Former series champions take aim in season opener

By Jarrod Breeze, NASCAR.COM
February 12, 2009
12:05 PM EST

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Regardless of the series, winning the season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway takes on special significance. With nine former champions entered in this year's Camping World 300 (1 p.m. ET Saturday, ESPN2), that especially rings true in the Nationwide Series.

Camping World 300

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The series is welcoming back two former champions to full-time duty in 2009: David Green in the 07 Toyota of SK Motorsports and Joe Nemechek in the No. 87 Toyota of his NEMCO Motorsports. Nemechek has the distinction as the last owner/driver to win a title in the series, in 1992.

Every former series champion since 1998, except for Martin Truex Jr. (2004-05), is entered is this year's race: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (1998-99), Jeff Green (2000), Kevin Harvick (2001, '06), Greg Biffle (2002), Brian Vickers (2003), Carl Edwards (2007) and Clint Bowyer (2008).

But of that group only Nemechek, Earnhardt and Harvick have won a series race at Daytona. They join Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth as five former winners of the season opener entered this year.

The green flag for the Camping World 300 is scheduled to wave at 1:34 p.m. ET.

By the Numbers: Daytona

2Top-10s for David Green in 16 starts. His best finish came in the 1993 season opener when he was eighth; he finished 10th in the '04 season opener. Green, the 1994 series champion, hasn't made a start at Daytona since 2006.

3Wins for Tony Stewart in three of the past four season openers. Stewart has all four of his top-fives and each of his five top-10s since the beginning of 2005, in three different cars.

4.6Average place of finish for Matt Kenseth, best of any active driver. In nine starts Kenseth has finished worse than sixth just once (12th in last year's season opener). His one win came in the 2000 season opener.

5Wins at Daytona by Dale Earnhardt Jr., most of any active driver. Junior won four in a row from 2002-04 including the season opener each year. He finished third in this race last year.

10Top-fives for Kevin Harvick, most of any driver. Seven of those have come in the season opener including his lone win at Daytona in 2007. Harvick finished 21st, his worst result in 13 career starts, in last year's race driving his own car.

17Times in the 34 races at Daytona it has been won from a top-five starting position, but only once in the past 10 races: Tony Stewart's victory from the pole last year.

20Starts at Daytona for Joe Nemechek, second-most of any driver and all in his own equipment. Nemechek has two wins including the 1998 season opener and a track-high four poles. He has fared best in the season openers with three of his four top-fives and five of his top-sevens. However, in six season openers since 2000, Nemechek has one finish better than 32nd.

25Place of finish in last year's race for Clint Bowyer, tied for his worst result of the season (Talladega) for the series champion. Bowyer had never finished worse than 12th at Daytona in seven previous races and had a run of five consecutive finishes of sixth or better. He rebounded by finishing fourth in the Daytona summer race.

67Age of Morgan Shepherd, who if he qualifies will be the oldest driver to start a season-opener at Daytona. Shepherd has six top-10s in 10 races at Daytona but has made only one start since 1994 -- he finished 31st in the summer race last year.

612Points accumulated by Kyle Busch in the past four races, most of any driver. Busch has one win and two runner-up finishes in his past three races at Daytona -- his only top-10s in 10 starts.

The Wow Factor

481Laps led by Dale Earnhardt Jr., nearly two and a half times that of the next active driver, Joe Nemechek (198).

The Super Looper

780Laps in the Top 15 at Daytona since 2005 for Clint Bowyer, best of any driver at 87.2 percent.

Driver Rating at Daytona (since 2005)

Pos.	Driver	Rating	Starts	Wins	Top-5	Top-10	Led

1.	Martin Truex Jr.	111.0	5	1	2	4	93
2.	Dave Blaney	109.3	2	0	2	2	0
3.	Tony Stewart*	109.1	6	3	4	5	106
4.	Dale Earnhardt Jr.*	107.8	8	1	4	5	181
5.	Mark Martin	106.2	1	0	1	1	0
6.	Clint Bowyer*	105.3	8	0	5	6	39
7.	Kevin Harvick*	104.8	8	1	6	6	56
8.	Kyle Busch*	102.2	8	1	3	3	170
9.	Brad Keselowski*	94.6	2	0	1	1	28
10.	Matt Kenseth*	94.2	2	0	1	1	2

* Entered in this year's race

Blast from the Past

7Series victories at Daytona for Dale Earnhardt, the all-time leader. Earnhardt won his first start there in 1982 and his last in 1994, the latter the final of five victories in a row.