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Monday, 09 February 2009 01:31

Martin Truex Jr. won his first Daytona 500 pole (and second overall in his Cup career) wtih a lap of 188.001 mph. Mark Martin, making his 25th Daytona 500 start, will start on the front row for the first time in his career.

And Bill Elliott locked in a spot for the Wood Brothers, a year after they missed the race _ the first time the Woods had not competed in the Daytona 500 since 1962.

A few tidbits from the day:

# Three of the top seven speeds belonged to Earnhardt Ganassi Racing cars with Truex (first), Juan Pablo Montoya (fourth) and Aric Almirola (seventh).

# Hendrick Motorsports (and Stewart-Haas Racing, which gets its engines and chassis from there) took six of the top 12 spots with Martiin (second), Ryan Newman (third), Jimmie Johnson (sixth), Jeff Gordon (ninth), Tony Stewart (10th) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (12th).

# The top 35 are guarnateed a starting spot. Four spots were claimed Sunday by: Bill Elliott, Travis Kvapil, Tony Stewart and Terry Labonte (champoin's provisional). That leaves 4 spots (2 each in the 2 qualifying races) up for grabs Thursday. Among those trying to race their way in are Joe Nemechek, Boris Said, AJ Allmendinger, Jeremy Mayfield, Derrike Cope and Geoff Bodine.

# Jeff Gordon on how he avoided the first crash in Saturday night's Budweiser Shootout:

"I don't know how I came out of that one,'' he said. "It was one of those that you look around and say, "Did that just happen?" It was pretty cool. I just happened to get shuffled back a little bit right then, which was a good thing, and I was able to see the crash starting to happen, which allowed me to slow the car down sooner. Then it was about not locking the brakes up.

# Jeff Gordon on him talking with Jamie McMurray after Saturday night's race.

"I felt there was some pretty aggressive driving that was going on out there. I think Jamie did a great job last night. I wasn't displeased with Jamie at all. I thought he was being a little bit too aggressive with some of the blocks he was putting on guys that were going to cause more damage to his car or the other guy's car than need to be. I understand the final lap of the race or the final lap of the 500, but it was a litlte bit too early. We talked about it. He's doing what he needs to do to try to win the race and he's got a fast car. I wasn't criticizing him. I was just pointing out some things because I like Jamie a lot.''

# Kurt Busch on the difference between Daytona and Talladega:

"Talladega is like an eight-lane interstate where (Daytona) is like a two-lane road carving through the woods and you don't know what's coming around the next bend. There are lots of bumps in the race track where you don't know when your car is going to hit it hard and land awkwardly and you're always fighting the wheel here.

# Martin Truex Jr. on how NASCAR's testing ban helped Earnhardt Ganassi Racing win the pole:

“With all that went on with our team, moving shops and combining our efforts, I think testing would have hurt us more than it would have helped us. It was to our advantage that nobody could test because I think we would have been a little bit behind if we had to.’’

# Bill Elliott, who said a year ago he was going to retire at the end of 2008 after missing the Daytona 500, credits co-car owners Len and Eddie Wood and crew chief David Hyder for bringing him back this season after seeing progress late last year.

“You saw some glimmer of hope. I’m telling you, we as a race team really came together. It might not totally showed, but I felt like a lot of things really came together from that standpoint.’’

Here's the starting lineups for twin qualifying races

Dual 1

1. Martin Truex Jr.

2. Bill Elliott

3. Jimmie Johnson

4. Aric Almirola

5. Jeff Gordon

6. Tony Stewart

7. Paul Menard

8. Greg Biffle

9. Joe Nemechek

10. Joey Logano

11. Matt Kenseth

12. Jamie McMurray

13. David Ragan

14. Marcos Ambrose

15. Scott Riggs

16. Michael Waltrip

17. John Andretti

18. Brad Keselowski

19. Kasey Kahne

20. Robby Gordon

21. Casey Mears

22. Kurt Busch

23. Sam Hornish Jr.

24. Kirk Shelmerdine

25. Tony Raines

26. Terry Labonte

27. Mike Skinner

28. Carl Long

DUEL 2

1. Mark Martin

2. Ryan Newman

3. Juan Pablo Montoya

4. Travis Kvapil

5. Bobby Labonte

6. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

7. Regan Smith

8. Kyle Busch

9. Scott Speed

10. David Reutimann

11. Boris Said

12. Clint Bowyer

13. Denny Hamlin

14. Carl Edwards

15. Reed Sorenson

16. Elliott Sadler

17. Jeff Burton

18. Brian Vickers

19. AJ Allmendinger

20. David Stremme

21. Jeremy Mayfield

22. Mike Wallace

23. Mike Garvey

24. Kevin Harvick

25. Derrike Cope

26. Kelly Bires

27. Geoff Bodine

28. Norm Benning

Why NASCAR's Super Bowl is better then NFL's

Sunday, 08 February 2009 10:04

Race fans say it all the time, I like NASCAR better then the NFL because of X. In particular, you hear it about Daytona.. the aka "Super Bowl" of the NFL. There are lots of blogs out there this Sunday on the topic. This one was the best... As a NASCAR crew chief is apt to do, I'm making a change in the setup, and going to change what I was planning on writing about today. After reading Ken Kooiman's piece entitled "Super Bowl? Get Real!" I was about to jump into the discussion between the author and NASCAR Community Leader Kelly Crandall regarding the difference between the NFL's and NASCAR's Super Bowls. However I found that my thoughts on the discussion were growing into something I …

Remembering Dale Earnhardt, Sr.

Wednesday, 04 February 2009 08:08

I realize this is early, but on the 50th anniversary of another legend's death, I thought it'd be appropriate. He was the Man in Black, the king of restrictor-plate racing, The Intimidator. Three weeks from tomorrow, on a quiet February Wednesday, it'll be the eighth anniversary of his death. Eight years ago, we lost a legend. We lost Dale Earnhardt. His story began in Kannapolis, North Carolina ,where Ralph Dale Earnhardt was born to parents Ralph and Martha Earnhardt. A persistent Dale wanted no part in his father banning him from racing. Sadly, the elder Earnhardt passed away before his son had reached his full potential—a tragedy that would sadly parallel itself 28 years later.

Friday, 16 January 2009 07:10

Ever heard the saying "three's a crowd?" Well it appears that four is actually a crowd at Yates Racing, and David Gilliland may be the one outside looking in. According to SceneDaily.com, Gilliland feels like he is being pushed aside, now that Hall of Fame Racing has joined the Yates stable with past-champion Bobby Labonte behind the wheel of the No. 96. It was first rumored that newcomer, Paul Menard, would receive the owner points from the No. 28, driven by Travis Kvapil, since Menard brought a full-time sponsor. Now, it appears that Kvapil will take over Gilliland's ride, and sponsored car. In the announcement earlier this week, Yates said they would only be fielding three cars in 200…

Mansfield Cancels Truck Race, Closes

Tuesday, 23 December 2008 10:24

One of these days we'll have a story about something growing or getting better in the NASCAR world, but that's not happening today.Earlier in the week, Mansfield Motorsports Park in middle Ohio canceled its Camping World Truck Series race scheduled for May at short track, and in its place, NASCAR shifted the schedule of the third-tier series to include a race at the nearly-brand-spankin'-new Iowa Speedway in September.(I suppose if you're an Iowan, your NASCAR life just improved two-fold with the deal thanks to the track landing a Nationwide Series race date over the summer when the 2009 schedules were announced, so that's something positive, I guess?)Unfortunately for Mansfield, the news go…

DYK : Al Unser Jr

Wednesday, 17 December 2008 10:50

Every once and a while, I'll find an article that shines a completely different line of a topical subject and really makes you think a lot.This week's example? A blog post by ESPN's Ryan McGee titled "The Fall of Al Unser Jr."Unser Jr. -- in case you missed it -- made more headlines the way he hates to last week when an indictment involving a prostitution ring listed him as an extortion victim thanks a tape that supposedly showed the two-time Indianapolis 500 champion in a compromising situation.

The Hendrick Dynasty

Friday, 21 November 2008 07:36

Next month in the grand ball room at the Waldorf Astoria, Jimmie Johnson will be awarded another NASCAR Sprint Cup championship. At that time, Rick Hendrick will add another feather to his cap, which already contains more feathers than a chicken processing plant. Will the next feather in Rick Hendrick's cap be the one labeled "dynasty?" Rick Hendrick was born Joseph Riddick Hendrick III on July 12, 1949. At the tender age of 26, he opened a Chevrolet dealership in Bennettsville, S.C. This dealership was the beginning of what is now the Hendrick Automotive Group, a network of 80 dealerships spread over 10 states with annual revenues of $4 billion. Can success alone be enough for a dynast…

Monday, 17 November 2008 10:13

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DEI merges with Ganassi

Thursday, 13 November 2008 20:07

Chip Ganassi has found a way to make his team not as pathetic as before and Dale Earnhardt Inc. has found a way to keep grasping at being a relevant Sprint Cup Series team.That method? Join the two programs together to create strange bedfellows, cut costs and hope that a math equation of subpar plus subpar finally equals something good.Yep, Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates will be teaming up to make a four-car team in 2009. Two of motorsports' biggest names - Earnhardt and Ganassi - will launch a four-car team beginning in 2009 through the combination of the motorsports operations of Dale Earnhardt, Inc. (DEI) and Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, Inc. (C…

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