Leffler looks to ride wave to Daytona Busch race

There was the second-place starting position that ended in a 22nd-place finish.

Then four of the next five races resulted in crashes and DNFs. All told, after six races Jason Leffler's average finish was 29.66. And that was a skewed number thanks to his lone bright spot in a sixth-place finish at the road course in Mexico City.

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Oh, what a difference half a season makes.

"Our season didn't start off the way we had expected to say the least," said Leffler, who sat 23rd in the standings after he crashed at Bristol. "We had the speed and we ran really strong, but we just couldn't finish races, whether it be of fault of our own or just plain bad luck.

"But over the last few weeks we seem to have overcome those problems and have put down some strong finishes and have gained a lot of ground in the point standings."

In the last five races, Leffler's worst finish is 14th at Kentucky. He hasn't led a lap, but he hasn't needed to, either. He has collected a pair of third-place finishes, coming at Nashville and Milwaukee. His average finish over that span: 8.6.

More importantly, he's moved from 20th in the standings to fifth in those five races.

And now he goes to Daytona for Friday night's Winn-Dixie 250 (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2), where he will try to land that superspeedway finish he was looking for after a promising start in February.

"As a driver, I enjoy mixing things up every now and then so it will be fun to switch gears from short-track to restrictor-plate racing," Leffler said. "I enjoy the mental challenge of that style of racing. Anything can happen in an instant, so you have to be on your toes at all times."

Leffler has three top-10 finishes in seven Daytona starts, and his worst performance there was in February.

The problem, as most drivers know, is that Lady Luck doesn't discriminate in terms of finding her next victim at the 2.5-mile superspeedway.

"Our goal is to survive and have a good points night," said Carl Edwards, who is dominating the standings but has been hit or miss at Daytona. In his five starts, he has three top-10s as well as finishes of 36th and 39th.

Added Greg Biffle: "Daytona is a tough race because you can have the best car out there but that doesn't necessarily mean you will win."

Enter Kevin Harvick.

The defending series champion's worst Daytona finish in 10 Busch Series starts is eighth. His average finish is 3.5, and he's led laps in six races there for a total of 159 laps led. But it wasn't until February this year that he won his first race at the track.

"It's way more mental than physical," Harvick said of Daytona. "You're worn out by the end of the race. You spend a lot of time looking in the mirrors anticipating the other guy's next move."

And even if that other guy is a teammate who helped you get to the front in the draft, it may not matter.

"When it comes to about five to go, you've kind of got to start fending for yourself a little bit," said Casey Mears, who last raced at Daytona in 2004. "You want to help your teammate as much as you can, but at the same time I'd much rather win the race than finish second. But if you don't work with somebody you could very easily finish 32nd as well."

Fortunately for Leffler, he'll have support. Teammate Dave Blaney finished second at Daytona in February, and Brian Vickers will be running a third car for Braun Racing. He finished second in this race one year ago.

Leffler just hopes it's his turn.

"With restrictor-plate racing, it doesn't always come down to who has the best car -- luck is a pretty big factor because you are at the mercy of the 42 other cars on the track," he said. "I expect the team to continue building on this momentum throughout the second half of the season and to accomplish two of the goals that we set at the beginning of the season -- to finish in the top five in the point standings and to give Toyota its first Busch Series victory."