In context of a full season, 500's significance fades

They danced in the falling confetti and sprayed champagne, hugging and cheering and celebrating around the big gold trophy in Victory Lane. Ryan Newman and Roger Penske both saw long winless streaks end on a breezy Sunday night at Daytona International Speedway, in the only event in NASCAR that by itself can add significance to a career. A $1 million bonus, thick champion's leather jackets, an appearance on Letterman, the car enshrined in the speedway's museum -- they all pale in comparison to the one sliver of racing immortality a driver and a team carved out for themselves by winning the 50th running of the Daytona 500.

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Over the course of a lifetime, it means everything.

Over the course of a season, it means nothing.

Such is the conundrum of NASCAR's biggest race, a mutant hybrid of specialized parts, rules, and qualifying procedures that portends virtually nothing for the remainder of the year. It's like playing the Super Bowl on a 110-yard field, or the World Series with a larger ball. No discredit intended toward Daytona, the most important 2.5 miles in stock-car racing, and an arena with an unshakable legacy personified in the former champions featured in events over the course of the week. But let's face it -- the Sprint Cup drivers could have pedaled bicycles around the big track Sunday, and provided an equally accurate glimpse of what might happen over the next nine months.

What makes Daytona stand out -- the restrictor plates, the draft, the convoluted qualifying format, the protracted nine-day run-up -- also makes it somewhat inapplicable to the rest of the season. In the 36 years that comprise NASCAR's modern era, the winner of the Daytona 500 has gone on to win the series championship just five times: Jimmie Johnson in 2006, Jeff Gordon in 1997, Cale Yarborough in 1977 and Richard Petty in 1974 and '79. Last year, Johnson finished 39th at Daytona and won the title. In the grand scheme, how irrelevant can the Daytona 500 be? Just look at 2002, when last-place finisher Tony Stewart won the championship, and race winner Ward Burton wound up 25th overall.

A more telling barometer may well be California Speedway, where the tour competes on Sunday. Yes, the same California under constant scrutiny because of its attendance, and the quality of the racing, and the fact that it tries to meld the often contrary worlds of NASCAR and Hollywood. But it's also a fast, unrestricted intermediate track of the type NASCAR teams will see 14 times this season. The winner of the spring race in Fontana has gone on to finish sixth or better in final points nine times in 11 years. The last four winners of the first (and before 2004, only) race at California -- Gordon, Greg Biffle, and Matt Kenseth back-to-back -- have gone on to place third, second, second and fourth, respectively, in New York.

When it comes to a more accurate picture of how the season may shape up, this coming Sunday should prove to be much more telling than last Sunday. Not that Daytona is without its precursors; the Toyota engines were nothing short of phenomenal, and they could be even stronger on big intermediate tracks where horsepower is everything. New teammates Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch look very comfortable with one another. Open-wheel expatriate Sam Hornish Jr. hung in the draft like a NASCAR veteran, and might have been up front with his other Penske teammates at the end had Johnson not come down across his nose. Amazing what can happen when a team knows it's in the field, and can concentrate primarily on race setup.

Everything else that happened in Daytona? Who knows. Hendrick Motorsports isn't nearly as bad as the problem-induced finishes of Johnson, Casey Mears, and Gordon -- 27th, 35th, and 39th, respectively -- would suggest. Dodge, which consistently trailed Toyota and Chevrolet in testing, isn't likely to place six cars in the top eight anywhere else soon. And while Kurt Busch finished last year strong and showed plenty of moxie in rebounding from his early Daytona 500 difficulties, Penske's team probably hasn't ascended to the level of Hendrick and Gibbs.

Overall, it was a good week for NASCAR. Even though the new car was being used at Daytona for the first time, there wasn't a spate of infractions and penalties. Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s performance and the presence of all the living past Daytona 500 champions gave the event a buzz that seemed to be missing the past few years. Television ratings were up -- barely, but up nonetheless -- as the event produced a memorably close finish for the second consecutive season (read more).

But if history has taught us anything, it's that the season begins in earnest this week. Teams leave the dazzle and flash of Daytona behind, and embark on the long grind ahead. The Daytona 500 is the most important, most lucrative, most meaningful single race in NASCAR. No argument there. Winning it guarantees a place in history. But in the context of a full season, its significance fades as the confetti settles, the spectators head for the parking lots, and the team haulers make that left turn out of Daytona International Speedway, bound for the long road ahead.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.