Full Throttle

According to Tommy Baldwin who looked over the #21 Wood Brother’s Sprint Cup entry prior to qualifying the car is an “absolute masterpiece” and “the best looking car at a superspeedway.”

The owner/crew chief of Tommy Baldwin Motorsports went on to predict on Friday that the #21 would be fast.

Not a bad bit of prognostication by Baldwin as Elliott clocked the fastest time in both practice sessions – 187.645 in the first, 187.950 in the second.

“You can’t tell about this business,” Elliott driver of the #21 said. “Right now, we just need to beat the go-or-go-homers. That’s where we need to concentrate and let the rest of it fall where it may.”

Jack in the Hat also added his two cents: “My guys tell me they’ve [the #21] got the nicest looking car with the most detail on it of any car they’ve seen,” Roush said. “If I can’t have the pole tomorrow in one of my cars, I hope they get the pole.”

Who ever said Jack didn’t have a heart?

All the adulation aside, both Jack Roush and Eddie Wood had more than a few words to say about the go-or-go-homers entered in the 51^st running of The Great American Race.

“There’s a lot of people trying to take advantage of what’s going on here,” Eddie Wood said after watching Bill Elliott top the speed charts on Saturday in the famed #21 Wood Brothers Ford. “I’m not a fan of that. I don’t like that.

“Yeah, you come here to race. That’s why it’s the Daytona 500. A lot of people are coming down here to be opportunistic about things. I don’t go for that. I don’t like it at all. I’d quit first.”

“What they’re doing is not the way it’s done,” Wood said. “It’s not what the sport was built on. I’ll argue that till the end.”

“It’s like going to a baseball game and knowing you’re going to lose when you get there but you’re going to be there,” Wood said. “It’s not me. I’d quit.”

Jack Roush, the co-owner of Roush Fenway Racing, agreed.

“That wouldn’t be the thing to do,” he said.

A top NASCAR official (unnamed of course) said many of the cars by the 15 new owners at Daytona were purchased from the now defunct Bill Davis Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing (after a switch to Chevy livery) for less than $20,000, with at least one for $6,500.

My question is, where the hell was I when the 6,500 hundred deal went on sale? I’d a sold the wife’s Mitsu Pajero - at the risk of not “getting any” for months - to land that plum offering!

My second thought is, I’d love nothing better than to see one of the “have nots” win the 500. It would obviously be a cannon-sized shot in the arm for one of the 15 “new owners,” (or Woods and Yates for that matter) but it would serve to quell the incessant squealing from the anti-multi car team group within NASCAR Nation.

It might only last a week and their obvious retort would be, “it’s Daytona, anything can happen,” but it still would be a nice “I told ya so” for a bit of time.