Ryan Newman surprises at Daytona!
Monday, February 18th, 2008By: Drew Hierwarter
Michael Annett, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin, Todd Bodine, Tony Stewart, and Ryan Newman. These seven men all have one thing in common; they all made it to Daytona International Speedway’s, Victory Lane during Speedweeks, 2008. It started on Saturday, February 9, when Bill Davis Racing’s development driver, Michael Annett won the ARCA 200 which, traditionally, is the opener for Speedweeks.
Following the ARCA race, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. answered the biggest question of the winter off-season; how soon would he win for his new boss, Rick Hendrick? The answer was; first time out of the box as the new 88 team easily won the 70 lap “Bud Shootout”. The next day it was Jimmie Johnson’s turn as he qualified his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet on the pole for the fiftieth running of the Daytona 500.
The following Thursday, Earnhardt won again, taking the first of the “Gatorade Duel 150” qualifying races. It was beginning to look like the 500 would be a Hendrick Motorsports’ benefit. Denny Hamlin had something to say about that however as he powered his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to victory in the second “150”. The field was now set for “The Great American Race” and the only question seemed to be which Rick Hendrick or Joe Gibbs car would win.
On Friday night, it was the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series competitors turn at the big speedway. After seventeen years of trying in NASCAR’s various divisions; Sprint Cup, Nationwide Series, and Craftsman Truck Series, Todd Bodine finally found Daytona’s Victory Lane. It was win number 13 for the 2006 series champion and his first at Daytona.
“I tell you, this is my 20th year coming to this speedway — three as a crew member and 17 as a driver,” said Bodine, “Seventeen years, and we finally got there.”
Bodine was followed under the checkers by Kyle Busch and Johnny Benson in the kind of exciting finish that has become so typical of this series.
Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch dominated the action in Saturday’s Nationwide Series race. Stewart led 46 of the race’s 120 laps while Busch led 47. But as he did in the trucks on Friday night, Busch ran second on Saturday too as Tony Stewart took the lead with three laps to go. Dale Earnhardt, Jr’s third place finish was the best he could do against the fleeting Gibb’s duo.
“The situation was that you’ve got two great racecars with two great drivers in front of me,” said Earnhardt, “Tony says I’m one of the best restrictor-plate drivers, but he’s right there with me.”
And that brings us to Sunday, and the Golden Anniversary running of the Daytona 500. Unless you’ve just returned from a weekend stay on Saturn, you probably already know that Ryan Newman was the race winner. What you may not realize is that this was also car owner Roger Penke’s first Daytona 500 win, (after 35 years of trying) the first win for the team in a restrictor plate race, and the first 1-2 finish for Penske South Racing in a NASCAR Cup race. Second place Kurt Busch received a lot of credit for helping push teammate Newman around leader Tony Stewart on the last lap.
“Obviously, [I want to thank] Kurt Busch. Without a doubt, he could have easily gone three-wide and split us through the center and made one heck of a mess going into [Turn] 3. But he chose to be a teammate — and I would have done the same thing for him.”
Kurt’s little brother Kyle dominated parts of the race, leading 86 of the 200 laps but had to settle for fourth place behind teammate Stewart. The two of them worked together to get to the front late in the race but they couldn’t hold off the last lap charge of the two Penske Dodges. And those Penske Dodges had been relatively quiet throughout speedweeks. Newman started the race from the seventh position and Kurt Busch started all the way back in forty-third. Most expected the Gibbs’ Toyotas and Hendrick’s Chevrolets to be the cars to beat, but the Dodges surprised everyone and accounted for six of the top eight finishing positions. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was the highest finishing Chevrolet in ninth.
This was the first competitive use of the new car in NASCAR’s Cup Series at Daytona and it was an unqualified success. To a man, the driver’s said that the need for them to actually drive the car has returned. The cars moved around a lot in the draft at 185 mph and the driver’s had to be “up on the wheel” all of the time. From the drop of the green flag, the action was intense as the lead changed 42 times among 16 different drivers and for all of the race’s 200 laps positions were constantly being shuffled throughout the field.
The fiftieth running of Daytona Speedweeks now goes into the history books. The stories that go with it will be told and told again. People will talk about the elation of Kenny Wallace and John Andretti when they raced their way into the 500 on Thursday, and how their success led to the disappointment of Boris Said who was then bumped out of the race. They will talk about three time 500 winner Dale Jarrett whose plans for retirement meant that this would be his last Daytona 500. They will talk about this being the first 500 since 1962 without a Wood Brothers entry. They will talk about Tony Stewart, still trying to win his first Daytona 500 and leading the race as they flashed under the white flag, only to have to settle for third by the time they came back around to the checkers. They will be talking about this year’s Daytona 500 for a long, long time.