Daytona Is Revving Up

Winning the pole for the Daytona 500 is no guarantee for success in the Great American Race at Daytona International Speedway, but that won’t deter engineers, crew chiefs and mechanics from making one final tweak on their cars before today’s time trials.

Each tweak, they hope, might save a couple of thousandths of a second in two laps around the 2.5-mile tri-oval.

The front two cars for next Sunday’s 500 will be determined today when a field of 57 cars preen for their sponsors and battle for the coveted front-row positions in the opening event of the Nextel Cup season. The remainder must wait until Thursday, when their starting berths will be determined by their finishing order in two 150-mile heats.

Only twice in the last 18 years has the pole winner won the 500, the most recent being Dale Jarrett in 2000 and Jeff Gordon in 1999.

Winning the Budweiser Shootout, as Jimmie Johnson did Saturday night in front of an estimated 85,000 chilly spectators, does not assure future success either. Only five times in 26 years has NASCAR’s prologue winner also won the 500.

For one thing, the cars used in the Shootout are not the ones that will qualify and race in the 500. Because it is a sprint -- 20 laps, a recess, then 50 more laps -- it does not pay to put No. 1 equipment in the race and take a chance of getting it beat up.

Johnson, second in last year’s Nextel Cup Chase, led the last 14 laps after Greg Biffle had led a record 44 laps in the early going. Ryan Newman finished second, Gordon third and Tony Stewart fourth.

“It’s not the Daytona 500, but it’s my first [restrictor] plate win,” Johnson said. “We’ll see if we can’t come back and do it again on Sunday.”

Johnson, who started 17th, said his biggest concern was holding off the pack behind him in the last few laps.

“If they would have gone down through the grass, I was going to go there because I wasn’t looking out the windshield,” said the winner. “I was all in the mirrors trying to use the brakes and use the guys behind me in a way to keep them back there and keep myself in front.”

Biffle slid back to fifth in the late-race shuffle.

“I’m pretty happy getting my feet wet tonight,” said Biffle, a Shootout rookie. “We wanted to win tonight, but we want to win the 500 and we’ve got a better car for the race.”

Although lead changes were rare, intense competition for track position back in the field kept fans on their feet and crews with their fingers crossed.

“There was a lot of craziness out there,” Gordon said. “If everyone drives like that in the 500, there’ll be a lot of cars torn to pieces.”

Nextel Cup champion Kurt Busch, who finished sixth, said, “There are a lot of smiles on pit road because we didn’t wreck and everybody has their car to show for it.”

Mark Martin, starting the final year of his illustrious career, probably put the Shootout in perspective as far as it relates to the 500.

“I’ve been coming here 20 years and I didn’t learn anything tonight that I hadn’t already learned five times over,” Martin said. “It’s the same old Daytona and everything is the same to me.”

The question on nearly everyone’s mind about the 500 is how to beat the Dale Earnhardt Inc. pair of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Michael Waltrip in a restrictor plate race. They have won three of the last four Daytona 500s and two of the last four Pepsi 400s, the summer race here.

Talk in the garages is that DEI may have self-destructed with Earnhardt and Waltrip switching crew chiefs, breaking up the pair of Earnhardt and Tony Eury Jr., his cousin. Pete Rondedau is Earnhardt’s chief now.

“It don’t matter what we do, people will still say what they want,” said a rather exasperated Earnhardt, last year’s 500 winner. “It was the same last year when we were so inconsistent, people were always trying to analyze it. Eventually, we’ll do what’s right and win.”

Earnhardt did not look good in the Shootout. He was forced to drop to the rear when the crew had to change transmissions. He finished eighth.

Nevertheless, he said there was one positive in preparing for this year’s Daytona 500.

“I don’t have to keep hearing people ask me if I can win the Daytona 500. It’s done and now I want to get going with this season,” he said.

NASCAR has introduced a new qualifying format, designed to award consistency and past performance.

The first 35 in 2004 car owner points will automatically get into the 500 no matter where they stand after today’s time trials. Two not among the 35 will qualify from each of Thursday’s heats and three more will make it through their qualifying time. The 43rd car will be available for a former series champion not otherwise qualified.

What happens today in time trials is significant not only to the front pair but also to those in the back because the last-place car in the 500 is guaranteed a minimum $219,931. That is more than some races pay to win.

Veteran Bobby Gerhart survived an accident-marred ARCA race that sent 13 drivers and four photographers to the care center to win the Advance Discount Auto Parts 200. Gerhart, who started on the pole, edged Frank Kimmel, who started 41st, when the race ended under caution. Former open-wheel champion J.J. Yeley finished third.