DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Danica Patrick's coming out party in Sprint Cup racing's biggest ball of all -- the 54th Daytona 500 -- was pretty much over before it ever really began.
updated: Tue Feb 28 2012 09:35:00
After rain delayed the Daytona 500 for a day, a fiery crash with 40 laps to go pushed the ending until Tuesday.
updated: Tue Feb 28 2012 04:15:00
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney attends the 54th annual Daytona 500.
For a sport where speed is king, NASCAR's Daytona 500 this year was one long waiting game.
For the first time since its inaugural race in 1959, drivers competing in NASCAR's Daytona 500 started burning rubber at night and on a Monday after Florida showers forced a day-long delay.
It's easy to find Danica Patrick at Daytona International Speedway. Just look for the pack of photographers, the whirring of their cameras capturing the every move of NASCAR's newest star.
To NASCAR fans desperate for the way it used to be, the vision was as breathtaking as seeing water in the desert.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Being dethroned as Sprint Cup champion forced Jimmie Johnson to re-evaluate, reinvent this offseason.
Take predictions for what they're worth. If you believe them, well, then some people say, according to the Mayan calendar, the world will end Dec. 21, 2012. Before that happens, though, SmartMoney advises investing in Google, AT&T and a Canadian maker of a fertilizer component. And just so you know, the Farmer's Almanac calls for above-normal temperatures this winter across most of the Southern and Eastern U.S.
SPEEDWAY, Ind. -- Their names bond, linked in a way that the Four Corners converge in the Southwestern U.S. While these individuals aren't viewed as the Four Horsemen of NASCAR, they are four for history.
INDIANAPOLIS -- For its first 45 years of existence, NASCAR dreamed of racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The track was the motor sports mecca of the world and the home of the world's most famous race -- the Indianapolis 500 -- which began in 1911.
There was nothing but a ribbon of empty road in front of him and, further ahead, the biggest prize of his career: the Daytona 500 checkered flag. As the Sprint Cup race last February was extended beyond regulation because of a caution flag, David Ragan led the field to the green flag for a few more laps at the 2.5-mile tri-oval, confident that he was going to win for the first time in his Cup career. In second place, next to him for the restart, was rookie Trevor Bayne.
MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- Imagine being NASCAR's newest star -- a fresh face who had just won the biggest race of the year in only your second Sprint Cup start with the promise and potential of a great career ahead of you. Then imagine being in a hospital bed two months later with a mysterious illness that potentially could have ended your career.
In a contrite voice hollowed by another late-race setback, Tony Stewart asked crew chief Darian Grubb for forgiveness.
Two days after a stunning Daytona 500 victory, 20-year-old Trevor Bayne continues to crisscross the talk show circuit with a charm that suggests yes, he's this year's American Idol jolt NASCAR needs. Wading through everything from a radio interview on the Dan Patrick Show to walking the red carpet in San Francisco's Ghirardelli Square, he's handled it all with a savvy and a smile that suggests the Tennessean's been in front of the limelight for decades.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Trevor Bayne has been cast a savior, an exorcist of old ghosts and current demons, the 20-year-old shepherd who would lead NASCAR back to the land of unbridled success it enjoyed the past few decades.
Related Galleries for the Feb. 28, 2011 issue
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- It's time to put the Daytona 500 to bed and focus on the rest of the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, beginning with Sunday's race at Phoenix International Raceway.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The winning combination to Sunday's 53rd Daytona 500 was simple -- oldest team; youngest driver.
Daytona 500 stories in the SI Vault
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Trevor Bayne's victory in Sunday's Daytona 500 is a reward for his sacrifice and humility that he displayed throughout SpeedWeeks. That he won NASCAR's biggest race in his second Cup start is one of the biggest upsets in auto racing history.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Trevor Bayne's victory in Sunday's Daytona 500 is a reward for his sacrifice and humility that he displayed throughout SpeedWeeks. That he won NASCAR's biggest race in his second Cup start is one of the biggest upsets in auto racing history.
"I don't like to be a favorite," Kurt Busch said on Thursday. "I like to be an underdog." Well, after winning the Bud Shootout and the first Gatorade Duel qualifying race, Busch is anything but an underdog. Sunday's Daytona 500 is full of them, though. Don't have a rooting interest in the race? The following three drivers are true underdogs deserving of your cheers.
The Daytona 500 can propel a driver to prominence, just ask Jamie McMurray, the surprise winner of the 2010 event. It's probably the only race that comes close to matching the accomplishment of winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship. It is also the start of a grueling 36-race season that ends four days before Thanksgiving.
DAYTONA, Fla. -- He pulled himself out of his black-and-red No. 29 Chevy and immediately gazed at his car like it was his most treasured possession. Kevin Harvick had just finished third in his qualifying race on Thursday afternoon at Daytona International Speedway, but he couldn't have been much happier. "I feel really, really good about this car," Harvick said as he walked off pit road and into the garage. "We led a bunch of laps today [20 of 62] and stayed in the lead pack. It's winning the big race that matters. And all in all, I really like our chances in the Daytona 500."
"That's one small step for NASCAR, one giant leap for NASCAR-kind." OK, maybe I stole that quote from Neil Armstrong, but the suits down in Daytona Beach have been begging for a shred of positive news heading into their Super Bowl. On Tuesday, they finally got it from an unlikely source: the Nielsen ratings, which showed a slight increase from 4.4 to 4.5 for the Bud Shootout, while Daytona 500 qualifying from Sunday was up 19 percent.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Thoughts and observations while dealing with a driving rainstorm at the start of Thursday's Daytona 500 Media Day...
MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- So NASCAR's baby boom has struck another Daytona 500 and this time it involves 2003 Cup champion and 2009 Daytona 500 winner Matt Kenseth.
The words "racing" and "chess" typically don't go together that well. One competition takes you 10 minutes to travel over 20 miles, while in chess you might not have made a move in the same length of time. But as testing continues down at NASCAR's 2.5-mile superspeedway mecca, one main theme remains clear: The 53rd Daytona 500 will come down to a battle of wits.
Hope big and compromise with what you can accept. With that bit of wisdom in mind, here are 11 somewhat fervent, somewhat frivolous hopes for motorsports in 2011.
KOONTZ LAKE, Ind. -- Turn the page, it's 2011, and in just a few weeks a ridiculously short offseason will be over and it will be back to racing. In fact, by the end of the month the sports car teams will head to Daytona International Speedway for the first major racing event of the season -- the Rolex 24 at Daytona. That begins Speed Weeks 2011, followed by the Budweiser Shootout on Feb. 12 and the Daytona 500 on Feb. 20.
1. Jimmie Johnson wins fifth consecutive Sprint Cup championship. The careers of most of the Sprint Cup drivers younger than 35 will eventually be considered in context of the Jimmie Johnson era. Like baseball's Dead Ball Era, Johnson's dominance will influence the consideration of every achievement within it. And there's no telling when this epic NASCAR epoch will end. Not in 2010. Johnson withstood a challenge from Denny Hamlin, overtaking him for the title in the final race of the season in what might be both Johnson's and crew chief Chad Knaus' most masterful effort.
NAPERVILLE, Ill. -- After the success team owner Chip Ganassi achieved in three major racing series in 2010, the question going into 2011 is simple: How is he going to top that?
Wednesday should have been the rare example of a NASCAR rule tailored to perfection: the Hall of Fame selection process. It took over six decades for the sport to build a shrine, but the way these nominations unfolded each of the last two Octobers has been disappointing and short-sighted at best.
It wasn't supposed to end this way for Mark Martin.
The list of drivers who have won the Brickyard 400 in its relatively short 16-race history is extraordinary. It is an exclusive club of nine and eight have also been either Daytona 500 or Sprint Cup champions. Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Dale Jarrett, Bill Elliott and Jimmie Johnson have won all three. Tony Stewart, Bobby Labonte and Kevin Harvick own two of the three.
FONTANA, California -- If Jimmie Johnson goes on to win a fifth-straight NASCAR Sprint Cup title this year, he can thank his "Golden Horseshoe" that seems to be stuck in a certain part of his anatomy. And there's no place where a "Golden Horseshoe" is more important than Las Vegas, site of next Sunday's third race of the season.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- When NASCAR announced its 2010 season would be known for "Have at it, Boys," it didn't have in mind a road crew with shovels full of asphalt, filling a pothole on the race track of its biggest race. But that's how this year's Sprint Cup season began, and race officials can only hope things improve dramatically this weekend at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The major gripe for NASCAR fans last season -- in the midst of a major dip in ratings and attendance -- was the racing had gotten too boring.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- For Jamie McMurray, a fresh start with an old team owner was all that he needed to score the biggest victory in his career -- winning the Daytona 500.
SI.com's Bruce Martin is at Daytona International Speedway delivering live insight and analysis from the the 52nd running of the Daytona 500.
Three Daytona storylines that could set the tone for the entire season:
"When you've won everything but the 500, it's hard to have that confidence that you know how to win the 500," says Tony Stewart. "But it's like we know how to win all the other races. We need to figure out how to win the one that matters most."
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- With so many new storylines, including NASCAR eliminating the bump-drafting rule and allowing the drivers to self-police, there is the potential for an even wilder and more frantic Daytona 500 on Sunday. Here's a guide to the first and biggest race of the Sprint Cup season, which, with its 1 p.m. start, will be the earliest for a Daytona 500 since 2003.
MIAMI -- Although restrictor-plate racing at Daytona and Talladega is unlike any other competition the rest of the season, no driver needs to get off to a great start in Sunday's race more than Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Indianapolis and New Orleans will square off in the Super Bowl. To get there, they had to win two playoff games after earning a first-round bye by going 14-2 and 13-3 in the regular season, respectively. But imagine if they had reached the the big game a different way. What if all they had to do was write a check?
MOORESVILLE, North Carolina -- When NASCAR officials announced that their attitude about officiating races in 2010 will be "Have at it, boys," one of the first thoughts that came to the mind of this skeptic was: "Haven't we seen this before?"
Auto racing, and NASCAR in particular, used to be a "man's domain." A sport for those brave and fearless men who loved speed and didn't flinch at danger. Women? Most circuits didn't even allow them in the pits until the 1970s. But these days, Teresa and Kelley Earnhardt are major figures in NASCAR, Danica Patrick is one of the most recognizable drivers in the U.S., and come Feb. 14, the Daytona 500 will be run with the most powerful woman in sports in her new role, that of CEO of International Speedway Corporation (ISC), promoter of The Great American Race and approximately 100 others.
It was only a few short weeks ago that Jimmie Johnson celebrated his record fourth-straight Sprint Cup championship, and yet the start of SpeedWeeks at Daytona is a little more than 30 days away. So, with another offseason about to fly by like cars in qualifying laps for the Daytona 500, it's time to look ahead and make 10 observations and predictions for the upcoming season.
Editor's Note: This column was written at the end of August, but drivers' positions in the standings are current entering Richmond this week.
Matt Kenseth approached his 10th Daytona 500 with a Midwesterner's sensibility. Just like everything else.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Now that the 51st Daytona 500 is a soggy memory and winner Matt Kenseth has made the most of his media trip to New York as the winner of NASCAR's biggest race, it's time to look ahead to the rest of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup season.
Throughout its 60th anniversary season last year, NASCAR aired commercials featuring Matchbox Twenty's rousing single How Far We've Come. The point of the campaign was to assert that a once-regional, down-market, quasi-outlaw sport has broken out, crossed over and revved up to become a mainstream, nationwide phenomenon. And certainly there's no questioning NASCAR's pervasive presence in the American sporting, cultural and, lord knows, commercial landscape. But thankfully racing's still capable of moments of glorious cognitive dissonance.
DAYTONA BEACH, Florida --- Matt Kenseth's surprising, rain-shortened victory in Sunday's 51st Daytona 500 came in a race that desperately needed an ending.
DAYTONA, Fla. (CNN) -- Joey Logano is ready to enter his first Daytona 500, but if he wins this Sunday's race, he won't be able to enjoy champagne in victory lane.
He pounded on the drums and she strummed the bass. NASCAR's first couple, Jimmie and Chandra Johnson, cut loose on Thursday night at a private party in a back room at Daytona's Arena Sports Café, playing the video game "Rockband." They jammed to Pearl Jam's "Alive," a song that could serve as the anthem this week for the entire Hendrick Motorsports team. Because even though the organization didn't win a restrictor-plate race last year for the first time since 2003, Hendrick appears poised to re-exert it superspeedway dominance on Sunday in the 51st running of Daytona 500. Yes, Hendrick Motorsports is very much alive.
Now that the field is set for the 51st running of the Daytona 500, with a pair of Martins on the front row (Martin Truex, Jr. and Mark Martin) and two-time Cup champion Terry Labonte bringing up the rear in the 43-car field, it's time for our annual five-minute guide to the Great American race.
Bill Elliott had the fifth-fastest time in qualifying Sunday for the Daytona 500, guaranteeing a spot for himself and the famous No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford in NASCAR's greatest race. They are, undoubtedly, the happiest group in the garage.
DAYTONA BEACH, Florida --When the green flag drops for the Daytona 500, fans in the grandstands and those watching on television won't notice whether teams tested in the offseason or not. They will see the same type of racing they have come to expect in NASCAR's biggest race. And because of that, NASCAR should make its offseason testing ban permanent for years to come.
Ten days before the Daytona 500, it's still not clear which cars will have to qualify for NASCAR's season-opening Sprint Cup race and which are guaranteed a spot in the lineup.
One of the reasons the Daytona 500 was labeled the Great American Race is partly because it once embodied the American Dream. Back in the late 1950s and early '60s, anyone with a car and a goal had an opportunity to make the race. If you were fast enough to get around the 2.5-mile high banks without cheating, you had a chance to make the field, regardless of whether you had $2 or $2 million at your disposal. Ordinary, blue collar workers could relate to the struggles of an everyday man attempting an extraordinary feat.
MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- Another offseason has vanished, seemingly as quickly as a qualification lap at Daytona International Speedway. By the end of this week there will be Sprint Cup cars at Daytona as a new season officially gets underway with Saturday night's Budweiser Shootout and Sunday's run for the Daytona 500 pole.
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