Plenty of Contenders in Daytona Shootout

At least a dozen drivers have staked their claim to the Daytona 500.

The problem, of course, is that just one can win.

That could be Rusty Wallace, who’ll start 10th in the 43-car field today in NASCAR’s richest and most prestigious event.

He’s confident he can get his first victory in 17 tries in the season-opening Winston Cup race at Daytona International Speedway.

“This race would mean everything to me because I think that any good racer that hasn’t won the Daytona 500 would feel like there’s a void in his career,” Wallace said. “I know I surely would.

“That’s maybe one of the reasons I’m so persistent about wanting to get the cars right. I don’t feel like I’m running out of time, but enough’s enough.”

Dale Earnhardt went through the same frustration for 20 years before he finally won the big one last February. The relief was overwhelming.

“Sure, I had some tears in my eyes,” said the man who has built his racing career on tough, aggressive driving. “I’d wanted to win this race for an awful long time, and it’s such a tough race to win.”

Since a lot of other drivers in the lineup feel the same way, the 185,000 spectators who turn out for the $8 million race can expect a shootout.

“It’s going to be wild,” said Kyle Petty, who’s looking for his first win in his 18th start. His father, Richard, won the Daytona 500 seven times.

Asked what he thinks it will take to win on today, the younger Petty said: “Patience. But nobody’s got any.”

Daytona is one of two tracks where NASCAR requires carburetor restrictor plates to slow the cars for the safety of drivers and fans.

But the plates also sap horsepower and keep the field unnaturally even, bunching up the cars and making wrecks a virtual certainty.

“You’ve got no horsepower to speak of, compared to what we used to have,” Wallace said. “Our engines right now in Winston Cup racing are approaching 800 horsepower and, right now, at Daytona we’re sitting here with 400 or 450 horsepower.

“So, it’s all how air works and momentum works. If you don’t have the right amount of momentum when you make a commitment to pass a car, you probably won’t get past him.”

That’s why patience is such a virtue. If a driver steps out of one of the long freight trains of cars at Daytona without another car to help, he’s just as likely to wind up losing 15 or 20 positions as moving forward.

“Everybody is looking to make deals here,” two-time Daytona winner Dale Jarrett said. “And, certainly, during the course of the race you do work together with other drivers. But when it comes right down to it, there are no deals out here. If you believe there are, you’re in trouble.”

Earnhardt, who will start today’s race from fourth--the same place he started last year--showed he’s one of the favorites by dominating his 125-mile qualifying race on Thursday, just as he did in 1998.

“I just loving racing here,” the seven-time series champion said. “It’s always been neat for me to race at speeds like we race here at Daytona.

“Before restrictor plates it was really fun, and it’s still fun ... but you’ve got to really have a great race car and a good handling car. It’s just a race track that suits me. Go flat out and get after it.”

Other favorites will go after it, too.

They include: Jeff Gordon, who begins the hunt for his third straight series title and fourth in five years; Bobby Labonte, who finished second last year and won the other 125-miler on Thursday; Kyle Petty; Wallace; Jarrett; Earnhardt’s teammate Mike Skinner; and Gordon’s teammate Terry Labonte, Bobby’s older brother.

Then there’s Wallace’s teammate Jeremy Mayfield; Jimmy Spencer; Ken Schrader; Mark Martin; and even rookie Tony Stewart, who will make his first career start from the front row.

Adding even more drama to the race is a $1 million bonus that’s up for grabs among Jarrett, Gordon, Terry Labonte, Spencer and Mayfield, the top five finishers in last fall’s Winston 500 at Talladega, the other restrictor-plate track.

If any of those five win the race, they will collect that bonus plus the $1.1 million winner’s share of the record purse.

“You could call it a shootout,” Spencer said. “I just hope we’re the last ones standing when the smoke clears.”