Budweiser Duels/ Daytona 500 / Fantasy Racing

Danica Patrick and Jeff Gordon locked up the top two spots for the Daytona 500 after Sunday's pole qualifying, but even though the rest of the field is an uncertainty, two other starting lineups came into much clearer focus.

The qualifying speed chart determined the grid for Thursday's Budweiser Duel, the pair of 150-mile qualifying races that will set the starting order for the Feb. 24 Great American Race. Patrick will set the pace from the pole position in the first race and fellow front-row starter Jeff Gordon will start first in the second event of the twin bill.

The top 15 finishers in each Duel race -- excluding Patrick and Gordon -- will clinch a Daytona 500 berth, filling in spots 3-32 in the field. The rest of the 43-car field will be set by a mix of qualifying time (positions 33-36) and provisional berths (positions 37-43), with just two cars on the entry list failing to make the main event.

Results of the qualifying races can often cast a preliminary winner as a Daytona 500 favorite. Matt Kenseth prevailed in the second Duel event last year before winning his second 500 crown, but he was the first driver to sweep both races since 2004, when Dale Earnhardt Jr. accomplished the feat.



With the Daytona 500 looming just four days away, drivers still haven't perfected the draft with NASCAR's new Gen 6 cars.

In fact, they're not even close.

Another mishap marred a practice session on Wednesday afternoon, with Ryan Newman losing control of his car and collecting Carl Edwards and Mark Martin in the process.

And in unrelated incidents, defending Sprint Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski had a fuel issue and Dale Earnhardt Jr. blew a motor.

Those events followed crashes in Saturday night's Sprint Unlimited, Friday night's practice session and a multi-car melee during preseason testing here.
Pole-sitter Danica Patrick, who chose to go out later in the first of two 90-minute sessions, was 36th and avoided problems. She was fourth-fastest of 27 cars in the final session.

It's becoming clear drivers haven't quite grasped how the new cars handle in the draft.

"I've been in three practice sessions, and in all three of them, one of the top drivers in the sport wrecked right in front of me," Martin said. "I can't believe it! I'm not comfortable practicing anymore, because we keep wadding 'em up. There's not really any reason for it. If they wreck right in front of you, it's hard to miss 'em."

Newman said he had no idea what happened and found himself spinning across Edwards' nose without warning.

"I hadn't been loose the entire time," he said. "It was just something new and a different characteristic of this car, I guess. ... There are are a lot of things to think about and talk about."

"Really, what we need to all do now is take our mindset and move away from just pure speed and think about how to make these cars handle," he said. "... I think this race is going to be a little bit of a throwback to 10 or 15 years ago when it was a mix of drafting and car balance and handling and driving -- and that's perfect."

Despite being involved in the incident, Edwards said he was a fan of the current aerodynamic package because it increased the chances Daytona would turn into a "real race" and not just a lottery.

"To me, that's a Daytona 500 -- that's the whole package," he said. "Hopefully we can race like this."

Earnhardt and Keselowski's problems weren't drafting-related, but they were minor setbacks nonetheless.

During single-car runs, Earnhardt said his engine just blew up with no warning.

"We just broke a motor, simple as that," said Earnhardt, who added he was unconcerned about the issue.

As for Keselowski, he said there was a problem with his fueling system but didn't have the specifics.

"I try to be informed, but I'm no car doctor," he said.

Michael Waltrip, driving a Sandy Hook School Fund car, was the fastest in the first practice session, followed by David Ragan, Tony Stewart, Paul Menard and Kyle Busch.

Only 27 drivers chose to practice in the second session, with Kasey Kahne, Greg Biffle, Jeff Gordon, Patrick and Edwards as the top five.



FANTASY PREVIEW: DAYTONA



Fantasy players need to enter the Daytona 500 knowing that there is a strong possibility several or even all of their drivers will be caught in an incident on race day, but there are ways to minimize the risk. Success predicts success and there are several in the field who earned three or four top-10s at Daytona and Talladega last year. These are the favorites.

Kenseth has to top the list as this week’s top pick on the plate track, despite his recent move from Roush-Fenway to Joe Gibbs Racing. He won last year’s Daytona 500, the Good Sam 500 at Talladega in the fall, and finished third in each of the other two plate races. Kenseth’s unemotional approach to racing usually keeps him out of trouble and that is a trait worth its weight in gold in the draft.

Burton had a generally miserable season in 2012, but ironically the superspeedways were his safe harbor. Along with Kenseth, he was the only driver to sweep the top 10 in the four plate races. In fact, he might even be slightly stronger overall with a runner-up finish in the fall Talladega race that gives him a current streak of five consecutive top-10s on this track type.

Brad Keselowski ( ) got off to a slow start last year and finished 32nd in the Daytona 500. He rebounded quickly, however, and won the Aaron's 499. Despite sustaining crash damage in both fall races on the plate tracks, he managed to record top-10 finishes and his seventh in the Good Sam 500 helped secure his championship. Keselowski has not yet won a Cup race at Daytona, but he will still be a favorite this week.

Greg Biffle rounds out the list of drivers who nearly swept the top 10 on plate tracks last year. His single bad race came at Daytona in July when he was slowed by last-lap crash damage and finished 21st, but the remainder of his results were sixth or better. In 2011, he scored only one top-10 on this track type, but earned three consecutive top-20s, making his average finish during the last seven plate races better than 11th. If fantasy owners could be guaranteed a top-15 for one of their drivers, they would be foolish to pass that up.

Michael Waltrip has a knack for plate racing, which is apparent from his three Daytona victories and one more at Talladega. He has not won since 2003, but he was on his way to Victory Lane last fall at Talladega until Tony Stewart misjudged a blocking maneuver and spun Waltrip rather than stalling his momentum. Moreover, Waltrip has managed to score top-10s in two of his latest four plate starts and that makes him an exceptional value at his current salary cap of $12.00.

Any driver in the field this week can be a dark horse. Before the last-lap accident at Talladega, Waltrip was being pushed by Casey Mears and those drivers would have had enough momentum to finish first and second. Another sleeper, Travis Kvapil managed to coax his damaged Toyota to the line in eighth, trailing fellow dark horses David Ragan and Regan Smith, who finished fourth and fifth respectively. Players should not be afraid of selecting a bargain basement driver this week, especially if that makes room for two or three of the favorites; the Daytona 500 is about salary cap management.


At the beginning of his career, it appeared Marcos Ambrose was destined to be a great plate racer. He finished 17th in his inaugural Daytona 500 and swept the top-10 in his next two starts, but that success literally came crashing to a halt in the 2009 Amp Energy 500 at Talladega. He limped his damaged car home 34th that afternoon and was swept into an accident in all but one of his next 12 starts. The one race in which he did not sustain crash damage was the 2010 Daytona 500 and that was largely because he blew an engine on lap 79.


Jeff Gordon finished second last fall at Talladega, but that has been the recent exception to his rule. In 2012, he blew an engine in the Daytona 500, which got his season off to a rocky start that was difficult to overcome. He crashed and failed to finish the Aaron's 499 after winning the pole and was involved in four separate incidents in the Coke Zero 400. Luck is unpredictable, but it must still be accounted for, and Gordon will simply want to survive this weekend.

LMAO.....I did not want to quote the whole damn article.....but you know what this is for........

Oh.....and.......



Thanks for the nice new blog, to start the season off!!! I can't wait, to whoop y'alls butts !!!!

Looks like we will be testing the new AirTran this weekend. Better keep JP off the track. LOL

San, you still seem to be missing something in your sign. Here you are more than welcome to use this one if you would like.

Today's drinking game: when you hear... side draft, drink 1. Smaller spoiler, drink 2. Big one, drink 3. Danica chug your drink.


San stay away from the tequila. LOL

Danica says Gene Haas told her to start and park. "I haven't been instructed to do that yet. I've got to know what I have for Sunday"

Very cool!!!

Cocoa.....No problem....I'm stickin to beer!!!!

The forecast on Sunday for Daytona: Mostly cloudy. A slight chance of showers early in the morning...then showers likely and a slight chance of thunderstorms in the late morning and afternoon. Highs in the upper 70s. West winds 5 to 10 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon. Chance of rain 60 percent

TonyOldman10 reports @DanicaPatrick will not practice in the first session & will start from the outside of Row 1 on Sunday

2013 NASCAR At Daytona International Speedway: Showers possible Sunday
By Brian Neudorff on Feb 22, 11:59a




Weather remains fairly quiet today and tomorrow as NASCAR prepares for Sunday's Daytona 500. Warm temperatures are expected as we go through this afternoon and into Saturday. Highs will reach the low to mid 80s and it will even be a little humid. The only weather concern we have the next two days will be a slight chance of an isolated shower or thunderstorm on Saturday for the Nationwide Series race in the afternoon.

The main weather focus for this weekend at Daytona International Speedway is for Sunday's 55th running of the Great American Race. Cold front moves in across northern Florida Saturday night and into Sunday, bringing a chance of rain and even a few thunderstorms. The front stalls over Daytona Beach on Sunday, and this will be the focusing mechanism for shower and storm develop during the afternoon and evening.



Since Wednesday the threat of rain has continually increased over northern and central Florida. While I stop short of calling a second straight rain out for the Daytona 500, there could definitely be some rain delays during the day, and possibly even rain shortened. The new Air Titan drier at Daytona International Speedway may be put to the test.

My odds of us seeing the complete Daytona 500 on Sunday is between 50% and 60%. I don't like the trend I am seeing in the forecast, but it doesn't look like a washout. I think we will see scattered showers and thunderstorms form through the morning and into the afternoon. When I say scattered showers, imagine dropping a handful of marbles onto the floor and they scattered all over the place. You don't know where they will go and stop but they are there all over the floor. That's the challenge of forecasting this kind of rain.


Aug, E, Gome Any thoughts on the subject??

Hard to say exactly when/where it'll rain. I'm sure we'll be watching radar closely on Sunday