Daytona 500

Must... resist.... urge.... to... use.... same... old... tired.... headline.... that.... everybody... else.... is.... using.

Instead of greeting Newman, how about we ask, "Why did Tony Stewart give away the Daytona 500?" But, that's to come. First, let's go back to the beginning.

We're here at the palatial Race Guy mansion for the Daytona 500. I'm starting with the 2008 preview stuff that was on Fox at noon. Nothing of note there, mostly because I was busy and didn't take any notes.

1:15 PM 2/17/2008
The segment with Squier, DW, Jeff Gordon and Cale was cool and didn't run long enough.

1:32 PM 2/17/2008
Did you guys see AJ Foyt waddling up to the stage to be introduced as a former winner? He's enormous. Somebody not only hasn't been missing any meals, he's been having extra meals.

And a great segment with Bobby, Donny, Cale, Richard and Darrell. I love Cale's response, that the fight was started because Bobby wouldn't drive him back to the garage. :laugh:

2:07 PM 2/17/2008
I took a little catnap and woke up to Kool and the Gang singing the only song they're known for. There's a shot of Mario Andretti and let's compare Mario to the overly-svelte AJ. Mario looks like he could still drive a racecar and AJ looks like he ate the tires off the car. I just can't get over how AJ has sort of let himself go. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy, because I think AJ is the biggest a.... oh wait sorry... he's the biggest jerk in the sport, which is saying something when you consider that Robby Gordon is still around.

2:09 PM 2/17/2008
When Brooks & Dunn came on, my son asked when this would be over and I went searching for something else to watch and landed on billiards on ESPN. We're here for the race, not for music stars.

2:25 PM 2/17/2008
Matt Yocum brought up a great point. We romanticize the racing heroes of old and I've heard fans say that those guys raced "for the love of the sport." Maybe, but, as Matt pointed out, many of those guys were just trying to make a living. Not an easy life.

2:27 PM 2/17/2008
Here's the downside of Junior's sponsor. We're going to hear the phrase "Amped up" all year.

2:28 PM 2/17/2008
My pick to win, to nobody's surprise, is Junior. I know that nobody's won the Shootout, the Qualifier and the 500 in the same week, but past performance doesn't guarantee future results.

That segment where they asked the drivers about their 500 memories was kinda cool. The first 500 that I remember was Cale winning in that Hardee's car in 1983. What was the first 500 that you remember?

2:38 PM 2/17/2008
Just so you know, we laughed at the gopher everytime they showed him screaming.

3:04 PM 2/17/2008
Most Toyota commercials aren't funny. The Toyota Fan Controller commercial was the first one that was.

3:11 PM 2/17/2008
It's the first time we've heard coopetition and, like every year since DW coined the word, I hate it. It's a stupid word. Just say that they're working together and be done with it. Why do we need a word for it?

3:14 PM 2/17/2008
Larry Mac on the difficulty of the pit crew job. Hey, those crew guys are paid to get all the lugnuts tightened. I don't want to hear how hard it is and I don't want to hear excuses. If they don't get the lugnuts tightened, they're not doing their job.

3:19 PM 2/17/2008
Ok, so what's the special plate on the wheel for? Hammond "explained" it and I still don't understand.

3:28 PM 2/17/2008
Oh, please, please, please, Mike Joy. Resist the urge to call him "Rowdy" Busch.

3:33 PM 2/17/2008
Nobody ever questioned whether Kyle Busch has the fire in the belly. What we question is whether he has discipline and intelligence.

3:35 PM 2/17/2008
We came back from commercial and it was lap 60. We went away to commercial at lap 65. It was 7 minutes between commercials. This is something that the fans complain about that they're right about. There are too many commercials.

3:39 PM 2/17/2008
*sarcasm on* Nice replay, Fox. You didn't point out Sadler's car and it was impossible to figure out who it was. Well done. *sarcasm off*

3:47 PM 2/17/2008
They showed the trailer for Will Ferrell's movie again, and I guess it's supposed to be a comedy, but none of the clips they showed were actually funny. Has he made any movies that are anything but total garbage?

3:58 PM 2/17/2008
I look at Mark Martin with his tire problem and think that could be Junior and I couldn't be happier that it's not.

4:02 PM 2/17/2008
Obvious Statement of the Race: The competition has caught up to the Chevrolets.

4:03 PM 2/17/2008
4 wide isn't good here at Daytona. This isn't Talladega, gentlemen.

4:04 PM 2/17/2008
Justin Timberlake Pepsi commercial. Justin did a song called "Sexy back" recently (I have no idea when). I only know this because somebody had done a video on Youtube with that song using clips of the 2nd Doctor. In the comments, somebody said, "Justin Timberlake couldn't bring sexy back if he hired four guys to help him move it." :laugh:

4:08 PM 2/17/2008
Larry Mac on the 1992 Daytona 500: It was a dogfight that day. What race is Larry remembering? There was a big wreck on lap 82 that took out every competitive car except Davey Allison, Morgan Shepherd and Michael Waltrip. It didn't even matter that Michael blew up with 8 to go, because the race was over after the big wreck. I have no idea what Larry is talking about.

Here's the clip of the wreck on Youtube, btw.

4:16 PM 2/17/2008
DW says, "Gonna be hard to get by that Toyota". Matt Kenseth shows it's not that hard when he drove right by Kyle Busch. Good call, DW!

4:22 PM 2/17/2008
Junior's been in the top 5 all day, but it doesn't look like he's got a winning car. He's still loose. Maybe they've got the car setup so that when the sun goes down his car will get better for the end of the race. That would be a very Hendrick Motorsports-like move if he did.

4:29 PM 2/17/2008
Ashley Judd!! *you should hear the excitement in my breathless, hushed voice* We just saw Ashley Judd!! An honest to goodness moving picture star!!

Well, we just saw somebody who they said was Ashley Judd. She was in shadows and it was difficult to tell whether it was her or not, but I'll take their word that it was Ashley Judd!! Look at it this way. Whenever we see the obligatory Ashley Judd shot, we'll at least know that Dario is in the race.

4:36 PM 2/17/2008
With no cautions, this race is going by very quickly.

4:42 PM 2/17/2008
Denny Hamlin's falling like a rock. Larry Mac, for all his mangling of English, at least got the phrase right, as opposed to Rusty Wallace. In a race last year, Rusty said, "{Racecar driver} is going backwards through the field like a rock."

In case you wondered, I like making fun of Rusty because I couldn't stand him as a driver and I like him less as a tater.

4:47 PM 2/17/2008
DJ finally driving the truck. I said this last Friday, but it bears repeating. Despite not having the raw talent that other drivers had, DJ got the most out of his talent and is one of Nascar's great drivers. I hope he makes these final 4 races.

5:06 PM 2/17/2008
What is DW talking about with "He thought Matt would give him a break"? Ragan didn't drive the car up there on purpose. Matt Kenseth had nowhere to go and his day is over.

5:13 PM 2/17/2008
I'm Ok with the #88 not coming in here. As they pointed out earlier, Tony Jr, Brian Whitesell and Darien Grubb have all won the Daytona 500 before. But, I don't see Junior leading the last 35 laps of this race.

5:23 PM 2/17/2008
What on earth are these guys are looking at? Hornish clearly turned the #48 around. Jimmie may have been getting loose, but Hornish helped him go all the way around. Sam's run well today, but that was a rookie mistake.

5:26 PM 2/17/2008
I don't agree with Junior not coming in this time. He should have come in for 4 tires. Too many laps and the #18 and #20 are too strong.

5:32 PM 2/17/2008
DW says that he would get out of Kyle Busch's way. ??? I wouldn't get out of Kyle's way for anything. These guys are supposed to be afraid of Kyle or something?

5:32 PM 2/17/2008
With this Bowyer caution, Junior will get tires and be too far back to do anything with them.

5:39 PM 2/17/2008
Junior didn't go in for tires. He's still 6th. How is it that nobody mentioned this?

5:40 PM 2/17/2008
The tires are killing Earnhardt.

5:42 PM 2/17/2008
Harvick gave Blaney a bump. That's bad driving by Harvick, bump-drafting him going into the corner.

5:43 PM 2/17/2008
I know it's popular to say that cautions breed cautions, but a better explanation is that these are the last laps of the Daytona 500.

5:48 PM 2/17/2008
That was a great restart by Burton. I don't think he's going to win, but he got a great restart to get them all strung out.

5:54 PM 2/17/2008
DW thinks Tony is going with the #18. Why would he do this? Why would Tony help the #18 win when he can win himself? Does DW even know who Tony Stewart is?

5:58 PM 2/17/2008
What was Tony Stewart thinking? He was on the outside, in front of Newman and Busch, and he went to the inside to help the #18. What was he thinking? Tony Stewart just gave away the Daytona 500. Unbelieveable.

How many of you guys picked Ryan Newman to win? Newman wasn't even in my Top 10 list of guys I would have picked.

Pretty good race. I'm annoyed that the #88 team gave away the race because of the tires. I don't know whether he would have won if he had the 4 tires, but he sure didn't win by staying out. Those communication issues must be fixed before Fontana.

 

I'm not convinced of that, but it's certainly possible. There was definitely room for Newman to make a move to the inside, but I don't think Kurt could have gone with him because I think Kyle was close enough to keep him in his lane. Here's a fun hypothetical.

What if Tony had stayed up top, Newman went low and Kurt Busch wasn't able to follow Newman because Kyle was in the way? If Kurt had pushed Tony to the win over his teammate, that goes off the charts on the irony scale, doesn't it?