Ward Burton's Dodge Intrepid during the eighth annual "Brickyard 400" on August 5, 2001

photos by Bob Jennings 

Do you know this feeling? It's late January or the start of February. The Christmas holidays are far enough in the past that people are looking ahead to warmer weather, rather than looking back. It's Saturday morning, which means there is time to drink coffee and ponder life without the pressure of hurrying to work. The sun is shining brightly outside, which makes you think about spring. If you're like me, when you think about spring, you think about racing. The first important race each year is the "Daytona 500." When you get the feeling I'm referring to, Daytona is right around the corner. The closer it gets to the day the "Daytona 500" is run, the more exciting it gets. 

From the time I became aware of the "Daytona 500" in 1959, I paid attention to what happened at Speedweeks in February. I watched all the TV coverage presented each year from the Daytona" prior to going to the first closed circuit telecast of the race in 1967. Usually that coverage from Daytona came on the ABC Wide World of Sports program the following Saturday. There was an atmosphere at Daytona that was easy to interpret and difficult to ignore. 

Beginning with the inaugural "Daytona 500" in 1959, the race had something special. It took numerous photos, countless hours of review and a couple days of deliberation before NASCAR gave Johnny Beauchamp's win (in a Ford Thunderbird) to Lee Petty (racing an Oldsmobile). The Petty - Beauchamp photo finish set the tone for what was to follow, as drama at the checkered flag became a common occurrence in the "Daytona 500" in the years to follow. 

Another reason for the appeal of the "Daytona 500" was because the cars went very fast around the 31 degree corners at Daytona International Speedway. They were racing modified passenger sedans faster at Daytona than custom built open wheel race cars were going at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May. For me that was significant. 

The advent of Daytona International Speedway completed the transformation which began in 1950 when Darlington Raceway opened. NASCAR went from being a group of Southern "boys" playing with "souped up" cars on weekends to a big time professional series. 

The early runnings of the "Daytona 500" featured 60 or more cars in the starting field. If I could find an old "Daytona 500" program among the many piles of my stuff, I could be more exact in my numbers. But I do recall that it seemed like racers from all over the country (and sometimes the world) showed up at Daytona International Speedway in February to race. Obviously the real NASCAR "pros" had an advantage, but it was nevertheless an era of "run what you brung."

NASCAR legend Junior Johnson won the second annual "Daytona 500" in February 1960, driving a Chevrolet. Fireball Roberts was a hometown guy from Daytona Beach. He was the fastest man at Daytona International Speedway, in February 1961, in a black and gold Pontiac built by Smokey Yunick, another Daytona Beach resident. Roberts dominated the 1961 race but fell out (I think) near the end of the race, which enabled Marvin Panch in another Smokey Yunick Pontiac to win. The next year Roberts came back in a new Yunick Pontiac and dominated. Finishing second to Fireball in the 1962 race was the young son of Lee Petty, Richard, driving a Plymouth.   

The "Daytona 500" truly became the second biggest race in the world one year later, a genuine big time affair with the world watching. Ford Motor Company raised the stakes at Daytona when they came with an armada of fast back Galaxies. The factories had pulled out of racing after the 1955 season and denied involvement until Ford showed up in force at Daytona in 1963. 

Tiny Lund won the race in one of the new Galaxies in a true Cinderella fairy tale. The winning car's original driver was Marvin Panch. Panch was hurt in a fiery crash at Daytona, practicing for the sports car race. This was in the years before the sports car event became a 24 hour endurance contest. Lund was the first to arrive at the scene and pulled Panch out of the burning race car. To show his gratitude, Panch asked his car owners, the Wood Brothers, to put Lund in his car for the "Daytona 500." Lady luck was riding with big Tiny in the race. Ned Jarrett was leading in another Ford, but had to pit for gas with only three laps remaining in the 1963 race. I think I'm correct about that.    

Since Ford already did it, Chrysler Corporation decided to pull out of the manufacturer's agreement to boycott racing too. The boys from Mopar came to Daytona in 1964 with a new 426 cid hemispherical head V8 engine to power their new Plymouths and Dodges and they brought as many cars as Ford did the previous February.

The legend of Richard Petty grew out of the Ford - Chrysler wars in NASCAR. Petty kicked Ford's butt at Daytona in 1964. This resulted in the first of seven "Daytona 500" wins by "King Richard." Chrysler was upset about some sort of rule change which they claimed gave Ford an advantage and Mopar pulled out of NASCAR for 1965. So while the NASCAR "golden boy" from suburban Chicago, Fred Lorenzen, beat all the other Fords in the 1965 "Daytona 500," Richard Petty ran a Plymouth Barracuda on various drag strips across the southeast. But Richard Petty and Chrysler came back to Daytona in February 1966 with a vengeance, with another dominant performance on the way to his second win in the event. 

Within a few weeks of the 1966 "Daytona 500" Ford withdrew from NASCAR competition. I think the boys from Dearborn were just plain pissed because the Plymouths and Dodges were so much faster, although they hid behind a claim that NASCAR was favoring Chrysler, just as the Mopar teams had done before the 1965 "Daytona 500."     

I remember the first time I watched the "Daytona 500" as it happened. It was February 1967. I viewed a black and white closed circuit telecast of the race being shown on a big screen at the National Guard armory on North Pennsylvania Street in downtown Indianapolis. The reception for the closed circuit showing was fuzzy and the sound was bad, but seeing the "Daytona 500" from flag to flag for the first time got me excited and I became caught up in all of it. I think the 1967 "Daytona 500" was the only time I ever pulled for Mario Andretti to win a race. 

In my opinion, the 1967 "Daytona 500" was among the finest races of Mario Andretti's career. He was sensational. Once the 1967 Daytona race sorted itself out, there was no question about who was fastest. I read an article in a recent issue of Racer magazine by David Phillips in which Mario Andretti recalled winning at Daytona in February 1967. Mario told Phillips he had Richard Petty, Fred Lorenzen and the other NASCAR regulars "handled" in that race. I remember it well. Andretti had everybody "handled" in that race.

I was a big supporter of Ford Motor Company's racing program in those days. If Jim Clark wasn't in a particular race, then I wanted a Ford powered entry to win. When I watched Mario Andretti sliding the number 11 Holman-Moody Ford Fairlane around the Daytona high banks, with its tail hanging out as if Mario was running a dirt track, I was excited. It was my first big "Daytona 500" memory and I was happy with Andretti's win. I thought it was intriguing when the Indy car champion was able to go south and beat the NASCAR guys in their biggest event. That was part of the appeal of the "Daytona 500." It transcended NASCAR. It was bigger than the other races partly because it drew competition outside the regular NASCAR circle of competitors. 

The battle of the Ford and Chrysler factories also made the cars faster and faster. In 1967, Curtis Turner qualified Smokey Yunick's Chevy Chevelle on the "Daytona 500" pole at 180.8 mph. When Ford Motor Company came back to Daytona International Speedway in February 1968 with new fast back Ford Torinos and Mercury Cyclones, the speeds jumped ten mph. Within a few years they were closing in on 200 mph at Daytona. During the same period, race cars surpassed 180 mph, then 190, then 195 mph at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but Bobby Isaac and Buddy Baker already surpassed 200 mph at Talladega and were only a few miles per slower at Daytona.   

Let's take a moment to think about that. Cale Yarborough, Richard Petty and the rest of the NASCAR headliners were wrestling those big, boxy sedans around Daytona, well over 190 mph more than 30 years ago. Compare that to Jimmie Johnson's 185.831 mph lap to win pole position for Sunday's 44th "Daytona 500." Doesn't something about that comparison seem strange to you?

It was pretty cool the way things developed during the Ford - Chrysler era in the 1960's. One year Ford would show up with the fast package and the Mopar guys had to work like hell to catch up. The next February, the Dodges and Plymouths would have a decided advantage on the Fords and Mercurys. That's the way it was. If a manufacturer wanted the faster car they had to engineer an advantage which is the way it should be. But the faster car that was engineered also had to be a legitimate product. In other words, if they raced it, the same model had to be in the showroom for people to buy.

Here's a prime example of the way it used to be done in NASCAR. In February 1969, Ford came to Daytona with a brand new engine, the "Boss 429." It was a rocket! Unfortunately Ford hadn't put enough units of the new engine into the customer market by "Daytona 500" time. They called this process homologation. I don't recall the exact number of engines and car bodies that had to be in dealer show rooms before a particular component could be raced. The number 5,000 comes to mind, but I'm not sure about that. So with little more a week before the "Daytona 500," the Ford teams had to replace the new "Boss 429" power with the previous "standard" 427cid unit. It wasn't until the NASCAR race at Atlanta, one month later that Ford was allowed to race the "Boss 429" because by then the homologation rule had been met.       

In those days NASCAR let the competition develop the way it was supposed to, rather than try to keep things even with artificial rules changes prompted by complaints from disgruntled teams. Of course the primary reasons teams are disgruntled is because the NASCAR template forces the cars to be aerodynamically inferior depending on the current rules. Let the teams race their cars with the same body style that comes from the manufacturer the way it used to be done. If the Ford Taurus and Dodge Intrepid only comes in a four door model, than race it that way. Why should a four door model become a two door when it comes to the race track? After all, isn't NASCAR supposed to be stock car racing?     

At the same time, if NASCAR didn't choke the engines in their race cars for air so badly, they wouldn't need to rely so much on aerodynamics. At the conclusion of the telecast of the Budweiser Shootout on Sunday February 10, Benny Parsons commented on TNT that he felt NASCAR needed to give the teams about 25 more horsepower to work with so there could be some passing. Amen! 

If 1967 was a big year during the era of Ford versus Chrysler in NASCAR, 1968 was even bigger. Ford came with new slant back Ford Torinos and Mercury Cyclones. If ever an auto manufacturer built a  car with NASCAR in mind (to that time), it was the Ford Torino and its twin the Mercury Cyclone. Those cars were neat. Now they look big and boxy. In fact the more I think about it, the new models looked like a copy of the fastback Dodge Charger from 1966 and 1967. But in 1968 they looked wild. When the Torinos and Cyclones were flying around the high banks at Daytona, it was a beautiful sight. I think these were my all time favorite NASCAR machines.

After going to the closed circuit telecast the previous February, I was really keyed up for the 1968 "Daytona 500." They shifted things to the Murat Theater, but the show was still black and white and I still couldn't hear anything. Fortunately they used a lot of white captions on the screen. They were hard to read but better than nothing and I was having fun.  

Ford Motor Company divided up their stars and NASCAR teams between Ford and Mercury. Mario Andretti ran a Cyclone for Holman-Moody. Yet his Holman-Moody associate David Pearson was driving a Torino. Ford also had A.J. Foyt in Banjo Matthews' Torino and Donnie Allison in another Holman-Moody entry. Cale Yarbrough was in a Wood Brothers Mercury and Lee Roy Yarbrough was in another Cyclone prepared by Junior Johnson.   

Chrysler Corporation was playing for keeps too and they also pulled out all the stops to take back the "Daytona 500" with the new design long sleek Plymouth Fury and Dodge Charger.  Keep in mind that in 1967 Richard Petty won 27 NASCAR (it was called the Grand National series back then) races on the way to his second season championship. Petty's 1968 Daytona Plymouth featured a vinyl roof with a surface like a golf ball. Petty claimed the reason for the unusual innovation was because the dimpled vinyl roof was expected to help the blue number 43 move through the air with less resistance - like a golf ball.  

Chrysler also had Buddy Baker, Bobby Allison and Bobby Isaac in Dodges, along with Al Unser, who was making his only "Daytona 500" appearance in Cotton Owens' Dodge Charger. So the Ford and Chrysler armies were both heavily armed.

The contest looked like it was shaping up to be a classic, with Yarborough's Mercury on the pole and  Petty next to him in the Plymouth with the vinyl "golf ball" roof. The two 125-mile qualifiers (actually I believe they were 100 miles in 1968) were rained out so the first chance we got to see the new cars race came in the tenth annual "Daytona 500."

The vinyl roof came loose on Petty's car and flew around in the turbulence for several laps. Years later when I was living in Chicago, I'd see a vinyl roof flapping loose from an old "low ridin" metallic lime green Buick or Oldsmobile on the Dan Ryan Expressway and it would remind me of Richard Petty's car in the 1968 "Daytona 500." 

Al Unser put on a great drive (my boy) to finish fourth, but that was the best result for the forces from Mopar. Cale Yarborough had the fastest car in the race, but the Wood Brothers Cyclone experienced clutch problems (I hope I'm right about all this but I have to confess I'm doing this from memory) at the halfway mark. The extended pit stop for repairs dropped Cale one lap behind.  

Lee Roy Yarbrough took over the lead in Junior Johnson's yellow number 26 Mercury and as the race moved into the later stages, it began to look like it was his turn to win the "Daytona 500." But Cale Yarborough (remember it's Cale Yarborough from South Carolina and Lee Roy Yarbrough from Florida)  was in a hurry. The white and maroon Wood Brothers with the big gold 21 on each side was racing against time to make up for the earlier problems.  

Cale kept chipping away at the deficit and racing the clock, trying to catch up. As the laps wound down, Yarborough drew closer. He made up his lap and judged the yellows perfectly. If I recall correctly, Mario Andretti and Buddy Baker had a big crash early in the second half of the race which helped Cale in his pursuit. 

Somewhere (remember this is from memory) around lap 180 Yarborough moved into second place, although he was still several seconds behind the leader Yarbrough. Car 21 kept the pressure on car 26 and got closer and closer each lap. However the question remained whether there was time for Cale to catch Lee Roy. The big crowd at the Murat was going wild and from what little I could hear, the crowd at Daytona International Speedway was enjoying it too. 

Yarborough was relentless. I wonder what Yarbrough thought as he looked in the mirror to see Cale drawing closer each time they passed the finish line. Cale had too much and on lap 197 he drew alongside Lee Roy. I wish I had a photo because I don't recall who was inside when Yarborough took the lead coming out of the fourth turn. There was nothing Yarbrough could do and he followed Cale to the checkered flag. I was happy with this. Yarborough was a Ford guy while Lee Roy had only recently joined the Ford brigade.

One year later it was Lee Roy's turn to shine in Junior Johnson's Torino when he passed Chargin' Charlie Glotzbach's Dodge Charger coming off the final corner on the final lap to win. 

I took Guy Nadeau with me to the closed circuit telecast in 1969. By then I was hooked even more on the "Daytona 500" and I could hardly wait for the race to start.

Ford decided to spend big money when they signed Richard Petty to lead the attack in NASCAR for 1969. Petty started his association with Ford with a win at Riverside, California a few weeks before Daytona Speedweeks. Ford didn't run Mercury Cyclones at Daytona in 1969. Perhaps the corporate big shots were embarrassed that Mercury won the 1968 race. So Cale Yarborough's Wood Brother number 21 was also a Ford Torino. David Pearson won the 1968 NASCAR championship driving the metallic blue and gold number 17 Torino for Holman-Moody. Pearson was back in number 17 at Daytona in 1969. A.J. Foyt, Donnie Allison and 1968 "Indianapolis 500" winner Bobby Unser were in other Holman-Moody Torinos.

Chrysler's program suffered a setback when they lost their star Petty to Ford. But performance wise the Mopar program was nearly on a par. When NASCAR threw out Ford's new "Boss 429" engine after  Speedweeks opened, it put the Ford teams into chaos as they had to revert to the previous year's "Tunnel port" 427 cid engine. Without Petty, I believe Chrysler was concentrating on racing the Dodge Charger. Buddy Baker, Glotzbach, Bobby Allison and Bobby Isaac headlined Chrysler's lineup.          

By 1969 I became a big fan of David Pearson and felt like he deserved to be a "Daytona 500"  winner. Pearson's quest for "Daytona 500" victory became one of my big racing adventures. However Pearson's number 17 wasn't fast enough to keep up with the Torinos driven by Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison. I believe Cale fell out of the 1969 race about halfway through. Then Donnie took over until the final series of pit stops. Like I already wrote, this is from memory and admit I'm a bit fuzzy about this. But what the hell, it's fun to read isn't it?         

Of all the Ford drivers, the one I least wanted to see win was Lee Roy Yarbrough. But Lee Roy was the only person standing between a Chrysler Corporation win in the "Daytona 500." So Guy, who'd just purchased a brand new Ford Mustang Mach I, and I were screaming encouragement as Yarbrough's white number 98 Torino chased Glotzbach and passed Charlie's purple and white Ray Nichels Dodge The Daytona telecast was still in black and white but I know Glotzbach's car was purple and white from photos I saw later. 

I was pleased that a Ford won but not nearly as much as I'd been with Mario Andretti's win in 1967 or  Cale Yarborough's Daytona win the previous February. Ford Motor Company barely survived the Mopar assault, with or without Richard Petty.

Let me clarify something here. I have to be honest, I don't care much about NASCAR. If you've looked at this website at length you're probably already aware of that. I watch NASCAR races and my current favorite Tony Stewart is a NASCAR racer. But the only time I get excited about NASCAR is in February when they run the "Daytona 500." When Ford and Chrysler were going at it during the 1960's, it didn't bother me a lot to me if a Dodge or a Plymouth won every other race on the NASCAR schedule, as long as a Ford (or Mercury) won the "Daytona 500." David Pearson won his third NASCAR championship in 1969 in his Holman-Moody number 17 but that wasn't as important as having him win the "Daytona 500."

Going into the 1970 "Daytona 500," the list of past winners included Lee Petty, Junior Johnson, Marvin Panch, Fireball Roberts, Tiny Lund, Richard Petty, Fred Lorenzen, Mario Andretti, Cale Yarborough and Lee Roy Yarbrough. With the possible exception of Lund, everyone else on the list was worthy. But for me, the list was incomplete without David Pearson's name. I was becoming impatient.    

Chrysler must've been tired of losing to Ford. They talked Richard Petty into coming back for 1970 and  came up with the wildest cars ever seen in NASCAR. If the Ford Torinos and Mercury Cyclones that Ford Motor Company first brought to Daytona in 1968 were produced with NASCAR in mind, the Plymouth Super-birds and Dodge Daytonas were totally off the page. How many times did you see a Super-bird or Daytona coming down the road with the high flying wings and wedge nose section? Who would've had enough nerve to drive one on public streets? Richard Petty was leading the Chrysler brigade again and a second Plymouth Super-bird from Petty Enterprises was entered for Pete Hamilton. Buddy Baker and Bobby Isaac were running Dodge Daytonas. 

Ford had a response. For 1970, the Torino was streamlined and renamed the Torino Talladega. Mercury was back too, although I think the Mercs were still called Cyclones. Cale Yarborough's Wood Brothers Mercury was on pole position for the 1970 "Daytona 500" despite suffering from painful injuries in a bad crash in one of the final NASCAR events of the 1969 season at Texas World Speedway. Lee Roy Yarbrough was back in another Ford Torino Talladega entered by Junior Johnson. Donnie Allison, Bobby Allison and A.J. Foyt had Torino Talladegas too and my guy David Pearson was running his usual Holman-Moody blue and gold number 17 Ford. 

My friends Joe Lowe and Cindy Faust (they married about one year later) joined me at the Murat for the Daytona closed circuit telecast and I tried to instill some of my enthusiasm before the race began. The adrenaline was pumping when I sat down with Joe and Cindy for the start of my fourth "Daytona 500" telecast. Of course I wanted to see a Ford or Mercury come through to win, but I was mainly focused on David Pearson by February 1970.

Cale Yarborough had the fastest car during the first half of the 1970 "Daytona 500." But the Wood Brothers number 21 was out by the halfway point of the race. Then it was David Pearson's turn to take over. Pearson's car 17 looked steady in the lead as the race progressed and I began projecting how I was going to feel when he won.

Richard Petty was out of the race early and he was coaching teammate Pete Hamilton from the pits. With that big wing sticking up in the air, Hamilton's Petty blue number 40 Super-bird closed on the leader Pearson. Hamilton drew closer and closer to Pearson, much like Cale Yarborough had done to Lee Roy Yarbrough during the final laps of the 1968 "Daytona 500." 

Pearson was using every bit of his experience to keep the young driver from New England (Ricky Craven not only looks a lot like Pete Hamilton but he reminds me of the former NASCAR Rookie of the Year with his New England mannerisms too) behind car 17. David knew Hamilton was running strong. It looked like the race was going to come down to the final pit stops.

I'm not sure why the Holman-Moody guys decided to only give Pearson two fresh tires. Perhaps they felt it was advantageous to get David out quickly. Remember, they didn't use radio communication in racing in 1970. So I don't know how Pearson was able to communicate his preference to the Holman-Moody crew or what his preference was. Maybe the decision for two tires was made by John Holman or Ralph Moody, standing on the pit wall as they watched Hamilton catch Pearson before the pit stops. Whatever the circumstances, it was the wrong decision.

Richard Petty had a better idea. Hamilton's Super-bird took on four tires, which made his stop longer and Pearson was out first and on his way. Unfortunately once both drivers had returned to racing it was  immediately apparent Hamilton was faster. I wish I had a book of statistics because I don't remember exactly how many laps remained in the race. Off the top of my head, I believe there were something like 15 after the pit stops.

I knew that Hamilton was going to catch Pearson on the race track. My only hope was that David could find a way to keep from being passed. David tried as best he could but the two old tires left on during the pit stop were going away and car 17 was slipping and sliding in every corner. When Hamilton finally made the pass with (I think) three laps to go, Pearson nearly lost control because he was trying so hard to hold off the blue number 40 Super-bird.

It was hard watching the final moments of the 1970 "Daytona 500." I was very disappointed! Not only did David Pearson lose his best chance at winning the "Daytona 500" to that time, but Ford gave up possession of the race it had won for three consecutive years. To add insult to injury, I didn't consider Pete Hamilton a legitimate "Daytona 500" winner. My 22 year old psyche was dealt a disappointing blow. I was dejected as I drove my 1969 Ford Mustang away from the Murat.    

Things changed drastically in NASCAR in 1971. Bill France Sr. handed control of NASCAR to his son Bill Jr. R.J. Reynolds tobacco was coming on as sponsor of the entire NASCAR Grand National season, which was being shortened drastically from 50 or 60 races to something like 29 or 30. Even more important in the context of this piece, the factories were tiring of NASCAR. It hadn't been officially announced yet, but everyone knew Ford and Chrysler were set to pull the plug on their respective racing programs.

But there would be one final Ford - Chrysler showdown in the 1971 "Daytona 500," although each had cut back substantially. NASCAR banned the winged Plymouth Super-bird and Dodge Daytona for 1971. So Chrysler decided to consolidate their effort into one team, Petty Enterprises. Richard Petty was in the customary blue number 43 Plymouth, while Buddy Baker had a red number 11 Dodge. Bobby Allison had taken David Pearson's seat at Holman-Moody. Pearson went to drive a Mercury for his Spartanburg, South Carolina neighbor Bud Moore. Cale Yarborough abandoned NASCAR for a full time Indy car ride, at the urging of Firestone. A.J. Foyt was hired to drive the Wood Brothers Mercury at Daytona with Donnie Allison taking the seat in car 21 for most of the other NASCAR races.

The 1971 "Daytona 500" closed circuit telecast was in color. But it was also the final time the race was presented on closed circuit. This set a rather somber tone for the proceedings as I went to the Murat to watch the race on a snowy morning. Foyt was fastest at Daytona in February 1971. A.J. led most of the race. But a problem with fuel during the final pit stop relegated Foyt to a third place finish behind Petty's Plymouth and Baker's Dodge. After the race, a rag was found in the fuel tank in the Wood Brothers Mercury and Foyt justifiably claimed sabotage.  

Thirty two years later I sit at my computer trying to finish this "offering" with the 44th annual "Daytona 500" less than two hours away. I'm glad I'm not still a big Ford fan because I don't think the Fords or Dodges have much chance to win today's race. It looks like an especially good day for General Motors.

One year ago, racing's biggest star Dale Earnhardt died when the black number 3 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet hit the wall in turn four, within sight of the finish of the "Daytona 500" while his son chased Michael Waltrip to the checkered flag. The emotional impact of Dale Earnhardt's death was unlike anything I've seen in racing.

Hopefully Dale Earnhardt didn't die in vain. The rules changes implemented by NASCAR for today's race ought to make the racing more legitimate than last year's event, which was one of the most ridiculous situations I've witnessed. The continuous high speed pack of cars that characterized the 43rd "Daytona 500" was a recipe for disaster and that was the result of NASCAR's stupidity.    

Who is going to win today? I'll say the winner is going to come from a group of four drivers which includes Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Michael Waltrip and Tony Stewart. If you want to pin me down, I'll predict Stewart is going to win the 2002 "Daytona 500."  Obviously it will make me very happy if Tony does win today's race and I'm excited about that prospect.

Before Daytona Speedweeks got underway on Friday February 8, I wasn't thinking as much about the "Daytona 500" as I usually do this time of the year. Actually it didn't seem like many of the drivers were that excited about returning to Daytona International Speedway either. Carburetor restrictor plates have come close to ruining the "Daytona 500." The Winston Cup races at Daytona and Talladega in 2001 were an abomination, a pack of cars being driven by aerodynamics with the drivers merely along for the ride.

The new rules for today's race look like they're an improvement, if the "Bud Shootout" and the twin 125 qualifying races on Thursday are any indication. But things still aren't the way they should be. It's utterly stupid for a NASCAR racing car to only go 185 mph at Daytona. The NASCAR trucks go 190 mph around Daytona. Can you believe that? The trucks run faster than the Winston Cup cars.

However, it's still the "Daytona 500," so let's go racing.