Chip Carter's Newsroom

Jimmie Johnson and Michael Waltrip sit on the front row for this Sunday's Daytona 500. For Johnson and Hendrick Motorsports it is business as usual, for Michael Waltrip, it is a stunning turn around. Remember one year ago, Waltrip was caught cheating, inspectors found a fuel additive in his engine, his crew chief and team race president were thrown out of Daytona.  It was an embarrassing start for Toyota, Waltrip's Napa sponsor and for Michael Waltrip.  Now he sits on the front row and Toyota's had four cars in the top 8 spots, including Lakeland's Joe Nemechek, who is now guaranteed a spot in the Daytona 500 and Zephyrhills David Reutimann, who is also guaranteed a spot in the Daytona 500.  Both of them still have to race in the Gatorade Duels to find out where they are starting, but the big bonus was just getting locked into the 50th anniversary of the Daytona 500.  For the first time in Reutimann's cup career he is locked into a race going into Sunday, so now all his crew has to do is work on getting his car race ready.  Joe Nemechek was driving for a new sponsor "Furniture Row" a sponsor that had never had a car make the Daytona 500 and Nemechek whose knickname is "Front Row Joe" for all the poles that he wins, almost had the pole for this race as well.

Now the question is what kind of a race will we see on Sunday?  No one really knows, the Bud Shootout, gave you a little bit of a clue...but remember there were only 23 cars running in that race....so you didn't get the complete picture of how teams and cars would handle in the draft.  There also were not any rookies running that bumpy pavement at nearly two hundred miles an hour and rookies are always a factor in Daytona.

 In Daytona, the formula for winning is handling + horsepower = a trip to victory lane, but I think you need to add one more equation to that formula this year, handling + horsepower + track position = a trip to victory lane.  That track position will depend on team work, we saw how important that was on the FOX broadcast of the Budweiser shootout....Dale Earnhardt Jr, needed and got help from his teammates, to win the Bud shootout...teams know they will need the same kind of cooperation to beat the competiton on Sunday.

I love going to this race,  you know drivers will have a little extra motivation, trying to win the 50th edition of the Daytona 500.  For all the inside information you need on this race, everything from our 50 Greatest Moments in Daytona history, to photo galleries and exclusive web coverage, you need to check out our web page www.insidedaytona.com that page is just loaded with information.

So, who wins this race?  Its still too early for me to make a prediction, that will come Thursday after the qualifying races.....but, if you think you know now, put it on the blog and I'll put the picks on the air......