The Skinny On The 500 Field
Now we’re down to the nitty-gritty – the heats are over and the features
begin. And the big enchalada is prepared for the competitive feast of the 16th
of February 2003. Some surprises came from the Twins but there weren’t any real
surprises in who didn’t make the race.
A look at the field for the 45th running of the Daytona 500:
ROW 1:
#30 Jeff Green – RCR Chevrolet
#8 Dale Earnhardt Jr. – Teresa Earnhardt Chevrolet
The former Late Model Sportsman (aka BGN) champ (2000), Green showed some
surprising muscle in the 125s, leading until the green-flag stop and coming home
second. Green’s tenure in Richard Childress’ Chevrolet has been somewhat spotty,
but there is now some solid consistency developing here.
Dale Earnhardt Junior, meanwhile, is the overwhelming favorite for the 500,
and the comparisons to Senior’s ten straight 125 wins have already begun. Junior
at least was passed for the lead in his race, so while there is an aura of
invincibility around him right now, the other teams shouldn’t believe that they
have no shot at winning.
ROW 2:
#31 Robby Gordon – RCR Chevrolet
#15 Michael Waltrip – Teresa Earnhardt Chevrolet
Presently the 500 appears shaping up to be a showdown between Senior’s friend
and longtime team owner on one side and his widow on the other. No doubt Teresa
and Richard relish the friendly rivalry. Robby Gordon has long shown the moxie
of Tim Richmond, and like Richmond he has needed an outside force to steer him
into maturity. His 125 effort showed he’s a long way toward that maturity.
Michael Waltrip, meanwhile, pushed Junior to another win, and his role as
Junior’s designated drafting back needs no revisiting, though one should hope
the rest of the field clotheslines Mikey well away from Junior – if Mikey drafts
with Junior, he will NOT try to win the race.
ROW 3:
#21 Ricky Rudd – Wood Brothers Ford
#54 Todd Bodine – BelCar Racing Ford
Ricky Rudd’s debut with the Wood Brothers was superb. Rudd’s run brought back
hope for the 500 for Glen, Leonard, and the Stuart, VA clan, on the 27th
anniversary of the Wood Brothers’ most famous race win anywhere.
Todd Bodine, meanwhile, has suffered from slings such as Childress’ childish
rant after last October’s National 500. The 125 showed Todd to be a superb racer
not afraid to stick his car into holes to go forward. The run also breathed new
life into Travis Carter’s team, now merged with Sam Belnavis.
ROW 4:
#40 Sterling Marlin – Ganassi/SABCO Dodge
#2 Rusty Wallace – Roger Penske Dodge – DQed From Twin
Extremely bad pun warning – Sterling Marlin stuck his neck out, and came home
fourth. In all seriousness, that he came back after his injury from last year
really is sticking one’s neck out, and Sterling picked up pretty much where he
left off.
Rusty Wallace, meanwhile, was disqualified for an illegal carburator – as
usual they protested that "it was just a mistake, there was no intent to
cheat" becasue the venturi opening was smaller than allowed; on the one
hand it is not a performance enhancer but on the other teams found long ago that
with the plates, slowing the airflow actually helps mroe than speding it up.
Nonetheless, he starts 38th after spending most of the 125 out of sight, then
used another killer stop to finish fourth.
ROW 5:
#99 Jeff Burton – Roush Performance Ford
#20 Tony Stewart – Joe Gibbs Chevrolet
Okay, where did these guys come from? Tony Stewart played follow the bouncing
ball, bouncing up and down the draft, and wound up fifth. Jeff Burton,
meanwhile, clawed his way forward, and reached the top five. That he is the only
Roush car in the first thirteen rows is a good sign for his 500, looking to end
a season-long victory drought.
ROW 6:
#88 Dale Jarrett – Robert Yates Ford
#48 Jimmie Johnson – Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Dale Jarrett was slow in the Shootout, unable to pass a single car all night.
He ran even worse in the Twin, but got a killer stop and a finish perhaps better
than he really deserved. Showing more muscle was Jimmie Johnson, who made some
nifty up-the-middle moves en route to sixth in the second Twin. This is the
first time he’s really shown the kind of daring needed to race at Daytona and
Talladega.
ROW 7:
#24 Jeff Gordon – Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
#43 John Andretti – Petty Enterprises Dodge
Jeff Gordon spent much of his Twin mired at the bubble spot, but moved up,
got a super stop, and finished in the top ten with drafting help from his
teammate.
John Andretti, meanwhile, is one of the few drivers to have passed the DEI
cars under green all week, and from a lousy time trial John has been among the
most consistently aggressive drivers in the drafts; it showed again in the Twin
as he clawed forward rather quickly, got a good stop, and pushed the lead draft.
Not the highest-finishing Dodge, John may be the best one in the draft.
ROW 8:
#25 Joe Nemechek – Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
#9 Bill Elliott – Ray Evernham Dodge
Joe and Bill have been quiet all week, but they’ve also been fast. Elliott in
particular made considerable noise in his Twin as he moved up to eighth. Ray
Evernham’s Dodges aren’t as good as they were at Talladega last October, but
Elliott looks racey now.
ROW 9:
#22 Ward Burton – Bill Davis Dodge
#38 Elliott Sadler – Robert Yates Ford
The defending 500 champ has been quiet all week other than his top five in
the Shootout. The Twin was a mixed bag for Ward; competitive for sure, but
missing something in traffic.
Not missing something is Elliott Sadler, who has to feel reinvigorated after
losing his primary car to Jack Sprague and then running well in the backup.
ROW 10:
#42 Jamie McMurray – Ganassi/SABCO Dodge
#09 Mike Wallace – Phoenix Racing Dodge
McMurray made a good high-side charge early in his Twin, but fell back and
never really contended after that. Here we see the timidity in traffic he showed
to some extent last October, but mixed with the confidence of a winner, so there
shouldn’t be much to worry about for this team come Sunday.
Making a statement for sure was Mike Wallace, with triple Speedweeks duty
between Ken Schrader’s Truck, the Biagi Brothers’ Sportsman Pontiac, and James
Finch’s Dodge.
ROW 11:
#23 Kenny Wallace – Bill Davis Dodge
#19 Jeremy Mayfield – Ray Evernham Dodge
It is hard to believe that Kenny Wallace, long timid in traffic and not known
to have any spectacular racecar knowledge (in contrast to his predecessor Hut
Stricklin, who added enormously to BDR’s short track program), can really add
that much to Bill Davis’ efforts. The Twin was a typical Kenny run – it put up
some points, but not that many. Jeremy Mayfield, though, is more aggressive than
Kenny – witness his controversy with Tony Stewart in last year’s Twins – and
this makes his sub-par run all the more disappointing.
ROW 12:
#7 Jimmy Spencer – Ultra Motorsports Dodge
#18 Bobby Labonte – Joe Gibbs Chevrolet
Jimmy Spencer’s season was in effect lost with his Daytona DNQ last year;
this year he’s solidly in, and in Tommy Baldwin he may have finally found the
crew chiefing force he’s needed since his encouraging efforts under Donnie Wingo
at Travis Carter’s team in the middle 1990s. Bobby Labonte, meanwhile, ran okay
for awhile but the hill back to competitive strength still hasn’t been
conquered.
ROW 13:
#32 Ricky Craven – Cal Wells Pontiac
#0 Jack Sprague – Hendrick Motorsports Pontiac
Pontiac has no shot at the 500. Craven is Pontiac’s top gun right now and the
gun has few bullets and is little better than the pea-shooters known as ladies
purse specials. Ostensibly the same car as the Chevrolet, the performance showed
that it is NOT the same car, and once again showed how little effort GM devotes
toward Pontiac.
That Sprague made the 500 is rather astonishing considering the sloppiness of
his driving and his bizarre interview blaming his Tuesday wreck on Steve Park.
There are guys one can tell off the bat will not make it in this league –
Sprague looks like NASCAR 2003’s Ryan Leaf.
ROW 14:
#16 Greg Biffle – Roush Performance Ford
#6 Mark Martin – Roush Performance Ford
Early on it seemed a sure bet Biffle would not make the field. So the team
parked its original car and used Matt Kenseth’s reskinned 2002 car, and it’s
obviously worked. It was a typical Mark Martin race, though the finish more
reflects timidity in traffic than Mark’s ability that brought forth all those
wins.
ROW 15:
#41 Casey Mears – Ganassi/SABCO Dodge
#49 Ken Schrader – Liz Morgenthau Dodge
Casey Mears ran in the back all day, slapped the wall late, and got into the
field by inches. Not bad for a rookie. Ugly, meanwhile, was the consensus
opinion of Schrader’s run; he’s in the field, but he needs to get back the
exquisite quality of his Shootout run.
ROW 16:
#29 Kevin Harvick – RCR Chevrolet
#45 Kyle Petty – Petty Enterprises Dodge
Kevin Harvick passed Junior for the lead in his Twin, but in the pit stop he
got Busch-wacked and thus didn’t finish. Harvick’s relationship with Roush
Racing has long been strained – witness his running feud with Greg Biffle – and
this just added another chapter.
Kyle Petty’s solid qualifying didn’t make for a stout race, though near the
end of his run he began to pick up the handling and go back forward; he blew his
stop by skidding in the pit, and fell six seconds behind Schrader in 15th; he
erased over a third of that gap by the checkered, and the fire seems to be
coming back in Kyle now.
ROW 17:
#1 Steve Park – Teresa Earnhardt Chevrolet
#74 Tony Raines – Bill Baumgarder Chevrolet
Park ran in the top ten of his Twin but was overheating all race and finally
blew up, not a smart way to start Speedweeks; it offered a brief scare, as his
good qualifying effort saved him, since his low points position would likely
have kept him out of the 500 – imagine the reaction if that had happened.
Tony Raines is outmatched in this league, but he made the field, and that’s a
start.
ROW 18:
#33 Christian Fittipaldi – Andy Petree Chevrolet
#17 Matt Kenseth – Roush Performance Ford
Christian is still raw to stock cars, but his grasp of the growing technology
involved makes him a natural candidate, and the seat time he is getting will
certainly help him.
That Matt Kenseth, among the stoutest anywhere, ran as poorly as he did in
the Twin is astonishing.
ROW 19:
#97 Kurt Busch – Roush Performance Ford
#12 Ryan Newman – Roger Penske Dodge
Remember when Busch slammed Rob Morgan into Lyndon Amick, sending Geoff
Bodine slicing through 100 feet of tri-oval fencing in Daytona’s inaugural Truck
250? Such stupidity showed again in his pitstop; he chopped into Harvick and
spun into his jack man. We thought we’d seen the Bonehead of Speedweeks with
Sprague’s escapades, but this tops that. Busch is a fiery driver who can be
counted on to pass every car in the field, so the DEI cars had better watch out
for him among others.
Ryan Newman, meanwhile, sees his Speedweeks going from bad to worse – first
the wall in practice, now he has to take a provisional.
ROW 20:
#77 Dave Blaney – Doug Bawal Ford
#10 Johnny Benson – MBV Pontiac
Little was shown all week in both camps; Benson’s dismal run showed how weak
Pontiac’s effort is right now.
ROW 21:
#5 Terry Labonte – Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
#01 Jerry Nadeau – MBV Pontiac
Jerry Nadeau at least put some effort into the race, more than can be said of
Terry Labonte, who is clearly long past due for quitting this team.
43RD:
#4 Mike Skinner – Morgan-McClure Pontiac
It is a minor miracle that Skinner made the field. His effort was simply embarrassing
– slow, uncompetitive, with no shot at any kind of decent finish unles the draft
kicks in really well on Sunday.
So we have the field for the 500. The obvious favorites are the DEI cars,
with the RCR cars ranked second. But this is the 500, a race of surprises, and
Dodge and Ford may have some surprises left for Sunday.