Daytona Race Review

Daytona
February 18, 2008

Craftsman Truck Series – Chevy Silverado 250: From the looks of Friday nights race the truck series is picking up right where it left off at in 2007. There was plenty of hard fast racing, with lots of bumping and rubbing. If you paid any attention to the truck races last year than you already know who to watch in 2008. Todd Bodine let the most laps and beat out Kyle Busch and Johnny Benson in a last lap charge. It was another awesome three wide finish. This is Bodine’s first truck win at Daytona, congratulations to him and Germain Racing on another great run for the #30 Toyota. The one truck that everyone expected to be at the front challenging was the 99 Ford of Eric Darnell. Darnell led 45 laps and had one of the fastest trucks all-night before being taken out in a crash about lap 87 while trying to pit. Jack Roush had three trucks entered in the race and all three where taken out in wrecks. Every race at Daytona has its big one and tonight’s one came on lap 19 when Kyle Busch hit Mike Skinners Toyota causing a multi-car wreck taking out several possible race contenders. Skinner in his #5 Bill Davis Toyota was definitely one of the favorites to win tonight. Busch’s #51 Toyota spun clear of the wreck and went on to finish second.

Nationwide Series – Camping World 300: Congratulations to Tony and Joe Gibbs Racing on winning the from the pole position. The Toyotas of Stewart and Busch pretty much dominated the race leading almost 93 of the 120 total laps of the race. The end of the race was of course the most exciting with Tony passing Brian Vickers for the lead and his teammate pushing him to the lead. There was an exciting three battle for the second on lap 118 with Kyle, Jr. and Brian Vickers. This was a good battle between three fast cars. The big one came with less than 10 to go when Brad Keselowski got into Steve Wallace causing him to spin and collecting seven other cars in the process. This set up a six lap shoot out that had a great finish. If the racing in the Nationwide Series is this good all year I look forward to watching the races. Even with Joe Gibbs Toyota leading most this race I don’t expect that to happen ever week. The competition in the top 10 was pretty intense. I expect to see Hendrick and Jack Roush win their share of races in this series. One thing I do want to do is welcome Dale Jr. to Hendrick Motorsports. In his first Nationwide race with the team he gets fined and his Crew Chief gets suspend for the next 6 races. Does this sound familiar?

Sprint Cup-Daytona 600. This race had the biggest upset in recent history. Congratulations to Ryan Newman and Penske Racing for stealing the and grabbing what should have been Tony Stewarts first Daytona 500 win and Toyotas first cup win. I am glad to see someone different cross the finish line. The second part of the story is even better. Where was the Hendrick Chevy domination that everyone was rambling about all week? All the press was talking about was how Jimmy Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. was going to own Daytona. Toyota and Joe Gibbs did everything but actually win the race. Between the three Gibbs Toyotas they lead 134 laps with Kyle Busch leading the most laps (86 laps). The Hendrick dynasty only lead 18 between with Dale Jr. leading the more that his teammates with 12 laps led. When it came to team work the only teammate I say that even attempted to help Dale Jr. was Casey Mears. The little bit the Gordon was around Jr. he made little or no effort to work with him. Casey may have fact been the best finishing HMS car if he had not tried to block Tony Stewart on about lap 194. If you looking for Hendrick Chevy to dominate the season then you maybe if for a big surprise. Dodge was not a huge topic before The 500 but with 6 of top 10 finishing cars being Dodge and 2 Toyotas and only 1 each of Chevrolet and Ford this maybe a better season than we had thought. The racing at Daytona was not as bad as I had thought it would be. It was typical restrictor plate racing. The restarts and the last 30 laps or so are always exciting and this weekend proved no different. I am curious to see how things shape up in California this weekend. This is always a good race with high speeds and no restrictor plate.

Send any replies and comments to alf@nascarfansforever.com Thank you.

Good Luck in California

Good Racing and God Bless
Alf

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Re: Daytona Race Review

The 2008 Daytona 500 was the best ever because Ryan won