Speedweeks, Daytona 500 the tonics NASCAR needed

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- In what should have served as a fitting reminder that Sprint Cup racing can sell itself just fine, thank you, the 50th running of the Daytona 500 ended in spectacular fashion Sunday.

Doing so has long been a habit in this sport. But let's face it: in light of criticism for sagging television ratings, too many empty seats at too many tracks and too much domination by one race team, the last thing NASCAR needed was for the 50th edition of its biggest race to turn out a dud.

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It wasn't. Not only did Ryan Newman rally for a stirring last-lap victory in his No. 12 Dodge, but there were all kinds of elements leading up to and during the main event that made Speedweeks 2008 a smashing success -- just the kind of shot in the arm that NASCAR could use these days.

Leading up to the 500, most of the talk in and around the garage centered around Hendrick Motorsports in general and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in particular, with a dose of Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing thrown in for a little variety.

Dodge? Ford? These manufacturers were reduced almost to afterthoughts in the onslaught of the Hendrick/Earnhardt and Toyota/Gibbs storylines.

Not that they were undeserving storylines.

Earnhardt, the newest addition to a Hendrick team that already included two-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson and four-time champ Jeff Gordon, blitzed the field en route to winning the non-points Budweiser Shootout and his 150-mile Gatorade Duel qualifying race in the days leading up to the 500. Johnson won the pole, suggesting further Hendrick dominance loomed in the 500.

Toyota, which struggled mightily in 2007 during its inaugural season at the Cup level, flexed its new and much more efficient muscle throughout Speedweeks. The much-maligned Michael Waltrip of Michael Waltrip Racing sat on the outside of the front row after qualifying second behind Johnson. Gibbs driver Denny Hamlin won the second Gatorade Duel, taking a Toyota to Victory Lane for the first time in Cup history.

Hence, who could blame folks for thinking it was going to come down to Hendrick in their Chevrolets or Gibbs in their Toyotas in the historic 500? Then again, perhaps everyone should have known better and expected something completely refreshing and different.

As so often is the case at Daytona, it all got jumbled at the end and Dodge claimed dominance on the day.

Dodge's day
Mike Accavitti, director of Dodge Motorsports, sat back and listened to all the excitement swirling around everyone else leading up to the race and shook his head. He later said that he knew all the Dodge teams -- and especially the Penske Racing duo of Newman and Kurt Busch, who finished second and gave Newman the drafting push he needed to secure the win -- were good enough to win.

"Listening to all the hype this week, you heard a lot about a lot of people besides the Dodge boys. We knew we had a super-strong team," Accavitti said.

And it wasn't just Penske. Driving a Dodge for Chip Ganassi Racing, Reed Sorensen finished fifth. Driving Dodges for Gillett Evernham Motorsports, which is coming off a disappointing 2007 season, drivers Elliott Sadler and Kasey Kahne finished sixth and seventh, respectively. The determined, irascible independent, Robby Gordon, who switched from driving a Ford to a Dodge only a few weeks ago, scrabbled to an eighth-place finish. And Bobby Labonte, driving a Dodge for Petty Enterprises, placed 11th.

Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch finished third and fourth, respectively, in their JGR Toyotas and served notice that the newest manufacturer to the Cup wars will be a force to be reckoned with this season.

The best Hendrick could manage was the ninth registered by Earnhardt, but no one in their right mind is about to suggest that they won't be major players again -- and maybe the dominant ones again -- before all this is over.

Daytona 500

• Win fills Penske's NASCAR void
• Hornish yet another surprise
• Gibbs did all but win the race
• Not perfect, but Junior not bad
• Dodge opens strong in 500
• Blaney's luck sours good run

The only Ford driver to finish in the top 10 was Greg Biffle in 10th, but that was deceiving. Matt Kenseth was having a good day, running up front most of the time, when his own teammate, young David Ragan, inadvertently took him out -- relegating both of them to poor finishes on a day when they deserved better.

Jeff Burton, defending 500 champion Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer -- the three talented drivers of Richard Childress Racing -- also had their moments when they were in the mix at the front. Burton actually was leading on a restart with three laps to go, although everyone, Burton included, knew he was a sitting duck.

Get the idea? In a 500 that featured 42 lead changes -- the most since the 2001 race -- everyone jumped up and got a piece of the action. It's the way it should be.

The human touch
All in all, it was a great conclusion to a fine Speedweeks for NASCAR. There were nice touches throughout -- including nearly all of the past living champions sharing countless stories, each priceless in its own way, with fans and media alike. And how can you beat the thrilling flyovers of the United States Air Force Thunderbirds?

Any NASCAR owner, official or aficionado of the sport's history will say that what makes it all work is the people. And each person in NASCAR seems to have a story.

Almost lost in all the hoopla surrounding Newman's victory on Sunday was the story of his crew chief, Roy McCauley. The win came on the one-year anniversary of his wife, Amy, being diagnosed with cancer.

McCauley was working as crew chief for Kurt Busch at the time, and took a leave of absence to deal with the situation. His wife is doing better now, but it left him with a profound sense of perspective that he now brings to the track along with his dedication and determination to succeed.

He said when he was asked to return to the demanding role of crew chief for Newman -- whom he had been successfully paired up with previously in what is now the Nationwide Series -- he first had to clear it with his wife. She had undergone several medical procedures and was on her road to recovery, but by no means was completely healthy.

"We had to have a serious talk and say, 'OK, we're going to beat this, and we are beating this, and we're not going to let cancer dictate the rest of our lives,'" McCauley said. "So we decided that we needed to go for it, take over the job to run the 12 and try to put Ryan in Victory Lane and Penske Racing in Victory Lane as often as we could.

"I give my wife a lot of credit. She's kind of my rock with wings, if you want to call it that."

He can call it anything he wants. Today, the rest of the racing world is calling him and his driver Daytona 500 champions.

It is a feel-good story and made for a fitting conclusion to exactly the type of opening to the 2008 season that NASCAR needed.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.