Notebook: Daytona 500

Dale Jarrett was pretty vocal during NBC's telecast of the Daytona 500 that perhaps NASCAR should take a look at its rules regarding what makes an official race. After a race is halfway, it becomes official, and in the event of inclement weather, the race could be called well short of its posted distance.

	Michael Waltrip Credit: Autostock

That's what happened Sunday, when Michael Waltrip was awarded the victory 91 laps short of the posted 200-lap distance. Jarrett wondered that since the Super Bowl isn't stopped at halftime if it rains, so maybe an exception for NASCAR's Super Bowl should be made.

Other drivers were on both sides of the argument.

"It's a shame that the Daytona 500 had to finish a little over halfway," rookie Jack Sprague said. "This is the big race that everybody comes to see. They saw half of it."

Other agreed but didn't think a special rule should be made for Daytona.

"I think it shouldn't matter which race it is, it just needs to be consistent throughout all 35 or 36 so we know what we're dealing with every time," Jimmie Johnson said. "No, I'm not upset. You know, of course, I would have loved to race till the end. I felt we had a shot to win the race.

"We've been here for two weeks. This pays the same amount of points was Rockingham does next week. We need to get home and get ready for that. I wish we could have finished under green and been out there. That's kind of a double-edged sword."

One guy who liked the current rule was, of course, Waltrip.

"Oh, yeah, it's just ruining me," Waltrip said if his rain-shortened victory. "You know what I heard? They're still going to pay me the whole amount. That's kind of crazy, isn't it?"

Harvick vs. Busch, Round II

Kevin Harvick called Kurt Busch a "rubberhead" after an incident on pit road Sunday. Rubbermaid, you'll recall, is one of Busch's sponsors. And it wasn't the first time Busch and Harvick had troubles on pit road. They got together in their Gatorade 125 qualifying race last Thursday.

	Credit: Getty Images

As for Sunday, here's what each driver said:

"He came in there, hot as usual," Harvick said. "I don't know what happened, but he was sitting in my pit, and I was sitting on pit road stopped. That's about the third time (he's done that). Then, he about ran over our jack guy, running through our pit stall and ran over our jack.

"They just need to put a restrictor plate on his foot because obviously his foot doesn't register with his brain."

Ouch.

Obviously, Busch had another version.

"I don't think anybody knows what's going on there," Busch said. "We've got three cars running three positions apart right there next to each other. The 01 pulls in, I've got to come around the 01. Then the 29 has to come around him. So we've got three cars. We're going 55 to 0 in a space where you can't park anything. We're all trying to do two tires or fuel only or four tires, and it's the most congested pit area with those three cars pulling in that way. I'm in the middle, so I'm making guys mad behind me and in front of me, so what am I supposed to do?"

Ford: Chevys have advantage

And here we thought NASCAR's aero matching would end the squabbles between manufacturers. But some Ford drivers were complaining of a Chevrolet advantage after Monte Carlos took five of the first seven spots.

"All of the Fords have an enormous amount of work to do to even get in the hunt," said Mark Martin, who finished fifth. "I don't even know if a Ford led a lap today. I would be surprised if they did. There was no one that had a chance to win with a Ford, so that means we have to go to work. We've got to find something new that we didn't know was out there to be able to take a step and contend."

	Mark Martin Credit: Autostock

Martin's teammate, Jeff Burton, sang the same song.

"Our speedway program's behind some, and then on top of that, take the advantage that the Chevys have, and that makes it that much worse," said Burton, who ended up 11th.

Martin the thief

Martin was as pleased as he could be to finish fifth. Winning the race would have been criminal, he said.

"Let me tell you something, for me winning with that car I'd have had to have a gun and a mask," Martin said. "That wouldn't have been right, so to run fifth was really awesome."

Bodine almost steals one

Todd Bodine was in a position to steal the victory Sunday. Bodine stayed on the track during the penultimate caution to get the lead but his team decided to pit when the race was going back to green. The rains came soon after, and Bodine was left with an 18th-place finish.

"Yeah, we took a shot," Bodine said. "You've got to gamble when you're in that position in the Daytona 500. You've got to gamble and we did, but it didn't pay off. We had to come back in with the one to go to change tires and fuel it up, and that put us back in the pack. We were fighting our way back through, but we needed more time. We had a better car than 18th and we felt like we could get a top 10."

	Todd Bodine Credit: Autostock

Bodine said his team was looking at the weather radar, which indicated rain was coming.

"Yeah, we had everybody telling us what was happening," Bodine said. "(Car owner) Travis (Carter) was standing by the radar, the spotter was up there trying to be the weatherman, and we rolled the dice. It didn't work out, but it was something we had to do."

Stewart in better shape

Winston Cup champion Tony Stewart began his run for the 2003 title in a much better position than last year. He finished 43rd in 2002 but ran up front and finished seventh Sunday.

"It's our best Daytona 500 finish, so I'm excited about that," Stewart said. "But we ran in the top-three pretty much all day and even led at one time. We had a better car than a seventh-place car. Part of me is really happy and excited, considering we left here last year 43rd in points. But at the same time, I'm a little bit on the sad side because I know we could've finished better than where we did."