Celebration for 500 win too much for next week's race

Matt Kenseth has won two of the last three spring races at Auto Club Speedway, but if he winds up suffering the Daytona 500 "winner's hangover" like most previous winners, he'll be hard-pressed to repeat that performance in Sunday's Auto Club 500.

Only once since 1977 has the winner of the Daytona 500 gone on to win the next race: Jeff Gordon at North Carolina Motor Speedway in the 1997 Goodwrench Service 400. And that came as a surprise to nearly everyone at the track that day, even to Gordon.

Numbers: Fontana

If past stats are any indication, Matt Kenseth could join Jeff Gordon and start the season winning the first two races.

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Starting third, Dale Jarrett took the lead from Mark Martin on Lap 13 and was rarely challenged for much of the day. Running on the inside, he led all but 70 laps of the race.

However, Gordon -- one of the few cars able to keep Jarrett in his sights -- continued to make adjustments on his car, and late in the race, found that his No. 24 Chevrolet suddenly favored the high groove.

"We only made minor changes all day, but our groove came in or something happened there at the end," he said. "We sure weren't the fastest car all day. We just kept tuning on it and tuning on it.

"I tried [the high groove] a couple of different times earlier in the race and it just wasn't there. We kept working the bottom groove all day, and Dale was just stronger on the bottom than I was. That high groove never really worked or paid off until about 60 laps to go. Maybe more guys were trying it and there was more rubber up there. I just knew it was either stay right behind Dale Jarrett and finish second or try something else."

The field was bunched up after Robert Pressley's accident with no more than 50 laps remaining. And on Lap 351, Gordon finally caught Jarrett's No. 88 Ford and worked his way into the lead. Once past, Gordon built up a lead of more than two seconds on a frustrated Jarrett, who finished in the runner-up position for the third consecutive time at Rockingham.

"We've got second covered. " Jarrett said. "We just can't get to Victory Lane.

"You've got to give Jeff and his guys credit. They did a great job at the end getting the car right. We thought we were in good shape, so we didn't make any adjustments [on the last pit stop]. We thought the car was pretty awesome. I was a little surprised. It didn't seem like the high line was something that worked all day."

Jarrett would once again finish second at The Rock later that season, but finally get his long-awaited win in 2000.

So what are the reasons why Daytona 500 winners sound a sour note in their encore performance? There may be several. Before California was moved to the second race of the season in 2004, the Cup schedule left Daytona's high-banks for Richmond or Rockingham, which requires a different skill set. In recent seasons, the winner of the 500 has spent the next week criss-crossing the country for a myriad of media and marketing opportunities, and perhaps it's not always easy to refocus. And to be honest, the competition at NASCAR's highest level makes it difficult to score back-to-back wins in any two races.

And on two occasions, the winner at Daytona didn't even show up at the next race. Buddy Baker (1980) and Cale Yarborough (1983) were running part-time schedules and weren't planning on racing at Richmond the following weekend.

In the California era, Jimmie Johnson is the only 500 winner to score a top-five finish, and he did that without leading a lap. He finished second to Matt Kenseth after Greg Biffle dominated the entire day, only to have engine problems with 25 laps remaining.

Things didn't go nearly as well for Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick or Ryan Newman. Gordon blew an engine and wound up 30th in 2005, Harvick finished a distant 17th to Kenseth in 2007 -- the last car on the lead lap -- after suffering a flat tire while running second just before the field took the green with four laps to go. And last season, Newman finished 10th in a race that started on a rainy Sunday afternoon, was postponed after hours of efforts to dry the track, and finally completed in bright sunshine Monday morning.

Two other drivers went from bride to bridesmaid after Daytona. In 1996, Dale Jarrett swapped places with Dale Earnhardt at Rockingham -- after the two finished 1-2 in the opposite order the week before. And in 1992, Davey Allison led 190 laps at The Rock, only to hand the lead to Bill Elliott just past the halfway mark. Elliott drove away for a 14-second margin of victory.

In case you're wondering, Richard Petty was able to accomplish the feat only once in his seven tries. He won at Richmond the weekend after his fourth Daytona 500 victory in 1973. However, he came close several times, finishing second to David Pearson at Richmond in 1964, third to A.J. Foyt at Ontario in 1971, second to Bobby Allison at Richmond in 1974 and third to Darrell Waltrip at Richmond in 1981. In 1966, Darel Dieringer substituted for Petty in the No. 43 at Rockingham.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.