Insider's View: Wally Dallenbach

Daytona qualifying the most stressful of season

	Wally Dallenbach

The front row for the Daytona 500 will be set in Sunday's pressure-packed qualifying session.

While most everyone's eyes will be on the cars circling the track, there will be more than a few looking up at the sky -- specifically at the huge American flag that flies at Daytona International Speedway.

Why the interest in Old Glory? Because qualifying at Daytona is as much about the weather conditions as it is the driver and car.

Wind plays a major role at ripping off a fast lap at Daytona so it becomes very important to have the weather on your side when it's your time to qualify. If you're lucky, the winds will be calm. If you're not, the flag will be flying stiff into the wind.

You'll see several different lines used in qualifying. Some guys will get their cars right down on the yellow line, hugging the inside of the race track all the way around.

Others will use a middle groove and just point their car virtually down the center of the track. While the inside groove is obviously the shortest way around the race track, there's a risk to taking that line.

Because of the several bumps and ripples down low, cars can sometimes bottom out, scraping their underside against the asphalt.

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This can cause a car to scrub off some speed, if even for a split second, which would be enough to spoil a good lap.

I called qualifying pressure-packed and believe me, qualifying at Daytona is probably the most stressful session of the year. That's because if you don't make the front row, you're forced to earn your spot in the 500 through the Twin 125 mile qualifying races next Thursday.

Those can be some of the wildest races of the season and over the years, many a great car and driver have found trouble in those qualifiers.

Then you're forced to fall back on your time if you're not in the Top 15 and after that, your finish in last year's points gets you in the 500.

That's stressful.

A good time on Sunday goes a long way

So in reality, you absolutely need to qualify in the Top 25 in order to get some sleep during the week and not worry about missing the biggest race of the year.

	Jamie McMurray will have to race his way into the Daytona 500 field. Credit: Autostock

This weekend's other highlight is the Bud Shootout, run under the lights on Saturday for the first time.

I like running these specialty races at night, like the Winston and the Shootout. It brings a new level of excitement to the event and really makes them a spectacle.

Will night racing be watered-down?

However, I'm not a big fan of night racing in general. I really prefer racing in the daytime, on Sundays. Bristol and Richmond are okay and the lights at Charlotte and Daytona have brought more attention to those events, but I think too many night races are a bad thing.

It's like when they added lights at Wrigley Field. A few night games for the Cubs were special, but too many just make them commonplace. I think we're heading for that with more Winston Cup night events.

Saturday night racing also will have a long-term effect on the sport as the short tracks around the country are hurt.

Let's face it, if there's a Cup race on Saturday night, a lot of the people who go out to their local short track are going to stay home and watch it on television.

Eventually it will start killing these little bullrings when attendance drops off and competitors stay home.

I think the short track fans of today, especially kids, become the Winston Cup fans of tomorrow. If you take away the chance for these kids to get hooked on racing at an early age you're severely damaging the potential of building a future fan base.

As I promised last week, here are is my weekly "Pick to Click." Lets look at qualifying, which is really tough to handicap because there are so many variables.

But the Dodge camp still seems to have the handle on superspeedways so I have a hunch there'll be an Intrepid at the front of the field. Throw in past success and lots of experience and I come up with Bill Elliott as this year's Daytona 500 pole-sitter.

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We kick things off with the Daytona 500 and you'll have a chance to win thousands of dollars every week. It's the perfect way to enjoy this year's Winston Cup season even more.