Johnson gets off to a shaky start

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Sunday’s Daytona 500 was not the way reigning Cup champion Jimmie Johnson hoped to begin defending his title.

Johnson took the green flag on the pole, then dropped back into the field -- a tactic he often uses until he’s ready to pounce in the closing laps.

But there was no rebound this year.

“We just lost track position and it was impossible to work through traffic,” said the El Cajon native, who won the 2006 Daytona 500. “I felt like we had the car, especially in the beginning.”

Adding insult to injury, Johnson’s No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was collected in a multi-car crash with 23 laps left. He finished 27th.

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As one of the open-wheel racers new to the Sprint Cup Series, Sam Hornish Jr. was expected to use the 500 as a learning experience.

Hornish, whose Penske Racing teammate Ryan Newman won the race, did more than that. The former Indianapolis 500 winner and three-time IndyCar Series champion quickly moved to the front to mix it up with NASCAR’s best.

After starting 19th, the Penske Racing driver had his No. 77 Dodge in the top five early in the race. He dropped a lap to the field at one point, but recovered and finished 15th.

“I’m stoked,” he said. “I’m about as happy as I can be with a 15th-place finish. It’s a big thing for me to just try and learn more and more each time we go out there.”

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Hendrick’s Chevrolets and the Toyota Camrys of Joe Gibbs Racing were the heavy favorites in the race. But Dodge dominated the top of the leaderboard.

Six Dodges finished in the top 10, starting with winner Newman and his Penkse teammate, runner-up Kurt Busch.

Reed Sorenson was fifth, Elliott Sadler sixth, Kasey Kahne seventh and Robby Gordon of Orange was eighth.

“Pretty darn impressive,” said Gordon, who switched to Dodge from Ford this season. Dodge has “always been there but never had the results. It looks like they delivered today,” he said.

Newman’s win also marked the first time a Dodge won the Daytona 500 since Ward Burton won in 2002.

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The team of Dale Earnhardt Inc., founded by the late seven-time Cup champion, paid tribute Sunday to his only Daytona 500 win a decade ago.

Crew members for all four DEI drivers -- Mark Martin, Martin Truex Jr., Regan Smith and Paul Menard -- stood on the pit wall before the race and held up three fingers in honor of Earnhardt’s No. 3 Chevrolet.

Earnhardt won the 500 on his 20th attempt in 1998. In the same race three years later, he was killed in a last-lap crash.

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The three cars of Michael Waltrip Racing celebrated the 50th anniversary of the 500 by starting the race with special gold wheels that will be autographed by the drivers and then sold to raise money for charity.

The wheels on the Toyotas of Waltrip, David Reutimann and Dale Jarrett were replaced on their first pit stops with the team’s normal chrome wheels.

Waltrip, a two-time 500 winner, started on the outside of the front row and finished 29th. “This race defined my career,” he said. “I wanted to do something special to honor this historic event.”

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james.peltz@latimes.com