Can anyone stop the Chance 2 juggernaut?

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - The NASCAR Busch Series competitors may not be at the highest level of stock-car racing, but they do have a grasp for the obvious.

When talking about the favorites for this weekend's Winn Dixie 250 at Daytona International Speedway, Bobby Hamilton Jr. and Kyle Busch know who has the cars to beat.

	Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Martin Truex Jr. Between them, the Chance 2 Motorsports drivers have won the last six Busch Series restrictor plate races they have entered. Chance 2, a sister team to Dale Earnhardt Inc., won both races this season and all three last year.

Earnhardt Jr. won the 2002 Busch Series opener at Daytona, but that was in a Richard Childress Racing car.

The last time another Busch Series driver beat a Chance 2 driver was ... well, it hasn't happened yet. Jason Keller won at Talladega and Joe Nemechek won at Daytona in 2002, but Earnhardt Jr. wasn't entered. And neither was Truex, for Chance 2 hadn't been started yet.

"Obviously we all know that to win we will have to beat the DEI cars," Hamilton Jr. said. "They are going to be real fast like they are every week."

And especially at Daytona and Talladega.

Truex won the pole, while Earnhardt won the Hershey's Kisses 300 at Daytona in February. A Chance 2 car didn't win the pole at Talladega (Clint Bowyer did in an RCR entry), but Truex finished first and Earnhardt Jr. second in April there.

Are they unbeatable? Busch said no, but he didn't sound too convinced.

What will it take to beat them?

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"I think mainly trying to get hooked up with someone like Ron Hornaday or David Green or somebody like that and just trying to stick together and go to the front and try to just basically manhandle those DEI boys and try to keep them behind us," Busch said.

"It's going to be tough, obviously. When Dale Jr. and Truex Jr. get together, they're pretty tough and they're real fast, just like Junior and Michael Waltrip in the Cup Series.

"If Junior leads the whole race again, I don't know what we're going to do."

But that's exactly what happened last July, when Earnhardt Jr. led every lap of the Winn-Dixie 250.

"At some point some other team is going to win a restrictor plate race in the Busch Series," Hamilton Jr. said.

Well, sure. But when?

If Truex and Earnhardt have anything to do about it, it won't be this weekend.

"I've been anticipating this race ever since we left Daytona in February," Truex said. "DEI and Chance 2 have the best restrictor plate program in the series, and that gives me, as a driver, a big advantage."

Doesn't hurt to have Earnhardt Jr. on your side, either.

"The biggest advantage I have on my side is Dale Jr. as a teammate," Truex said. "When were in Daytona earlier this year, we were able to show we could be good in qualifying. Now, we want to go back and show we can qualify and run well at Daytona.

"Our win at Talladega was great. It really was good for the Chance 2 team and everyone who helps us at DEI. But this time we want do well at Daytona from start to finish of the racing weekend."

Who would bet against him? Or Junior?