Full Throttle

This years Daytona 500 should have a post race name change to the Irony 500.

Ironic because Jimmie Johnson’s #48 bags his first 500 in the events 48^th running. Ironic that a team heavly criticised in the past for creating “big ones” not only didn’t create one but also survived and won with a subsitiue crew chief. (Hell even those that dislike him handed out praise)

The Ironic 500 saw the most vocal driver during pre-race festivities on “aggresive drivng,” make an obvious and blatant attempt at crashing someone. Yet after 3 back to front charges still managed a fifth place start to his title defense. The other antagonist of the duo, Matt Kenseth, finished 15^th.

Kyle Petty met irony, in addition to Carl Edwards, when his former driver Jeff Green’s wreck also took out Kyle.

And the most ironic twist of fate was Kurt Busch, who ran up front all day, saw it all end when run over by his replacement at Roush Racing, Jamie McMurrray. (Will these two ever be “separated” again?)

Hat tips have to go to Stewart, for the drive of the day, despite all the controversy. Clint Bowyer the highest finishing rookie, and I have to say it, Kirk Shelmerdine.

Kirk Shelmerdine pulled into Daytona on a hope and a prayer and less than a full complement of shoestrings for a budget. It took old friends of the late Dale Sr. and Shelmerdine to even have enough tires to start on race day. With the $272,008 collected for his 20th place finish maybe he can make it to Fontana. It might be a bit of a stretch to say Kirk may be just as happy as Johnson, but not by much.

Oh… and my pick to win the championship this year? Lets just say he starts in a 151 point hole and leave it at that shall we?

One other pre-season pick to finish the year in the top twenty, Hall of Fame Racing (hold your laughter please!), ran strong til late then got caught up in someone else’s mess. But it’s not a total loss, Troy Aikman gets the quote of the week when asked about the rules violation that sent Labonte to the back of the field: “There’s a part of me that feels like we’ve caught up to this sport pretty quickly.” Ah, well… OK.

A couple notes on the media. When, if ever, has the last race been when the green flag was delayed because of a camera problem for the TV crew. In this case it was Kevin Harvick’s roof top camera covered by a plastic bag that caused the delay. I can’t ever recall it happening, but it shows the importance of one of the most interesting shots that are provided. And again, irony rears its head, not many in car shots were shown because of the prevailing weather in the area.

The other media note concerns this headline from the Seattle Post Intellengencer: Earnhardt Jr. among leaders at Daytona 500. On it’s face nothing unusual, Jr. was up front all day. But the AP report was filed three-quarters through the race! Has the adoration for Dale Jr. inflitrated the media to the extent they feel compeled to file an in race report. I don’t remember ever seeing that occur before either, at least not from a MSM source.

So, now that that’s over we can look forward to the “real” start of the season at Fontana next week. Daytona is so unlike anything that follows, at least until Talladega, to use it as a guage for the season is an exercise in digging for fool’s gold.

I expect the field will be back in familar form next week. The Hendricks team and all the Fords back up front and the Dodges, Intrepids or not, trailing behind.