss, Jimmie probably will still cajole a respectable finish out of a balky car. But when the Chase then commences, look out. So in a weird way, this new points system might play exactly into Five-Time's hands.
David Caraviello: So what makes that any different from the last five years? Whatever system is presented to them, they've been able to use it to their favor. That's one thing that's made them great --- and over the past half-decade, unbeatable.
3. The Daytona 500 crowd was bigger. The television numbers were better. The sponsorship market is stirring. Is NASCAR on the brink of making a comeback?
Dave Rodman: Again, like with so much else we've talked about, it's week to week. Gosh, we won't really be able to assess that until what, April?
David Caraviello: Well, let's not get crazy. This was the Daytona 500, NASCAR's biggest and most important race of the year, so if the numbers are ever going to get a boost, it's going to be here. And the end brought a once-in-a-lifetime storyline that put NASCAR everywhere from Conan to network nightly news programs. No question it was the day they needed. NBC News anchor Brian Williams called it "NASCAR's best day in about a decade," and he was right.
Joe Menzer: Well, I guess you all know I wrote a post-race column about this. The entire Speedweeks, capped by a great Daytona 500 that drew an outstanding crowd and improved television ratings, was just what NASCAR needed. But now they have to build on that momentum. I personally think they will. I think it has that feel to it.
Dave Rodman: Daytona is Daytona, on the one hand. But its attendance and ratings had flagged, of late. How much of a factor was the paving and the hype? Who knows? What will Phoenix, Vegas, Atlanta and Bristol lean on? I'll tell you this -- I'm anxious to see where it goes, but (and I hate to lean on this phrase for the third or fourth time), let's wait and see.
David Caraviello: And yet ... I do see hints of a comeback. Joie Chitwood says Daytona ticket sales were well up for the full week, even before we knew Bayne would come out of nowhere to steal the spotlight. You could sense that hospitality events were back. There were more social occasions during the week that invited media, which I know Joe Menzer: took advantage of. Those may seem small, but they take money to put on, and in recent years they've been nonexistent. Those are good signs.
Dave Rodman: The neatest thing about this Speedweeks? You needed a social secretary.
Joe Menzer: As for the social events I attended, are you talking about the cookout at the NASCAR.COM RV site? Or when I met my cousin to reminisce about my childhood?
David Caraviello: Joe, they didn't call you "Pinot Grigio" Menzer for nothing.
Joe Menzer: My nicknames aside, I'll tell you another positive move NASCAR made during Speedweeks, and that was announcing that they're moving the Daytona 500 back one week beginning next year. It will give them more space between the Super Bowl and take away potential conflict from both a potentially expanded NFL season, and the NBA All-Star weekend in nearby Orlando next year. It will help ensure that they have a marquee weekend all to themselves.
David Caraviello: The key is going to be how much the Daytona bump extends to the rest of the season. Obviously, you can't have Trevor Bayne win every week, and his accomplishments were a large reason why the television numbers went through the roof. You have to assume that some people are going to tune into Phoenix to see if the kid can do it again. And if he doesn't, and they lose interest as a result? That's going to be the real test.

Dave Rodman: This Phoenix race will be critical in a lot of ways. If the championship contenders can have a real knock-down, drag-out race, it will be big. And depending on who wins, particularly early in the season, it casts a dimension that has never existed, and who knows what that ripple effect will be. I can't wait to see what happens the next three or four weeks -- at least through Martinsville.
David Caraviello: You just look at little things. More teams announcing agreements with associate sponsors. More free stuff given out to the media during last month's media tour. Again, I know that sounds crazy, but they're signs that corporations are coming into this will a little more cash to spend. And that lifts everything else as a result.
Joe Menzer: We now come back to the fact that Trevor Bayne won the Daytona 500 in a Wood Brothers Racing Ford. That is a great story that NASCAR can and should capitalize on. In a year when they feel like it's critical to re-engage fans who make up a younger demographic, they are in the best position they've been in for a long time.
David Caraviello: The strange thing, Joe -- the really magical thing about last weekend -- is it does both. Nothing I've ever seen in NASCAR engaged young and old at the same time as much as Bayne winning in a Wood Brothers car. It was a fresh face the kids can relate to, in a car owned by a team that the purists revere. That's just a perfect combination. Everybody wins.
Joe Menzer: I don't think Trevor Bayne winning is the reason the television numbers went through the roof. How can that be when he wasn't leading until the very end? The numbers went through the roof because it was on-the-edge-of-your-seat racing throughout the day with Dale Earnhardt Jr. charging from all the way in the back to run up front much of the day, along with some of the other big names in the sport -- and others, like Regan Smith, who seemingly came out of nowhere to run with the big boys all day.
David Caraviello: If I have my facts right, the numbers peaked sometime after 5 p.m., when the hardcore types realized, "Oh my gosh, the Wood Brothers could win this thing," and the casual fans flipping over went, "who is this kid?"
Joe Menzer: There was suspense all day. You had a sense that anyone could win the race, and "anyone" did. That it turned out to be a fresh-faced kid with a charming personality who was riding in a car owned by one of NASCAR's most storied families was merely a large heap of icing on a cake that already was sweet in the center.
Dave Rodman: I said it from the lead-up to the Budweiser Shootout -- and particularly in the Shootout itself. We had never seen this extent of two-car drafts. The precision and driver ability needed to execute that strategy was fascinating, compelling -- downright riveting. To see veterans like Michael Waltrip and Tony Stewart execute it sometimes, but fail miserably in others, and to have a "know-nothing kid" like Trevor Bayne execute it to a T and win the sport's biggest prize -- it don't get much better.
David Caraviello: And yet, Bayne carried the day. He galvanized viewers and nontraditional NASCAR media outlets alike. The test comes at Phoenix to see if he, and NASCAR, can keep this roll going. Speaking of Phoenix, I believe Joe needs to call his social secretary and see what's on tap. Wine tasting in Scottsdale, perhaps, Menzer?
Joe Menzer: How about beer-tasting in Tucson instead? More my style.

Chase Elliott

For longtime followers of Cup racing, 15-year-old Chase Elliott is the spitting image of his mother, Cindy, but many of his mannerisms reflect his dad, 1988 series champion Bill Elliott.
Despite his youth, Chase Elliott has proven to be very effective racing late-model stock cars, and his development takes a huge step in 2011 thanks to two things, a NASCAR rule change that will allow 15-year-olds to compete in the K&N Pro Series, and a move by Hendrick Motorsports to sign young Elliott to a driver development deal.

“

It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance and I just need to go and make the most of it.

”

-- CHASE ELLIOTT

"It's taken a few months for it to come together but I'm very excited about this opportunity," Elliott said last weekend at Daytona. "I absolutely thank God every night for the opportunities that's being given and I just got to go and work as hard as I can and whatever comes of that is the best that I can do.
"I don't what to say about it, other than just to thank Mr. Hendrick for this opportunity he's given us. It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance and I just need to go and make the most of it. I'm very excited for the future -- I just have to work hard and everything will be OK."
Elliott's family run team will continue to operate out of its north Georgia base, in Dawsonville, running a variety of late-model events but expanding into the K&N Pro Series East in equipment provided by Hendrick Motorsports.
"The possibility of this [HMS] deal coming together was in the back of our minds," Elliott said. "But the K&N Series lowering its age limit from 16 to 15 [two weeks ago] opened the doors for us to run at a lot of bigger race tracks and have a lot of support from Hendrick. A lot of that stuff wasn't going to begin until next year, but with the age being lowered we're going to be able to have a lot of support from them this year."

While Hendrick's equipment and technical support will be priceless, sponsorship may limit what Elliott can run.

"Our goal is to run as many as we can, and however many that may be, we're not sure [because] we're trying to find some sponsorship for that series," Elliott said. "We'd like to go to as many as we can and make that our main focus."

Maybe the biggest comfort zone for Elliott is he'll race from the same home base.

"It's gonna be the same group of guys I've been working with the past few years out of our shop in Dawsonville," Elliott said. "The backing from Hendrick will be through things like their race cars -- their old Nationwide cars -- their technical support and a lot of their R&D guys.

"Anything they can do to help us out is what we're going to try and look for, but not so much personnel right now because I think we have a great group of guys out of Dawsonville that we can do just as good, with [Hendrick's] race cars and their support."
Locked in times three
Diligence and commitment will pay off this weekend for Sprint Cup owner Bob Jenkins, who struggled mightily to maintain three teams -- funded largely out of his own pocket -- last season in the critical top 35 in the owners' standings.
Jenkins' third car, a No. 38 Ford that this weekend is being driven by Camping World Truck Series championship contender Travis Kvapil, is a guaranteed starter at Phoenix due to a provision in the event's entry blank that calls for the "highest-ranked 35 positions -- in 2010's owners' points -- that are present at the event" being guaranteed a spot.
Roger Penske's No. 77 car, which was fielded in the Daytona 500 by Rusty Wallace Racing, did not enter Phoenix so Jenkins' No. 38, which was 36th in the 2010 owners' points, ostensibly will be a guaranteed starter at Phoenix and through the season's fifth race, at Bristol.
Bayne's valuable perspective
After he won the Daytona 500 in stunning fashion, Trevor Bayne warned everyone not to let the resultant euphoria from his popular victory overwhelm reality, as the Cup Series headed to the season's second race, this weekend at Phoenix.
The stats certainly bear him out. This weekend's event will be the first at PIR for his Wood Brothers Racing team since the penultimate race of the 2008 season -- the last year the Woods raced the full schedule.
A detailed breakdown indicates that if Bayne can finish on the lead lap, or in the top 25, either would be considered a victory for the kid who has three Nationwide Series starts at PIR, with two lead-lap, 14th-place finishes his best results.
In 24 Phoenix races stretching to the 1988 inaugural, the Wood Brothers have only two top-10 finishes, with a best of seventh, in 1995 by Morgan Shepherd. Their No. 21 car has led a lap in only one race, in 1991, when Dale Jarrett was out front for 19 circuits before his engine broke.
In the past 10 years the No. 21 has five lead-lap finishes in 12 starts, with an average start of 32nd and an average finish of 25th. Elliott Sadler had the best finish in that stretch, 10th in 2002. In the same period the No. 21 averaged finishing 2.6 laps behind the leader.
Give me a brake
According to statistics supplied by NASCAR brake systems vendor Brembo, "even though the track is 1 mile long, braking is more like a short track. The brakes used, therefore, are the same as Martinsville and Watkins Glen -- the basic short-track/road-course setup of 6-piston front and 4-piston rear calipers."
According to Brembo's stats "time on the brakes" averages 28 percent of the lap time, as compared to 35 percent at Martinsville, the circuit's most taxing track for brake systems. Brake rotor temperatures run as high as 1,500 degrees and brake pad wear is at its highest because of the lengthy time on the brakes slowing the car while entering the corners.
Brembo's stats indicate the top corner entry speed at about 162 mph and the exit speed at about 99 mph.
Bayne's win gives others hope
David Gilliland's third-place finish in the Daytona 500 was not only his best finish since the 2008 summer race at Infineon Raceway, when he was second, it also was owner Bob Jenkins' first top-10 finish in 191 career starts. Gilliland said the implications of Trevor Bayne's win for the single-car (though affiliated with Roush Fenway Racing) Wood Brothers' team and for his own Front Row Motorsports team were much larger.
"I think it's a credit to NASCAR and the new rules and the new cars and trying to get the rules closer to get teams like us at Front Row Motorsports to have a chance to come out here and be competitive on a track like this," Gilliland said. "A lot of it is the rules, and that's a credit to NASCAR for tightening up the rules and giving us a chance.
"I think [Bayne's] done a great job. He definitely has everybody's respect out there and that's what it takes. It's neat that he won the Daytona 500 and, like Carl [Edwards] said, he's such a great guy, such a nice guy, such an upbeat guy -- I'm glad he won. I wish we could have, obviously, but if we couldn't, it's good for him and the Wood Brothers. They're great people and they deserve it."
Rookie fields expand
Two more drivers have thrown their names into the hat to compete for 2011 rookies of the year in two national tours. Ryan Truex, who has a partial Nationwide Series schedule on tap driving the No. 99 Toyota for Pastrana-Waltrip Racing, will compete with Jennifer Jo Cobb, Timmy Hill and Blake Koch for that award.
Phoenix marks the first event in which all four rookies will be present; and since the entry is short of the full 43 starters, all will race. Cobb failed to qualify at Daytona, Koch and Truex weren't entered and Hill, who turns 18 on Friday, the day practice opens at Phoenix, wasn't eligible.

In the Camping World Truck Series, Chase Mattioli, grandson of Pocono Raceway owners Drs. Joe and Rose Mattioli, has become the 11th contender for that award. His team debuted at Daytona with Chad McCumbee driving, and it'll be a guaranteed starter at Phoenix, running under Cobb's Truck Series number, 10.
Picture this
Hard on the heels of the enormous video screen that Charlotte Motor Speedway's installing on its backstretch, sister track New Hampshire Motor Speedway is calling its $1.2 million Panasonic video scoreboard "one of the best fan enhancements in the 21-year history of NHMS."
The new scoreboard and video system will be in place when NASCAR, with its Cup, Nationwide and several regional tours, returns to New England's largest sports and entertainment facility on July 14-17.
The Panasonic scoreboard has a four-sided video display that stands 80 feet tall, which is 20 feet more than another New England sports venue icon, the CITGO sign at Boston's Fenway Park.
The new scoreboard has three, 32-foot-by-18-foot TV screens on top, providing views of race action and instant replays. Below the video boards will be a scrolling leaderboard with color graphics that give fans running positions and lap times for all 43 drivers, along with race statistics and event information.
McBride signed for Daytona reprise
Country music performer Martina McBride, who presented the national anthem prior to the 53rd Daytona 500, will return to Daytona International Speedway to perform a 60-minute pre-race concert before the July 2 Coke Zero 400.
All fans who purchase a Pre-Race/Sprint FanZone access pass for the Coke Zero 400, in addition to a race ticket (click to order), will be able to view McBride's Coke Zero 400 pre-race show as well as the driver introductions from the grass tri-oval area.

Phoenix

By the Numbers: NASCAR at Phoenix

PIR home to many outstanding individual and team accomplishments

Phoenix International Raceway is a 1-mile tri-oval with 11 degrees banking in Turns 1 and 2 and 9 degrees in Turns 3 and 4. The frontstretch is 1,179 feet with 3 degrees banking; the backstretch is 1,551 feet with 9 degrees banking.

CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES
2 -- Times in the 20-race history at Phoenix the winner has not started in the top 10: Mike Skinner (16th) in 1995; Greg Biffle (11th) in 2001. In fact, 11 races have been won from a top three starting position and 14 from the top five (five from the pole).
2 -- Times in the 20-race history at Phoenix the driver leading with 10 laps to go has won, including the past 13 in a row. Furthermore, 13 races at PIR have been won by the driver who led the most laps.
5 -- Victories at Phoenix for Kevin Harvick Racing, including the past three in a row: four by Kevin Harvick (who is not entered in this week's race) and most recently Clint Bowyer (who is entered in this week's race) this past November. In 13 starts at PIR, KHI has 10 top-fivess, 10 top-10s.
8.2 -- Average start and average finish at Phoenix for Ron Hornaday, who has two victories, nine top-fives and 12 top-10s in 16 starts. However, he has finished 25th or worse in two of the past three races there, including crashing out this past November (29th).
Very Interesting
2 -- Drivers entered in this week's race who competed in the first race at Phoenix in 1995: Ron Hornaday and Mike Skinner. Hornaday started on the pole that year; Skinner won that 80-lap race, passing Terry Labonte on the final lap (the only last-lap pass at PIR).

NATIONWIDE SERIES 
5 -- Runner-up finishes at Phoenix for Kevin Harvick, including the past three races. He has finished in the top 10 in his past 12 starts at PIR, and overall has one victory, 13 top-fives and 14 top-10s in 17 races there.
7 -- Races in the 18 held at Phoenix that have ended with a green-white-checkered finish, the most of all tracks.
9 -- Currently, consecutive races at Phoenix that have been won from the first two rows, including seven from the front row. In all, 15 of the 18 races at PIR have been won from the first two rows, but only three from the pole.
61 -- Percentage of laps led by Carl Edwards (457) and Kyle Busch (277) combined in the past six races at Phoenix. They have won six of the past seven races.
Very Interesting
4 -- Victories at Phoenix for Carl Edwards, most of all drivers. Each win was with a different crew chief -- he won with current crew chief Mike Beam this past November.

SPRINT CUP SERIES
0 -- Laps led at Phoenix by Kasey Kahne, in 13 races. It's one of two active tracks at which Kahne has never led (Watkins Glen).
4 -- Times Phoenix has been won from the pole, all in the past eight races and in three of the past five. Eight of the past nine races at PIR have been won from a top-seven spot; before that, 13 of the first 20 races there were won from outside the top 10.
6 -- Times in the past nine races at Phoenix the margin of victory has been less than 1 second. Ryan Newman won by .130 seconds last spring, the closest race in PIR history.
349 -- Laps led at Phoenix by Greg Biffle, most of any driver who has not won there. Biffle is seventh on the list of the 10 drivers who have led 300 or more laps at PIR. Biffle is one of nine drivers who has finished second there without winning.
Very Interesting
2 -- Times in the past three spring races the leader with 10 laps to go has not won, both times involving Ryan Newman: In 2009, Newman was leading, Mark Martin won; last year, both Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch led within the final 10 laps, Newman won. He led only four laps, fewest of any winner in track history (three drivers led more than 100 laps in that race: Busch and Jimmie Johnson with 113 each and Juan Montoya with 104.

PHOENIX MISC
2 -- Drivers who have won in all three series at Phoenix: Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch.
2 -- Drivers who have won Truck and Nationwide races in the same weekend at Phoenix: Greg Biffle (2001) and Kyle Busch (2007).
16 -- Victories in all three series combined at Phoenix for Roush Fenway Racing: Nationwide (8), Cup (6), Truck (2).
77 -- Winless streak snapped by Ryan Newman with his victory at Phoenix last spring. Carl Edwards ended a 70-race drought with his victory at PIR in the fall race.
Very Interesting
4 -- Victories at Phoenix for Chevolet in the Nationwide Series, none in the past six races. In contrast, Chevy has 14 victories in Cup, including 12 of the past 14 races, and 14 wins in Truck, including the past four in a row and seven of the past nine.

Off the charts

Jimmie Johnson at Phoenix (past 10 races)

Category	No.	Rank	Second
Points	1,751	1	Carl Edwards
Wins	4	1	Kevin Harvick
Top-Fives	9	1	C. Edwards, D. Hamlin
Top-Tens	10	1	C. Edwards
Laps Led	772	1	Mark Martin
Average Finish	2.9	1	Mark Martin

 Johnson has led in seven races during that span, including leading the most laps four times
(three times outright). In contrast, Jeff Gordon has never led the most laps in a race at Phoenix.

T BAYNE

Bayne opts to stick with Nationwide title chase

Daytona 500 champ declines switch to Cup points; 500 ratings up 13 percent

Even though NASCAR would have allowed Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne to change his eligibility for the championship from the Nationwide Series to the Sprint Cup Series, Bayne announced Tuesday he is sticking with his plans to run for the Nationwide title.

As tempting as switching to Sprint Cup would have been -- with NASCAR saying he would become eligible to run for rookie of the year and that his win at Daytona would count toward a possible wild-card entry into the Chase -- Bayne showed he either is mature beyond his 20 years or has gotten some excellent advice -- or both.

Weighted most heavily in his decision is the plan to run a partial schedule on the Cup side -- even with the Daytona 500 win. At this point, barring additional sponsorship, Bayne plans to run 18 races in the Cup Series for Wood Brothers Racing and a full Nationwide schedule for Roush Fenway Racing.

"The only thing that changed is that we get to be the Daytona 500 champions, which is really, really incredible," Bayne said on Tuesday during a conference call with reporters. "But I think that we're still going to have an awesome year at Roush Fenway, running for that Nationwide championship.

"Obviously, they [Roush] have still got a blank car, and I'd love to get some partners on it, but as for now, we're still running full time, and the Wood Brothers only have 18 races. ... I don't regret any of our decisions there. We're off to a good start in both series with a 10th [in Saturday's Drive4COPD 300 Nationwide event] and a first."

Front Row picks up a spot in Phoenix Cup race

Front Row Motorsports likely will have all three of its cars locked in for the Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway this week as the No. 77 Rusty Wallace Racing car is not entered for the second Cup event.

The RWR team wasn't expected to enter, and with that team's top-35 owners points (from Penske Racing) not being used, the 35th guaranteed spot will go to the next team in owners points -- the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports car driven by Travis Kvapil.

All 45 of the entries for Phoenix were entered in the Daytona 500 last week. Three drivers that went to Daytona are not on the entry list: Steve Wallace, Kevin Conway and Michael Waltrip.

Several teams have changed drivers from Daytona. Tony Raines is in the No. 37 Front Row Motorsports car instead of Robert Richardson Jr., Landon Cassill is in the No. 60 Germain Racing car instead of Todd Bodine and Mike Bliss is in the No. 64 Max Q Motorsports car instead of Derrike Cope. All the changes were expected.

Bill Elliott (Phoenix Racing) will be guaranteed a spot as he has a past champions provisional if needed, leaving nine drivers vying for the final seven spots.

Overnight TV ratings up 13 percent for Daytona 500

The 2011 Daytona 500 posted an 8.7 overnight rating, a 13-percent increase over the 2010 event that was interrupted for more than two hours because of a pothole.

The live broadcast on Fox reached 30.1 million viewers, 1 percent higher than the 2010 audience and 15 percent better than 2009, Fox said.

The 2010 audience got a boost from the pothole because the delay lengthened the event. But the rating, which takes into account an average of viewers over the entire telecast, was affected last year by the pothole and possibly the Olympics.

This year's race averaged 15.6 million viewers throughout the broadcast, a 17 percent increase over last year's 13.3 million.

The number of fans tuning in for the start of the race was 7 percent higher than last year, and the ratings peaked at 10.9, with 19.8 million viewers for the 30 final minutes.

Dayton (Ohio) was the country's No. 1 market with a rating of 20.4, followed by Greensboro, N.C., at 20.1.

Trevor WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER

Autostock

Trevor Bayne is mobbed by his crew in the infield after winning the Daytona 500.

Bayne becomes youngest Daytona 500 winner

Twenty-year-old, in throwback paint scheme, returns Woods to Victory Lane

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Trevor Bayne won the Daytona 500 on Sunday, a day that featured records for cautions and lead changes. Bayne, who turned 20 Saturday, led the final two laps of the race that was decided with a green-white-checkered-flag finish.

Carl Edwards finished second, with David Gilliland, Bobby Labonte and Kurt Busch rounding out the top five. The victory was the first for the Wood Brothers since 2001 with Elliott Sadler. Bayne is the seventh driver to get his first Cup victory in the Daytona 500.

The race went eight laps beyond the scheduled 200 laps because of crashes and needed two green-white-checkered-flag finishes before Bayne became the youngest winner of the 500. He led the field to the green flag on the final restart.

Some of the Sprint Cup Series' top drivers were knocked from contention early at Daytona International Speedway, including five-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, who was caught up in a 17-car pileup early in the race.

Overheating also was an issue, as cars raced in pairs -- nose to tail -- throughout the afternoon.

"Keep an eye on those water temperatures, even if you have to switch every two laps," Richard Childress Racing vice president of competition Mike Dillon radioed to Clint Bowyer and Paul Menard, the only two RCR drivers left after engine failures took out Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton.

It didn't take long to for the "big one" to gobble up more than a third of the field.

In a pack of cars in Turn 3 on Lap 29, Michael Waltrip tapped David Reutimann's No. 00 Toyota -- a car Waltrip owns -- and triggered a 17-car melee that damaged the cars of a dozen potential race winners, including Johnson and Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin.

The cars of Kenseth, Biffle, Kurt Busch, Marcos Ambrose, Brian Vickers and feel-good story Brian Keselowski also were heavily damaged in the collision, as were Waltrip and Reutimann.

"It's just a product of this type of racing," Reutimann said. "It wasn't Mike's fault. The guys in front of us started moving up, and when you're pushing, you're at the mercy of the guy in front of you. The guy in front has to tell you what's going on, and I probably was a little late there and got us both in trouble.

"I know it tore up a lot of cars, and I hate that ended up happening. It's unfortunately a product of this type of racing. In those situations you wish it was a single-car wreck. You don't want to mess everybody else up."

Ambrose, in his first points race in the No. 9 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford, was trying a conservative approach. It didn't work.

"Everybody is trying to find partners to work with and pull away," Ambrose said. "I think everyone is just trying to work out how to do it. Today, I was just trying to make sure I didn't drop off the back without finding a good partner and got caught up in a mess, too. I was trying to play it safe, and it didn't work out too well for me."

An early casualty was Harvick, the 2007 Daytona 500 winner and one of the heavy pre-race favorites. The engine in Harvick's No. 29 Chevrolet grenaded on Lap 23, erupting in a dense cloud of smoke.

"It looks like it dumped a piston," engine builder Danny Lawrence told team owner Richard Childress, who was concerned about the engines in his other cars. "The oil pan is bent and the block's torn up."

Childress had good reason to be concerned. Burton's motor blew on Lap 93, knocking the half the RCR contingent out of the race.

Speedweeks

Three years ago, Kurt Busch played the good teammate. He stayed in line on the final lap of the Daytona 500 and pushed former stablemate Ryan Newman to victory in NASCAR's biggest event. Newman celebrated amid champagne, confetti and flashbulbs. Team owner Roger Penske reveled in the only major race victory to have eluded him at that point. And Busch was content to offer handshakes and backslaps, having performed his role in the greater drama.
"When you do good unto others," Busch said, "you hope it comes back to you."

“

The guys are going to be gunning for you. We have the pole, the starting position, we won our Duel today. I don't like to be a favorite, I like to be an underdog.

”

-- KURT BUSCH

This weekend may be that time. Daytona International Speedway has been a cauldron of chaos, a place where the new asphalt surface and the vagaries of aerodynamics have combined to send both NASCAR officials and team members scrambling to find the right mechanical combinations for Sunday. There have been high speeds, restrictor-plate changes, alterations to engine cooling systems, and plenty of hand-wringing over a tandem drafting setup that's both alien and fascinating at the same time. The 53rd running of Daytona 500 has become as uncertain as the first.
Thursday, though, at last brought some clarity -- not necessarily in how to master this drafting technique, or in what NASCAR may or may not do as far as forthcoming rules changes, or in whether spectators and competitors have fully embraced a style of racing that can be as strange as a track with a dome over the top. But the fog of uncertainty parted long enough to allow a glimpse of the driver who has asserted himself as the favorite to win this Daytona 500. And he's wearing a firesuit colored lemon yellow.
That would be Busch, the bridesmaid in this event in 2008, who on Thursday added a victory in the first of the Duel 150-mile qualifying races to back up his triumph in this past Saturday night's exhibition opener on the 2.5-mile track. And because of pole winner Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s accident in practice on Wednesday -- which necessitated the move to a backup car -- Busch's new No. 22 Dodge will also occupy the top starting spot when the field takes the green Sunday afternoon. Every Speedweeks there's one driver who separates himself from the pack based on his performance in the preliminary events, and as someone put it on Busch's radio Thursday, the No. 22 is two-for-two.
"I would say we're hard pressed not to be the favorite," Busch said. "... The guys are going to be gunning for you. We have the pole, the starting position, we won our Duel today. I don't like to be a favorite, I like to be an underdog. When you're tabbed or dubbed the favorite, you try to block the outside emotions what the day is going to be on Sunday and focus on what's important. I'm going to lean on [crew chief] Steve [Addington] and my guys to keep me in check and get me through these 500 miles."
No question, the unknowns still lurk. The tandem drafting techniques inadvertently spawned by this new racing surface has forced drivers to pair up like nervous students at a school dance, all of them wondering who they should go with who and in what order. Not everyone is comfortable in that environment. But Busch clearly is, as evidenced by his ability to consistently get to the front Thursday. The big push at the end came from Regan Smith, and the two pulled away from Kasey Kahne and Juan Montoya on a late restart to power to the checkered flag. Afterward, the brown paint was all rubbed off the front of Smith's No. 78 car. No matter -- it had done its job well enough to secure the fifth starting spot in Sunday's main event.
"I think our cars together were that good," said Smith, who has no career Cup wins, but suffered an agonizing near miss at Talladega, another restrictor-plate track, three years ago. "It's just something about our two cars together. We found it in practice the other day, too. And I've always had good luck working with Kurt down here in the past, and I don't know why. It just seems like I've always had a car that could draft with him. We found each other, and it worked good."

Replicating that feat in the Daytona 500, though, may be considerably more difficult. Throughout the garage area there are real concerns about engine failures, given how NASCAR asked teams to modify the cars' cooling systems in an effort to bring down speeds that topped out in the white-knuckle neighborhood of 206 mph in Saturday night's Budweiser Shootout. That change limits how long cars can pair up before engine temperatures get too high. And then there's the simple issue of space, given that every car needs a partner to get to the front, and Daytona can be treacherously narrow in spots, and the finish of the 500 even under normal conditions can devolve into a case of too many vehicles vying for the same small patch of real estate.
"Right now I think the key element to all of Speedweeks thus far is the fact we had a Shootout with 24 cars, and we had the Duels today with 23 cars apiece," Busch said. "We're going to throw 43 out there on Sunday, and it's going to be a different game again."
Jeff Burton has a theory. "We're going to have about 400 miles of some stuff happening, and we're going to have 100 miles of more stuff happening than you can keep up [with]. We're going to have six or seven cautions in the last 100 miles, a short race 'till the end of the checkered. That's what's going to happen," said the Richard Childress Racing driver, who won Thursday's second qualifying event.
"It's my prediction it will be the same Daytona 500 we've had the last six or seven Daytona 500s. It's going to be different getting up to that point. But when somebody has a chance to take the Daytona 500 trophy home, you do things that you weren't going to do 100 laps before that. It's the same thing every time we come down here. I can almost guarantee you that's the way the Daytona 500's going to break. We could have some crazy thing where it doesn't happen like that. But I can almost guarantee you, that's what's going to happen."
The engine situation looms large. The power plant that Ford teams began using last season places an emphasis on cooling, perhaps allowing a slight edge to the Roush-Fenway cars and Wood Brothers phenom Trevor Bayne in an event that promises to stretch well over three hours in length. And then there's the simple matter of history -- plenty of drivers have been here before, showing consistent strength throughout the duration of Speedweeks, only to have a minor part of a set of circumstances derail what took 10 days to build. If Busch sweeps the Shootout, a qualifying race, and the Daytona 500 in the same year, he'll be the first ever to do it.
"I don't know how you would call anyone a favorite," Burton said. "Nothing against what Kurt's done, and he's won the two [races] he's been in. But it looks like the Roush guys have their cooling package, and are probably ahead of the game on everybody. I wouldn't turn my head on them, because it seemed to me that they could push longer than anyone else. I thought that could have been an advantage for them. But listen, there are a lot of quality teams and drivers, and a lot of people like [crew chief] Todd [Berrier] staying up until 2 in the morning trying to make this thing work. I don't know who you would call a favorite."
The driver who pushed Busch to victory in the first qualifier Thursday would agree. "I don't know that there is a favorite right now," Smith said. "It just depends on who gets hooked up, and how they work together and how they are together. I don't know that you can pick a favorite, I'm not going to lie."
Even Busch will admit he's still trying to wrap his head completely around this drafting system, trying to find the right partners, trying to find the moves that work best on the race track. It's not outside the realm of possibility that the Daytona 500 could come down to how seamlessly two cars switch positions, a maneuver that's demanded by the cooling system change and allows the field to catch up to the cars in front. There was one big pothole out on the race track last season. There are many more out there this year, and nobody -- not even the driver who has established himself as the favorite -- is able to see them all right now.
"I can't get too far ahead of myself, because this is Daytona, and this place can jump up and bite you pretty quick," Busch said. " But we are going to ride this wave."